My Introduction to the New York RenFaire in Tuxedo NY

How I started at the NYRenFaire

Here are some pictures from the Faire over the years.

Dov took me on a date.  It was an early date in our relationship

The NYRenFaire in Tuxedo opened in 1978.  That wasn’t my year, not the year that Dov brought me.  Dov had gone to the Faire with a girlfriend that year.  I don’t know her, that was before me.

Have you ever been someplace that gives you the feeling of ‘stars in your eyes?’

That was the NYRenFaire 1979, for me! I loved it.  

Dov and I were very young.  I said to him, “Wow, I want to come back here all the time!” 

He said to me, hesitatingly, “This is a very expensive date.”

The thing I couldn’t find that first year were readers.  People who did astrology, tarot, palm reading, past lives.  All the things that I’m into and have been into since my early teens. They might have been there, but I couldn’t find them.

I started thinking, if the Faire is so expensive, what could I do that would get me in there all the time and make some money?

This is a cautionary tale of ‘be careful what you wish for.’

Here was my train of thought:

I’d been doing astrology since 1963.  I learned from my mom. She learned from the previous generation.    Then I picked up tarot and everything else.  I learned astrology before there were computers.  I had a hand calculator and used trigonometry to figure out the planetary orbits.

When I got interested in more occult or spiritual work, my mom sent me to Weiser’s.  This bookstore was located on Broadway just by Astor Place.  I was 13 and took the subway from Queens, often with my best friend.  I loved to spend the days there.  The salespeople were so open to talking and helping me find things.  That’s where I discovered tarot and books on palmistry and past lives.  It was so much more than I even imagined.

After that date, a little thought began to take hold.  First it was a whisper.  It kept getting louder and I had to pay attention.  The next spring, I called the RenFaire office.  I can’t remember if there was an announcement on the answering machine or if someone actually answered and told me to call later in the spring because no one was there.

It took a lot of courage to call once.  Now I had to call again. It was almost discouraging.  

But that voice in my head wouldn’t stay silent.

I was afraid that I’d be laughed at. Rejected. Simply told ‘no.’ All the responses that many of us fear when we are about to start something new.  

Yet, the voice in my head kept talking to me.  It was as though I already belonged. As though that feeling of stars in my eyes was leading me.  As though something were leading me.  As though destiny were leading me or the Goddess. I could romanticize it more, but let’s move on.

I called again and got someone on the phone. I thought I’d have to be very assertive. Build a case.  Explain that astrology was a Renaissance occupation.  I was nervous.

When I called, I was probably talking to Don Gaiti, who was one of the owners of the Faire.  He actually didn’t need any convincing.  The words were hardly out of my mouth.  

“OK, let’s set up a time for you to come up and pick a spot,” he said.

A week or so later, I was on the grounds walking with site manager Peter Salo.  We looked at a couple of places at the back of the Faire grounds.  Where my booth is now, the spot I chose then,  was the very end of the Faire grounds.  It was the end of the Renaissance world in Sterling Forest Gardens.  There was practically nothing past there.  We ended up just beyond the ‘drynks’ booth. It’s the exact same place where we are now.

When we started, we had no idea how long this would last.  Consequently, we didn’t want to make a big investment.  

We started off with 3 hay bales that I guess we got from the hardware store in Monroe.  That hardware store was a source for everything people needed to build their booth at the Faire.  At that point, booths weren’t expected to be permanent.  I brought up three pieces of material because hay bales are very itchy to sit on. My vision was that I would sit on one, the client would sit opposite me and in between on the third hay bale I’d spread the tarot.

Tarot was the first modality I started with at the Faire.  Over time, I’d add palmistry.  Then when we could figure out a power system based on solar panels, we could do astrology using the computer to  print out a chart.  Finally, after visiting Lilydale in 2019, I realized that I could do Past Lives.  I’d been interested in Past Lives for a long time.  Back around 1997, I’d taken Brian Weiss’s course in Past Life Regression Therapy and added that to my certifications as a psychotherapist.The Faire didn’t seem like a great place to do hypnosis, thus I didn’t bring that to the Faire.  However, the Lilydale experience in 2019 was a turning point.  I realized how much more I could bring to the table, my reading table and I still have more to explore, yet.

That first day of the 1979 season, of course I got there early to set up.  So did everyone else.  Across the lane from me was a silversmith, a jeweler and his stand.  Next to me was a potter and his pottery.  My spot, which was exactly the same spot where I am now, 11 Mystic Way, (although it didn’t have that name yet) was the end of the road, the very far back of the Faire.  Maybe the Mud Show, yes I think there might have been a Mud Show back then, maybe not.  If it was there, it was probably the only thing past us.  Again, I don’t think the falconry show was there yet, but If I’m wrong, it was even further back.  I think we were the end of the booths.

That morning, Saturday, July 28, 1979 at 11 am the Faire opened.  It was slated to run for 6 weeks that year.  I was ready, nervous about getting clients, and seated in front of the potter and across from the jeweler. Waiting.

Both the jeweler and the potter told me not to get my hopes up, not to raise my expectations.

I was calm.  I felt it was going to work.

About noon, my first client sat down.  She was a middle aged woman.  Not heavy, not slender, older.  I can still picture her: dark brown hairin a chin length bob, light make up, sunglasses.  She sat down across from me for a tarot reading.

I don’t remember the actual reading.  I was very absorbed in doing it. So absorbed that I didn’t realize that by the time I finished the first reading, I had a line of clients stretching out beyond my hay bales.  

The first client at the Faire was a woman going through a major life transition.  These are the people who have always sought me out.  Right now on Substack I’m writing a story about a young woman who becomes a creative arts therapist.  It’s not a memoir, but it does draw on some incidents that come pretty close to what happened to me and propelled me in the direction of becoming a psychotherapist who incorporates creative arts therapy.

This woman had recently lost her husband.  He had died.  She was in mourning.  She was grieving. 

I was in grad school heading toward the next iteration of my career path.  I didn’t know yet, that my career path would actually be two parallels.  Perhaps I should have known, being a Gemini rising that my career would have twin paths.  It’s so obvious in retrospect.

Ever since then, I’ve been a tarot reader and a worker in the spiritual counseling world with astrology, palmistry, past lives and more.  In addition, I became a trained psychotherapist with an MA in Psychology, concentration on clinical and later a MSW (Masters of Social Work) and later still the equivalent of a third Masters in Educational Technology. I’ve been a collector of certifications with an alphabet soup of training that I could place after my name.

Now I’m combining my coaching training and experience with my somatics training and my work in astrology.  I’m thinking of calling it Astro-Embodiment Coaching.  It’s a strengths based foundation that supports figuring out your developmental timing and helps you to make big, life changing shifts by understanding the somatics of embodiment.  I look forward to connecting with you at the Faire this year or through my website for a zoom appointment www.idivinations.net