We were lucky to catch up with J. Marie recently and have shared our conversation below.
J. Marie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
Capitalism has been the biggest challenge, because it’s really hard putting a price tag on spiritual guidance, especially within the limited constraints of money. It’s taken me over a year to get my balance with this and I can still tell there’s more to learn. For my tarot readings, I try my hardest to have prices points for as many people as possible, including an option to pick from the oracle decks if you follow me on any of my social media pages. I try to view money as just one of the many facets of energy exchange. Capitalism teaches us that we’ll never have enough, there’s always going to be the next big whatever that we need to buy. Capitalism also puts a price tag on necessities. The Universe is true abundance. This planet has everything we need and it’s all free. Even though I understand this and I have healed this inside myself, I still have to live in Capitalism. I still have bills to pay. I still have to maintain the balance. I haven’t mastered maintaining the balance yet and I’m not sure it’s something that can be mastered on this planet at this time, but I’m always striving to be the best version of myself. Every time I would sit down to brainstorm money exchange options for my house cleansing services, I literally couldn’t do it. So, I just accepted that charging for house cleansings is not something I am comfortable with. It just feels wrong. As a psychic medium, I’ve had a lot of experiences with the paranormal, but nothing is quite the same as the fear you feel in your own home when you can’t rest or find sanctuary there. To be able to cleanse someone’s house and have them tell me they can sleep at night and they look forward to going home – it’s priceless. Money energy does not have enough substance to even compete with that feeling. This version of me now thinks it’s silly I even tried to correlate the two. I do my house cleansings donation based, whatever you feel is right or nothing at all. I am really excited to be getting an avocado tree soon in exchange for my house cleansing services. I’ve been manifesting one my whole life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi :) I’m J. Marie. I’m a Starseed-Lightworker-Psychic Medium-Witch. I specialize in the paranormal and specifically severely negative entities. The first entities I saw were demons at the very haunted house I grew up in. I am a tarot intuitive. I have all 6 of the clairs. I feature weekly short pick a card readings on my Instagram and TikTok. I have longer pick a card readings on YouTube. I pop up at markets and offer tarot readings at $25 for 10 minutes and $50 for 20 minutes. I offer private readings, remotely or in person, my prices for private readings are $60 for 30 minutes or $120 for an hour. I also offer party packages. I learned tarot on accident when I was going through my Dark Night of the Soul. My whole life was falling apart, nothing was working out, so I started watching pick a card readings on YouTube for guidance and I just picked it up. I only started considering it as a way to support myself financially after acquiring medical debt and severe burnout at my corporate job. I started my business in June of 2021 and by September 1st of that year, I was able to quit my corporate job. There have been challenges, but I am so proud of myself for continuously navigating and conquering this incredible journey, because the more I walk this path, the more magical it becomes. My favorite part of this path, is watching my clients navigate and conquer their journeys. The more we heal ourselves, the more we heal this place.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When I first started my corporate job, I was so excited, I thought I had made it. I lasted less than two years. It was the repetitive nature of it. the constant poor communication, the excessive competitiveness, the cliques, the being treated like a machine, but what really did me in was that I had an MFA and I was getting paid way less than my colleagues. I got really depressed and I wasn’t sure what to do next. I had devoted my life to that path and it was completely draining me. The March before I started my business, I got really sick and couldn’t work for about three weeks, because I was in and out of the ER. I spent that whole three weeks throwing up, fighting with my insurance so I could get the help I needed and fighting with the company I worked for to pay me so I could pay rent and bills. It was a nightmare. I ended up spending less than two days in the hospital with a tear in my stomach from excessive heartburn. I came out of it a vegetarian who rarely drinks. At this point, I had piles of medical bills, but I knew I had to get out of my corporate job and fast. I started reading tarot to help pay my medical bills while I figured out my next moves, and it turns out, tarot was always the path. I started my business in June 2021 and by September of that year I had quit my corporate job. Reading tarot, helping people, cleansing houses – this is better than the dreamiest job I could have ever imagined.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
The first winter in business was rough. I was completely blindsided by a steady decline of sales. People weren’t going to markets as much because it was colder. I was trying to come up with anything to boost sales. My savings was completely drained by the New Year and I had to pawn family jewelry to survive. I look back at this period of time as a lesson in doing what you have to do and as a test in how bad do you want it. One piece in particular broke my heart when I had to pawn it. It belonged to my grandma and pawning it was like losing her all over again. She had Alzheimer’s and at the end of her life, she looked me right in the eyes and told me if I ever had to pawn her ring, I should. I, of course, said no, that’s crazy, how could I ever pawn something so precious? I was in a flurry of tears by the time I left the pawn shop and got into my car. The last piece I had of her was gone. And now, I just want to say thank you, grandma, thank you for letting me off the hook, for seeing something I couldn’t, for understanding how hard this life can be, and for giving me the gift of survival. My business survived the winter and by spring I was prosperous on a whole new level with all kinds of new challenges and adventures to explore.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jmarietarot.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j.marietarot/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jmarietarot
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmarietarot
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Xl9k-N8jmpuYdrLPLuTtg
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@j.marietarot Google Reviews: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS911US913&hl=en-US&sxsrf=APq-WBsJq7pA83v69PhlDQYpgsYCSJlIaw:1647362393799&q=J.+Marie+Tarot&ludocid=17568121549522845331&gsas=1&lsig=AB86z5VwDKkW2W04o9wvRIQ2ep0m&kgs=8d74ba27c5f33b49&shndl=-1&source=sh/x/kp/local/3&entrypoint=sh/x/kp/local
Image Credits
The Gallery ATX, Austin Vender Market, Jay Ybarra, J. Marie