By: Eric Czerwonka, Community Journalist
PENNS GROVE — Ever since she was born, Carly Ann, also known as “Mothering Magick,” has practiced witchcraft.
Her grandmother was Catholic and she bought Ann her first book on witchcraft at the age of seven.
“We were extremely, extremely close,” said Ann. “She was the most open-minded person in the world, which is hysterical, because she slept with a rosary bead.”
And they were best friends. Ann credits her to having such a good relationship with God herself.
“My grandmother, from a very young age, was always so accepting and understanding of other paths,” said Ann. “She was super accepting of me being a witch.”
Her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and every night they would speak on the phone.
But one of the main things that has stuck with Ann that she got from her grandmother is that, “We’re all gonna die one day, so you might as well live happily.”
Around the age of nine, she got her first tarot deck, and that’s when she started to do readings, but only to her friends.
It wasn’t until she was 18 that she started to do it for others to make some side money in college.
But what she loves the most about doing it for others is being able to help them.
“I’m in no way trying to compare myself as an actual therapist, or say that tarot card reading is a replacement for mental health services at all,” said Ann. “But it can be a very healing experience, especially for people who have gone through trauma.”
To try to help them the most she can, she recently got certified by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), as well as through the Center for Healing.
“It’s been a way to connect with people in a much deeper way that helps heal the soul and even the body in a way,” said Ann. “Getting that peace and closure that you need from these events really does affect you that intensely.”
Not everyone walks into a reading expecting an emotional experience, but many have even come out crying.
“A lot of people don’t realize when they sit down to do a reading with me, how deep that they can actually go,” said Ann. “They think that you’re just gonna be like, ‘Oh next week you’re gonna win the lottery.’ That’s not what tarot is.”
There are two parts of a tarot deck, the major and minor arcana, which all have different meanings. As you pull out random cards, they will come out in an order that tells a story.
“I’ve never had someone get the exact same reading twice,” said Ann. “It spells a different story for each person.”
While she originally started reading tarot to make extra money in college, not until recently that Ann started to see the potential for something more.
Just two months ago, she went to a place called the Amystical Journey Shoppe in Pitman. She happened to find the shop when she was getting a tattoo with her husband next door.
“I came in, and I was like, ‘Do you guys have a tarot reader?’ And she goes ‘Not anymore,’ and I was like ‘Well, now you do,’” said Ann.
Ann didn’t realize she could grow reading as a business until a sweet 16 party she was requested to do. Before, she was doing occasional readings on Facebook here and there.
“It was just all night long having a great time going with all these different people, doing readings throughout the entire party,” said Ann. “And that’s when I was like ‘Hey, this is something that maybe if I stop doubting myself, I can grow this.’”
Believing in herself was something she always battled with, as she was bullied in school. One of her bullies in middle school, ironically enough, was the older sister of the girl who was having the sweet 16 birthday party.
“It really felt like a full circle moment,” said Ann. “I didn’t deserve anything that I was put through. Like it’s great, but those years of torment weren’t deserved.”
The perception of witchcraft has drastically changed since Ann was in school. She recalls back in elementary school, when a kid said that unless she could turn him into a toad, she must not be a real witch.
“It’s actually a religion and a spiritual practice that is just as legitimate as any other religion,” said Ann. “It’s not inherently evil. It’s not inherently good. It is just a tool that we can use to better ourselves and help ourselves and to read what’s going on in our lives.”
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