Many psychic readers lead a secret life. What do I mean by that? I mean it is no surprise that psychic readers (or practically anyone else in the metaphysical, spiritual or philosophical fields) usually do not make an affordable living out of doing readings alone, whether they use tarot, astrology, numerology, mediumship, or any other gift that they may possess. They have regular 9:00 - 5:00 jobs, home based businesses or are entrepreneurs. Psychic readers are in every sector of the business world from the blue-collar worker to executive. Psychic readers "in their real lives" are teachers, nurses, doctors, administrative assistants, publishers, editors, accountants, engineers, writers, corporate employees or students, to name a few. After teaching tarot, astrology and numerology for over three decades, I still get amazed at how diverse our resource of readers truly is.

I am a Fortune 500 Executive Administrative Assistant by professional. I collect a regular paycheck and even have benefits to go along with the job like medical insurance, a 401K, dental, vision and life insurance. At home, I have my own consulting business in which I do spiritual counseling through tarot and astrology readings and work on clients through hypnotherapy or advise (or marry) them as an interfaith minister. Unfortunately to date, my spiritual ventures have not been able to pay the bills since it is so seasonal or irregular.

Most of us live in the "realistic" or "materialistic" world during the day being who we are supposed to be. We plan the day, go to lunch with friends, make appointments, run our errands, clean the house, attend get-togethers, plan parties, have friends visit, bring the kids to their little league games, ballet or piano lesson; we even attend PTA meetings. We live a very hectic and stressful existence. This pattern is repeated day after day. But at night, after work hours, who are we? We go to holistic fairs and expositions and guide others. We attend corporate events as "entertainment" and we attend our metaphysical meetings, volunteer for charities, committee and community work. Some people never truly know who we are and others have always known and accepted our true path. One thing we must be very careful about is not letting our spiritual life be known in our corporate life.

I have tried to give you a feel for my life. I am not extraordinary in any way, but I am a tarot reader and astrologer, single mom and have home based business owner.

I get a call from a fellow psychic asking if I am free on a specific date to do a Project Graduation party for 4 hours. The time is midnight to 4 AM and of course I accept because the money is good and the opportunity may lead to other opportunities. Then I give a call to a few psychics or readers who needed work in their field and I give them the jobs I can't take. They in turn, do the same with the other readers they know. We are a very close and ethical society of readers.

So, I go home, make dinner (or sometimes each out), clean the dishes or straighten the house because a client is coming. Sometimes we even get to throw in a load of wash or put out the garbage for the next day. Then sometimes you are waiting for a client and they never appear! You call their answering machine and of course they are not home, so you wait a little longer. After a half an hour, I give up. I have a schedule to keep, so if I have a phone reading, I call them up and ask if they are free to have the reading. Low and behold, as we are doing the phone reading, the first appointment shows up with excuses about getting lost and that I gave her the wrong directions. Now, I have lived in my community for over 22 years at the exact same address. Do you think I might know the directions to my house by now? So I ask the client if she wants to wait the hour or come back another time and of course, she wants to wait so you put on the TV for her; ask if she needs a beverage or water and then you go on your merry way back to the phone reading. But this is not over yet, the person on the other end of the phone has call waiting and of course she must find out who every caller is. I do not mind waiting through a call or two but after a while, it is annoying and I start to minus the time from the reading. When they realize that this is happening, it's amazing how fast the call waiting is disabled.

So, the hour + goes by, and there's Client #1 interested in a television show and decides to wait the ten minutes for the end to find out "who did it." Meanwhile, it gives you a break for a drink or to use the restroom and look at your watch. How much longer is she going to be? She apologizes profusely and tries to chat with you off the clock. So you cleverly walk towards your reading area (mine is a home office), close the door and start shuffling the cards.

The most humorous comment to me is "Should I make the check out to cash or do you prefer cash?" as if it made a difference. I am incorporated and have accountants working with me. I record every cent whether it is cash or check, and still I have not made a profit in all of these years. Yes, I am spiritual, creative and intelligent, but why can't I run a business like a corporate headquarters? I'm not sure. You head for the front door as Client #1 is telling you how wonderful you are and how she will tell all of her friends, but she just chit chats. Thank God, the phone rings and you say, "It's my next appointment." You run for the phone, say "hang on please," and show your client out of your house. You are so thankful that it is your daughter saying she'll be home in a little while and not another client. At this point, you are drained and tired and want some down time.

When my daughter does comes home, there is sometimes tarot or astrological questions, which are very deep and complicated. For instance, "Mom, what would you say about the match of these two charts?" "You need the answer now?" I question. "Well, I'm going on line in a few minutes and I told my friend you'd let me know." So, I look at the chart and see absolutely no compatibility between these two individuals, but try to explain it to my daughter in a practical way so her friends could work on their issues or understand that they need to compromise more to stay in a happy and healthy relationship with one another. Then I hear, "That's what I thought!" and she runs into her bedroom, closes the door behind her and is on the phone and computer all night. That's the end of seeing her for the night, but I am a bit drained anyway by the two readings and want to rest. Half of the time, I don't get paid for those emergency phone readings from people I don't know, although people swear they will send me the money tomorrow, but I feel they needed my advice, I do it anyway. One time a woman Federal Expressed a $150 check to me for a few reports and a reading the check bounced and she moved out of the country! That was really special. Moral: get paid in advance for people you don't know.

The cats and dog play "let me inside or let me outside" a dozen times before I get to bed. I am up and down from the sofa trying to watch Star Trek, but that is hopeless. Thank goodness I’ve seen most of them a hundred times so I know what is going to happen. I pick out clothes for work the next day, watch the next Star Trek episode and decide to start an oil painting at around midnight or so. I have to remove the birds from the TV room as they might die from the turpentine smell and keep an eye on them and the cats at the same time I am trying to paint and watch TV. Then during the commercials, I run down to the basement to put clothes in the dryer, have a basket of laundry to fold and then to put them away.

My oil painting of clouds turned out to be an abstract of an overgrown garden gate and as is commonly said in class, "a happy accident,", as it is the best painting I have ever done. The Prussian Blue paint will not come off of my hands and it has gotten under my fingernails. I sit on my TV room sofa and I feel something wet. I look at the sofa and it has dark blue oil paint all over it. I had blue paint on the back of my legs don't even ask how it got there because I don't know! I run to get the spot remover, however, it only lightens the dark blue spot and now it's a bigger spot. Now I have to replace the two cushions (yes, I sat on two sections of the sofa before noticing the painted legs), but that's okay since I have additional sectionals in my bedroom and can switch them. The sofa is old and needs to be replaced anyway, but I do not have the money for it now.

I go to bed and lie there for about 15-20 minutes trying to relax and meditate while listening to my new digital alarm clock. There is a setting for nature sounds instead of only an alarm or radio. I play the crickets and owl soundtrack frequently as well as the babbling brook and ocean sounds. However, although the water sounds are peaceful, I seem to make many more visits to the bathroom throughout the night, and so the crickets and owls sounds are usually chosen.

The first time I set the alarm for nature sounds, I wasn't sure if I should get up. The first alarm was birds singing and singing and singing. I was in a very deep sleep and heard the birds, but I live in a lake community and I hear the birds every morning. It wasn't until the second alarm rang with loud church bells that I realized it must be the alarm. We don't have church bells in my town, so I knew it was either the alarm or a dream.

I get up late and don't have time for breakfast, of course, but I gulp down a cup of tea and gather all of my papers to take to work with me. I look at my lovely overgrown garden gate oil painting from the night before and find a few dead insects stuck into my masterpiece. Off to get the cleaned brushes to peel them off and then back into the turpentine to clean them. Sometimes at lunch, I write articles or catch up on reading. Today would be no different. I try to make time wherever I can; however, a few times I went into my car at lunchtime, set the timer I use for tarot readings and took a catnap in the parking lot.

Only several close friends have my regular 9 - 5 job phone number because it is after all the job that helps me pay most of my bills. I planned a restful evening by visiting my parents, going food shopping and enjoying a night of sci-fi, but a psychic friend calls and asks if I could take her place teaching a class. I oblige and put off my evening of relaxation until another time. Then she calls back the next day with two Project Graduation Parties and of course they start at midnight, but am I going to give up $100 an hour? Not at all. I do them, get in at 4:30 - 5 AM and then get an hour or two of sleep and then get up to start getting ready for my day at my real daytime job.

So now you are looking forward to the weekend because you don't have anything planned on Saturday. Ah, but the grass needs mowing and being a single parent, guess who has to do that? My teen is out and about with her job and boyfriend, so asking for any help is a moot point. I sleep until 10 AM and just enjoy the feeling of being rested. My cat, Morris, jumps on my back and lays on it. Before I knew him to do this, I thought I was having a heart attack in the middle of the night because my chest felt heavy and I couldn't breathe. Then Morris wants to go outside. Our dog Teddy hears me getting up and dances around on the ceramic kitchen floor to be fed and then wants to go outside. Gizmo meows at the door, so I let her in and feed her but see Reggie, a stray that looks exactly like Morris, and get a bowl of food to feed him too. Oh yes, I have to uncover the birds who look at me each morning as surprised as when I bought them over a half a year ago. It's as if they are saying, "Who are you strange looking person?" or "Where did you come from?" In the meantime while I am getting their breakfast and cleaning out their water, I hear them playing with their bird toys and bells are ringing and swings are swinging and they are chirping and being very happy. There seems to be more chatter than normal and I realize I have left the bird cage door opened and now they are flying all around the TV room having a grand ol' time.

Breakfast consists of toast or cereal usually and I flick on the TV to get my brain going again. After a shower to wake me up, I am off in the yard mowing my acre of property around 48 red oak trees. I am picking up twigs and throwing them into a neat pile, but I have to take several breaks since I am exhausted. I load up on water and Coke and am off again. By this time, I am sweaty and my old knocking around clothes are drenched. I jump into the shower and after a few minutes, I hear Teddy barking. I sneak out of the shower with a head full of shampoo suds and throw on my robe, and see two women at my door reading for their readings! I put them on the wrong day. So I apologized and jumped back into the shower, put on makeup and got dressed in about 10 minutes. They were very understanding, but I was so tired. It's amazing how a big smile and a friendly disposition can hide many things.

Clients are wonderful. They look forward to your information or advice about their coming year. I tape the readings since many clients are nervous or cannot remember all the information I impart, that I've been adding a tape to the reading for many years now.

There are the clients who start off by crying. Those are the ones you must be very careful with. Give them many choices to their concerns and issues. Give them hope and lift their spirits! Be practical, but also be compassionate and feel what the person is going through. One thing I have learned through doing readings is that in comparison to others lives, mine isn't so bad. So many people have had terrible things happen to them; so many have made horrible mistakes, but now you have a chance to guide them and make their life a little happier.

In between this hour (which usually lasts 1½ - 2 hours because I won't let someone leave my house if they are still upset), the phone rings with others calling for workshop dates, class locations and needing an emergency reading. Yes, there are such things are emergency readings. People need answers NOW and are so confused that they cannot make the decision.

When I am first introduced to someone and we get to the ever-popular question, "What do you do for a living?" I always answer, "Many things, but mainly I am an Executive Assistant in a large corporation." Then if they are curious about the various other things I do, I retort, but in my real life I am a "a metaphysical writer", "I do horoscope columns on the web and in magazines", "I teach and lecture in the tri-state area and on cruises in tarot, astrology and numerology" and the list goes on and on. Now, as a reader (or spiritual being), we seem to be so creative in many of these areas that we have do not seem to have a normal life at all. Looking back though, I have discovered that being in this spiritual field has actually given me so much insight and joy in my life by educating others, by advising in decisions and choices when asked, by opening up the metaphysical or spiritual world to those who were seeking some direction in life. I then always cleverly remark, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." This has also been so true in my life as well.

I have personally accomplished so much in my life by participating in spiritual expos and teaching on cruise lines. I also teach adult education courses in school systems and frequently volunteer to lecture at well-known bookstores and public libraries. The library crowds seem to be the best class participants because even though the lecture or workshop is free, they really want to learn these subjects. I get many children and teens attending as well. What a great way to motivate or teach the next generation than when they are ready to receive and understand the knowledge in those formative years.

Most libraries have told me that they have financial planners, people who organize or tax consultants giving these lectures that they were so delighted those metaphysical topics was being introduced. The only problem I have found in doing these "payback" lectures during the summer is that no one ever wants me to stop doing the lectures and so I extend them over and over again.. It's nice to know you are appreciated for all the hard work that goes into teaching.

If you have a gift or spiritual calling, you may want to share your gifts with the public. Who knows, you may be giving someone a taste of metaphysics or a different philosophy of life that they would have never had the chance to glimpse if it weren't for your generosity of time and sharing.