Purple Sage Herbs & Gifts offers many essentials among the herbal tea and gift world, but now a new ingredient has been added to expand the store’s essence.
Meet Kenn Ward, a spiritual advisor who has recently set out to give tarot readings at Purple Sage on Main Street in Middletown.
Ward said he uses a hand-crafted Sumerian Tarot Deck from an ancient Sumerian transcript made out of picture jasper. He has re-drawn the cards many times over the years to keep them in superior condition.
“I saw the deck in 1993 and had to have it,” he said. “The price of the deck is expensive and I have re-drawn it several times. Re-drawing the cards puts my own personal energy into the deck.”
Ward utilizes the “Knot of Skulds” cards where he draws nine cards out of 80, and sometimes draws 12 more cards to gather further information on an individual. The reading represents a person’s past, present and future.
“It gives a general life reading,” he said.
Ward said he offers alternative readings as well from a separate Germanic rune deck.
“I have had positive and negative readings,” he said.
Ward found his interest with spiritual readings in the 1970s, when he was stationed in Germany for the United States military. He said he carved a set of Germanic runes into a one-inch dowel rod and painted it gold.
“Different guys in my unit would come to me for a reading,” he said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, depending on the runes.”
Ward has given readings from the tarot deck since the early 1990s, and started giving interpretations for his friends and family.
“I have always been a very spiritual person,” he said.
Ward has lived all over the United States, and moved to Middletown in 2001. He and his wife, Aurelia, are herbalists for their company Herbal Vista LLC. Ward is also a computer programmer and a certified Reiki master, which is in association with spiritual healing.
This is the first time he is giving tarot readings on a more professional level. Ward said he knew Elizabeth Barbato, owner of Purple Sage, previously and that is how he became involved with offering his spiritual talent.
“Elizabeth was asking if I knew anyone who did psychic tarot readings,” he said. “I told her I did. It was the right place and the right time, and I said, ‘let’s see where it goes’.”
Ward started with Purple Sage around Mother’s Day this year. Barbato said so far she has benefited from having him, and she decided to have a tarot reader so the store would offer different things to the public.
“I like having diversity for the shop,” she said. “It brings different people in.”
Ward said people should visit to receive a reading for two key reasons.
“The political answer is because it is for entertainment,” he said. “The spiritual answer is it gives advice from the spiritual world. People come to me to use the tarot deck. So I give a spirit guide reading.”
Ward said he wants to build a following with individuals who come to him on a regular basis, and hopes to help people.
“I have been doing this for 30 years,” he said. “I have had people come back and tell me their reading was right. For me, it is about just giving the reading. The readings do not need to make sense to me, they just need to make sense to the person.”
The tarot readings are offered on weekdays and on select Saturdays. They are open to the public for walk-ins, and appointments are recommended for Saturdays.
The cost is $40 per 30-minute reading with a 10 percent discount on the first reading.
For more information or to make an appointment, call Purple Sage Herbs & Gifts at 378-2123.
Middletown, Del. —
