Black Unicorn Tarot: June Events

Power to the glory of Gemini Session!

Greetings fellow Unicorns!

June is this Black Unicorn’s favorite month of the year. With a June 10th birthday soon to come and the celebration of Pride for LGBTQ folk throughout the country, this month holds much to honor and delight for me. For Black Unicorn Tarot, this month symbolizes tender endings and new beginnings.

I will be moving myself and my business to New Orleans, LA at the end of the month. This move will give Black Unicorn Tarot the opportunity to grow and expand in a new city of magic. I am excited to have more time and space to create what is next for my practice from new spirituality products to publications to Black Unicorn Tarot events that bring POC and LGBTQ practitioners together.

It has been such a gift from the universe, spirits and my ancestors to be able to begin my business in NYC’s special brand of magic so leaving is filled with both hope and sadness. But I intend to maintain my connections with this metropolis no matter where I go and this month of June will be my business’ farewell to a city that has given me so many blessings in the form of clients, organizations, event spaces and community.

While I am still in residence in NYC, I am excited to offer my spirituality services at several upcoming events and workshops throughout the month. Here’s where I will be:

SISTERHOOD SUMMIT – Saturday, June 9th (TOMORROW!) 

I’ll be vending at The Black Girl Project’s Sisterhood Summit tomorrow from 10-2pm. This year’s theme “Sacred: Creativity, Pleasure and Relationships” is “inspired by the desire to collectively recognize, inhabit, and incorporate the sacred into our own lives, is by, for, and about Black women and girls and is rooted in love.” With an amazing line-up of workshops, the conference runs from 9:30am – 5:30pm at St. Joseph High School in Brooklyn, NY.

Click on the following link for registration information: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sacred-creativity-pleasure-relationships-sisterhood-summit-seven-tickets-44078059663

CHILL N’ DESIGN: PRIDE EDITION – Friday, June 22nd

I am excited to return to Chill N’ Design’s Pride Edition to read cards for POC and LGBTQ folks celebrating the joy’s of adornment through crystal jewelry making. The event is hosted by Vanessa Miller of BlackQueerMagic and will feature special guests Alyce Emory, Co Founder of BeyondBoldandBrave: Black Lesbian Conference, and Ryann Holmes, Co Founder of Brooklyn Boi Hood and Conference Manager of BeyondBoldandBrave. The vendors market will feature vegan treats, handmade gifts and your’s truly – Black Unicorn Tarot!

The event will be held at the New Women Space from 7-9pm and tickets are $30-35. Click the following eventbrite link for purchase: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chill-n-design-pride-edition-tickets-43789210708

TRANS IS MAGICK! COLLECTIVE: TRANS DAY OF JOY – Saturday, June 23rd

It’s always an honor and a joy to serve the Trans community and I am so excited to be reading cards at the upcoming Trans is Magick: Trans Day of Joy event! This event is a personal favorite, celebrating the lives and creations of the Trans, Two Spirit, Gender Non-conforming, Non Binary, Intersex and Gender Variant community. Join us for vendors, workshops, the ever so popular and sexy trans speed dating and performances. Black Unicorn Tarot will be vending from 2-8pm.

This event will take place at the Knockdown Center in Queens, NY. Tickets are sold on sliding scale based on income for $10 – 40 and no one is turned away for lack of funds. Click the following link to get your ticket now: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1703969?utm_medium=bks

SEX MAGIC 101 – Thurs, June 28th

Join me for Black Unicorn Tarot’s Sex Magic 101 workshop hosted at Catland Books, occult shop in Brooklyn, NY where I work as an in house reader every Thursday of the week. Sex Magic 101 will examine basic spiritual rituals to bring your everyday understanding of your body and sex. Learn how to incorporate altar making, candle work, crystals and spells into both your solo and partnered sexual practices. This workshop will also touch on the ways of using spirituality in healing sexual trauma, alternative relationships such as polyamory and alternative sex practices such as BDSM. All are welcome!

Tickets are $20 and will be available on the Catland Books event site. Please stay posted for the link to ticket sales.

THE HEALING MAGIC OF KINK w/BLACK UNICORN TAROT AND VACATION CHARLIE -Saturday, June 30th

I’m excited to be joining forces with fellow practitioner Charlie Trutman for a midday workshop on the ways kink and magic promote healing in mind, body and spirit.

This workshop will take place at the New Women’s Space in Brooklyn, NY from 3-5:30pm. Please stay posted for the link to ticket sales.

 

And as always, Black Unicorn Tarot offers private tarot readings in person, by phone or video chat – $30 for 15min, $60 for 30min and $80 for an hour. Book for an in person reading in the NYC area before I leave for NOLA but I am always available for phone and video calls from where ever I am. To schedule an appointment, email me at ayoung536@gmail.com.

 

Help A Black Unicorn Get To NOLA GoFundMe Campaign: PLEASE DONATE!

Click to donate: https://www.gofundme.com/help-get-a-black-unicorn-to-nola

Feeling A Home in New Orleans

Since 2017, I’ve heard a call to New Orleans.

This call has occurred in a series of spiritual visions and feelings. Sitting on the front porch of a home in the comforting hug of summer heat. Walking to the river and listening to the still of the water. A kitchen filled with the smells of cured meat and spices. Long afternoons of writing and tending to altars with the sun pouring in the windows.

It was my last vision that developed the dream of living in New Orleans – a place to write, a place to house the Orisha for worship, a place to do the healing work that I am now discovering is not only my gift but my purpose. As I have stepped into myself fully as a tarot reader and spiritual healer, the call to NOLA has become stronger. I’ve started to envision a life where time slows from the quick, fast pace of New York to a soft, southern stillness where I can calm enough to continue to heal through my art and my spiritual connections to the universe.

The funny thing about dreaming of New Orleans is that up until three weeks ago, I had never been there before. I had merely heard stories about NOLA magic – the music, the food, the art and the culture. But as I began to speak New Orleans into existence in my life, the call grew. I began to meet practitioners and artists from NOLA and during my readings, I came to discover that a few of my clients had recently moved to New York from NOLA.

That is how I found my new home. I was in a reading with a client when she informed me that she had just moved to Brooklyn from NOLA. It was no surprise that when she pulled out her journal to take notes on her reading, it was designed by the same New Orleans artist that created what has become my “NOLA Dream Journal.” My client told me that the home that she left behind was inhabited by two practitioners of color who were looking for someone to take over the lease in the summer.

On my two day trip to NOLA, I visited the home. The moment I entered, I knew it would soon be my own. It wasn’t just because the rent was actually affordable in comparison to my Brooklyn bedroom or that I would for the first time have my own backyard or that every room has a place for an altar. It was a sudden feeling of contentment, peace, solace and solution that rushed over me. It was the feeling of home.

I’ve been repeating a quote over and over in my head since I have started my new journey in finding home:

The moment I entered the house, I felt that feeling. I have been longing for the feeling of safety and calm ever since I left my marriage and I saw the opportunity for my vision to come to light as I walked through each room in the house.

After exploring the city – walking down Decatur Street from occult shop to crystal store, resting my feet on the green in Jackson Square, sitting by the Mississippi River watching the steamboats row by, eating beignets and coffee at Cafe Du Monde and some of the best collared greens I’ve ever tasted at Praline Connection, listening to a brass band at the corner of Frenchman Street – I knew that New Orleans is exactly where I need to be.

My vision is more clearer to me now then ever and I am now ready to turn that dream into a reality.

My plan is to move into my home in July. I want to continue to build Black Unicorn Tarot – reading for Queer and Trans People of Color, offer my services at events that directly benefit the community and create spiritual tools for my clients such as candles, crystal kits and journals. I have dreams of expanding my business to house other practitioners of color, create publications, events and eventually annual conferences.

I also intend to finish my book “The Liberation of the Black Unicorn” – a novel I have had to put on hold as a result of the hustle and bustle of New York City survival. I believe that this narrative a Black Queer woman’s journey through addiction, mental illness, breakdown and recovery needs to be told for all those who have been silenced and who still live in fear of speaking.

I believe that NOLA will be the mother’s hands that holds and lifts those destinies into light.

Getting There & How You Can Help

Starting a business and freelancing full time makes moving to NOLA challenging financially. One of the primary reasons I am moving is to cut down on my cost of living so I can continue to expand Black Unicorn Tarot and write for LGBTQ publications. With less expenses, I will also be able to move more freely throughout the country to teach my Sex Magic workshops as well as other workshops I intend to develop in the near future.

In order to afford my move, I started a GoFundMe Campaign – Help A Black Unicorn Get to NOLA asking the community to contribute funds. These contributions will help me with the following:

• Shipping my personal belongings from Brooklyn, NY to New Orleans, LA
• A one way flight to New Orleans, LA (including the cost of my cat, Sarge)
• Any other additional expenses incurred during my final two weeks in NYC

I’m asking the community to contribute what they can so that I continue to offer my healing tools to the folks who need it most.

Please consider donating to my campaign and feel free to share this blog post along with my GoFundMe link to your communities of support.

In addition to GoFundMe, here are two other ways you can help:

1) Donate directly to my vemmo at @Ashley-Young-64 or through PayPal at ayoung536@gmail.com

2) Book a tarot reading with me at ayoung536@gmail.com – $30 for 15min, $60 for a half hour, $80 for an hour in person, by phone or video chat

I am so grateful for the donations that I have already received from the community. Your belief in not only my dream home but the future of my healing work means more to me that I can often time express. Thank you all for reading this post, spreading it widely, donating and offering both emotional and spiritual support on my journey.

Thank for helping this Black Unicorn acquire the feeling of home.

Click here to donate: https://www.gofundme.com/help-get-a-black-unicorn-to-nola

Black Unicorn Tarot: May Events

Saturday, May 12 from 10am-10pm @ Mayday Space

THIS SATURDAY, Black Unicorn Tarot will be reading cards at the Who Heals the Healer? Convergence, a full day gathering for practitioners from all walks of life. Through workshops and presentations, this convergence asks the most vital questions that all healers face throughout their work:

…how many folks who step into this work have become burnt out or hurt along the way? What kind of long-term impact can we have if we don’t share the same healing methods we give to others with ourselves? How can we be a support system for others without depleting ourselves? How can we develop tools to thrive as opposed to just surviving? Who heals the healer? (as quoted on event site)

Black Unicorn Tarot will offering card readings at the vendors/practitioners market during the lunch break from 1:10 – 2:25pm. Sit with me for tarot insight on how you are healing yourself as a healer!

Tickets are sold out but for more information visit the WHTH Event site, including details on after party After Vibes at Star Bar with Uptown Vinyl Supreme.

Sunday, May 20 from 3-9pm @ LuvStory Bar

SUNDAY, MAY 20TH, Black Unicorn Tarot will return to Queer Bazaar’s Pride Edition Block Party, featuring vendors, food, art, kink demos, dancing and more. I had a blast reading with this hella Queer, women centered, POC event in its first installment in April so come out and join the festivities. And as always come get your cards read by me!

General admission tickets are $7 at Queer Bazaar’s Event Brite.

Last Month’s Meta Transformation Event Flyer

Stay Tuned for dates for Meta Balances’s next Meta Transformation QTPOC Conscious Full Moon Howl!!!

And as always, I am offering private tarot readings to clients throughout the month. My current rates are $30 for 15 minutes, $60 for half an hour and $80 for an hour in person, by phone or video chat. If you are interested in a reading, please email me ayoung536@gmail.com or book an appointment with me at the Catland Books Reader site.

Thank you all for the love and support you have given me as I continue to build Black Unicorn with love, gut and magic. Hope to see you all at these amazing events!!

 

Dear Unicorns – An Invitation to Howl

Our Lady Scorpio Moon

Greetings fellow unicorns,

This month I have learned the joys, challenges and triumphs of embracing the full Scorpio moon. Last weekend I had the pleasure of reading cards at Meta Balance’s (@metabalance) Meta Transformation QTPOC Consciousness Full Moon Howl event. This evening celebrated the full Scorpio moon in all her power and glory with the climax of the evening being a guided sound meditation. During the ceremony, I felt a surge of life running through me, a realized consciousness of all the changes and challenges I am facing. I was held and supported by the sound of singing bowls and brought back to my mighty center by the reiki practitioners that circled the room, feeding participants with the energy they needed. After, I received a handcrafted tea by Odane Liu (@odane.liu), a practitioner that lead the healing tea ceremony, who with caring energy blended the herbs I need to overcome the emotions that I am currently challenged with. The evening was a blessed acknowledgement of the strength and beauty of QTPOC and offered sustainable support to us all.

The next evening, I was invited on a Brooklyn rooftop for more moon ceremony guided by practitioner, Zion Spencer (@thewhoreacle). Along with a few fellow POC witches, Zion lead us in the spiritual process of acknowledging where we have come from, where we are going and what we are powerfully conjuring into our future. We feasted on watermelon, received tarot readings under Zion’s guidance and allowed the moon to fill us with the consciousness of our emotions. After the ceremony, we discussed what we would go home and do to center ourselves. I decided that it was time to complete a love ritual with my newly purchased Rose Quartz dildo, The Original Heart created by Chakrubs (@chakrubs). I went home, lit every candle at my six bedroom alters, put on Janelle Monae’s new album “Dirty Computer” and made love to myself.

I howled.

Full Moon Alter – white flowers, art created at Black Arts Retreat, rose quartz dildo and ruby/kyanite wand 

I let out all of my pain, sadness, joy, discomfort, confusion and satisfaction as I inserted the rose quartz into the passion of my opening. I felt what I am coming to discover is self love – this baffling, well deserved place that expands in my heart, challenges my mind and answers the call of what I need in every moment. I brought the evenings ceremony in bed with me, honoring where I have been, where I am now and where I am going. And I slept like a baby, ready for whatever the universe has in store for me next.

Since these rituals, I have been listening intently to myself while trusting the process of life and the universe in every moment. I have been treating myself, with chocolate, with city adventures, with full days surrounded by the people I love and trust, with trips to the ocean in honor of Yemaya, with good sleep aided by lavender and herbs. And I have let myself be sad and angry just as I have allowed myself to be joyful and free.

Unicorns, I invite you to love yourself in ways that are painful, true and freeing. I invite you to find the people in your life who you love and trust, ask them for what you need, allow them to fill you and keep them close. I invite you to let yourself be lead with your heart even if it makes absolutely no logical sense and challenge yourself to indulge in the things that you love. I invite you to begin believing that there is apart of you that believes you deserve it. I invite you to acknowledge the full moon howling within yourself.

With queer love, life and revival,

A Black Unicorn

Pic of me before going to the ocean with offerings to Yemaya

Black Unicorn Tarot: April Events

SEX MAGIC 101 WORKSHOP AT CAMERA READY KUTZ

 

Saturday, April 14th: Camera Ready Kutz Inc, a barbershop and community space in Bedstuy, BK, will be hosting my Sex Magic 101 workshop from 6:30 – 9pm. Before the workshop begins, I’ll be offering 15 minute and 30 minute tarot reading sessions from 3 – 6:30pm. Tickets for the workshop are $20, 15 minute readings are $25 and 30 minute readings are $40. Book your ticket and/or reading here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sex-magic-101-with-ashley-young-tickets-44499619560?ref=eios&aff=eios

QUEER BAZAAR

Sunday, April 15th: I’ll be reading tarot at Queer Bazaar, a community party and vending event for Queer Women of Color held at Luv Story Bar in Bushwick, BK. Reading rates are $3 for a one card pull, $10 for a three card spread (a past, present and future reading) and $15-25 sliding scale for a full reading.  Tickets to the event are $5 and can be purchased here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-queer-bazaar-tickets-43762443647

KINK MAGIC 101 AT INTERNATIONAL MS LEATHER AND BOOTBLACK WEEKEND

  

Friday, April 20th: As part of International Ms Leather and Bootblack Contest and Event Weekend in San Jose, California, I’ll be teaching Kink Magic 101. This workshop focuses on how to incorporate spiritual practices in your kinky sex and dominate/submissive relationships. IMsLBB is my favorite leather, kink and queer event of the year so if you plan on attending, stop by my workshop in the host hotel at 2pm.

META TRANSFORMATION: A QTPOC Monthly Full Moon Howl

Saturday, April 28th: As a member of the Meta Balance Collective Network, Black Unicorn Tarot will be offering tarot readings at our first monthly full moon howl event. For the month of April, with the full moon in Scorpio, we’ll be offering a variety of healing services from reiki, art therapy, herbs, tea ceremony, sound healing, food, dance and more. Stay tuned for more updates.

 

As always, Black Unicorn Tarot offers private readings so if you can’t make any of these events and would like to book a reading, please feel free to contact me via email or through the Catland Books websites for in-house readings on Thursdays. Click here to view this months newly released rates: https://indigostheory.wordpress.com/black-unicorn-tarot/ (please note, if you are a return client, you can be charged my previous rates until the end of the month).

I look forward to seeing you all at upcoming workshops and events!