(Photo form James Pierri’s Facebook)
From reading tarot cards on the streets of New York City to meeting Beyonce, professional tarot card reader and author James Pierri has experienced quite a journey in his life.
Pierri has a book and tarot card deck that he will be promoting at events in Central Florida next month, both at LGBTQ-owned businesses: Hello Again Books in Cocoa and Enchanted Pearls in Orlando.
“Auset Gypsy Tarot,” which tells the story of birth, death, rebirth and everything that happens in between, is a 78-card deck and book set providing the reader with powerful astrological symbols, mythic secrets and a guide on how to unlock their Third Eye.
“The book is the story of the deck itself. So it’s a little bit more than an instructional booklet that usually comes with a tarot deck,” Pierri says. “It’s to help encourage the reader to become familiar with the art, and it gives you instructions from my experience of traditional definitions.”
To create the art for the deck, Pierri sat down with artists Rebecca Stotsenburgh and Heather Scott to revamp his previous tarot deck to create a fantasized version of his experience and journey with tarot.
“I hope that it encourages (readers) to forge their own path and inspire them from a new point of view,” Pierri says.
Tarot is the art of playing cards used for fortune telling, but Pierri says the art runs much deeper than that. He says it’s an intimate moment between him, his clients and the fates.
“It’s a sacred book. It can be used as a game, it can be a lot of fun, but it shouldn’t be disrespected and mishandled,” Pierri says.
Pierri’s first big public debut into the craft was at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in 1999. He says he started off working in the Lost Continent area, giving readings to park visitors.
When the park first opened, Pierri says Universal needed representatives for each attraction. They put him out in the public eye, and Pierre has been in international media ever since.
“From there, it took me to work with major local and national entertainment agents, and then they were flying me all over the place, and from there, I went off into the world and did this professionally,” he says.
Pierri says he always wanted to tour, meet famous people and see the world. Through tarot he has been able to do all of it, including working a Super Bowl entertaining the Giants’ wives and at the MTV Music Awards doing private events with celebrities.
The world of tarot card reading is dominated by women. Pierri says fighting the stigmatism against male tarot card readers wasn’t easy. He says Universal Studios did not want to give him the job initially because he was a young male tarot reader.
“It was certainly a fight and a struggle to prove myself, but I liked the challenge because I knew the stigma I was facing,” Pierri says.
Pierri will first be at Hello Again Books in Cocoa March 16 from 1-3 p.m. A second event will take place at Enchanted Pearls in Orlando March 18 from 1-3 p.m.
Both events will feature a book signing and will include a tarot presentation, a meet and greet with Pierri and free giveaways.
For more information, visit Pierri’s website here. You can also follow him on Instagram here.
