It's been a tough year for many people in the Marysville area as the economic meltdown reached Snohomish County. Job losses and financial worries often lead to stress, a feeling of despair and hopelessness. Those dark emotions, in turn, affect personal relationships and challenge images of self-worth.

The difficult realities of financial survival and personal doubt may help explain why the idea of consulting an intuitive counselor-a psychic in the common vernacular-is becoming more accepted in this largely traditional community.

Mary Burns of The BookWORKS in downtown Marysville decided to host a mini-psychic fair at her store in early 2009. Working with local psychic Ann Inman, the event featured five intuitives who offered insight using Tarot cards, palmistry, astrology and other ancient arts.

"I was skeptical at first," Burns admitted, "and I insisted on mini-readings for myself before inviting anyone to participate. The readings were all amazing, with many 'holy cow!' moments. How could this stranger know things about me, my personality, even events that had happened years ago?"

The readings are meant to help illuminate problems and solutions in the clients' lives. Each intuitive uses the tools that allow that illumination to shine the brightest. Burns talked about an experience she had during one of the mini-readings by a card reader named Mia.

"Mia gave me a Tarot card reading that kept coming up 'balance,' which she interpreted as my needing more balance in my life," Burns related. "As a small business owner who works many, many hours at the store, I was obviously lacking in the 'balance' department. As I went behind the counter to do more work, the door opened and one of my regular psychics came in with someone I didn't know. This person, without being directed or introduced, walked up to me and told me she saw me with a sciatic problem, which I do have, and I needed to take this specific over-the-counter pill to alleviate it. She also informed me that I'd had a traumatic fall as a child and she wondered if that might have had something to do with this because she 'saw' it at the same time. She was correct in this fall, which happened when I was eight. At that point, she stuck her hand across the counter to introduce herself. Her name is Balance."

Based on her own experiences and positive feedback from her customers, Burns now organizes a Psychic Faire the third Saturday of each month at her shop on Third Street. The next one is Saturday, January 16, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Five psychics will be on hand for the January event, including Balance, a medical intuitive, astrologer Sarah Svati, Natasha, who offers angel readings, Tarot reader Andrea, and Inman.

Ann Inman is well-known intuitive medium, with 35 years of experience and training. In addition to participating in the BookWORKS events, she helps organize a psychic event at her daughter's bookstore, Wit's End, located next to Cristiano's in the Safeway Plaza, from 5 to 9 p.m. every Friday night. The cozy bookstore also hosts a psychic fair the first Saturday of every month from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"The best reading you can ever get is one that confirms what you know," said Inman.

A versatile medium who uses cards, palmistry, aura readings and psychometry among other tools, Inman also teaches classes at Wit's End for those who are interested in knowing more about what she terms Angel Communication.

The psychics who were interviewed for this article all claimed a relationship with angels or spirit guides, entities who provide guidance and insight the readers combine with the physical act of turning over Tarot cards or casting an astrological chart.

"I have guides that I work with from the spirit world," said Andrea, a Tarot card reader who attends the Third Saturday Psychic Faires at BookWORKS as well as the events at Wit's End. An unassuming, thoughtful woman who declines to give her last name to avoid "stalkers," she explained that she is shown images and hears voices that guide her during a reading.

"I was born with psychic abilities, but I didn't use them for a long time," she continued. Several years ago, she picked up a deck of Tarot cards and began doing readings for friends, then friends of friends. She learned and developed along the way, and has studied under several well-respected teachers including Raven Zingaro and Char Sundust.

Astrologer Sarah Svati began her pursuit of spiritual knowledge as a child.

"My grandmother read my horoscope every day," she said, "but I just knew there was more to it than that."

At age 13, she read her first astrology book, and by the time she was 17, she was drawing natal charts for friends and family members. And she voraciously studied, reading everything she could find about the ancient methods.

"The more I learned, the more questions I had," she explained. "Every single person is different. Charts echo the exact time and place in the universe, the cosmic influences each person breathed in at birth."

In ancient times, astrology was used to forecast a person's fate, events and circumstances that were destined to occur. As the centuries rolled by, and free will became a more accepted theory, astrological readings were more psychological in nature, focusing on personality traits and patterns rather than specific events.

Svati is adept at all forms of astrology, and uses a combination of "fated" and free will concepts to interpret her clients' charts.

She's also very entertaining and accessible.

The vibrant Svati explained that Jupiter is like Santa-the planet that brings us metaphorical presents and abundance-and that Jupiter has been "handcuffed" by the taskmaster Saturn for two years. On January 17, Jupiter moves into the house of Pisces, where it belongs, and "he'll get his presents back." Good news for all of us.

And speaking of good news, don't worry about visiting one of the local psychic fairs and being told of imminent doom. Each of the readers explained that they would never share visions of death with a client, although they would offer advice regarding potential medical issues or ways to deal with personal tragedies.

To find out more about the Third Saturday Psychic Faires at BookWORKS, phone Mary Burns at (360) 659-4997. For information on weekly and monthly psychic events at Wit's End, phone Sierra Cartwright at (360) 386-8997.

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