Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Lauf
Hi Rachel, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
It’s almost funny to think of “how I started”, because I’ve experienced many paths that strongly contrast each other, yet have all led me to where I am today. Today I am still many things, but primarily I am a Tarot Reader.
Growing up I was a dancer, training my whole life until when I was 17 I moved by myself from the small Montana town I had grown up in to New York City. I attended a professional dance training school and experienced living by myself for the first time, ironically in the biggest city in the country after leaving probably one of the smallest. My town at the time had a population of 2200, now ten years later it’s a wopping 2500. After my experience dabbling in the professional dance space I realized I felt more aligned to pursue going to college for engineering, rather than pursuing a career in dance. I love to dance deeply, but the professional space I was exposed to just didn’t align with me personally.
The next chapter of my life took me to Long Beach, CA where I got a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Cal State Long Beach. The highlight of my time there was competing nationally three times in a rocketry competition hosted by NASA. I spent most time in college building rockets, and during my senior year leading a team of 35 students to place 5th nationally out of 45 universities. Following graduation I worked professionally as a Quality Engineer and Data Analyst at Northrop Grumman for about 4 years.
One year ago I quit my job at Northrop because it was no longer in alignment with me. At the time, I actually had just started learning Tarot, and had no idea I would soon start my own Tarot business. When I quit, I was putting a lot of my energy into social media, my personal Youtube channel where I post vlogs and podcast episodes, and also shortform content on Instagram and Tiktok. I love creating many forms of content for social media, and this will always be part of my life.
It’s crazy how Tarot came into my life, I barely knew anything about it until it started popping up on my For You page on Tiktok. I had so many videos pop up of collective readings that resonated with me so deeply, I was so intrigued with Tarot as soon as I saw these videos. Eventually it led to me feeling called to purchase my own deck and start learning. When I purchased my first Tarot deck I had no intention of doing readings for people, I only intended to read for myself. However as I became more passionate about Tarot and talking about it to friends and family, they started asking me for readings. Naturally I started doing readings for people and each time I read for someone I fell more and more in love with the practice. Tarot for me is spiritual therapy. Every session with a client or reading I do with myself has the intention to bring forward whatever message needs to be heard at that time.
Tarot is a tool to connect with your intuition, your inner guidance system that accesses infinite wisdom. Most often Tarot is a confirmation of what your intuition was already feeling. My love for giving readings led me to open my Tarot business. At first I was offering readings online, but in April 2024 I opened an office in Long Beach, CA. My office is honestly a dream come true, it has ocean views and is definitely the cutest and pinkest office in Long Beach! I have deep gratitude for the experience I have had opening my office and growing my clientele. Every reading I’ve done fills my heart so deeply, every time a client comes into my office I have no idea what we are going to talk about, but I know it’s going to be the most important thing my client needs to talk about at that time. I feel honored to play the role I do in relaying these messages. I can feel the energetic impact tarot readings can have on clients, most readings are emotional and require vulnerability from both me and the client.
I’m so grateful for my unique experiences and paths that brought me to where I am today. If I hadn’t been a dancer, or gotten an engineering degree, built rockets, or worked for an aerospace and defense company, I wouldn’t have ended up where I am today as a Tarot Reader, as silly as it sounds. I had to experience all these different roles to learn slowly piece by piece who I really am and what my true purpose is on this Earth at this time. I have deep gratitude for the path that has led me to where I am today, my heart has never felt more full and I have never felt more aligned with life.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, it definitely has not been a smooth road! But that’s a good thing, because challenges always bring growth. I’d say one of my biggest struggles I experienced was embodying the courage necessary to quit my corporate job a year ago. It was all I had ever known and definitely my comfort zone although it wasn’t that comfortable because towards the end, I wasn’t happy. Nonetheless, finance wise it was comfortable and leaving my job, not for another job, but to pursue my passion took an insane amount of courage that I didn’t know I had in me, but so grateful that I did. We’ve been conditioned to believe we have to do some thing we don’t love in order to make money to live but the biggest lesson I’m learning right now is that that’s not true. Life was designed for us to experience love and do what we love and we’re not meant to stress or worry about how the money will come to support us. The way I was raised, everyone thought I was crazy to leave my secure high paying job, but overcoming my fear and following my intuition to leave what I know was no longer serving me, was one of the most rewarding challenges I’ve ever worked through.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a Tarot Reader offering donation-based tarot readings in person and over zoom. My tarot reading sessions are truthfully spiritual therapy sessions. Every tarot reading has the intention to bring forward whatever message the client needs to hear most at that time. I create a safe space for all clients to feel comfortable to allow whatever messages are meant to come forward and feel whatever emotions need to be felt in a healthy way. I am proud of every tarot reading I have given, but there definitely are some that stand out that were more emotionally impactful with clients. I left these reading truly feeling like I helped the client find clarity and feel better overall. Another thing I’m proud of is that often times messages that come forward aren’t what clients want to hear and I’m really proud of how I’ve been able to deliver these messages in a way that opens up the client to be receptive, even though at first they may want to be closed off. In general, I’m just proud of myself for starting a business! I’ve never had a business before and I just pulled the trigger and did it and opened an office space in Long Beach and started offering readings. I feel so blessed for the experience I’ve had because, I feel so much more connected to my heart doing this type of work than I have doing any other work before.
What sets me apart from other Tarot readers primarily would be the fact that I’m donation based. I don’t really see other tarot readers that are donation based to be honest, most tarot readers offer readings for a set price. Shortly after I opened, I received a clear intuitive download that told me to switch to a donation-based model. There’s no payment required to book a reading with me, all clients can donate whatever they feel called to after the reading. I knew this would feel more aligned with the service I was offering and once I started doing donation-based readings that feeling was physically confirmed. Energetically it felt much better to do a donation-based reading versus a fixed price reading. It feels really good when clients pay you what they want to and, what they can versus what you tell them. Even if a client received a difficult message in the reading, they are relieved to have the clarity and are happy with their experience. It’s such an amazing feeling to help someone feel this way and also receive compensation for your time.
Something else that definitely sets me apart from other tarot readers would be the emotional depth I am able to provide in the readings and the emotional connection I can create with each client. Often times the readings I have with people go to a very emotionally deep space because that is what the client needs and that is what I am able to provide. There is a whole spectrum of emotions that can come through in the readings that I offer, however you could say my specialty is the more emotionally deep readings. Because I have such a capacity for emotional depth, naturally people who are needing that type of reading are intuitively drawn to me.
And one last thing I’d say that sets me apart, is that there is a general aesthetic I’d say of people who do Tarot. Usually it is associated with black and darker colors, witchy vibes. My aesthetic is definitely the opposite of that, I love pink and my entire office is very pink with flowers and butterflies. Often clients tell me they weren’t expecting me to read tarot in a pink office because aesthetically they expect something much darker and ominous. Honestly, I’m not sure why Tarot has been associated with that type of aesthetic historically, but it doesn’t have to be so for me, I love pink, and it will always be part of my business aesthetic. I had to create a space that was authentic to me so that clients could feel like they could be authentic to themselves in the space.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The Tarot industry is going to blow up like crazy in the next 5 to 10 years. The collective consciousness of earth is raising its vibration to align more and more with love each and every day. This is leading to more and more spiritual awakenings, and people awakening to the fact that they are a spirit having a human experience. This awakening is truly people becoming conscious of their intuition and choosing to follow their intuition in every moment. As I mentioned before, tarot is a tool to connect with intuition, and it is one of many spiritual tools to help you connect with your inner guidance system. In the years to come I see Tarot being way more mainstream along with many other spiritual modalities. Spirituality in general will be much more mainstream. It will be common to know people that know of Tarot or have a Tarot deck themselves. Many of the fear-based myths surrounding Tarot will be commonly known as debunked, because people will be more in tune with their intuition.
Pricing:
- All tarot readings are donation based
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tarotwithrach.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tarotwithrach/?next=%2F
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TarotwithRach
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tarot-w-rach-long-beach-2?osq=tarot+w%2F+rach
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@tarotwithrach?_t=8qQxMz6t0PK&_r=1
