Future looks bright for Tea & Tarot sessions

Wondering what’s in your cards? Why not figure it out for yourself?

Avananda Csiszar (pronounced Ahva-nanda), a Siesta Key yoga teacher and former surfing instructor from Hawaii, has begun teaching people how to read their own futures.

Dubbed “Tarot & Tea,” the sessions, which are held every other Thursday at Local Coffee + Tea, on Siesta Key, focus on teaching people the meanings behind each of the 22 cards in the Major Arcana tarot deck. Each meeting is devoted to learning about just one card.

“Tarot is our original mother tongue,” Csiszar says. “It’s the language of spirit. It touches us at levels words cannot. It’s the original imagery. It’s how we express things that go beyond our verbal capacity.”

On Sept. 2 she hosted her first Tea & Tarot class, during which she focused on what she calls “one of the most complex and subtle cards” — the fool card.

The gatherings, Csiszar says, combine her two loves — sipping loose-leaf tea and interpreting the tarot. Although she does give private card readings, Tarot & Tea is structured like an educational outreach class.
Csiszar doesn’t read people’s futures, she merely explains the significance of the archetypes and icons associated with each card.

“Everyone has an intuitive sense of their destiny, but they don’t have a way of getting in tune with it,” she says. “Once you learn how to read the tarot, it becomes a tool you can have hidden in your closet, another thing to help you on your way.”

Local yogis might already be familiar with Csiszar. She teaches free yoga classes from 8 to 9 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday morning on Siesta Key Beach.

A former surfing instructor from Hawaii, Csiszar looks decades younger than her 58 years. Tanned, toned and blond, she looks like she just stepped off the beach in Maui, Hawaii, where she lived for 18 years and taught yoga and surfing to tourists and islanders.

“It was just as nice as it sounds,” she says dreamily. “People underestimate how easy and accessible surfing is.”

She feels the same way about tarot cards.

Two years ago, Csiszar moved to Siesta Key to be closer to her parents, Osprey residents, who fled Hungary for Canada when she was 5 years old.

“I’ve taught physical things for most of my life,” Csiszar says. “What I crave now at this phase in my life is to transmit much more metaphysical information. I don’t want to impose my opinion on people. I just simply want to share what I believe rings true.”

Last month she began taping the 30-minute BLAB TV program, “Tarot Astro Insights,” with local celebrity astrologer Bridgett Walther (Walther’s clients include Cher, Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora).

Like her Tea & Tarot sessions, the TV series will include 22 episodes — one episode for each card in the Major Arcana deck.