Audrey Bridgeman doesn’t need tarot cards to see her clients having a positive experience when she performs a reading.
“I’ve never had a single person walk away upset,” said Bridgeman, a Carmel resident. “People leave looking lighter, kind of bouncing away. It’s such a joy.”
Bridgeman, who grew up in Amo in Hendricks County, said she has been reading tarot cards – in which practitioners utilize a deck of cards to gain insight into past, present and future situations – all her life. Her mother and grandmother were professional card readers. Bridgeman said she views tarot card reading as a passion and calling.
In November 2021, it also became a business. Bridgeman – an established multimedia entertainment director, producer and writer, as is her husband, Jarrod Bridgeman – set up a website and began operating as Carmel Tarot. She performs individual readings at an agreed upon location or via Zoom and is available to work parties such as wine nights and bridal showers. Some clients use her services regularly, including daily and monthly.
The goal in each interaction with a client is to help them gain insight into situations they might be dealing with, past or present, or address apprehension they might be having about the future. Bridgeman wants her clients to be at ease so that she can facilitate them finding what they are looking to take from the experience. As she says on her website, “Like most of life, you’ll get out what you put in.”
“I hope they take away confirmation of thoughts, feelings, inclinations they were already having about choices or changes in their life,” she said. “Everyone has intuition. You don’t really need a tarot card reader. You don’t need a psychic.”
But having a reading, even if you are a skeptic (Bridgeman estimates 95 percent of her clients are eager and open to the experience), can not only be revealing and cathartic but entertaining, a point Bridgeman stresses on her website. That’s especially true if she works a party or event and involves costumes and props.
Stressing the entertainment value also serves as a sort of license for those who might be on the fence about tarot card readers or nervous about the situation to roll with it and enjoy the experience.
“There’s a little bit of theater to it,” she said. “Then we get down to the work of reading the cards.”
Bridgeman said she has offered an introductory special of $50 an hour for individual readings because, “It’s important to know if I can click with them and they click with me.” Depending on location, a reading at a party or event is typically $300 for four hours.
Learn more at CarmelTarot.com.
