I knew that I liked Judith Aurora Ryan’s style the moment she walked into the Starting Point Bar & Grill. Why? Because the astrologer and feng shui master was carrying a leopard-print purse nearly identical to mine. Did she bring hers because she had a premonition?
While Ryan considers herself psychic, the matching accessory has nothing to do with that kind of phenomena.
“It’s just Jersey!” laughs Ryan, who grew up in Edison and bought a home here in 2005.
She was drawn to the area because it was convenient for her commute to area colleges where she used to teach courses in feng shui. It’s especially convenient when she works as a lecturer on cruise ships berthed in Bayonne.
Ryan and I share Jersey-girl status, but the similarities end there. I have no psychic abilities, and while I do like reading my horoscope, I must admit, prior to hanging out with Ryan, I didn’t know what feng shui was all about.
“In feng shui you take the living space and divide it into different quadrants,” Ryan says. Each section represents different aspects of life like career or relationships. According to feng shui principles these areas are improved by introducing objects that are in harmony with the specific elements that rule each quadrant. Ryan facilitates “cures” to bring balance to her clients’ homes and businesses.
“It’s something that will bring greater peace and more prosperity and health into the home,” Ryan says, adding that her services make spaces “balanced and more functional.”
Star Struck
Her astrological charts and forecasts are designed to help clients find personal balance as well. Many clients consult Ryan before making major decisions in life. An astrological chart, she says, is “like a photo of where the stars were when you were born.”
As with most professional astrologists, Ryan takes into account the exact time, date, and place that a client is born.
“If I do somebody’s chart I always ask them if there’s specific things that they want me to go into,” Ryan says. People often ask what occupation they should pursue. “Your chart isn’t rubberstamped that you should only be in one career,” she says, “but it can help you see what to concentrate on.”
Ryan gravitated toward this line of work because she grew up listening to her grandmother give psychic readings in her home.
“I would just sit there and watch her when I was small,” Ryan recalls. “I was always sort of like her pet. I was always fascinated by it. When I was little I just assumed that everybody saw things and experienced things and had dreams that were very prophetic. Then I found out that they didn’t when I started going to school.”
But astrology was in her blood.
“When I was in my teens I wanted to study astrology because I wanted to understand myself better,” she says. “I went to college and did all of the quote ‘normal things,’ like taking liberal arts and business classes. I was always doing readings on the side. I had to decide what I wanted to do, which is it going to be?”
Though Ryan thinks that there are a lot of misconceptions about psychics, she hasn’t encountered many problems with that.
“It’s all caricatures. It’s their way of trying to make fun of something that they don’t understand,” she says of the way psychics are portrayed in the media, but she avoids that stereotype. “Whenever I lecture or teach I look professional,” she says. “I don’t look like I stepped out of the world of Shirley MacLaine.”
Ryan is sharp and witty, but she has trouble articulating what it’s like to have psychic talents.
“It’s a knowing. I can’t really explain it,” she says. “Some people can hear better than other people musically; maybe I’m more fine-tuned like that.”
She declines when I ask her to give me a reading on the spot. She says that we could always schedule something for a later date, but the loud bar isn’t an ideal place for a reading.
In the end, Ryan followed a path that has led her to exciting opportunities like international travel, television appearances, and radio spots. She also does readings for private parties. I’m no psychic, but if you ask me, her stars are in alignment.—BLP
Visit astrologybyjudithryan.com or call (201) 858-1689