HEX + THE CITY with Cardsy B

Rebecca Szymczak - aka Cardsy B - is an author, intuitive tarot reader, and wellness witch. Her work has been featured in Nylon, Elle, Bustle, Forbes, and The Zoe Report. She has collaborated with global brands like Gucci, BCBG MaxAzria, and HULU. She writes tarot-scope columns for various magazines and digital platforms and works as the "Wellness Witch in Residence" at NYC's The Algonquin Hotel. She also hosts the award-winning Hex and the City podcast and is author of the acclaimed memoir The Saturn Diaries: A Modern Day Grimoire.

Listeners can receive 20% off a reading with Rebecca by entering code IMMATERIAL at checkout on her website: www.cardsyb.com.

For more about Rebecca visit:

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For bookings and for more about Jessica visit: www.the12th.house and Instagram: @jessicaxrich 

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Artwork by Lane Friend 

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Transcript

Welcome To Immaterial World

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to Immaterial World, a dedicated and transparent space to recenter how we explore glamour, magic, culture, and everything else we love together. Rebecca Simzak, aka Card C B, is an author, intuitive tarot reader, and wellness witch. Her work has been featured in Nylon, L, Bustle, Forbes, and the Zoe Report. She has collaborated with global brands like Gucci, BCBG, Max Asria, and Hulu. She writes taroscope columns for various magazines and digital platforms and works as the wellness witch in residence at NYC's The Algonquin Hotel. She also hosts the award-winning Hex in the City podcast and is author of the acclaimed memoir The Saturn Diaries, a modern day grimoire. Card Z B has a coupon code for listeners, 20% off with code IMATERILWORD to be used at checkout for all services on Cardzb.com. Raise your hand if you've ever personally felt victimized by Saturn. Now we've chatted about Saturn with almost all of our astrology guests and most others as well. It's the planet that everyone seems to have a story about, whether it's a major milestone or a check-in point or complete collapse that leads to a rebuild. Saturn really is that girl. And full disclosure, I just got a Saturn tattoo on Friday because she's she's come around in my book. Our guest today wrote her memoir about her own Saturn return and how it led her on a divinely new magical path. We are welcoming Rebecca Simzak to the immaterial world today. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Thank you. I'm so excited. I love the podcast and I'm so grateful to be here.

unknown 2:46

Yeah.

Childhood Tarot And First Divination

SPEAKER_01 2:46

We're so happy to have you. Rebecca, what first brought you to Divination?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

You know, it's something that I stumbled across as a child. And it's not in my direct lineage that I'm aware of in terms of like nothing my parents practiced, nothing that my grandparents exposed me to. Um, but I was always drawn to, especially uh astrology and tarot when growing up. And I would save my allowance and buy tarot decks and astrology books at like 10, 11 years old. So I taught myself how to read. So the first divination tool I worked with was tarot and then pendulums and others later on.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

And you have a background in the fashion industry too. That's part of your journey. How did you get there and what brought you from there to here?

SPEAKER_00 3:31

So yeah. So because I did um uh read, you know, tarot and was always interested in those things as a kid, it kind of followed me throughout my life. But back then, growing up as a kid in the 90s, it wasn't what it wasn't as access accessible and democratized as it is now, which I love that everyone can access it to a much greater degree than when I was growing up. But I never thought that that was going to be a career path. It was something I loved. I really like I would love reading cards for my my little best friends growing up. Um, but I was also really into art and design. So I ended up studying fashion design in university, working for Donna Karen, designing for Nike. Eventually I was the creative director of Playboy. So that was my whole kind of adult career until my Saturn return. And at the point that I had my Saturn return, which is basically when Saturn returns to the place it was in our natal chart when we were born, um, I had a lot of things pulled out from my life, which like many of us, if we're not in alignment, Saturn I always say is kind of like the mean planet or like the mean teacher of our planetary system. It's like the teacher that makes us better and stronger, but definitely will give us the hard smack down of like, hey, you're kind of out of alignment here and you need to get on track. So at that point, I lost my big creative director, global vice president role at Playboy. I um my ex-wife asked for a divorce, my best friend had recently passed away. So all of these things that were kind of ego identifiers of like, oh, I have this big splashy Manhattan career, and I've, you know, and I'm married. And at the time, my ex-wife and I were kind of the face of a lot of gay rights campaigns because we were like it girls in Manhattan. And um, it was just really uh destabilizing of like without these things, who am I? And through, you know, really challenging sequence of events, um, losing all of my money through some bad business deals that I went into at the time. Um, I kind of came back to pulling one tarot card a day for myself. I was like, okay, this is something that used to provide me a greater connection to my God source, the universe, my higher self. What do I need to know that are blind spots for me right now? And that's how I just started reading it for me in like a really dark time to kind of come back into um my own intuition. And then people were remembering that, oh, you do read tarot on the or you're you used to, you know, like this is a thing you used to do as a hobby. Can you read for me? And so I started reading for old colleagues in the fashion industry, friends of mine, and it kind of snowballed from there and brought me back into this thing that I really connected to in my childhood and teen years that I abandoned for a long time.

Tarot With Astrology Timing Clues

SPEAKER_01 6:07

I love that. And you know, the fashion industry really is always so intertwined. It's just, you know, it's creative, it just like divination is creative, and we always seem to like sort of oscillate between the two. I will say there is something that I love about the way that you read. You identify all of the cards like astrologically as you're going through. And it was really funny. You had posted something the other day about the six of wands, and it was Jupiter and Leo, which I never realized before. And I've been pulling that for certain things, and I'm like, oh, I wonder if this is the timing of some of this stuff that's coming through. So I love that you have that astrology through line and everything that you do with tarot.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Oh, thank you. And you know, it I always say, like, if you look at it from like a majors and minors, of like if I went to Hogwarts, I would have like majored in tarot and minored in astrology. But I learned from the back end because I love that about tarot, is all the 78 cards have an astrological, um, like or planetary ruling. So that's how I kind of learned even more about astrology. Cause yeah, six of wands, it makes so much sense that it's like Jupiter and Leo, right? Because it's kind of like button up on your high horse of like being getting all the act. And so that's how I I understood astrology on a deeper level because I knew Tarot well. And in my second deck that's coming out, um, the Hex and the City deck, it's gonna be early uh 2027, but I purposely have astrology symbols like in the artwork so that you can kind of, and it's all in the guidebook as well of like the numerology, the astrology, um, to help people learn that aspect. Because a lot of readers say that to me if they're like, oh, I never realized like the astrological tie-ins, and they are helpful once you understand them. And it does to your point, um, a lot of times I see timelines with that of like, oh, this is probably gonna happen either during that transit or it may happen in Leo season as a result of the placement of the cards in a reading. Yeah.

Saturn Return As Alignment Teacher

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Yeah, I really I enjoy that so much, and it's such a fun thing to dive into because there's so many different directions people can go with tarot. And I mean, you're such an interesting writer as well. You wrote a memoir, The Saturn Diaries, a modern day grimoire, and this really digs into the details of your Saturn return and what that shift was like into the more magical life, the spiritually aligned work. And so just, you know, you had mentioned it's when Saturn comes back to the position where you were born, but um, do you want to explain to uh listeners who might not be aware why the Saturn return has such a notorious reputation for chaos and change? Um, you had mentioned it's about alignment. I also got divorced during my Saturn return. Yeah, I forgot that. Yeah. And yeah, so much had changed.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Yeah, yes, definitely. Uh Saturn has a challenging reputation because it is to me, I always say it's like that teacher in school or that professor in university that you're like, oh god, this class is gonna be brutal, but then you walk away so much more um set up for success in the future, so much more knowledgeable of whatever that like lesson was. And I think that, you know, Saturn is all about kind of like rules and regulation and um discipline. And I was at a place in my life that I was, I'm I have so much Sagittarius on my chart, and I'm a Sagittarius son, and I was not um, I was not about discipline whatsoever. I was a highly functioning alcoholic in the fashion industry, just like total party girl. And I rose to success in corporate life very young. Like I was a global vice president by the time I was 28, and I just thought that a lot of rules didn't apply and that I could live like that forever. And Saturn really came in and was asking me, you know, is this relationship right for you? Is this actually the career that you are of the best service and of the truest version of yourself? And I wasn't. I had a lot of the cool, splashy things on the surface, but I wasn't happy. And I drank and Xandexed my way through a lot of that to mask the disconnect on a soul level. So yeah, I feel like I, it's funny that that Jessica, like you were saying, you have the tattoo and you're like, you know, Saturn's played a big role, like probably good and bad, or like challenges and expansion. Um, and I feel that's why my book is called The Saturn Diaries. I have such reverence for Saturn as a planet, but it was not easy. It was definitely a really challenging time, but it did help me come back into uh a realization of what I'm really here to do and what the things that um are the gifts that I can use to best serve the collective. Because I also feel like I was in a very selfish era of my life. And it helped like put a massive magnifying mirror on those areas of like, do you want to continue to show up this way as a friend, as a partner, as a daughter? All and I was like, whoa, I actually didn't even realize how out of alignment I was in so many areas of my life until I got the brutal smack down and like almost every rug being pulled out from under me. And like without these ego identifiers, who are you? Because it really isn't the I'm the wife of so-and-so, or I'm this level executive at this job that makes us who we are. But I think a lot of times in Western society, we're programmed to believe that it that is the most valuable parts of ourselves. So it really um, I learned a lot about who am I on a soul level and what am I really here to do?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

You know, I have a follow-up question to that because the Saturn return, you know, only comes around what is it, every 27 to 30 years or something, depending on how it's meaningful. How would people work with Saturn in their chart to try to help be more aligned for moving through some of these hard lessons on a more day-to-day basis in between in between the big transits?

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Yeah, totally. Um, I mean, first of all, just identifying what you can easily do um like on Astro Cafe, a free um natal chart reading of your birth time, place, and um like date, time, and place, and see where your Saturn is. Um so mine is in Scorpio, which made a lot of sense for the ways that like all of the like shadow decadence of Scorpio was like showing up at that time. Same. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah. And but also like the things that are um, and same for you, Jessica. That makes a lot of sense of like that, are a lot of my gifts are kind of being able to dive into the underworld on a lot of Plutonian themes. And even in my book, a lot of people that were not even necessarily astrologically or um like witchcraft or or um tarot inclined were like, oh my gosh, this helps me through addiction, or this helped me through ways that I was self-sabotaging and really harming myself. And I think a lot of those Plutonian and Scorpio themes um are what Saturn helped me to identify in myself, and also how can I Saturn structure that and use it in a positive way? So I feel like looking at where your Saturn in your chart is will show you a lot about yes, parts of your shadow and where that might need to be course corrected, but on an ongoing basis, like how can I utilize that part of me to best show up to be of service and to step into my purpose work?

SPEAKER_01 13:08

That is so helpful. I remember when I found out that I had Saturn in my seventh house in Sagittarius. Oh, oh, no wonder I got divorced from the foreigner. I guess in my Saturn return. But it's been helpful to think about outside of that too, you know, what I'm bringing to partnerships and all other kinds of things.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah, totally. Yeah, my mine is in the eighth house in Scorpio, and it was very similar. And that makes sense with Sat. You have because there's so much with Sagittarius. Like when I saw you speak in Salem, you're you're so magnetic, and you have so much to teach people because of your journey throughout this lifetime and just through your ancestors that I'm like, whoa, of course, that's that's your gift in terms of like one of many, in terms of how you inspire the collective and how you inspire people that that work that come come to work with you and learn from you.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Oh, thank you. That's so kind. I could talk about Saturn forever. Like, really, the reason I got my tattoo is because I have been on a deep dive with Saturn. I was sort of like on a deep dive with Pluto for a while when I was going through my Pluto square. I met with an evolutionary astrologer. I was like really deep into that like rebirth transformation. And actually, my Saturn is my natal Saturn is retrograde in Scorpio in the seventh house as well.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah. So I've been on this, like, okay, there was like Saturn return, but then also as it's about to hit my ascendant, my Aries rising, what's been going on since it was on my descendant? Like, what was this like sixth house journey that it went on? And like, what has this whole relationship journey been like? And how am I relating to people now? How is that different? So Saturn is is really that girl for me in the chart right now. Um, but I think that also like talking about revolutionizing your life and like really I I forget the phrase that you said. I think it was ego identifier, which I'm now obsessed with, uh thinking about that phrase, thinking about how especially working in a creative industry or in the fashion industry, that's like who you are. And I think that we tend to like say we are our work, although we have to remember we are humans and we have a different purpose and we're here to do other things. So if someone is in a field that they're like very much identifying with their work and they're not necessarily thinking about who they are, what kind of guidance would you give them based on your journey and your learnings, to how can they get closer to their purpose and how can they get closer to like a true calling that feels closer to them?

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Yeah, and I think that's such a beautiful question to like constantly be asking ourselves, even when we think like at this point in time, I absolutely love what I do. But it is something because of that point in time and because of Saturn SmackDown, I constantly ask myself, um, what am I apart from if I don't say author, intuitive tarot reader, all those things. Like, what is it that I am? And I think one of the questions is what do you really thrive in in the day today? And what brings you the most gratitude and joy? And one of the common threads in the fashion industry to now is I really loved connecting with people. So I loved, like I had a team that worked, you know, a big team under me at Playboy. I loved mentoring them, I loved guiding them. Um, and then when I had like exited out of Playboy and been pushed out and was even freelancing, I loved the conversations even in the elevator. And people knew that I was really into tarot nostrology and witchy things. So they would be like, oh my gosh, I want to get your insight because things have been crazy. Is it Mercury retrograde? What's happening? And I loved those connected conversations of people feeling that they could open up to me more than just the how was the weekend? How are your kids? You know? And so I I will say one of the things that brings me, I asked myself that what brings me the most joy in my day-to-day. And it's still connecting with clients. If I'm having my own drama, bad dating stories, whatever, and I have a session that I can feel I really was tapping in and inspired something in that person. And also that is such a um feeds me back too and is nourishing to me to be able to open someone someone's mind around certain things or show them blind spots they may have had. Um, that that is still my greatest joy. So I'm like, whatever my career like shifts or kind of pivots into as I move throughout my business, I know that's always a big part of what I want to be doing and how I can be best of service. So I think in terms of if if you do feel very identified in this is my job and you love it and you're thriving, that's freaking awesome. Like roll with that. But if you're like, yeah, I always say that I am like X role or I am this because that's what my career has told me I am, what are the parts of your career, your day-to-day that bring you the most joy and gratitude? Because that's usually like what our soul signature is here to activate in others too.

Trend Forecasting As Fashion Witchery

SPEAKER_01 17:54

I love that. And as someone that does trend forecasting and has been doing this for 20 years, I also think that when you've been working in fashion, when you work in sort of production and making things, your brain becomes hardwired for pattern recognition, right? And it's like, why divination also feels so good? It's because like your brain is like already thinking about things like that and like creating those stories and like, oh, well, this happened and like this loop, and like that's why astrology feels so good. That's why tarot feels so good. So I'm curious if you think that that also gave you like a little bit of an edge too to come from that background.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Well, yeah, I was actually gonna bring that up because when I found out, Jessica, that that's what you do, I was like, of course that's what you do, because it's fashion witchery. Yes, it is fashion witchery. That's what we did. And I was I was on the design side, but from uh so I started interning and then was elevated to like a system designer at Nike when I was still in university. So um, the one of the ways that I got on that track was because I would um like start designing things that were like bestsellers in a line that I knew nothing about. Cause they would just like hand the excess to the interns, you know, of like, okay, we'll just sketch out this many styles. And they were like, How is this girl who's like in second year in university like like designing the best-selling basketball short? And they would like literally interview me, why do I know this? And they're like, Do you watch basketball? And I'm like, I hate sports. Like, I'm like, I don't know. I just, and it was the thing of like predicting, yeah, predicting trends in terms of silhouette design on my side of things. And that's when I when I found out when I first connected with Yasmina and found out that's what you do, I was like, of course you do. Like that makes so much sense because there's some of it that's just not quantifiable. Like, yes, we can research and we can like look at data in the way that we look at astrology charts, but some of it is just like intuitive guidance of like, yes, with that information that we deduce it to, we still have to choose and still have to create from the data that we've gathered. So I definitely that was one of the things that I was like at a young age identified for was like, oh, she's gonna pick what's gonna sell or she's gonna design what's gonna sell. And they just like, you know, like used that from me at a very young age.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yeah. And I mean, like there is, there wasn't as much data when I first started, right? Like, of course, there's selling reports, but now there's like AI and there's like Google trends and all of that. And it drives clients absolutely bad even I'm like, yeah, I don't look at any of that. Like I'm not using any numbers, like this is just human. It's just human sentience the way that I do it. There's plenty of you could go on Google Trends if you want. By the time you design that, it's already gonna be over. So I've always sort of been like that fashion witch. Like they would like bring me in and I would do my little presentation, and they'll be like, Okay, goodbye.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yeah, go back to your office. Yeah. Oh my god, I love that. That makes so much sense, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Speaking of the business side of things, I really love how you balance the business side of your work, how you talk about it and present it. When when I saw you talk at Salem Witch Fest, I was like, yes, yes, yes. We need to talk more about how do we sustain ourselves as a business and not feeling um guilty about having a business if you are a practicing reader. And um, I also know, you know, as an entrepreneur, that it can be really difficult to balance the the business and the commercial side of things and the um visibility and all of that. And I know what I've learned through my work has been very rooted in generational survival trade fortune telling, which is super helpful, but it's not um that helpful for navigating capitalism. So I've had to use a lot of other things, even though I don't want to live in capitalism, yet here we are. Um, and so I am curious about where your business savvy came from. And I'm also assuming that you apply it to your work differently than you were using it, like where you first learned it, perhaps in the fashion industry. Like how do how do you balance all that?

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah, no, thank you. And that's one of the things that I think many of us who work in whether it's divination, psychic work, um, uh healing work, teacher's guides, and that's Space, there is this guilt. And I do think some of it probably definitely comes from like ancestral of to like to your point, like your ancestors, this was literally like survival. So you're like, that's I just want to be able to like offer my gifts and like, yeah, and and get by as a result of that. And I think many of us have the well, I what I do, I know is to help the collective, is to help and to heal. So I don't want to overcharge or overtake as a result of that. I'm just happy to help. But I feel like it's also just the kind of laws of nature and fair energetic exchange. Of I had someone that I was in an elevator with and I was uh in an old another building I lived in. And it was this this guy who was like, oh, I follow you on Instagram. I'm going through this breakup. Can you just like pop in and like do a quick reading for me? And I was like, Can I just ask you, what do you do? And he said, I'm a dentist. And I was like, right. And I was like, so if I had a toothache, I'm like, would would it be fair to ask for you to just like come and like quickly fill a cavity in my apartment right now? And he like looked all like, oh, I didn't mean it like that. And I was like, yeah, I'm like, I respect that. And I'm like, I can totally give you my information and I would love to be able to do a reading for you. He never, he never talked to me again. But I I try to look at it like that now, right? Because I think that when I first stepped into this, I struggled with a lot of like, oh, I do just want to help. But like anything, when we overgive, um, those boundaries will be trampled. And then we are depleted and not able to be the best versions of us to serve. And that's what I started learning is when I did step into this, I was like, I was, I was giving, like I wasn't as boundary in my time in my sessions, and I was over, you know, like over giving, and then I would be really tired and run down. So doing events really helps me with that. But on a on a bigger scale, business-wise, and thank you for that. That's one of the things I do um teach a lot and work in my one-on-one um intuitive guidance and one-on-one client um package is with um basically launching or growing intuitive businesses. And I think that's something that um it has been very segregated. And I love that more and more of us are stepping into this purpose work right now. But yeah, to your point, a lot of it I did learn in the fashion industry. Um, and then I had my own lingerie line for a period of time. So learned things in terms of launching that. But I feel like I'm very grateful for that time in my life because I learned things, you know, like marketing, like branding, like working with PR or not, that have been um helpful throughout that. But in terms of how do I apply it differently now, I think it's similar to Jessica's question about um like our purpose work versus ego identifiers, is I'm like, okay, is this really true to my mission? Is this really true to how I want to show up? Because I'm sure you guys see this too. There are things that are trendy in like algorithms, or this is how people are now selling tarot or what they're doing in terms of healing and guidance services. And I'll always ask myself, yeah, but is that really how I work? Is that really the essence of how I want to help people and how I want to be perceived? So that's probably how I do it a little differently than the straight up corporate, just like squeeze more, sell more. But yeah, a lot of my branding, a lot of my marketing, um, outreach, um, public relations knowledge comes from that side of my life. And I do think that I chose when I tapped into this lifetime, that path to be able to uh do this work at a bigger scale and reach more people, because I wouldn't have learned those things had I had I dove straight into this work, even though this is what I always loved as a child.

Building A Brand That Feels True

SPEAKER_01 25:21

I love this. I will also say, just as a sidebar, I've been read by you. You're you're an East Coast girl. There's a lot that comes in 30 minutes. Like you talk fast, you get to the point. So even if you're managing your time, like listen, you're people are getting a lot in that time. Because you're like, you're like, can we move on? Okay, we're doing this, and this and this and this. So a lot of value. Highly recommend. It's a lot of value, but no, it's and it's also just so perfect. I I love that you talked about the experiences that you've had on the corporate side, and now you're moving into a more authentic way of working and things that feel close to you and personal. I always come back to like a personal brand. Like, do I really stand for that? Do I want to participate in that? How does living and working with purpose look for you now? Now that you're doing your own thing and like really standing in your own space.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

Yeah. Well, and I think that one of the pressures um in this space can often be, oh, to scale, it means more um digital content and not as much one-on-one work. And I just I always ask, like, how do I, how have I received the most healing and how have I received the most nourishment in my in my healing journey? And honestly, like seeing Yasmina speak in Salem was so inspiring. And that was like, it was like live and in person, right? And so I I receive a lot from that. I love speaking at events and doing live events. Um, I obviously do um a lot of like sessions on Zoom as well as we all do in this day and age, but I really love working with one-on-one clients. I I love being able to um kind of be like in in service mode. So I haven't really scaled into um, like kind of like download it and buy it the way that a lot of people have. And I've been pressured to do that. I've been told, like, oh my gosh, partner with me on this, do this, you'll make a ton. And I'm like, I just don't enjoy it as much. So that's one of the ways of like keep coming home to my brand. And even in terms of like, I am very like, I'm such a New Yorker to your point. Like my like these are all kind of um like images of places that I have either done psychic work or spellcraft in the city. But it's like that's my that's like a lot of my um altars and like vision boards and like spell work look like this in my apartment. So I'm still I've just embraced that, like, yes, I have this like black and white New York witch vibe about me. And I've kept my aesthetic pretty true to that in terms of all of my social media and my websites. And I've had these moments of like, oh, well, all of the tarot readers that are successful look like this. They're doing it this way. And sometimes it feels tempting to crack under that of like, well, well, would I get more clients? Would that be bigger if I did that? I'm like, it doesn't feel like me. So that's one of the things I constantly come home to like, who am I? What is it that that lights me up? And how do I learn from other people? And when I ask myself that of like, what are the things that I feel called to do that give me healing, that give me points of inspiration? And I'm like, that's probably the people that are going to resonate with me, receive in similar ways. So versus trying to like veer off into trends at the moment, I do often like redirect myself by asking those questions.

The Algonquin Residency And Spirits

SPEAKER_01 28:21

I even love that. I mean, you're so New York that you have residencies in the city in in hotels. Tell us a little bit about like what your residency at the Algonquin looks like.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Yeah, I love that. And like when and if you guys are ever in New York, definitely come and I'll like, yeah, like love. I'm in New York every day, baby. So I'll see you there. I I forgot that. How did I forget? Oh my god, yeah, we like come, we'll do a session there next time. Perfect. Yeah, it's amazing. It's the oldest hotel in New York that's still serving as a hotel. So they have actually had it like professionally cleared, and they like to say that, like, oh, there's no, like, we've cleared it of all paranormal activity. Like, I've had crazy stuff happen while I'm there. So I will say nothing malicious, and they probably don't want me to say like that this because they're like, oh no, no, no spirit activity. You're safe to stay here. But like, nothing malicious, but there's definitely um like trickster spirits that still reside in the Algonquin. Um, because I was staying there the first month that I was working with them. I was in, I was getting my new apartment. So I was staying um in a suite there, and I woke up at 3 a.m. to my little dog barking, who's like this big, and she's a little teacup Pomeranian. And I looked and the door had opened. And I was like, there's no freaking way, right? And people had asked me, like, oh, did your dog do it? I'm like, I don't have a golden retriever that like nudged the handle, you know. Like, no, this was definitely so I just kind of stood up and addressed it and was like, hey, we're just staying here for the rest of this month. We're not here to invade your space or take it over. Like, we respect you. I know that you've been here way longer than us. Like, please just don't scare my dog because like it's like I like also love the implication.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Like, if she did open the door, like she levitated. So something happened no matter what.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

I know. Like, I was like, yeah, give me all a lot of credit if she did. Um, so all of that to say it's a super magical place, oldest hotel that's still a hotel. Um, and yeah, they reached out to me because they were wanting to do something with like a like New York personality that worked in the tarot or astrology realm. And they're like, oh, we've we've heard a lot about you. And I and um there was a journalist who spoke about me to them. So it was supposed to be kind of a one-off brief program, and then it ended up being their second highest booked of like their experiences because they have different experiences that you can book. So, with my residency, um, if you book the Hex in the City package, named after like my podcast and now my new tarot deck, you get a one-on-one session with me. I wrote uh the Hex in the City Guide to New York. So, what I recommend in terms of like crystal shops and herbal elixirs and where to get your aura photographs, and you get my candle, my book, my tarot deck in the room. So that's still been ongoing since I started in um 2004 with them, and it's still available. And then I do events with them as well. So I just launched my um perfume Witch and Famous, which is an abundance activating fragrance. And I just had my fragrance launched at an event with them on Friday the 13th, kind of of like again, getting through the chaos that was this March, looking ahead into the new astrological year that we're headed into with Aries. Um, so yeah, I do a lot of events with them. So if you follow me on Instagram at Card CB um or my newsletter on cardcb.com, all of those events are always up. And the Algonquin events are usually just like, you know, come in that's free of charge. Just uh, you know, like drink and eat if you want while you're there, and it's free to attend.

Making An Ethical Abundance Fragrance

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Uh, I need to ask you more about creating a fragrance. This is like my dream. I love fragrance so much. Um, say more about about which.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Yeah, so I had worked with this company, they're amazing. Um, highly recommend um just like you know, looking at their products where like and if there's ever a desire for collaboration, they're great. They're called soul blends, S-O-L blends out of Oregon, and they grow all of their own herbs. So like the lavender that's in my fragrance is like they have like lavender that they grow and then create the essential oils from it. Anything that is not on their lands, they make sure is like ethically sourced. Uh, so that was another thing that was really important to me, just with a lot of like the the more that um kind of our world of witchcraft and spellcraft becomes mainstream, which it's great that it's accessible. As you guys know, there's a lot of things that are not ethically sourced or farmed. So I worked with their company. I love that they're a family company and it's of their land. So I did a candle with them two years ago that was a really successful um selling candle collab that had the uh combination of lavender, frankincense, and Palo Santo. And uh it was made for activating abundance. And there was a little seed paper ritual that came as a candle topper. And so we were talking, and um, the the owner, she was saying, Do you know, would you want to expand into a fragrance? And I was like, oh my gosh, I would love to. And so that kind of came about from the success of the candle. And then right now it's on their site, it's on my site, and then it's moving into a few smaller retailers in New York. But um, yeah, I highly recommend them or a company like them if you guys ever want to move into that, because I can just speak really highly to like they they do it with love. The way that they source their ingredients, the way that she bottles it is very ritualistic and very intentional versus just kind of like not knowing where you're getting the ingredients from and mass production. And that's why the candles smelled so good. I was like, everyone would, everyone who did purchase them or wherever they're in my home, because that's what my whole place smells like. They're like, I love this, and like because it's really, it's really clean and pure ingredients that are blended really intentionally. And when I was working with them, um, I knew kind of like the what I wanted the the vibe to be of like protection and abundance activation. Um, but she gave me a couple of different blends and like in the samples, I would burn them and sit with them and see how I felt in my space. And then the fragrance is just a replica, um, but with a um grape alcohol base, because like grapes again for abundance, as because there's different bases that you can use in the fragrance, whether you're doing like a roller, mine's like a spray that it's a grape alcohol base. But yeah, all clean, no chemicals, all like sourced on their land. So that's amazing. What's the name of the company again? Um, Soul Blends. It's SOL blends in Oregon.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Yeah. Amazing. Oh, I'm I can't wait to see what that's like. That's so exciting.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

Yeah, I would I'll send it to you guys. Yeah, it's it's um, I I love it. And I was always obsessed with like the candles since it came out. And I'm so picky with candles because I also only like like clean, like natural candles, too. Um, so I everything that they create on and all their stuff on their site, their lip balms, their candles, like highly, highly recommend all of them. I mean, obviously I'm partial to mine, but uh like they're all they're all really yummy and and really clean.

Tarot First Love And Shufflemancy

SPEAKER_01 34:52

That's magical. I love it. So gorgeous. I feel like you must incorporate scent into the way that you're playing with dev divination or working with divination, and you have tarot and you have mediumship and astrology. First of all, do you have a favorite? And also how do they all work together for you?

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Yeah, I mean, always tarot, because it was just like my first love. It's kind of how like I've lived in a bunch of major cities and it's like always New York. Tarot is like always, and even though I definitely pull in astrology and I pull in so many other things when I'm doing a one-on-one session or group sessions, um, tarot is like it's it's it has my heart. And I think it's because there's something about, and like I feel like Jessica, you'll get this from being in fashion too. There's something about like the visual aspect of it, um, that there's so many layers to each card because there is numerology and astrology and cabalistic tie-ins. And as a Sag that can get bored very easily, it's kind of like when I in in past parts of my career, if I mastered a template or a formula, it almost went on. Like before AI ex I AI existed, I was like on AI mode of just like, okay, template, like just follow that. And I love that tarot, like, not only do you never know where the cards are gonna lie, so it is very truly channeled through what you're seeing in any now moment, but I love all the layers of tarot and I love like the visual aspects of it. I love that in and of itself it's an accessory, like so many things I love about tarot.

unknown 36:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

We really love, speaking of loving tarot so much, we love playing a game that just has created and coined Shufflemancy that helps tarot enthusiasts deepen their knowledge of tarot, whether they're expert or novice. So you get to pick a card however you want. You can draw your draw a card at random, or you can um pick a card that you already have in mind and tell us the song that you associate with it and why.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Okay. Oh, okay. I just got Four of Swords reverse. I just shuffled the deck that's right here really fast. Um, and Four of Swords in the Upright, it's Jupiter and Libra. It's kind of being able to like it's the meditation card. And the first deck I created, it's inspired by Pema Chadrin, because it's kind of like that being able to sit in our own energetic field. The reversal, I feel like it's kind of that um like needing to filter out noise. I'm gonna go with Mary J. Blige, No More Drama, like where you're just like, I need to just like filter it out.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Yes!

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Oh, I was gonna say, I have one today. Um, it is a card that Marcella Kroll said, but I had been holding on to this one, so I'm just gonna do it today. Three of Cups, wannabe by the Spice Girls. Like it's like really in the joy, like inviting, and it's like, you can be my lover. I got other things going on, like I'm really happy. You can be part of this as well. So I am going with three of cups, wannabe spice girls.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Yes. Oh my god, that's that is perfect. And it's also the like wanna get with my friends. Like, if you're gonna, yeah, you've got to get with my friends. What's what's the astrology?

SPEAKER_01 37:55

What's the astrology of that card?

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Three of cups is um, why am I blanking on this? It's a water card. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm blanking on this. I've not been Pisces. That's like way too ugly. Maybe it's cancer, yeah. Is it moon and cancer? Oh my gosh, why am I blanking on this? I'm I should know this.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Yeah, and Scorpio would not be that happy in public, they would do it privately.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

This is why on my new deck it's gonna be good because there's the hidden little um Mercury and Cancer. Yes, that is that is perfect for that song.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

I love Mercury and Cancer. That's so cute. Um, I picked at random, I got the um high priestess, and uh the first song that came to my mind was Crystal by Stevie Nicks. You know, do you always trust your initial feeling? Special knowledge holds truth, bear is believing. And then there's all that about the you know, the waters all around, and so yeah, we got the we got a sweet Stevie Nicks energy with for the high priestess today.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

That's perfect. I yeah, I feel like she should be the high priestess. Like I that's yes, a hundred percent. That's I love that and I love that song. That's beautiful.

Card CB Origin Story And Discount

SPEAKER_01 39:06

So lovely, so fun. Um yay, so I mean, you have shared so many things that are coming up and that you're doing. Is there anything that you really want to highlight that you're especially excited about right now or that's coming up in the horizon for 2026 that you want to direct listeners' attention to?

SPEAKER_00 39:24

I mean, everything that because there are there are always things like coming in. I would say just like stay tuned on cardzb.com. If you sign up for my newsletter, you get an energy update every week that kind of gives you the cliffs notes to the astrology transit that we can work with for the week ahead. Plus, there's a lot of free rituals in the newsletters, and if there's any events or product launches, they're always in there. And on I'm most I'm the most active on Instagram of all the platforms. So on Instagram, it's just at Card Z B C A R D S Y B.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Yay! You know, we forgot to ask how Card C B became your name.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Oh, so yeah, my ex-wife. I'll get like credit my ex-wife. Um, because when I was launching my separate, when it just started to take off doing readings, um, I didn't have a plan for it. It was like the opposite of how I'd always done everything in my past, like very Monica Geller strategic, and like this is the business plan. I was like, oh, this is happening. And my friends used to jokingly call me Miss Cleo, which is obviously like just their own inside, and like I was that's not a name to use. And I was like, What name am I gonna put this Instagram under? Because my fashion um like account had been very separate, and I was like, Oh, it's crazy. Then just also like all of a sudden start be posting astrology and tarot content. So we're just all sitting in my living room, and my ex-wife, who I'm I'm I'm very good friends with her still. This is like after our divorce, she goes, What about currency B? Because people call me B and like Bex is short for Rebecca. Um, so she always called me B. And I was like, Great. And so I didn't think it was actually, it was just like, Great, this is great for now. We're gonna post it. And now people actually call me that, and my book and my tarot decks are all under that, and it's like my pen name now. So I respond to both, but it was literally just my ex-wife, and then it became it became my tarot nickname and like tarot like stage name.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

Yeah, so cute. I love that. It's so cute. And I love a pun, and you have hex in the city. It's like it's just all so sweet. I love it, I love it. Yeah. I think you dropped all of your handles, but how can people best find you and support your work, especially if they want to come see you at the Algonquin sometime soon?

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Yeah, definitely like any cardzb on Instagram and cardcb.com. Also, I wanted to offer 20% to your listeners off of any of my services, um, readings, the the one-on-one um uh coaching package for intuitive guidance or intuitive business. And uh, if you use the code in material world, it's just all one word. Uh, you'll get the 20% off uh for for this month.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Well, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on and chatting with us. We both are such fans of you, so it was just a delight to hang. Very three of cups energy.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Yes, I love that. Thank you so much. All right, bye guys, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Thank you so much for joining us in the immaterial world. While you're here, we hope you subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite streaming services. The real magic is in connection and community. Share your favorite episode with friends and come follow us for more on Instagram at Immaterial WorldCod and Patreon at patreon.com backslash immaterial world material material. Mina von Killa. Music and editing by Dia Luna. Artwork by Lane French. Follow Immaterial World Pod on Instagram. And Patreon at patreon.com backslash immaterial world. You can visit our website at www.immaterial-world.com or email us at ImmaterialworldPod at gmail.com. Thank you for being part of our immaterial world. Welcome to the Immaterial World.