Many of my regular clients are familiar with how I came to be a Professional Tarot Reader, however, those of you who are unfamiliar with me, (or never thought to ask), may be curious about how this strange career arose.
If you have read my listings at all, you are aware that I have been a student of Tarot for some thirty-seven years. Many are shocked, and think, gee Brigid, you barely look like you are old enough to have that much experience ;) ! LOL!
I am forty-five years old, or as I like to say, twenty-nine with sixteen years experience.
So you did the math, and you have correctly calculated that I begin to read tarot at the tender age of eight years old. How could this happen? Did I grow up in some metaphysical, hippie-parented family?
Oh no, my dear, quite the opposite. I grew up in a strict Irish-Catholic family, attended private Catholic schools, I was the fourth of five children, and my parents were like Archie and Edith Bunker. Dad was a WWII veteran, with a Silver and a Bronze Star, and also a veteran of the Korean war. Dad was an 82nd Airborne "Pathfinder", they were the guys who landed first at Normandy, lit the beacons for the gliders, and basically were the first behind enemy lines, and in the Korean War he was a Ranger........but that's an entirely different story. Mom was a Registered Nurse and worked with juvenile tuberculosis patients.
So how did this young girl in a strict religious conservative family get her hands on a Tarot Deck?
Well.....my oldest sister was ten years older than I was, so when I was eight, she was eighteen. We shared a room, and when my sister Karen went away to college, the room became mine! And, as all little sisters are prone to do, any belongings she had left behind instantly became my property! What I found hidden under her "secret" loose floorboard in her room (along with some pretty interesting hallucinogenics), was what was to become my very first Tarot Deck. It was the Rider-Waite Deck, and evidently someone had given it to Karen as a gift, and she had hidden it and never even opened it. What I found out many years later was that she was actually afraid of the cards! Along with the deck, there was a book on Tarot by Stuart Kaplan. My fascination began.
My mother worked third shift, so each night, after she left for work and I was thought to be asleep, my adventure in Tarot would take place. I studied and read, flipped the cards out and looked up their meanings. At the age of eight my questions were primarily about what would happen to me when I grew up, and my interpretations were awkward at best. This continued for some time, and then, I started to frequent the local library looking for books on Astrology and Tarot and going deeper and deeper into the study of these subjects.
One day, while at a local bookstore with my mom, I found a new deck that I really wanted to try out, and I had to find a way to buy them without my mom knowing. I did, and I snuck them into the house, but didn't hide them right away. Mom found them and did she ever flip out!!! She went nuts and burned them out in the backyard and dragged me across the street for the priest to give me a lecture on opening the door to letting evil spirits into my life and our home.
Well, my IQ is 148, so even at the tender age of eight, I understood the cards well enough to know that the priest (and my mom), were just not educated enough to understand what I was pursuing. So I cooled it, briefly.
I became more covert in my studies as my Mom began taking too intent of an interest in my personal library, and my ephermis (used to calculate astrology charts by hand) disappeared, certain astrology books would evaporate off my book shelves, and Mom spent a lot of time burning things in the back yard....
Years passed, my studies deepened, I became a teenager and began reading for friends and kind of got a reputation of being a bit "spooky".
I became an adult, took my first job as an Electronics Buyer in 1980, and of course the circle of people I read for widened.
I married, had two children, became an Inventory Manager, then worked my way up after my divorce to an Operations Manager in the printing industry. I spent many years working my tail off to support my family and all through the years I never stopped reading cards for the people I met along the way.
Then I decided I was going to change industries, I went to a Thermography Plant as the Plant Manager, a great job, I was "The Boss" of the whole organization, I owned two homes, etc. etc. etc.
The plant shut down.
I was laid off for the first time in my life.
I could "sign up" for unemployment, but it was only about 1/8 of what my income normally was, I paniced. I was frantically job hunting, and then I thought, wait, let me take this time to write a book on Tarot, a subject I love. I wrote my book and began reading professionally (ie. for money).
My business took off!
I was now able to set my own hours, work as little or as much as I wanted, and......BONUS.....I absolutely LOVED what I was doing!
I gave up the job search and NEVER returned to the rat race.
It's the old adage "DO WHAT YOU LOVE, THE MONEY WILL FOLLOW".
And that, my dear friends, is how Brigid Bishop became a Professional Tarot Reader.