Students usher in Halloween spirit with psychic readings

On Thursday night, students gathered at the Cabaret in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union, waiting anxiously to get a glimpse into their futures.
Psychic Readings in the Cabaret is an annual event organized by the Carolina Union Activities Board (CUAB). This year, the CUAB invited tarot-readers Ellen Gardiner, Christy Strauss and Sharon Stack to try their hands at fortune-telling.
Temi Duro-Emanuel and Lee Anne N. Lawrence were among the organizers. Duro-Emanuel said the event was a way to help usher in the Halloween spirit.
“It’s a great way to relax,” said Lawrence. “It’s a way to bring people together.”
All readings were limited to five minutes, but everyone had different expectations of their readings (some even expected crystal balls!). While some were open to the idea of psychics, others remained more skeptical.
Tina Kawatu said she was relieved after she came out of her reading. “I thought it was gonna to be some ’doom and gloom,’” she said laughing. “I thought she was gonna to tell me that I was gonna die, but it turned out to be good.” “I don’t really believe in psychics,” junior Jessica Killmeier, after she received her reading. “But I thought it would be something interesting and different to do.” “Some people are just closed,” said Gardiner. “It’s like being hypnotized. If you don’t believe you’re going to be hypnotized, you’re not going to be hypnotized.”
Gardiner started reading tarot cards in high school and received her own deck while she was attending college. Unlike the other tarot-readers present, she never made it a profession.
Strauss was drawn to the tarot cards’ aesthetics. “The Tarot deck was just so beautiful,” she said. “There was a mystery involved,” says Stack. “I didn’t understand it and I wanted to understand it.”
Both Strauss and Stack said that tarot-reading as helped them understand themselves better. “It helps me be more aware,” added Strauss. “The cards don’t lie. That’s the amazing thing.”