An Interview With Charles St. Psychic Bianca .đ–Ą”
Written by Brooke Harrison
Collage courtesy of Brooke Harrison
Amongst the brownstone buildings that adorn Boston’s Beacon Hill is Psychic Bianca’s shop, which I have passed by countless times while walking down Charles St. and have always viewed as a sort of landmark for this area. Her shop has intrigued me long before I moved to the neighborhood, and I was always immensely drawn to the red neon “PSYCHIC” sign hanging in the window that shines so brightly whenever it’s dark out, almost beckoning you to go to it.
I’ve always been very into spirituality; I’m obsessed with astrology (I’m a queer woman/person let’s be fr that was bound to happen at some point), and have been practicing giving oracle readings for a couple of years now, but I’ve always wanted to pick the brains of those who practice any form a spirituality professionally. So I decided that before I inevitably go get a reading done in the future by Mrs Bianca, I wanted to get to know her and how she came to be the powerful spiritual being she is. I went to her shop one day to see if she was available to talk, but she was not. So I ended up calling her number from the shop website, and we happily scheduled a sit-down interview so I could learn more about her multi-generational gift and hear the advice she has for those of us who want to dive deeper into that part of themselves. read the Q&A below!
Q/Brooke: Thank you so much for meeting with me! Can you introduce yourself and tell me your age, and where are you from?
A/Bianca: My name is Bianca, I’m fifty-five I was born and raised here in Boston. I have a background of Greek and Italian descent.
Q/Brooke: So, how did you first discover your psychic abilities?
A/Bianca: It started off with dreams and visions at a very young age. And, my mother helped me to enhance my psychic ability because [she] has it as well. Or had it as well, she passed on. She started to help me to enhance my gift at five. And I started to recognize dreams, visions. Then, I started to get feelings about people when you would meet them or shake hands with them. It started as predictions, and then it just grew as I grew.
Q/Brooke: Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss. What did she use to try to help you tap into your ability?
A/Bianca: She helped me with her visions and explained what was going on. You know, it sort of defined what I was seeing and feeling.
Q/Brooke: Oh, I see, she was having you place a name to what you were seeing?
A/Bianca: Exactly.
Q/Brooke: Did she use any objects or tools like crystals or what have you?
A/Bianca: It's not that she used them, but anyone with any psychic ability would have what we call instruments or tools, which help to escalate or help to multiply your psychic ability. Which would be with the cards or your palm in general, or else it's just a psychic ability.
Q/Brooke: What would you say is the main tool that you use?
A/Bianca: My psychic ability. Without the psychic ability, everything would be irrelevant. I feel more comfortable using the tarot cards because the tarot cards are the oldest means and usually the most accurate means of telling your past, present, and future.
Q/ Brooke: How did you first get into using Tarot in your readings to help enhance your psychic ability, and who gave you your first Tarot deck?
A/Bianca: When did I start, or how did I start?
Q/Brooke: Both?
A/Bianca: My mother gave me them and she helped me to enhance and teach me how to do the Tarot. It’s not something that I've read out the directions that you get when you buy a tarot deck, you know? So she helped me to define a layout that I feel comfortable with, and that I'm able to predict more in-depth with my ability. And I started doing Tarot when I was about seven. My dream vision started around five.
Q/Brooke: Would you just do it for family members and friends?
A/Bianca: Yeah, well, not so much family members, but friends, yeah.
Q/Brooke: Is there a line with family members that you don't wanna cross with that?
A/Bianca: When your spiritual ability or your psychic ability gets stronger, I think there's a part that just automatically shuts down so that you're not able to make in-depth predictions for close family or close, close friends.
Q/Brooke: Oh, interesting, is it that you're too attached to them?
A/Bianca: Yeah, I think it's too attached, and if something bad were to happen, I think it would sort of crush someone to know a specific date and a time.
Q/Brooke: How long have you been here at 127 Charles Street?
A/Bianca: Seventeen years.
Q/Brooke: Oh my God, that's so amazing. When did you know that this is what you wanted to do as a profession?
A/Bianca: At five I didn't choose that, it chose me. It's when it chose to work through me.
Q/Brooke: Have you had a lot of long-term clients who come back to you over the years, and if yes, what's your longest clientele?
A/Bianca: Yes, and one for thirty years.
Q/Brooke: Wow, that's...wow. When you have long-term clients like that, does it ever reach that bond, like that point you were talking about with the attachment or no?
A/Bianca: No, because they’re clients, we don't go out on a social level. You know, if I were to go out with them on a social level and, you know, perhaps meet all of their families and attend family gatherings, it would probably be that way. But we don't cross that line, so they could remain clients.
Q/Brooke: What other spiritual practices do you engage in besides your psychic ability, like astrology, or anything else?
A/Bianca: I do astrology. I also do chakra healing, energy healing, and chakra rebalancing. My chakra and energy work comes from my psychic ability to heal by leading people into the light and withdrawing negative energy from their chakras. Astrology I picked up through reading and learning, but it’s easier to pick up astrology when you're a born gifted psychic. I work through the powers of crystal stones, which have healing power over an individual on a spiritual level.
Q/Brooke: Do you have a favorite crystal of yours or one you use the most?
A/Bianca: I love amethyst, it’s my favorite crystal. I'm just drawn to the purple.
Q/Brooke: I have to agree, it's so beautiful. I have a minor obsession with amethyst because it was my grandma's favorite crystal. That and rose quartz for me are my big ones.
A/Bianca: Yes! Rose quartz would be my second. And clear quartz, I think, would be my third.
Q/Brooke: Yeah, I agree. Also selenite.
A/Bianca: Yes, it's so powerful!
Q/Brooke: How would a typical Tarot or a palm reading go for you, and could you describe how those two differ?
A/Bianca: Well, with the tarot cards, [my client] would shuffle the cards so their energy would be on the [deck], and then they would choose an amount of cards that would be in the layout. So, it's basically them choosing what they're drawn to. With a palm reading, it’s reading the lines of your palm, which are already there; you can't choose those. So, that's why the palm reading would be past, present, and future, and love. The tarot card is usually the oldest means and sometimes the most accurate means of telling your past, present, and future.
Q/Brooke: Are there certain questions or certain aspects of life that you think that palm readings are better at besides the past, present, and future?
A/Bianca: I think it depends on the individual and their past lives, too. It’s also about what you feel more comfortable with. If you don't believe in the Tarot and don't like the Tarot, it's not gonna be as accurate. Or if you fear it; a lot of people fear the Tarot.
Q/Brooke: Where do you think that fear comes from?
A/Bianca: I don't know. I think they feel it's a darker force sometimes, but it's not. It's all basically from the energy of the person who's doing them, like anything. If anyone has an evil intent, it's going to be through dark; if someone has a good intent, it's gonna be light.
Q/Brooke: Do you ever feel that way about your ability, that sometimes it gets seen as something darker? Have you had overall good experiences with having your shop on Charles Street?
A/Bianca: I think people sometimes perceive it to be, yeah, but I don't feel that it is. And yes, it's been very good. I think in any type of business, especially in anything that deals with spirituality, I feel that [people] have to see that you're lasting and established. And that's what's very important in any community.
Q/Brooke: Did you have any shops or psychic businesses before you opened up here?
A/Bianca: Yes, I did. My first shop that I opened up was in Melrose. I had that for about five years, and then I had this opportunity. And I also have three locations as we speak right now; this is not my only location.
Q/Brooke: That’s amazing! Do you travel between the three?
A/Bianca: I have my daughters who help me with the other two, but yes, I do travel periodically throughout all three.
Q/Brooke: So, did you have a similar experience with your daughters in helping them activate their abilities?
A/Bianca: Yes, I did!
Q/Brooke: Wow. That's so amazing how it’s been passed down from generation to generation. Wow, I just got an excited chill down my spine; that's so cool. What is it like having a family business?
A/Bianca: Yes, it is. I wouldn’t give it up for the world, it’s rare and great.
Q/Brooke: What role do you think astrology can play in determining a reading?
A/Bianca: A lot because our astrological signs have a lot to do with everything in our lives. It is our personalities, how we perceive things, how we love, how we hate, you know, it has a lot to do with not just spirituality and readings, but [with] life.
Q/Brooke: I completely agree, I would say that's the spiritual practice I'm the most tapped into, so I have to ask, what is your sign?
A/Bianca: Virgo!
Q/Brooke: AAAAHHH I’m a Cancer, but most of my best friends are Virgos! That’s so funny...
A/Bianca: It is. My mother was a Cancer, my husband is a Cancer, and one of my sons are Cancer.
Q/Brooke: Oh my God. It’s crazy how you can be so attracted to and surrounded by the same sign. Have you ever been surprised by a one-off client’s openness and the way that they've approached a reading? Like a tourist just walking in?
A/Bianca: No, [they] doesn't shock me with [their] openness, it does shock me how sometimes people could be blocked or tortured. They'll walk in, pay for a reading and there will be things that I know that are true and they'll say no, no, no. Then, at the end of the reading they'll be like, oh, we were just testing you, you know, and that was true and that was true. And that, you know, is what it is.
Q/Brooke: What would you say is the practice that you engage in the most every day on your own?
A/Bianca: Definitely meditation, grounding, and prayer.
Q/Brooke: What does getting into a meditative or a prayer mindset look like for you?
A/Bianca: Clear. You have to be in a peaceful place that you'd like to be, [with] not too much disturbance around you. Although the older that you get, if you're going into that meditation, you're going in deep. It doesn't make a difference what’s surrounding you, you're still in there. And just stay positive because when you're dealing with positive energy; negative energy always tries to interfere. So just make sure you don't have your phone with you, so as not to get disturbed…
Q/Brooke: I have noticed that a lot of spiritual people that I know and people who practice it professionally tend to be women. Do you think that part of spirituality is being connected to the female spirit?
A/Bianca: No, I think the men have it just as well, but I feel that women are just more open to it and are willing to tap into it. Some men are more embarrassed than others and don’t feel that it fits in their masculine part. Or, you know, a lot of men who have it fear it more.
Q/Brooke: Do you see that happen with your clients as well? Are they mostly women?
A/Bianca: Yeah. Although back in the day, it used to be all women. As the years go by, there are more men who come in than usual.
Q/Brooke: When do you think that change started happening, if you could say a time frame?
A/Bianca: Only about five or six years ago.
Q/Brooke: Oh wow, very recently. Have they also surprised you with being guarded with the readings?
A/Bianca: In the beginning, but when you first predict a couple of things, they just open up more, sometimes more than women do.
Q/Brooke: Do you view giving readings as a very emotional practice?
A/Bianca: I think a lot of it is emotional. I think in the beginning, when you start doing readings, I think it's more emotional. But it's like you have to turn off your feelings sometimes, you know? That's like saying a surgeon can't see the sight of blood, you know, you get immune to it. But we always have hearts and everything, so yes, emotionally you try to detach yourself, but from time to time it could be very emotional.
Q/Brooke: What would you say is your biggest piece of advice you could give to someone who's trying to tap into their psychic ability, or is getting into spirituality in general, for the first time?
A/Bianca: Well, they definitely have to crawl before they walk. It's not something you could really leap into. But the most important thing is to be grounded. Also, a psychic ability is an intuition. Everyone has an intuition, but some are stronger than others. It's about how much time and energy you're willing to put into enhancing your ability. It's like anything, if you want to be successful in your career and you have a particular career in mind, you have to study for that career, go to college for that career, and practice that career. It's the same thing as a career, but it's more meaningful, you know, it's like artistry. You know you have it within you because it's a form of art. And, you know, sometimes we won't be as famous or make as much as other people make, you know, but it's your calling. It’s something that gives you peace. So, the most important thing to enhance is patience and grounding.
Q/Brooke: What headspace do you think they should try to come have when doing a reading for others?
A/Bianca: I think they should come in with a clear space. I don't think they should think about being positive or negative. I think they should just have a clear mind and an open heart. I think that's important.
Q/Brooke: Do you also think that people should maybe dive into their ancestry to see if there may be some ancestral spirituality that they could tap into?
A/Bianca: They can, but I think [for] everyone, if they dig so deep, it all leads back to spirituality. It’s different forms of spirituality, but yeah.
Q/Brooke: Do you ever see your Greek and Italian background come into the way that you practice your spirituality?
A/Bianca: Oh, yes, it has a lot to do with being old school. Believe it or not, ethnic backgrounds are more in tune on a spiritual level than any other people, but you have to have a strong background, a strong root.
Q/Brooke: Do you think that if you do have that background, and you don't tap into it, you might miss an aspect of your spirituality?
A/Bianca: No, I just think it'll help, but I don't think you'll miss anything, no.
Q/Brooke: Okay, amazing. Thank you so much. This has been so amazing.
