Reiki master, yoga instructor, teacher, fortuneteller—these are only a few of Molly Burkett’s titles. She’s been all over and dabbled in a little bit of everything, going from snapping photos in New York to immersing herself in the healing arts scene and selling mystical goodies on her webpage Divine Junk. Molly has even written her own how-to guides available for sale on Divine Junk, including Diy Divination: An Intuitive Tarot Handbook and Tarot Key: A Guide to the Rider-Waite Smith Deck. Now, this healing artist is giving tarot readings full-time. She’s done over 2,000 readings using her integrative sacred arts method, which can be experienced from anywhere in the world via her tarot by phone appointments. Both in-person and distance appointments with Molly provide all the good stuff, including reiki blessings and yoga magic. Molly pays a monthly visit to Hi-Wire Brewing in Louisville on second Sundays as well. When she pays a visit to the coasts, Molly can be found at Ludlow House in NYC and the Cha Cha Lounge in Los Angeles. To keep up no matter where she’s at, give her a follow on Instagram or visit her website.
Katie Freeman: You’ve had a longtime connection with healing arts. How did you discover your gifts and fall into the practice?
Molly Burkett: Opening up to intuition. If you want to learn the tarot, I would say teach it. It was by the nudge of all my mentors and co-workers in the healing scene, these kinds of modern-day occultist, wizards. Everyone was like, “You’re a healer-counselor type.” I didn’t know what that was. I’d always been the girl in the room that was the mom, the counselor, and the one people asked for advice. I was like, “That’s a job?” That’s what made me pursue Reiki to cleanse my channel. Then I had to do yoga to get really grounded right. The more I work out, the more grounded and intuitive I am. Basic health and wellness is number one for me. I’ve been a highly sensitive person since I was 11 or so. I started opening up more as I got older. But it was mostly people pointing out, “Are you gonna teach that? Because you’re ready to.” I rapid-fire wrote a small tarot book that I sold online as an online class and sold in person in Brooklyn. And that helped clench my confidence with the cards.
KF: When you do a reading with somebody, how do you receive messages?
MB: A couple of ways. It’s like a ticker tape. I very specifically am like, “What’s your name? What’s your sign?” That’s the key code for me. I can open up to your energy. Have a seat, don’t move, sit there. If anything out of the ordinary and off-book happens, then you’re just getting me off-the-cuff. You might get my stand-up comedian side, and it might be fun, but you’re not quite getting the channeled stuff. But if I’m tuning correctly, and I’m able to sync up and connect and be in the now with that person, it is like a steady stream of information that I get, and I’ll sometimes just see it as words in my mind. I don’t go into super strong visuals when I’m in a club setting. But when I do remote healing work, when I’m doing my private calls with people, that’s when it’s more of the aura work, more of the light work and channeling, visionary work or trance work meditation, the kind of crazy stuff that can happen when you’re going out of body. I don’t necessarily get too deep into guided journeys or guided meditation when people have liquor in their system, but I might suggest a soul assignment, like “You need to go to a sensory deprivation tank,” or “You need to go take a retreat in the woods.”
KF: What would you tell someone who is skeptical of fortunetelling or the healing arts?
MB: If someone’s a skeptic, I’m not trying to break your heart open. I don’t go the distance with you. I’ll just give you the basic tarot facts. Anyone can benefit from it. It’s a modern art form. I use the mystical term ‘fortunetelling’ because it grabs people, everyone knows what that is. And it’s like, “Oh, so they can divine everything? They might know everything about me, right?” But tarot, it’s originally an Italian game called tarochhi. It’s a parlor game. It’s just a regular deck of Egyptian playing cards—supposedly they came over from Egypt. Cut the mysticism, we’re playing cards. You have to be open. I’m not really the person to help you open up. You are who you are. So basically, I don’t bother! Sometimes my feelings do get hurt, and I just thought that’s my best way to protect myself. I just don’t bother sharing if you’re gonna give me a hard time.
KF: What does authenticity look like in your practice?
MB: I am reticent about frauds and scammers as well. I believe in Mystic happenings. Everything happens for a reason, every meeting is a divine appointment and I try to cater to the person in front of me in terms of the language to use and the right approach that feels like a heart-opening and fun moment of entertainment for them. It’s seven minutes long, and they might tap into a higher power. They might get some cool money and love magic tips. When I think of what’s an authentic healer to me, I did invest in my Reiki teacher at a higher price point, and those that were reputable and have the testimonials and the experience and were obviously coming from a heartfelt, sincere place. There has to be a certain level of earnestness to what they’re doing. There’s only a handful of people that I endorse right now. They’re good community leaders, they’re not afraid of getting political and owning their opinions on things. They’re all very you know, compassionate, care for all people. I think it should go without saying that it’s welcome to everyone.
KF: How has your intuition and involvement in healing arts led you to where you are today?
MB: For a while, it was constant, especially as a student and as a growing professional. Now I feel like I’ve mastered my skills and am ready to chill and share them. But there were a lot of trades. There was a lot of like, “Oh, I’m going through this family lesson. I’m going through this relationship lesson.” And as soon as I integrate lessons, I feel called. I get a download of how to share that as a workshop. For a while, that was the formula, especially when I was working with healing spaces, working with a lot of group collective circles, and more witchy stuff. I did about 20 cacao ceremonies to open up my heart. Now, I can just be like, “You need a compassionate heart, maybe try a cacao activation.” I’ve definitely been my own guinea pig with the self-healing process and still am. That’s my drive and my motivation, discipline for sure. The more you invest in yourself for holistic methods and where you keep yourself healthy, it’ll pay off. Now whenever I add something, I mainly have to add in an additional self-care method or self-care strategy.
