My Story.

Hello! I’m so glad you’ve found your way to Beached Souls Tarot! My name is Syd. My pronouns are they/them; I love animals, food, nature, shape-shifting, adventures, plants, cooking, baking, theatre, ART, learning, good friends, music, and magic. I’m an avid over-sharer, a good listener, and love getting lost in conversation.

If that little dating-profile-esque-get-to-know-you hasn’t satiated your need for an introduction, then hopefully the essay below will! I believe the best relationships start with vulnerability, so here’s the story of how I found tarot, and where I am now.

I was born and raised in a small town in Southern Utah that I hated, and years after growing up there, that little town is where I found my magic. All my life, I’ve known and recognized that my mother’s innate gift to know and connect with people also lived in me. Walking into gas stations, passing strangers in the streets, newly met friends, they all confided in us both within brief moments. Friends and family were always amazed that everyone found the two of us to be a safe place to land with their pain, trauma, secrets, and more.

My mother found a place for her gift to shine working with parents and children through foster care organizations, as a peer teacher to struggling parents and families. My earliest lessons and values in life were that of Compassion. At 8 years old, my gentle heart pushed me to make the “rebellious” decision to become vegetarian (before I even knew there was a word for it), which spurred an eventful lifelong commitment to animal and human rights activism and veganism. Additionally, I was formatively informed about the world and its need for good hearts as my family gave children a safe place to land through the foster system. Becoming family with Warrior children, who had suffered unspeakable abuse and neglect taught me of the deep effects of trauma, and the marvels of how love heals. Sibling after silenced sibling opened shuttered doors to me in shared bedrooms and while at play, and over and over again, I found that I was able to ease other’s burdens naturally and empathize deeply, even if it was all beyond my understanding. I foolishly fought that gift for most of my young life.

Throughout adolescence, I was made to feel as though all these tender pieces of me— this ability to connect and feel deeply, made me weaker, and more susceptible to emotional pain or manipulation. So I threw up barriers on every side, and tried not to feel as I experienced loss after loss. Within a four year period, during my teenage years, I attended five funerals of close family, friends, mentors, and even one of my dearest high school friends. My teenage years were filled with difficult confrontations with depression, anxiety, severe OCD, autoimmune issues, and a chronic illness, called Interstitial Cystitis, that had anonymously burdened me my entire life, and which was the trigger of most of the fore-mentioned diagnoses. My IC and the speculative treatment that I underwent most of my life made me sick throughout my early teens, and wore me down slowly through high school and graduation, after which, I finally relented once again to active treatment, receiving aggressive and appropriate care the summer of 2017, along with care for my mental health.

We attacked from all sides, from specialized urologists to “witch doctors”, from prescription medication and trauma therapy, to supplements, essential oil remedies and NAET to surgical intervention, I was on the path to healing, and these holistic methods are what cracked open the door that I would one day swing wide to find myself. I continued with life under the pretense that that summer was enough to heal me for the next step in my life: college. I started college in an Actor Training Program, Fall 2017, where I found myself right at home and happy to be there, however, mental illness doesn’t go away from willing it to do so, and grappling with the effects of religious trauma wasn’t helping. I became a danger to myself as I had never been before, and I left University around mid-semester in one heart-wrenching night, returning to my family home, cat in tow. (You can read more specifics on that story and journey here that I wrote after my year long, mental health hiatus.) In the year that followed, I committed my life to recovery. And that is when I found “spirituality”, although I didn’t call it that yet. I discovered how tuned in to the energy around me I was, and began to develop an understanding for the world in a way I hadn’t experienced it before.

The treatment I received made a monumental impact on my Chronic Conditions, and showed me the extraordinary effects of synchronicities and balance. Blending western medicine and holistic practices helped me live a real life again, leading me to continue down the endless journey of healing and growing. Through my nurturing experience with natural medicines, my intuition has only developed further, leading me to healing, astrology, meridian work, and then the whole world of spiritual healing, and all the cultures that these beautiful practices were drawn from. It was during this time that I fully converted from vegetarianism to veganism, a transition which made massive strides in improving my health, clarity and happiness. I began to let go of the lifestyle of my religious background, and heal from the harm I had been privy to there. And, this is when I finally unraveled the gift my mother had passed on to me, embraced it, and tentatively coined myself a witch. This awakening spurred me into Tarot in early 2018, which fit like a glove, and I’ve been practicing devoutly ever since. As I returned to school in 2019, and promptly left again for good in 2020(that damned pandemic!), I slowly began to open up to others about my practice. Through steady exposure and study since then, this work became real for me, urging me to become a resource for others to know themselves and begin to heal in different ways— the blind leading the blind and all that!

I lived in Salt Lake City for 7 years, despite plenty of bumps in the road. And I have now found my way to San Marcos, Texas, as of 2024! I’m enthusiastically pursuing art, tarot, and theatre-making wherever I can, which continuously strengthens my callings as a healer and an artist. My story is a constantly developing journey; I don’t pretend to have reached some destination of happiness, health, or maturity. I’m still young, and have plenty to learn, onstage, with a deck of cards, and well beyond, but I am thrilled to be sharing my journey with those around me, in acknowledgement of this wondrous evolving world and my role in it.

Hope to hear from you soon!