We were lucky to catch up with Gary McCrear recently and have shared our conversation below.
Gary, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I learned to read tarot cards by practicing with myself, first. I had been getting readings (tarot, astrology, diloggún) for a few years but never had the nerve to pick it up for myself until I felt this internal nudge to start my days off with some routine and practice. Every morning, in my past life as a teacher, I would wake up and just head to work without any grounding practice to prepare for my day. Reading tarot daily helped me to hone in on my own personal energy and I used to write on a blog daily to get my skill set up to par. This helped me to get to a point where I felt comfortable sharing my readings or insights with others and also, feel comfortable holding space alongside another person to divine on their behalf. I didn’t believe in my skills when I began and second-guessed my intuition a lot or the way that my body would tell me I’m onto something. I wish I would have found that courageousness earlier in my practices to allow me to feel comfortable sharing or reading for other people instead of thinking that it had to ‘sound a specific kind of way’ or it wouldn’t be deemed as valuable insight. I think a lot of my social anxiety would get in the way of me feeling like I was ‘prepared’ since I hadn’t been reading cards or doing any sort of esoteric work for the larger majority of my life. I think this also stopped me from diving deeper into specific personal practices or going all out to learn and incorporate things that piqued my interest. Time also played a huge factor; I can tend to be a person who dives into something and then gets overwhelmed and puts it down for some time. Finding myself in moments where I was overthinking or trying to take on too much is what hindered me from wanting to learn more or thinking I had the capacity to.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I like to think of my work as consultant work, no matter whether it’s for an individual or for an organization. I’ve led events in the past where I’ve discussed sexuality and spirituality, Blackness and its intersection of alternative modes of spiritual wellness, and I’ve worked with organizations to help their leaders find time to ground themselves to work better with the communities they serve. Regarding the work I do with clients 1:1, I like to think of myself as your ‘spiritual college professor’. I’m here to help a person find insight into the energy that may be currently surrounding them and help to make sense of what actions could be taken to help you pass this course called ‘life’. This can assist in making personal dreams come true or getting closer to a point where you feel comfortable enough to take that leap. I used to work as a teacher in K-12 and one of the things that I always vowed to myself was that I wanted to work with people outside of the four walls of a classroom. I loved working with my students and the other teachers in the building but being confined to a school and the hours of operation that a school building works on is something that kept my soul in tatters and had me feeling like I lived on ‘Struggle Street’. Being able to work with adults who still work in school buildings is something that I value and look forward to being involved in education in some form or fashion for the rest of my life through the type of work that I do. Once I left the classroom due to illness, I had to figure out a way to share my gifts more openly with the world and that’s where creating digital content surrounding the energy of the day began. It allowed me to meet more people through my work and build a list of not just clients, but deep connections with the people I’ve been able to serve over the last 6 years.
Right now, I provide tarot readings for live (intimate) events as well as individual clients, reiki healing through the element of fire, and I’ve performed house protection blessings and rituals for clients. I also provide services for organizations where I come and work with their staff to help provide meditation rituals/circles to create groups and facilitate staff connection. I’m most proud of the work that I’ve had features in magazines and articles throughout the last few years and those that have provided me with confessionals/testimonials about the guidance I’ve provided and helped them out with or the positive energy I’ve brought them just through our interactions. It’s been quite the humbling experience to have people come to you and tell you that your predictions or guidance has helped them to fall back in love with themselves or their lives. I liken myself to being the person who helps you put the spiritual keys back into your hands instead of allowing them to exist in someone else’s control. I think that with my life’s journey, it has helped me to want to be present for people in ways that I wasn’t able to be afforded growing up. This is why I love being able to be of service in this manner, which blends practical knowledge with esoteric guidance to help be as well-rounded in our physical bodies as much as possible.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I built my social media presence solely by being present and creating routines that people could expect out of me. Once upon a time, back in 2019, I used to wake up most mornings and post the ‘energy reading of the day’ on my social media accounts. This was in conjunction with a weekly live that I would do to help prepare my followers (as well as myself) for the energy of the week that was coming down the pipeline and how to best prepare for it. I would liken it to a “Sunday Service” and have people treat it as their little spiritual tap-in for the day. This consistency and also just making a community is something that I believed didn’t just create an audience, but a digital family or digital tribe of sorts. I’m still in the growth phase of having connections on social media and know that I’m in what I would call an intermediate phase of social media presence. I’ve tried to make sure that I’m able to be found on most social media platforms and differentiate the content that’s shared through each of those modalities. For others that are in the growth phase of their social media presence, consistency is key, and letting people get to know YOU, I think, is another component of why people don’t just come, but they stay. I’ve made it really important in my work to be as transparent as possible and if things aren’t great, I’m not going to sugarcoat that. If the reading doesn’t come out that exciting, I’m not going to sugarcoat that either. I think my level of transparency along this journey is what has helped people not to just see me as a consultant or a social media presence but as an actual human. My suggestion for anyone else out there that is building up a social media presence is to be consistent, be honest, and be patient with the growth because it all doesn’t come overnight.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
This is a really hard, yet great question to answer as I don’t think there’s any ONE specific thing that I’m focused on goal-wise, but I do feel like part of my mission is to show up as a gay Black man who is learning and emphasizing how important it is to embrace not just the light of life but the shadows as well. Personally, I never grew up having that type of role model or a queer Black person I could feel comfortable connecting with or identifying with that was older than me. If I did, it wasn’t as though they were comfortable enough to live in their full truth. It feels like those people did not exist and growing up; I used to feel on an island especially when it comes to feeling like my future could be bright or I would find myself being adjusted well as an adult. I hope that through my work, I’m able to shed light or provide a positive impact to those that may be finding themselves living in the shadows or their own personal shadows and feel more comfortable honoring where they are and knowing that that, in itself, is divinity.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.gangstagurry.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/gangstagurry
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/gangstagurry
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/d0miiniicano27
Image Credits
Azim Hicks fredrick salyers