I Went to the Ballarat Psychic Expo at a Table Tennis Centre

I dabble in woo-woo. I know my big three (Aries sun, Scorpio moon and Pisces rising). I’ve had a tarot deck since I was 15 when my friend and I both bought a deck from a self-proclaimed witch with long grey hair from a shop in Launceston. I frequently delete my Co-Star app and then re-download it whenever I want to be negged by my phone and the Co-Star copywriters. I fucken’ froth a sparkly rock. And I rewatch Practical Magic every year. 

So when I heard about the psychic expo being held at a table tennis centre (I know) in Ballarat (I know) I had to go along, with my ever-patient partner in tow. I didn’t even realise that table tennis was popular enough to have its own stadium, let alone one in Ballarat. I always thought table tennis seemed like more of a Brisbane thing. 

I wanted to chat to the stallholders and patrons to see what was going on. Has social media changed the landscape of the woo-woo scene? Is the scene bitchy? And most importantly, what colour aura was I? I hoped I was purple mainly because that’s my favourite colour. 

VICE: What brought you both here to the psychic expo today?

Michelle: Trying to find some guidance about where I’m going and where I should be.

Tobi: Yeah, Mum said I was about due for a reading.

What’s your favourite thing about going to a psychic?

Michelle: I don’t like surprises. I’m a little bit edgy about life, life’s fucked up. So, if I can get something that guides me in the right direction, I’m happy.

How often do you get readings? 

Michelle: Every few years, whenever I feel I need one.

Tobi: I haven’t had one since I was 16 and it was all wrong. (Laughs) I was gonna be pregnant as a teenager and travel the world as a journalist. It was by a woman in Beaufort. I was hearing voices as a kid and Mum said, “I’ll take you to a psychologist.” And Dad said, “No, we’re going to a clairvoyant.” 

Michelle: And that turned out shit, didn’t it?

Toni: Well, she didn’t tell me anything true but I never heard voices again, so that’s good. 

Toula, tarot reader from Blackrubi, stallholder 

VICE: Hi Toula, tell me about yourself, what do you do?

Toula: I’ve been reading cards for the last 25 years. I do intuitive reading and also interpreting the cards. It’s more about guidance and giving you hope. I always want people to feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel especially when they’re going through dark times. I say, “There’s something bigger and better coming. You just gotta go through the difficult times and move forward. And if you get stuck in a situation and you can’t move forward, well it’s not going to be good for you, so you need to move forward.”

I just want people to feel good about themselves – there’s always a solution to a problem. And I do numerology. I love numerology.

Oh yeah. That’s numbers, isn’t it?

Numbers! So when were you born?

Toula then, unprompted, did a mini numerology reading on me, calculating in her head and using those calculations to come to some ideas. She said I was data driven, and the next few years will be about money and power and that, because I’m clever, I’m going to get an influx of money. Thanks Toula! 

Do you feel that TikTok and readers on TikTok and Instagram have changed how people expect a reading to be?

Do you know what? I’ve only just started doing readings over the phone, not on TikTok though. And I used to find it strange but I thought I’d try it out. I want to be comfortable with them but I’ll be honest with them because I don’t wanna take anyone for a ride. Bad karma, right? 

I saw one of the stalls was doing aura photos. Finally, my chance! I hoped I was purple! I didn’t care what having a purple aura meant, but I wanted a pretty photo of me in a purpley-pinkish blob. I got my aura photo and reading and then chatted with the woman who did the reading.

Michelle, High Priestess, and aura photographer. Stallholder

VICE: How long have you been doing this for?

Michelle: Since I was 4-years-old. I was born into it. It goes back generations, to my great-great-grandmother. It skipped my grandmother, she made the choice that she didn’t want to be part of it. I have six children, they’re all psychics in different ways and some chose not to do it. Now I’m 53 and I’ve been doing it all my life. And every time I’ve tried to get out of this, I get dragged back in. I started from the age of four: coffee reading. 

Coffee reading? What’s that? Like reading tea leaves? 

It’s a Turkish coffee – a short black. When you get to the bottom, there’s, like, a mud on the bottom, don’t drink the mud of course. And then you twirl it around and put it upside down and wait for five minutes and then you get all these patterns and animals and paths and letters, and then from the handle you get past, present and future. Then from there I started card reading. I use gypsy cards, they’re the ones I grew up reading from childhood.  People say “Oh it must be so much fun.” But I say, “No. It’s actually very draining.” 

Why is it draining? 

A lot of energy work. It’s like if you do physical work and then you get tired at the end of the day, this is mentally and physically so tiring. Just like any job out there is no different. And sometimes [the spirits] don’t leave you alone. 

I’m a real estate agent during the week and so I do psychic work afterwards. 

My aura photo showed that I was green, to yellow and then the edges of my aura were ‘murky’. Michelle, the High priestess and aura photographer, told me the best way to clear my aura up was to, later that day, go outside in the sunshine and stand barefoot on the grass for about 5 minutes. Essentially, she told me to go and touch grass. 

Jordan, 29, lives in Ballarat and Laura, 29, lives in Jan Juc . Patrons. 

VICE: What brought you both here today?

Jordan: We’ve been to it maybe four years ago. And we did like this really cool meditation. It was like an out of body experience. It was really cool, I think about it all the time.

Laura: I use it too, what I learnt that day, when I meditate. 

Did you want to get anything out of today by coming here?

Laura: Maybe get a reading. I did get a reading a little while ago. And I want to get another one but I’m not really sure who to go to. I’ll just walk around and see who feels good. 

Do you get readings often?

Laura: I do my own oracle readings at home and sometimes tarot. Sometimes I do go into a shop, but I save money by doing my own readings at home. But because this is a special event, I’ll get a reading here. 

How do you choose someone?

Laura: It’s who I connect with. Whoever looks into my eyes and who drags me in. 

They do seem to have a lot of eye contact. Do you follow any readers or anything online?

Jordan: I follow a few people on Instagram and stuff, psychics and that. I find this stuff grounding but, like, I’ve never had a reading or anything.

Do you think you’ll get one today?

Jordan: I don’t know. Depends if i wanna spend money. Both Jordan and Laura laugh. 

Laura: It can get a bit pricey. 

Jordan: But sometimes I just don’t wanna know, you know? I feel like I know myself and I just wanna keep it at that.  

Jessie The High Priestess, from The House of Sacerdos. Stallholder. 

VICE: What is a priestess?

Jessie: A priestess is somebody that nurtures community. I create my own herbs and oils and salts. And I help the community along the way, so through ritual I help others. A lot of things I do is teaching the community and helping you become the best version of you. 

Do you come here every year?

Jessie: I do. I try to do as many expos and markets as possible. I love it, it’s great networking.

So everyone here goes to the same expos 

Jessie: We do! We are a big expo family. 

How long have you been doing this?

Jessie: Over 25 years, I think. I’ve only had the business for about three years now. But it’s been ages. I channel, I’m an empath as well. I work with your energy. I cipher it, fix it and then project it back. And I don’t push any belief or spiritual practice. It’s just ritual, basic stuff.

Have TikTok tarot readers and influencers changed the scene in any way?

Jessie: Yeah, I feel like doing a tarot reading for the collective over a 30 second spiel isn’t really what I would call a tarot reading. I mean I could channel in ten minutes, as long as I have a connection there. But I think collective reads, they do work when you’re categorising so per star sign or something like that, but like with TikTok, anybody can buy a tarot deck and jump on TikTok.

At the start of the expo, my partner got so swept up by the whole event he went and got a reading done. He’d never had one done before. After his reading, we were walking around looking at the crystals when a short pointy woman wearing a large sleeveless cream-coloured jumper belted at the waist with an oversized turtleneck sidled up to us. She kind of just appeared, standing too-close directly in front of my partner, her eyes boring into his skull.

“I couldn’t help but overhear – I was at the stall next to the one you went to – I think you got a bad reading.”

”Oh, okay,” he said.

”Yeah, I don’t usually do this but I think you were, quite frankly, ripped off.”

This woman gesticulated wildly with her left hand which was loosely wrapped in a home-job bandage. She was just fully bad-mouthing this other woman.

All morning, all these readers and psychics and crystal-people had been telling me how great the community is and how everyone supports each other, and here was this woman telling us that the other psychic was shit. She finished her pitch by telling my partner he should do a small-business course, and hinted that we should go get a reading from her, after she’d been to the toilet. We left the expo pretty soon after that.  

A few days later I had dinner with a friend who said their sharehouse was haunted.  I told them I know of a few psychics who could probably help.