About Me

I am a queer (he/him) writer, tarot reader, and astrology student.

My aunt gifted me the Rider–Waite Tarot deck when I was 11. “Wrap it in silk,” she advised me. “It keeps the good in and the bad out.” I didn’t listen to her, mainly because I didn’t know where to buy silk. Instead, I kept my deck in a box. For seventeen years, I’d read my cards during times of transition. I was a closeted teenager in the suburbs, perpetually waiting for my life to begin. I hoped the cards might provide clues about what my future might look like, so I’d have something to look forward to.

I don’t remember much about these readings. What I do recall, though, was I constantly pulled The Hermit, the ninth card in the Major Arcana. It shows the image of an old, white-bearded man in a gray robe. He stands atop a hill and holds a lantern, a six-pointed star burning in it. “The Hermit is associated with Virgos,” my aunt told me, which I remember because I am a Virgo.

In 2018, after being accepted into the Bennington Writers Seminars, I pulled The Hermit again. By then, I’d learned the card is associated with people who alchemize their past experiences into wisdom to help counsel others. I understood this card as an invitation to do the same: write about myself and alchemize my past into wisdom. For two years, I wrote a body of creative work. I studied literature with an emphasis on queer writers. I sought to heal whatever self-limiting thoughts and beliefs had kept me landlocked for years. I wanted to use this knowledge to help others, especially queer people and those at odds in this heteronormative and capitalistic world.

Since 2020, I’ve been reading tarot using the same Rider-Waite deck my aunt gifted me seventeen years prior. Jessica Dore, a licensed social worker, tarot reader, and writer, initially inspired me. Her interpretations of the cards incorporated insights from psychology and behavioral science. From there, I took one of her courses and studied Rachel Pollack, Benebell Wen, and other reputable tarot historians.

I have an MFA from the Bennington Writers Seminar and am an alumnus of Mors Tua Vita Mea.