What do you do if you feel you need a change in direction?
If you’re Miss Gypsy Whitemoon, you toss in your job working for the government, put your three degrees (in criminology, teaching and social work with honours) into mothballs, and take to the road, reading people’s lives through a deck of playing cards.
What Miss Whitemoon does is called “cartomancy” (using a deck of ordinary playing cards to do readings, rather than tarot cards), and she started learning the art at her grandmother’s knee at the age of four. She also happens to have five generations of gypsy heritage (from Yorkshire) behind her.
Let’s backtrack a bit. How did I come into contact with Miss Gypsy Whitemoon?
Like many people, I did a double-take at the sight of her gypsy caravan parked on a site at the Junee park, a hundred or so metres away from ours. I wandered over to ask if I could take a photo, and found Miss Whitemoon packing up, ready to move on to the next festival at Port Fairy. She had been at Junee for the weekend, doing readings at the annual Rhythm ‘n’ Rail Festival. “I do 40 festivals a year,” she told me, “so I’m on the road a lot of the time!”
We started chatting, and of course I asked first about the caravan. Where did it come from?
“I started off doing readings in a tent at the markets,” said Miss Gypsy. “Then I thought I needed something to give myself an image, so I started looking at 50s-style caravans. I didn’t see anything I wanted… then one day, my three-year-old daughter bashed the keyboard of the computer, and up came a page on ebay with this caravan on it! I contacted the seller and arranged to see it.
“He was a country and western singer who used to perform from a stage out the back of the van, then got too old to continue. The van had been sitting in his garage for 15 years! It was mouldy and needed new canvas and wheels – but I knew it was just right.”
Miss Gypsy and the singer negotiated a price, and the van was hers.
Years later, she has scores of fans all over Australia, who are only too willing to testify to her accuracy. And of course, she causes a stir at every caravan park she enters!
Some comments from Miss Gypsy Whitemoon’s fans
You can find out more about Miss Gypsy Whitemoon and what she does at her website: www.missgypsywhitemoon.com.au
It’s more than likely that sometime soon, she’ll turn up at a festival near you!
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Hello Marg & Rob,
I so enjoyed reading about Miss Gypsy Whitemoon.
I saw her van at the recent Cobargo Music Festival. I planned on a visit to her to find out a little of her story and perhaps of mine but the music and the happy hours took up all my time and I have sinced wondered about her.
Well I wonder no more, thanks to you for sharing your meeting with Miss Gypsy.
Cheers Dael
Yes, she was telling me all the festivals she had appeared at/was planning to appear at… and Cobargo got a mention.
I just wish we’d arrived a day earlier in time to get a reading… when I caught up with her she was about to head off!
We meet so many interesting people on the road. And we’ll feature them all! (Well, all the ones we’ve got time to talk to.)
So, happy hours took up all your time, hey? Sounds like you’d be a good person to meet in a park.
Miss Gypsy Whitemoon is none of the above I’m sorry. I recently booked a 15 minute reading with her at the Tamworth Country Festival. I found her to be moody, sarcastic and not one but accurate! She was not interested in my session and kept drinking tea and checking her mobile phone constantly! My friends also had negative experiences with her, save your money and time and go elsewhere. She is not a nice person and a crook in my opinion.