Tamara Driessen, aka Wolf Sister, is a tarot card reader and crystal healer. Since she dazzled us by reading our tarots at our event in November, we thought we would check in and see what wisdom and insight she uses to guide her own lifestyle, work, and outlook.
First of all, a background question: how did you get into tarot reading and crystal healing?
I got into crystals at age 8 and tarot when I was 14 – so both really young! I was drawn to crystals at a really young age but I didn’t know anything about them, I was just curious. I got familiar with them and by the time I was in my 20s I started to think of them not just as lucky stones that would do something for me, but as healing stones, stones that would help me to feel more confident, to overcome challenges and stress. I understood them on a more profound level than before. I followed these feelings and I went to Bali to be an apprentice for a shaman and it all evolved from there.
I got my first pack of tarot cards when I was 14, and I was so young I just wanted really simple answers to really simple questions. I was asking stuff like ‘will I get a boyfriend?’ and I was definitely too young to understand what tarot was really for. I just carried on pulling cards out of the pack and looking up the meanings in a book. After a while I started going to workshops and reading books about tarot, and I kept practicing on myself and on my friends. After a while I was reading the cards without the books, just using my own understanding. Then a friend asked me to do a reading at a festival and it just kind of went from there. It’s been a very organic process for me.
I’ve always been aware of being connected spiritually to something – not something religious, but a feeling that I can ask questions, ask for help and support beyond myself and my understanding.
How did your lifestyle change when you started bringing crystals and tarot cards into your everyday life?
It changed a lot! I absolutely have a deeper sense of clarity and connectedness now. I used to be such an overthinker but connecting myself with crystals has really helped. Tuning in with each crystal’s energy has made me feel more connected and happier and better about myself. I’m way more easygoing now, and I’ve really opened up.
You know how when you think of yoga you assume you can only eat grains and drink green juices and stuff like that? Well I had similar preconceptions about spirituality and my instinct was to push against it. My inner rebel was like ‘no! I can be spiritual and go out and party!’ But as I started to open myself up to different energies I became a lot more sensitive, and I started to notice when I felt great and what affected that. These increasing moments of clarity really made me notice that when I went out and drank it really disrupted my flow, and I started to realise it wasn’t worth it for me.
But it was really such a gradual, organic process. I was opening myself up and while that’s obviously a really good thing, it meant that I had to really make sure I wasn’t having a bad effect on myself.
Obviously creativity and creative energy are really important to you and to your lifestyle and your career – how do you get into a headspace that allows you to access your most creative moments?
No booze! That is the worst: it just meant that an instant fog descended over my mind and I had no motivation.
Other than that, I take care of my morning routine. The first thing I do every morning is meditation: it’s really important for me get this in before anything else and clear my headspace. The other thing I do is my morning pages, which is basically journaling. I don’t want to be unrealistic, so I won’t say I manage this every morning but I try to. I’m not a morning person so if I have an early start I will just do meditation and come back to this a bit later. It’s basically a chance for me to clear all the junk out of my head and get a clear run for the day. It allows me to avoid autopilot and just to slow down and have a moment.
The other thing I do obviously is have crystals around me. Of course they have a really important place in my life.
Is there a crystal or a gemstone that you are particularly drawn to, and does this change depending on your circumstances?
My answer is absolutely different for every different scenario! Having said that, at the moment the stone I have with me most of the time is called lepidolite. It’s kind of light purple and a little bit silvery, it’s really beautiful. It’s great for calming your mind and helping your sleep, which I really need right now. It’s been helping me to unwind and to tune in a lot.
Women’s creativity and spirituality has been vilified for centuries and rejected as something illogical and unexplainable. Do you feel like you had to make a space for yourself to be taken seriously? And do you think that this space has changed since you started – is there more room for women’s intuition now?
Most people don’t believe in this kind of thing because they’ve never had any experience of it before. It’s fine to be skeptical, but I think you shouldn’t dismiss ideas just because you’ve never considered them before.
But I have to keep in mind that really it’s not my place to persuade people. I’ve got nothing to prove, I just do what I do and I’ve sent out a clear signal: I live this! And maybe it is illogical – it’s definitely unexplainable, but it also definitely works! Even if it might be a placebo, it makes people feel better and that is really important.
Spirituality doesn’t have very much of a scientific backing so it’s very tricky to argue along those lines, but just because it hasn’t been proven doesn’t mean it’s not true. Maybe it’s because it’s not a profitable, consumable kind of science. People feeling good about themselves and connected to themselves isn’t a commodifiable thing, so it would be difficult to fund scientific studies about spirituality.
Bearing in mind it’s currently women’s history month, who are your inspirations and who would you like to pay homage to, within your industry or elsewhere?
The person I’d have to say is a woman called Doreen Valiente. The practice of witchcraft used to be illegal, and she fought to make it legal. She is an inspiration, to be sure.
In a job that uses your emotions, empathy, and other very personal skills, how do you separate your work life from your home life? Is it possible?
I have to do it! Every night I uninstall Instagram. I interact with a lot of people via Instagram, so I have to just get rid of it. I could just not go on it, but I want it off, I want to physically disconnect.
Boundaries are something that are a constant learning process for all of us, but they’re especially important in my life. I’m constantly asking myself, ‘am I processing someone else’s problems?’ I need to make sure I’m in my own energy, no one else’s. It’s important to look after yourself.
My morning rituals make sure my day starts with me, every day. That’s why I always meditate. It’s spiritual self care! Spiritual self care is the most important thing to me. Otherwise I feel life I’m stuck on a hamster wheel, so I’ve got to get some headspace and some clarity.
And to finish off, a cheeky EB question: what is your favourite piece from our lovely gemstone collection?
They’re such lovely designs, it’s hard to choose! My favourite has got to be the lapis lazuli huggie earrings, with the little points. They’re so sweet.
Thank you Tamara for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk to us - we hope you love the Gemstone Collection!
For more inspiration check out our collections of gemstone necklaces, gemstone bracelets, gemstone necklaces and gemstone anklets.
