Hands up who’s obsessed with tarot cards right now?! (Imagine my hand very much elevated!) I’ve been working with tarot cards a lot recently, and it is sooooo much fun. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m really ready to make the transition from my current level of knowledge — let’s call that “enthusiastic dabbler” — to something a little higher on the totem pole.

Who better to talk to, then, than Brigit Esselmont of Biddy Tarot? Whenever I pull cards and Google them, Biddy Tarot is always the first site to come up. Her interpretations of the cards are so clear and concise, and it really helps me. So let’s learn about tarot: how it can help us, whether it changes our destiny, and how we can use cards to tune into our intuition.

1. Tell us who you are and what you do.

I’m Brigit. I’m a mum to two kids – Chloe and Zara – I live in Melbourne, Australia and I make my living leading the Biddy Tarot community. I’ve never felt as aligned with my soul’s purpose — or as blessed — as I do today.

In some ways, I consider myself a regular gal. I love spending time with my husband and my girls. But I also know that I’m here to help people live more mindful and enlightened lives, using Tarot as a guide. I bet you don’t meet someone every day who says that!

2. What was it that drew you to tarot? What is it that keeps you interested in it?

I’ve always been spiritual and an avid learner. So when I had my first Tarot reading as a teenager, I was fascinated. The woman who interpreted the cards told me I would meet a man on my study abroad trip to Germany. When I met the guy who ended up becoming my first boyfriend, I thought, Cool! I want to learn how to do this.

So I did what so many of us do – I read a bunch of books and started practicing reading the cards. To keep track of my notes, I began posting them online. That’s actually how Biddy Tarot started, in 1999.

For ten years, I worked in a corporate job, and read Tarot on the side. But over the years, I had a growing sense that staying in my corporate job wasn’t my life path. By the time my second daughter was born, my gut – and my Tarot cards – was telling me it was time to leave corporate and focus on Biddy Tarot full time. So I took the leap in 2012 and never looked back!

It turns out that our ordinary lives are one courageous decision away from blowing the doors off everything we’ve imagined possible.

Because of what some people would call a crazy decision to leave a successful and high-paying corporate career, I’m now doing work that both helpful to others, fun for me, and is deeply aligned with my spiritual path.

I’ve noticed that many people seem to think of spirituality as separate from their daily lives. They may have spiritual practices or tools they use in private. I used to be like this a bit, too. I wasn’t totally confident that my interpretations of the cards were the right ones, so at first I kept my Tarot readings to myself.

But over time, I’ve discovered that my life works best when I let my intuition guide me. Reading Tarot cards is by far my favorite tool for this.

3. What’s the first thing you would tell someone who is interested in tarot?

You don’t have to be a 5th generation psychic or able to speak with dead people to read Tarot.

I truly believe that anyone can read Tarot. All you need to do is open up to your intuition and allow yourself to go within to seek out the Divine in all things.

The Tarot will help take you there, but you need to start the journey.

4. Is there a common misconception people have about tarot? What do people think and what’s your perspective?

Sometimes people tell me they worry what other people will think when they say they read Tarot. Let’s nip this in the bud now!

Tarot cards are a tool, nothing more. This means you choose how you use them – there’s nothing weird, evil or woo-woo about it.

If you want to use Tarot in your business to advise your clients, great. If you want to use Tarot to talk to fairies, great. If you want to use Tarot for personal growth, great. It’s really up to you. As long as you use the Tarot to help yourself and others, I’m all for it.

I’m on a mission to make Tarot a part of more mainstream conversations on spirituality and wellness, like yoga or meditation. The more people who are listening to their intuition and trusting their gut, the better!

5. Can you give us one example of a time when tarot really helped you, or produced amazing results?

I don’t think I can pinpoint a single time when Tarot help me to create something amazing. Why? Because every moment I spend with the Tarot, I’m creating something amazing.

The beautiful thing about Tarot is that you can fully integrate it into your everyday life and use it to truly connect with your inner self and provide Divine guidance for choosing your path.

Here’s an example… I use Tarot alongside my business planning every month and every quarter. Of course, I look at the numbers and the more practical side to business, but I also consult my Tarot cards. It helps me to connect with my soul purpose and it reminds me of this Divine calling that is fueling my business and my passion. Every time I consult the cards, I’m reconnecting with my whole self, and putting the ‘soul’ back into business.

6. How can tarot enhance people’s lives?

Oh wow – so many ways!

It will help you make better, more conscious decisions about your life path, guiding you towards the outcomes that are most in alignment with your Higher Self.

It will help you navigate challenging situations and understanding the deeper significance to those troubling events and why it’s happening in the first place.

It will help you fulfill your potential in this lifetime by showing you where your best opportunities lie and how you can weave yourself into the beautiful and abundant flow of life.

7. Do you believe that we create our own destiny and our own luck? How does tarot play into that?

We most definitely create our own destiny.

Often, people think that the Tarot cards will take away your free will – whatever the cards say will happen, no matter what! Well, it just isn’t true.

We are the creators of our destiny, not the Tarot cards. The Tarot cards will gently guide us along our path but we need to each take accountability for the decisions we make along the way. Without that accountability, we steer further and further away from our desired outcomes and goals.

8. What’s the best lesson you’ve learned from practicing tarot?

To trust my intuition. I’ve always been a left-brain thinker – logical, practical and rational. But what the Tarot has shown me is that there is a beauty in embracing the right-brain and the intuitive side of my Self.

When I forget to tune in or get caught up in the day-to-day chaos, I find myself completely lost and off-track. But the more I tune in, the more in alignment I feel with my life and my purpose.

Love and intuition,

Brigit is one of the head witches in the Radical Self Love Coven, which opens up this month! She’ll be teaching us how to use tarot cards to connect with the Divine, make conscious choices and manifest your dreams and goals. She’ll cover the basics of interpreting the Tarot cards and how to do a simple 3-card Tarot reading for yourself and others. So much fun! If you’re interested in learning more about the Coven, be sure to add your name!