Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Kirby.
Natalie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I feel like this story has a hundred different “how I started…” I’ll try to stick to the main path and avoid as many offshoots as I can. I come from a family of storytellers, my mother being the best of them. She was an enigma- a powerful, beautiful, and strongly intuitive human being, a true healer, but she also struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. She had a way of knowing, understanding, and explaining things in ways that brought a lot of healing and consolation to the community, while at the same time, it was everything she needed for herself.
While growing up, during the hardest times of my life, I spent as much time as I could in books- fairy tales, folk tales, the “classics”…all the stories. I was (am) a voracious reader, devouring book after book, and along with that, all the nutrients of symbols, archetypes, and the journeys of humanity.
I was nine years old, the first year of my mother’s sobriety, when I first recognized and understood my own suffering in these stories after watching the PBS “Power of Myth” with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. I watched it with my mother who, despite her many failings, nurtured my love for books and the art of Storytelling. I remember watching it with her over the course a few days, and I know this was one of those significant markers of my life because not only did Joseph Campbell resonate with me so profoundly, but he bridged me to the psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung. While I was so young at the time, it was another sort of awakening for me, and my mother knew, and she continued to nurture that one part of my life thoroughly until her death in 2008.
I use the phrase, “Your Story is in the Tarot” because I’ve lived each of those images many times over, and they’re like a book. I turn 40 years old this June, and I could write the different parts of my life with tarot cards alone.
I returned to tarot in 2017 while I was in the middle of completing the Magnum Opus series through The Centre for Applied Jung Studies. In that 18-month-long series, we explored the alchemical stages of Jung’s Process of Individuation, and when it came to choosing my form of active imagination, I decided to use the tarot. We had to choose a form of play from childhood, and my little sister and I used to draw people on pieces of paper and reenact stories with them, and tarot does the same thing.
Upon the completion of the program, I knew I had to work with tarot differently than before. With both active imagination and divination together, I found this approach helpful not only for myself but for others too. While I still find that therapy/counseling is the best course of action for dealing with deeper issues, Tarot provided another option with navigating the day-to-day experiences of life:
“These images from the unconscious were symbols that provided vital clues on how a person should live. They could provide important ideas about what was going wrong, and what needed to be attended to… Through working on them, he [Jung] would seek to extract deeper layers of meaning. This is a process a person can carry out by themselves, outside the therapy room.” – (Chodorow, Jung. “Jung on Active Imagination
It was in 2021 that I decided to “go public” with my practice. I used to work a demanding, full-time corporate job where my availability was limited, so I was a reference-only tarot reader until January 2021. After that, I earned my tarot certification through 22 Teachings Hermetic Science and Magical Arts as an act of ethics and accountability towards my craft and practice. Since then, I’ve continued to read for clients (virtually or in-person) and at community markets, holistic and psychic fairs, and private events.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest challenge as a tarot reader is there are a lot of tarot readers. While there are many exceptional, tenured, and truly gifted readers, the industry has also become saturated due to the effects of TikTok and social media, specifically the constant production of live readings or creating almost a constant stream of content. Tarot, and really the spiritual community at large, is caught up with whatever’s trending, along with the instant gratification of on-demand divination. I’ve personally found it difficult to approach marketing my practice this way, mainly because it doesn’t really align with the ethos I’ve established as a reader. I’ve accepted that continuing to build my practice slowly and intentionally, through community, referrals, and relationship building, is how I prefer to grow.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a tarot reader who uses tarot along with storytelling as alchemical tools for an individual’s personal transmutation. In Alchemy, the Magnum Opus or “Great Work” is to transmute lead into gold. No matter how trivial, mundane, esoteric, or significant the situations or questions may seem, the goal is for the person to awaken, discover, and take hold of their myth, their story, and BECOME with their entire Being.
This means my tarot readings are WORK.
I’ve noticed the biggest surprise people discover is that their readings often reveal what the client already knows- it’s just brought to the surface to see and discuss, and what’s actually revealed in readings is the work the client needs to do. Understandably, this is not trendy or Instagram-able. It’s a truly personal, intimate endeavor.
Because it’s work, it may not be easy or comfortable, but if a client is willing to do the work, it’s absolutely manageable and transformative. I’ve seen this, and I trust this.
During my readings, I like to encourage my clients to:
Bring a paper and pen to take notes.
Prepare to set reminders on their calendar.
Decide what level of accountability they’re willing to take on.
As a reader, a tarot reading means a working. Clients, on their own part, will need to decide whether or not to engage in the intentional endeavor of change or development that is revealed in their readings.
I love tarot. It’s strange. It has a weird history. It’s art. It’s stories. It’s a window and a mirror. It’s a beautiful encapsulation of magic and humanity.
And it’s work-a great work- Your Magnum Opus.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I had a challenging childhood, but watching “The Power of Myth” with my mother was one of my pivotal moments.
Pricing:
- 3 Card Readings – $20
- 7 Card Readings – $35
- Celtic Cross Reading – $55
- Alchemical Process/Magnum Opus Reading – $75
- Fate Pattern Reading – $75
Contact Info:
- Email: atarotstoryteller@gmail.com
- Website: https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=23258696
- Instagram: @atarotstoryteller
- Facebook: @atarotstoryteller
