SPOTLIGHT

AVENTURIST

SPOTLIGHT IN THE CARDS

READY TO TAP INTO YOUR INNER MAGIC? MIAMI’S CELEB-FAVORITE INTUITIVE AND TAROT CARD READER MIGHT JUST BE YOUR NEW “WITCHY BESTIE.”

BY KRISTEN DESMOND LEFEVRE

When Cardsy B (aka Rebecca Szymczak) appears on my Zoom screen, she’s only got one AirPod in.

Szymczak is an “intuitive tarot reader and energy alchemist.” As a person who “leans toward clairvoyance,” she is using her AirPodless ear to listen for the sorts of things other folks don’t hear.

“I get a lot of my signs through hearing,” she says. “I only wear one AirPod so I can keep my receiving ear open to guidance.”

We’re doing a virtual tarot reading, which Szymczak says “can guide you into your own inner knowing and healing abilities.” Even over Zoom? “Absolutely,” she says. “I use the cards as a roadmap to organize what’s coming through from the spiritual realm—and I can do that whether you are in the room with me in Miami or you’re on-screen.”

Szymczak found tarot as a kid. “I’d save my allowance to buy tarot decks,” she says. But by high school, she paused her pursuits to “fit in with the cool kids.”

As an adult, Szymczak worked in the fashion industry, designing for brands like Nike, Donna Karan, and Playboy. But in 2017, what she calls “a dark night of the soul” hit her hard. “I lost everything,” she says. “My marriage ended, my mentor passed away, my high-powered career was gone.”

She battled with depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. That’s when she rediscovered tarot. “I began pulling a card a day for

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myself, then reading for friends,” she recalls. “Tarot saved my life.”

A friend came up with the Cardsy B moniker (a play on the stage name of rap artist Cardi B), and it stuck.

She now reads for celebrities, C-suite execs, artists, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between. She’s legendary among those looking for guidance on timing (think: finance bros). “I predict the most probable timing in which things will play out,” she says. Still, she advises that nothing in the universe is set in stone. “Things can always shift, but I see the timeline with the highest probability.”

To further spread her magic, Szymczak hosts the Hex and the City podcast, offering cosmic insights. She has also illustrated and produced her own tarot deck. Instead of a crowned figure holding scales and a sword adorning the Justice card or the Eight of Wands card showing an image of sticks traversing a blue sky, Szymczak’s Badass Bitches deck features Ruth Bader Ginsburg and RuPaul, respectively. “The original decks can be spooky to some people,” she says. “A lot of modern decks feature things like fairies and goddesses and angels. I wanted one that was made up of really empowered females.”

If Szymczak’s life sounds like something out of the pages of a book, well, she’s one step ahead of you (which is maybe not surprising, given her occupation). Her recently released Saturn Diaries chronicles her journey. “It’s part memoir and part spellbook,” she says. “It’s for anyone seeking to access their inner magic, which is something we all have inside of us.” (cardsyb.com) «

Cardsy B’s book, The Saturn Diaries, is part memoir, part modern-day spellbook. Her Badass Bitches tarot deck features illustrations of 78 empowering women.

SEEING SIGNS

Cardsy B’s cosmic forecast for what to expect through the end of 2022.

SCORPIO SEASON

“We’re in the heart of Scorpio season. That’s a massive time of change and transformation. In the tarot, Scorpio rules the Death card. It’s a card that has a tough reputation, but I love it because it’s all about death and rebirth.”

TIME TO SHED

“When we think about the sign of Scorpio, we picture the scorpion. It’s a creature that has a shell. When it outgrows that shell, it molts out of it and literally comes into a new, larger shell that suits where it is at that point in its lifecycle. At this time in the year, we’re preparing for winter. But we’re also shedding all of the things that we’ve moved through in 2022.”

READY FOR REBIRTH

“We’re kind of settling down before we move into the rebirth of spring. And as we do this, we can ask ourselves, ‘What is it that I’ve moved through that no longer serves me?’ And also, ‘What is it that I want to consciously take forward with me?’”

RETROGRADES, BE GONE

“We’re coming out of some tough retrogrades. In November, a lot of those planets (Saturn and Mercury, for example) go direct. This means clearer communication—with others and with ourselves. Things that were feeling [like] karmic lessons that may have been popping up throughout the fall are going to come into focus. We’ll be better positioned to understand why they happened, which can help us move past them with more ease.”

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