A story of intuitive truths, joy and glittery shoes
“Within moments, the air is thick with voices, the asks and the answers of a dozen tables.”
The Reading Room Fundraiser on May 30, 2026
On a warm night in late spring, I arrive at the Oakwise Apothecary in Broken Arrow to try something new to me. The Reading Room, one of the Oklahoma Beltane’s fundraisers, is held several times a year. Having just attended my first Beltane retreat and eager to support this organization, I show up early.
In Oakwise’s back room, a group of talented people prepare to do divination readings for a steeply discounted rate. Tarot, runes, oracle cards, charms — you name it, they’ve probably got it.
“Will there be tea leaf readings?” I ask.
“Not tonight,” Tauna tells me. “Sadly, our tea leaf reader had something come up.” Tauna, the assistant director of OKB, shuffles her oracle deck as I paw through the little bowl containing her charms, which she uses for intuitive readings. She’s just finished setting up and we’re waiting for the event to officially begin.
I take a moment to ask her how she got into this practice. “It sort of developed organically,” she tells me. “I started just doing readings for myself. Eventually I started doing them for friends, and it grew from there.” She describes the joy she gets from doing the readings for others. “It lights me up.”
That light is present throughout the room as the other readers take their seats and the first of the fundraiser attendees peek into the room. Within moments, the air is thick with voices, the asks and the answers of a dozen tables. I get my first reading from Rhlaehu, who has been working with rune stones for just over a year. “I started with tarot, but I got overwhelmed,” he says. Behind him, his 6-year-old daughter, playing on a tablet, looks up at me and smiles, perfectly at ease in this loud and crowded space.
Rhlaehu goes on, “There are just so many ways to interpret the cards, you know? But the runes… I resonated with those immediately. I knew them from Tolkien, of course, but then learned about their roots – my roots! – and I started seeing synchronicities after readings.” He begins laying out the stones for my reading: issa, representing stillness; wujo for joy; and nalthiz, meaning “need” or “necessity”. “You’ve been ignoring your needs again,” Rhlaehu says. Accurate, yes.
I try tarot next. At another table, two readers, KC and Jean Michel, work side by side. Jean Michel tells me he’s been using tarot since his early teens, when his grandmother gifted him his first deck. He says he often receives messages from his spirit guides (his grandmother now among them) through the cards. “Tarot is speaking a truth through a different voice,” he says.
I have a reading done by KC, who began working with the cards during the 2020 lock-down but who first experienced them in 1996. “That was when I had my first reading done,” he says, describing the experience as “scarily accurate.” “There was no way she could have known.”
Starting with the question, “How do I address my frustrations at work?”, he has me pick several cards, which he lays out in a modified Celtic cross called the Spirit Cross. He points to the Page of Cups in the spot that represents the past. “You used to be the girl with all the ideas.” He points to the Nine of Cups and the Knight of Swords. “But now you’re getting caught up in bureaucracy.” Then, the Sun. “Let the inner child come out to play.”
KC has no way of knowing that I used to work with children and now I have a manager role. Just this week, I had been pondering how to bring some of the whimsy from my past job into my current one. “Scarily accurate” indeed.
“Tarot is speaking a truth through a different voice.”
I have a witch’s runes reading from my dear friend Michael, who I know from both the OK Beltane Retreat and its sister festival The Hollow. Witch’s runes, he explains, are an alternative to the traditional futhark with symbolism similar to Lenormand cards. He tells me to beware of toxic positivity: “Make sure you’re seeing the rainy days. But the hopes you thought you released are possible again.” I think again of how much I enjoyed my job in the past, before my promotion. Can I get back to that feeling of fulfillment?
I visit a table at the back of the room where a man named Jason is providing something called an egg cleanse, but what I really want to know about is the crystal ball in front of him. While I’ve seen crystal balls used by every stereotypical fortune teller in the movies, I’ve never had a reading done with one. Jason explains that he uses the crystal ball to connect with deities and spirit guides, both his own and other people’s.
Mine, he says, are shouting. “You’ve been feeling stuck,” he says, relaying the message they give him, “looking for a new spark. Your life doesn’t have room for spontaneity-” (I immediately think of the spreadsheets waiting for me at work on Monday.) “-but that’s where the magic happens. Play more jazz, less classical. Make a mess, leave a mess. It’s okay to be messy.”
He shakes his head. “That’s it. They’re gone now.”
(personal media – reflections blurred)
But that’s enough. I’ve heard them. My life has changed a lot in the past few years. I can’t go back to the job I had before. But I can bring some of that joy into the job I have now. I’m thinking of colors. I’m thinking of art supplies. I’m thinking this very serious and important manager (me) is going to wear glittery shoes to work on Monday. I’m going to greet my employees with a corny joke. And I’m going to leave my desk a little messier than I found it.
…Though I concede that finger paints are probably a bad idea.
OKB hopes you can join us for another unforgettable “The Reading Room” fundraiser, August 29th, 2026, at Oakwise Apothecary. GET YOUR TICKETS!
Toria is the assistant department head of the OK Beltane Publishing Department, and the manager of one of Tulsa City-County Library’s branches. She is an animal lover, and a fan of glitter!