Bernadette Montana

Brid’s Closet

Bernadette Montana has been a popular reading in the NYC area for years; she is well-known for her yearly Beltane ritual and festival held in Cornwall on Hudson.  The maypole ritual at the festival has attracted more than 800 participates, making it one of the largest maypole rituals in North America, if not the world.

Montana, who runs the popular store Brid’s Closet, says she was raised in a magickal atmosphere in Harlem.

“I grew up in a Puerto Rican-Italian family,” she says. “My grandmother used to read Spanish cards.”

She began her occult journey after wandering into Enchantments on East Ninth Street and meeting Lady Rhea.  “I bought many books on witchcraft and tarot,” she says. “It was my first foray into paganism.”

Her journey eventually led her to get initiated into the Progressive Tradition by Janet Farrar, earning three degrees.  Montana has subsequently established her own Star and Crescent Moon coven, based in upstate New York.  She describes her path as progressive witchcraft.

Montana has been reading tarot professionally for more than 30 years.  She is also a natural medium and often will get contacted by passed-over loved ones of a client during a tarot reading.  One of her specialties is finding lost objects, as well as people.

“My approach to tarot reading is less witchy and more practical, based on psychology and practicality,” she says. “I try to encourage people to help themselves. I am blunt and to the point.  I give the client advice to give them hope and clarity.”