We were lucky to catch up with Hannah Graves recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I’m sure a lot of people who are self employed sometimes romanticise life in a “regular job”.

I was in a Subway recently and found something alarmingly alluring about the idea of being in one place for set hours, doing the things that are expected from you. I know the reality is completely different, because I know that reality too. It led me onto the path I’m on today. My desire for more freedom over my time and more flexibility in my understanding of what the schedule of a successful person should look like won out over my desire for “stability” or “security”.

No one can be happy all of the time, happiness if an emotion that will come and go in the same way as sadness or anger. Joy on the other hand, can be cultivated, and being a business owner is allowing me to cultivate more joy. I hope not only for myself, but for others too.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My journey with tarot started when I started to lean into a deck for some practice in navigating the unknown. It helped me so much – I decided to see if I could perhaps help others using this tool too. Today I read and teach tarot as Cult Mother. I also run a large online community of wayward witches – The Cult. This is where you can come and be a part of something different and pick up new learning to help you navigate your path. I started reading tarot professionally nearly five years ago. I quit my corporate job in the midst of the first Covid lock downs to pull cards for people online and have never looked back.

I offer 1-1 readings online. I teach tarot classes but the offering I’m perhaps most proud of is The Cult. What started as a very small Patreon project has turned into a thriving international community of more than 500 people, and we’re growing every day. My motive for starting Cult Mother stemmed a lot from the way I felt I didn’t fit or feel welcome in more typical spiritual spaces. I was always the renegade, the rebel, the misfit. So now I host a home for people just like me and am proud to present classes on occultism and tarot. I also invite collaborators to come and share who they are, and what they do – to teach classes and workshops on a whole host of other topics. The Cult Archive of this content now contains more than 90 hours of videos and notes.

The backbone of my work today though is the same as it was when I first began – to help people to feel less alone. A lot of the time a tarot reading isn’t a space people sit in because they want only to hear, they also want to feel heard. Having a neutral person facilitate an experience which encourages you to connect your conscious to your subconscious, to see things from different perspectives can be really beneficial. I make a point of not trying to tell anyone what they should and should not do with their lives, My readings are designed to seat you in your power. Ultimately, I trust your intuition!

When it comes to Cult Mother, the thing I’m probably most proud of is the consistency I’ve been able to bring to my practice and to my clients. I’m by no means perfect, but I can keep on keeping on long after the going has gotten tough. I’ve been in the tarot trenches through some phenomenally tough times, for us collectively, and for me personally – and I keep going.

I’m also proud of the strength of my brand and my brands integrity – because they’re evidence of my strength and my integrity. Things that are infinitely more important to me that vanity metrics.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn my relationship to capitalism, and to money. I had a lot of worries and concerns when I first got started because Capitalism perpetuates the lie that if you choose what you are passionate about, that there must be a sacrifice. I chose my tarot practice but believed that I would have to sacrifice my financial security to do so. This wasn’t true, in fact I’ve never been more financially savvy or secure in my life than I am now.

I also had to unlearn a lot of things I’d often told myself about who I am. I had to destroy certain narratives that were holding me back.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I’ve grown my Instagram audience to nearly 50K followers, this of course took time and consistency but I’ve also had a lot of fun with it! I never set out to gain followers, but true fans. There’s no point in a business like mine, having followers who aren’t actually engaged with your work.

I do come from a marketing background, but more as someone who was naturally adept at it rather than someone who studied it. To understand building an audience is to understand people, but to also not care too much what it is those people think! People these days are incredibly aware of when they are being sold to. People can smell a lack of authenticity from a mile away. For this reason my top tip for building your social following is to know who you are, and then be who you are!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cultmothertarot.com
• Instagram: cultmothertarot
• Other: Patreon – The Cult – www.patreon.com/cultmother