By Lisa Jordan     •     Metro Spirit, Augusta, Ga.     •     Dec. 26, 2002

     Stall H-32 at the Barnyard Flea Market, nestled at the back of the structure, is incongruous with its surroundings. Amidst booths of collectables and clothing, Catherine Koons sits in front of a curtain of handmade beaded necklaces and behind a table holding a crystal ball.

     No, she can’t read it, she laughs. To scry, or use the crystal ball for purposes of divination, the mind has to be totally clear, which is something Koons has trouble doing. “My mind is full of images and things all the time,” she says.

     What she can do is read the tarot. “The cards have always worked in my family,” she says. Koons, a fifth-generation psychic, picked up the art from her great-grandmother, who used a regular ol’ deck of playing cards.

     Though not much is known about the origins of tarot cards — and what is known is sometimes up for debate among scholars of the tarot — it does seem to be the case that the standard 52-card deck you play crazy eights with is derived from the tarot deck. Like a deck of playing cards, the minor arcana in the deck of tarot cards is broken down into four suits and contains court cards — the King, Queen, Knight and Page, who is not represented in a deck of modern playing cards.

     Also absent from a modern playing card deck are the 22 major arcana cards found in the tarot. Major arcana, the power cards, range from The Fool to The World, representative of a spiritual journey. That brings the total number of cards in a tarot deck to 78 — or, if you’re Catherine Koons, 77.

     “I only have 77 cards in my deck,” she says. The Hanged Man was lost downtown one First Friday. “I figured I didn’t need it. I never liked that one anyway.”

     Koons’ main deck is slightly worn around the edges, a testament to the 35 years she’s spent giving readings. At 13, Koons received her first tarot deck, the Aquarian deck. “Right now, there’s hundreds of decks out there,” she says. The one most Americans are familiar with is the Rider-Waite deck, commissioned in 1909 by Arthur Edward Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. “I don’t like the Rider-Waite deck. It’s boring. I like ones with symbols on them. You won’t like a certain deck. If you don’t like it, you won’t be able to use it properly. I like (my deck) because I like the images on it.”

     As for how the deck itself is treated, Koons says, “There’s all sorts of rules. I don’t know where I got them from. I won’t let a person touch (the cards) if I absolutely don’t like them. I keep them wrapped in a red cloth — it’s like it protects them. It’s not a business. That’s not how it works. All the money you make is for giving to people that need it, buying gifts or reading for charity.”

     And that, Koons says, is what distinguishes legitimate readers from con artists who prey on common human desires for money and love, often charging exorbitant prices and making empty promises. “I hate the term ‘fortune teller,’” she says. “I’m a reader and advisor. I can’t make things happen. I hate the scams and cons out there. The whole thing has been given a bad name.”

     Koons recently received her business license from Augusta-Richmond County and has plans to join the Better Business Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce in an effort to combat the idea that all tarot card readers are frauds.

     “I’m not getting rich,” she says. “I’m meeting people. If I was only doing this to be making money, I’d charge a lot more.” At $10 a reading and working only on the weekends, Koons says she has yet to break even after renting a stall at the flea market and paying for her business license.

     The price is right for her clientele, especially for the curious who just want to give it a whirl. “People are so naturally suspicious of something they don’t know. Guys are real suspicious of it,” laughs Koons. “In cards, you’ll read probably, I’m guessing, 75 percent women. Women are more open to this. I think women are more open-minded.”

     Koons first asks her clients to shuffle the deck until they’re comfortable. “If one (card) drops, I tell them to leave it be. It’s always accurate,” she says: Cards that “jump” out of the deck usually contain urgent messages. Then, using the layout her great-grandmother used — it’s a spread that’s different from most of the popular ones, including the well-known Celtic Cross — Koons lays out 14 cards.
     “I only do one type,” she says. “I do a one-month reading. It’s enough information that they can remember it. They’ll know within a month’s time.”

     The first two cards go in the center, and subsequent cards are laid out in four groups of three, each representing an upcoming week. “I read them by weeks,” says Koons, who claims an accuracy rate of 80 percent. “When I lay the cards out, they’re almost like a channel. It’s almost like a story builds in my head.”

     The story, she says, is dependent on several factors. While the cards themselves contain symbols for interpretation, the placement of the cards in relation to one another also holds meaning. “You get a general idea just by looking at the cards,” Koons says. “It’s swords that come up when there’s arguments. Cups or wands give possibilities. There are regular meanings and reverse meanings. You’d have to memorize all meanings of all cards.”

     The intuition of Koons herself plays into a reading, as well. “I think the cards are not as important as what I already know,” she says. “My head is filled with images — I think it’s a skill or talent that I have. And it’s not something you can just turn on or turn off. It’s almost like watching a movie.”

     Relying on her insight was a skill Koons honed as a child, growing up with a mother and grandmother who were both mediums, as well as a father interested in the study of religion. Her great-uncle Jonathan Koons was a famous Spiritualist from Athens, Ohio, whose exploits were documented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, among others. When Koons developed an interest in the tarot, it wasn’t discouraged.

     “(My family) didn’t think anything was odd with it,” says Koons. “I didn’t always need the cards. Like a tool, they will open up things to me. From the time I was little, I had dreams. Everybody trusts my instincts and my feelings.”

     Peggy, who asked that her last name not be used, was at the Barnyard Flea Market last Saturday afternoon with her cousin in tow. At the urging of her daughter, who had previously obtained a reading by Koons, Peggy had turned to Koons earlier that day for a reading.

     “The things she said to me — there’s no way she would have known,” says Peggy. “Things that I had already thought about. I think she’s really good.”

     Peggy’s cousin, visiting from out of town, suggested they return to the flea market so she, too, could visit Koons.
    “I think we, as human beings, tend to want to delve into the supernatural a little bit,” says Peggy. “But I think that we are in control of our own destiny. Lots of times, we have an inner voice, but we don’t listen to it. Sometimes, we need that third party to tell us.”

     Koons seems to agree. “A lot of times, people already know the answer, but they come to me because they want to validate it,” she says. “I get people who ask if I can leave out anything bad. But I say, wouldn’t you want to know now? You can actually change that. You can be more careful.”

     Misconceptions about tarot and other forms of divination, as well as its taboo status among some groups and cultures, lead to one of the pitfalls of Koons’ talent. “I’ve had people ask me if I’m a witch,” she says. “They ask if you go to church.” Koons considers herself a member of the Spiritualist Church, but there are none in the Augusta area.

     But offhand comments don’t discourage Koons from doing what she loves to do. Even though she’s been through periods where she’s put the cards away, a thick skin allows Koons to practice her art openly. “Like all gifts, if you want to use it you can, but you don’t have to.”

     On the whole, however, Koons says people respond to her in a positive manner. She even stays in touch with her clients, requesting a call or a visit to let her know how accurate her readings are. “Feedback is extremely important,” says Koons. “If I ever think I can’t do it anymore, I’m going to quit.”

    

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