Every Wednesday we like to feature a witch from our community who’s practice truly shines in our eyes. This week we are delighted to introduce Nicole - from @seedlingspiritual . We love her gentle spirit and insightful advice. She does tarot readings from her heart, and her advice truly resonates.

We had a few moments together to get to know her and her practice a bit better! Take some time and learn more about her! We know you’ll love her as much as we do! Be sure to give her a warm welcome!

Tell us about your path and how you came across it.

Honestly, I think my path has been winking at me from behind trees and under rocks for a long long time. My first witchy memories are tangled with most of my clearest memories from childhood actually. Which is so strange to think about, as I have only recently come out of the broom closet. I think it started around 8 or 9 when I would tell the kids on the playground I could hear the wind talking and wanted to know if they wanted to ask it any questions.

I'm from Wyoming so much of my practice is dirt and wind and space. My mother is Puerto Rican and Taino, so Native American stories and the Spanish cantadora are so much a part of my magic. My mother was a storyteller growing up. She had a radio show and puppets and would go to schools and tell stories and sing. I think that was my first real calling. I am an actor by trade, but I think really I've been trying to get closer to what she was doing...

Carrying of story and telling of truths.

Tarot has opened that bridge up for me as I hope to do for others. In a way, I guess it's the family business (even though I'm self taught and discovered as far as magic is concerned).

I was obsessed with the constellations (and the mythical, powerful, lusty, strong women who went along with them) from a very early age. It just has been slowly sprouting from there. I was given a love spell in a match box at 13 that I still have but have never used which honestly says it all. I've always seen ghosts and had a really rich dream life (which I now am learning is also a matriarchal tendency), have always carried a talisman of some kind, and honestly loved the idea of the practice, but I think was too afraid to step into the unknown until now-ish.

I started reading tarot for others in 2017 at a fundraising event and it has just taken over my life completely. I guess my path is a little like a plant?! Slow growing underneath for a long long time and just now starting to flower.

What are some of your witchy influences?

People. I love people. Stories, campfire sparks and nature- what those things bring out in people. Ghost stories of the South are some of my favourites...

Chani Nicholas and Kim Kranz really emboldened me to come into the fold...Amanda Yates Garcia...Clementine Chloe at Big Empress Energy....the entire region around Glastonbury...the Wicked Witch of the West...Island of the Blue Dolphins...Jane Yolen's Here there be Witches... Greek myths and SHAKESPEARE. Mary Oliver...Anton Chekhov...Olga Tokarczuk...the Yellowstone Caldera....

What drew you to Tarot, and do you have any advice for beginners?

The stories. The need for the imagination and the permission to just carry your magic around in your pocket. And my advice for new readers is that I think we're all ALWAYS beginners at the beginning of the book...

So trust that you know how to tell a story and the cards will carry you the rest of the way. Each reading is a new narrative, so there's no way you can be ahead of where you are...

We're always the Fool with new decks/clients/spreads/questions...so there's nothing to really worry about knowing other than what you see in front of you. The more you can listen, the better you'll become. <3

How do you welcome a new deck into your practice?

Well, I never get a new deck without first giving away an older one, so when I look for a new one I try to bring someone in who will give me something I haven't had in my practice so far. I honestly just toss them in the deep end, really. I carry it around all the time (in my bag or purse). Sleep with it next to my bed....sage it of course when it first comes home. I try to keep my tool circle fairly intimate, so they're usually in circulation quickly. But I try to listen to the deck as much as I listen to the reading itself, so just as I welcome decks into my practice, if they start to feel like they're asking me to leave, I try to honour that too.

Do you have a go to spread you use most often?

In all and complete honesty, my go to spread is shuffle and meditate until cards come to you. Especially when reading for myself, I think it's so important to make sure the cards and messaging that want to find you, are the ones that do. Of course I use spreads as tools to deepen meditation and practice, and they are obviously pretty necessary with clients, but my whole practice is so rooted in flow and narrative that I try to have faith in Spirit and myself and the cards as vessel and just let what comes, come.