We were lucky to catch up with Cindy Wright recently and have shared our conversation below.
Cindy, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?
One of the reasons I left my full time “grown up” job two years ago was because I had a desire to do work that was meaningful to me. Unfortunately, sitting at a desk for 8 hours catering to the whims of those who made twice as much as I did every week just wasn’t it. Tarot, however, brought valuable lessons and new perspectives into the way I saw my own world, and my hope is and will always be that I can inspire other people with Tarot as well.
I want my legacy to be one of kindness and compassion. It’s my sincere hope that my clients tell their friends and family they met this weird person who read their cards and it made them feel some kind of way (preferably a good way). And that, as I do this, I inspire others to start their own divination journey. Anyone can do divination, by the way. Whether you use a deck of Tarot cards or a bag of Skittles, it doesn’t matter. You’re the part that makes the difference. I just love the symbology and archetypes Tarot has. It’s easy for me to identify with. I see my own stories within the cards, I get to share those stories, and better yet, people share their stories with me. There’s nothing more sacred than a stranger telling you part of their journey. I live for those moments. If I become one of the stories they share with their loved ones, that just makes it even better.
If people say anything about me upon my passing, I’d hope it would be that I said what they needed to hear when they were going through it, whether ‘it’ was a hard time, a change of career, a lack of direction, or anything in-between. Sometimes, the readings I do for people are a simple check-in that reminds them of what they already know, but sometimes its the heavy stuff. I do my best to treat both with reverence.
Cindy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Absolutely! My name is Cindy Wright, and I’m named after my wonderful aunt who continues to inspire/encourage me to be whoever I want to be. I guess who I am at this moment is a strange but friendly person who talks way too much about esoteric stuff. I love learning about religions, occult philosophies, and of course, divination. My business is called Charismatic Cartomancy because I like to think I’m pretty charismatic in readings. Cartomancy is just a catch-all term for divination via cards… Not to be confused with cartography. I can barely read a map, much less make one.
I think part of me was always drawn to what many people consider taboo, but I wasn’t in a place where I could explore those themes until my mid-20’s. I grew up in a very closed-minded household and had to tap dance around the things that interested me, because one way or another, they would be labeled as evil if they didn’t meet strict criteria. Of course, this did little to curb my enthusiasm and only made me want to learn about said things even more. Y’know, like you do. Fear, however, held me back for a while. It was around 2018-2019 that I finally started my rabbit hole exploration of Tarot, and the dreaded year following cemented my place in it. At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, once it hit the US, I was furloughed from my job. Like many others, I was at home, unable to ignore all of the things I’d put off for so long. Days before I was handed the letter at my job, I kept getting The Hermit card during my morning 1-card draws. Sure enough, there it was. I spent all that time not only learning about Tarot, but about myself, and my fear, and where that fear came from. Then, I decided to yeet that fear. I’ve lived in the rabbit hole ever since.
I believe the services I offer are straight-forward. I do readings, and I charge a flat-fee for those readings instead of charging by the minute. I myself get overwhelmed by the idea of charging for time, or having to pay by the minute if I’m on the other side of the table. If you were to buy a reading from me, you would pay me a flat fee at the start and that would be it. Depending on what kind of spread you pay for, it may take as little as 15 minutes or it could take over an hour. I will say, some people need more time and some people need less. I think it balances out, personally. You can ask a question if you want (though I tell you to focus on your own life. We ain’t spyin’ on no exes. Leave ’em in the trash where they belong.), or you can get an unguided reading and just hear what the universe has to say today. I can’t tell you the winning lottery numbers, but I can give you perspective if you’re struggling with something, or just need a better idea of which direction to go next.
As far as my style of reading goes, I have a down-to-earth approach, and that is partially what sets me apart from other readers in the area. Look, I’m not going to tell you that you’re George Washington reincarnated and that the Lion’s Gate Portal is the only chance you’re gonna have to reunite with your wooden teeth in this lifetime. I like to offer people legitimate advice and not push problems off on something unseen. You’re not cursed. You don’t have a dark aura that I’ll offer to cleanse for $60 every week for 6 weeks (which is something I’VE been told by someone). You are a person going through your own things, and there’s nuance to your situation. I see that nuance in the cards sometimes, whether through symbols or glimpses of intuition. People appreciate the honesty. I also like to tell people exactly what I see as I’m seeing it. I take the time to explain a card’s traditional meaning, so they’re not sitting there in the dark wondering where I’m pulling things from. They can see what I see in real time.
I also do my best to keep my prices fair. Divination is for everyone. It’s okay that you don’t want a big spread. Your 3 card pull is just as valid and it’s going to tell you what you need to hear.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The biggest lesson that I’ve had to unlearn (and am still unlearning) is not to measure my success by the weight of my wallet. The way I phrase this may not be perfect and might only pertain to certain career/business fields, but customer satisfaction is so much more important than the bottom line. I feel like measuring success via monetary means has been encoded into our DNA in the US, but imagine for a second if we were more concerned about if our customer or client got what they needed, and if other businesses, corporate or small, were also concerned with that.
Don’t get me wrong, paying our bills and ensuring there’s food on the table is absolutely important. We all have to march to the beat of the drum of capitalism in a sense, but money shouldn’t rule you. It should never be your ‘why’. In my personal experience, to put money above all else is to live in fear. It leaves just as fast as it appears. It’s also been my experience that if you treat people with respect and love, those people come back. If you’re honest about what you’re offering, they come back. Even if you sometimes have to say, “It’s not something I can do today, but will this work?” They come back. Again, this is my work in progress. I have my days where I feel insecure, looking at my bank account and wondering if I’ll be okay, but the feeling tends to get overshadowed when someone tells me my reading was exactly what they needed and they feel more assured now.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Conventions that have nothing to do with Tarot and/or divination! Thanks to a more progressive mindset, there’s now plenty of spiritual markets, meetups, gatherings, and conventions, but I’ve found the unCONVENTIONal (see what I did there?) places give me the best results. Most people aren’t expecting to see a Tarot reader at a tattoo convention, let alone one that isn’t charging as much for a reading as you might pay for a tattoo.
There’s a sweet spot, though. For anyone else, your best bet is to find adjacent ideas to what you peddle. Certainly I’d never go to like, a dentistry convention or something like that. I’d be lucky if I wasn’t laughed out the door. But, I could make an anime convention work. I can dress up like one of my favorite magical girls and bring my anime-themed decks for reading. I can go to Chocolatefest with a Valentines theme in mind and offer readings for couples. I’m at the horror themed convention, Creepycon, every year. These are all themes that work for what I do, and won’t necessarily be over saturated with other readers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/charismaticcards
Image Credits
Cindy Wright