Tarot with Tel
Hello again!
I'm Tellis. I am a tarot artist and reader with an astrology background residing in Los Angeles, California. My style of tarot reading is holistic: equally relying on the study of the languages embedded in the practice, intuitive and psychic messages, participation and artistic interpretation of the seeker, and trust in divine communication. I primarily subscribe to Placidus astrology to inform my practice, however, I believe in integrating wisdom from various traditions and incorporate the astrological system which resonates with the seeker in my readings. My primary artistic mediums are drawing, painting, and digital art. Educating people on how to use these tools through personal readings is also one of my great passions.
While tarot, stars, and art have been lifelong sources of inspiration and targets for my energy, I haven't always had the easiest time giving myself those titles. I have gained the courage to share this gift with others in a professional capacity in the last two years. Outside of this realm, I am also a lawyer with experience in education law, disability law, and family law. As you can imagine, I'm a big research nerd and love to learn. However, I also believe that a common link between these practices is addressing and learning from our karma. Over the course of my practice in both of these areas, I have come to understand the integral role the gifts I am sharing here play in my purpose alongside my legal career and the importance of sharing these gifts with others. I'd love to share my story with you...
My Story
Starting where it all began... I was born in the dark of the winter solstice on December 23, 1995 at 9:43pm (for the fellow astrology lovers!) and grew up in a small town about an hour outside of Seattle in the foothills of the North Cascades with amazing parents, a brilliant younger sister, and a tight-knit community. Maybe it was never getting to bring cupcakes to school on my birthday because of the holiday season, or maybe it was good old fashioned childish self-absorption, but ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by birthdays, the stars, and what made people special.
In those days, I would memorize the birthdays of every kid in my class, member of my extended family, soccer team, etc. and put them on a big poster of the astrological signs on my bedroom door and try and find patterns (which are still ingrained in my memory to this day.) Once I began to understand more of the complexity of astrology, I would spend hours on our family PC researching what it meant to have an Aquarius moon and grappled with the concept of whether I was really a Sagittarius/Capricorn cusp or if cusp signs even existed. In its most elementary fashion, I was using astrology very early in my life to understand who I was personally and who I was in the world with others. But, little did I know at the time, it was teaching me even more than that.
I also loved painting and drawing and I loved learning. Art for me was a passion, mode of expression, and tool for coping with how I felt. At a young age, the babysitter noticed that when I would take time to draw by myself rather than play with the other kids were the times I was processing big emotions... & I think my elementary, secondary art teachers, and even college art professors could easily say the same! I have equally been entranced with the work of others, art history, and symbolism in mythology and spirituality throughout my life.
All these years later, I am still learning about myself and others through astrology, and I am still expressing my emotions and experiences through artistic expression, but I am able to conceptualize these aspects of life in a more universal and less personal way because of the patterns I have studied throughout my life.
Tarot came into my life short after I lost my dad in a construction accident in my early 20s. He was an incredible dad and we were very close. Losing him crushed me. Because tarot combined art with some of my favorite topics like astrology, and illuminated the deepest parts of the human experience, it became an integral piece for me in comprehending the incomprehensible tragedy that happened to my family. A lot of days I was feeling "Five of Cups" or "Ten of Swords," and there were other days where I was enveloped by love of my extended family and community and felt "Four of Wands" or "Six of Pentacles." Somehow a lot of the time the work of tarot artists or the description of a Pluto transit would resonate with me more than seasoned advice about grief. In the wake of loss, tarot also helped me spot synchronicities around me and trust in divine communications and timing.
As I have gained more and more life experience, I feel that I come into new or deeper understandings of the cards or archetypes of the signs and planets all the time whether that be through my own experiences or through the stories of others evoked when I read tarot for them. All of these archetypes come with the wisdom of the cyclical nature of life. So now, for example, when I see a client in my legal work going through a "Tower" moment in their life, my first thought is that their "Star" season is coming soon, or that Saturn's current lessons will pay off for them tenfold in the future. When I see a friend who is dissatisfied with their work or social environment and takes a chance on themselves by abandoning all they have built for the chance to discover their passion and make their dreams come true, but have not yet reached fulfillment, I am reminded of the natural progression from the Eight of Cups to the Nine of Cups and encourage them to keep faith.