We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeida K. Storey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jeida K., looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

I don’t know a single spiritualist, entrepreneur, or creative who hasn’t received criticism or questions when they pursue their passion. As a spiritualist, especially one who was raised very Christian, my work has been under a specific type of scrutiny. People who knew me then have questions about who I am becoming. They question the validity and significance of my work because they don’t know that Christianity doesn’t own divinity. They don’t know that there is abundant life outside of the Church. People associate “tarot reader” with being a “devil worshiper” or “demonic.” Some believe spirituality and divination are to be feared or that they separate you from God rather than being a powerful way to become attuned to the God in you, the God in nature, to the Gods of our Ancestors. What I’ve learned from being miscategorized time and again is that it isn’t going to end my world. I am able now to define who I am. That rejection used to make me feel sad, lonely, and insecure, but now I choose to focus on positively impacting people’s lives. I direct my attention to serving people and working to help them feel more connected to themselves, their bodies, and their Ancestors. This is holy work, and I don’t need anyone to validate that.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a Black Queer Hoodoo woman born and raised on the Southside of Atlanta in Clayton County, Georgia. I am the daughter and descendant of churchfolk, farmers, midwives, and magical Black people from the South. I married a brilliant southern man and we’re raising our children in Charlotte, North Carolina. As my sister friend, Sara Makeba Daise profoundly stated, “The South is a portal.” I love being a Southern girl and tending to Southern Ancestors on Southern land.

I knew from a young age that I was going to change the world (if only my own world) by telling stories. While I do love writing fiction and hope to be a prolific author some day, right now I enjoy telling stories through divination and helping others unravel, share, and revise their own life stories through transformational coaching. A big part of my work is to be a gentle guide to help folks know themselves through knowing their Ancestors.

I am most proud of my Yes. It can be challenging to shift from being known one way (i.e. the fiction writer or the church girl) to creating new, more expansive experiences. I’ve transformed into someone who has found home and belonging in the richness of my ancestral practices and other African Tradition & Diasporic Religions. Growing up, those things were considered dangerous and scary because of anti-Blackness and white supremacist colonialism. I am proud of my Yes because that meant that I had to face a lot of disapproval and a lot of criticism and a lot of rejection. In the face of all of that I have been able to build real community and I’ve been able to guide others.

When I first started this business, I called myself the Mystical Midwife after learning that my Ancestors were birth workers. My work seems to mirror theirs. My goal as a spiritualist and a life coach is to be in the birthing room with folks as they rebirth themselves. And what I know as a birthing person is that the body knows what to do when it’s time to bring a new life into the world. Sometimes it just needs reminders, gentle nudges, comfort, someone nearby with certainty in their eyes, someone to say, “I’m with you,” someone to put a cool cloth on your face, someone to tell you, “Now is the time to push.” I am proud of this work because I offer these reminders everyday when I sit with a client in session. I want people to know that when they come to me, I’m not going to do their work for them. As your coach or diviner, I don’t want to rob you of your testimony, your survival story, your crown of glory. When it’s all said and done, you are going to be the one who stands on stage and receives the reward. I’m going to be the one celebrating you from the stands.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn the belief that I am too much. It was an insecurity that I’d had since I was a little girl. When I was in college, people used to call me Jeida “Doing the Most” Storey. They were saying it in jest but it truly hurt my feelings because while everyone was saying that I was doing the most, I felt like I was being normal. I didn’t know how to gauge what was too much and what was too little. I made that story of being too much a part of my identity and it controlled my life. It made interactions with people difficult because even if I was enjoying connecting, I would always have that thought in the back of my mind that maybe I was doing too much. Maybe my “too muchness” was why I wasn’t receiving certain opportunities or making certain connections with folks. What I’ve learned now is what others deemed too much is exactly the special sauce and the secret ingredient that makes me the Mystical Midwife. It makes me the type of spiritualist and coach who can put people at ease, who can allow other people to be as big as they’re supposed to be, who can hopefully be safe enough for folks to come out of their own shells and to feel like they can fill up the room. So I learned that I was never too much, I’m just not everybody’s cup of tea. And that’s okay because everybody’s not my cup of coffee.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Playing with possibility. When I was in college, I wrote a short story and in order to really embody the character I went to a thrift store and bought clothes that I thought she might wear. I wanted to put her on. I wanted to become her so that I could tell her story with integrity, authenticity, and truth. I wanted to honor her. I love playing this way! As a tarot reader, I can offer anything from mediumship and ancestral messages to divinatory forecasts to sexy & kinky readings. And as a life coach, we can try on different versions of ourselves and we can take ourselves in and out of narratives from our lives and stop to see the myriad of perspectives and experiences that have shaped who we are. We get to play with possibility and as I grow and evolve and continually heal, that remains the most rewarding experience of all.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jeidakstorey.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeidakstorey/
• Twitter: https://x.com/jeidakstorey
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@storeytellingtarot
• Other: https://paperbell.me/jeidakstorey

Image Credits

Phillip Loken, www.KingPhill.us (most of the photos)

Weldon Mills Staff (for the personal photo and the photo of Jeida reading someone’s card at a table)