Where the Name Comes From
The name Tarot Beach was earned, not invented. For a long time I did free tarot readings on the beach — and I became known for two things: accuracy and honesty. The kind of honesty that doesn't soften the edges to make you feel better.
People remembered those readings. Word spread. And somewhere along the way the name Tarot Beach stuck — though I'll admit it was sometimes said with a different word than beach by the ones who heard something they weren't ready for. Both meanings were fair.
Where the Knowledge Comes From
This site is inspired by the women who came before me — the good ones and the difficult ones alike — who taught me at their knee what they knew. Whether you called them Appalachian healers, Braucherei practitioners, Brujas, Boszorkány, gypsies, or plain old witches, they were my people.
They didn't call it a practice. They didn't call it anything at all. They just knew things, and they passed those things down the way women always have — quietly, at kitchen tables, in gardens, in whispered instructions that were never written down anywhere.
I am an old crone now, doing my best to remember everything they showed me and put it somewhere it won't be lost.
I am the last but not the least.
Her Grimoire & her lore,
handed to my protection.
Will find rest without rejection.
I am the least but not the last —
ancestral connection evermore.
A Word About Faith
I come from a Christian background — genuinely, not as a contradiction but as a foundation. It was a Catholic priest who changed the direction of my life in my twenties, who looked at me and said go back to where you came from, find what your people knew. I have never forgotten that.
The women who taught me saw no conflict between lighting a candle for a saint and working a root for a neighbor. Neither do I. If that surprises you, you may not have looked closely enough at either tradition.
My mother is standing somewhere right now with her arms crossed, making sure I said that clearly enough. I believe I have.
Why It's Free
My grandmother believed — and I believe — that the ability to help someone should never be used to stand between them and the help they need. What was given to me freely, I share freely. That has always been the philosophy of this practice and it always will be.
The Fool steps off the cliff with everything he owns in a small bundle and not a worry in the world. That is the right energy for a beginning. That is how this started, and that is how it continues.