Master of the mystic arts: Meet Louisville's Big Four Bridge resident fortune teller

Steven Lafferty readily admits the crystal ball is mostly for show, but the tarot and archetype cards are tools he uses to draw from the past, present, and future.

And the playing cards? Well, those are for the kids. Standard magic tricks aren't beneath this mystic, either.

Somedays you can find Lafferty and his braided goatee near the center of the Big Four Bridge invoking an unusual combination of prayer and old magic. His family is Melungeon, a group of typically Appalachian people that are of mixed European, Native American, or African descent. The 30-something grew up reading tarot cards, sipping on mead from a bullhorn during pagan rituals, and attending Christian church services in an Eastern Kentucky hollow near Pikeville.

He's got a growing file of video testimonials from clients about the accuracy of his predictions, and recently, he began working with a videographer to document his craft. Eventually, he plans to open a metaphysical shop, but for the moment, Lafferty is most well-known as the fortune teller on Louisville's iconic Big Four Bridge. Recently, I spent an afternoon on the Ohio River getting to know this waterfront fixture and his mystical work.

Time and time again, he's pondered his own life while gazing out at the river. People are naturally drawn to the water when they're looking for answers, he says.

And whether you believe in his methods or not ― for $20 a reading ― Lafferty has plenty of answers and empathy to share.

Sitting on the bridge with Lafferty feels like chatting with a preacher, a therapist, and a classic irreverent uncle on a sitcom all at once. The fortune teller can pray, tell a crude joke and swear in a single breath. He's also candid about his abilities, and he doesn't try to pin rationality or science on his magic.

"I can't make sense of half of it," he told me. "That's why I just leave it up to the belief in God."

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Often he's not even in the same room as his clients. He does readings over the phone or sometimes even through social media. Lafferty says he doesn't need the cards, crystals, candles, and dice he brings to the bridge to read fortunes. That setup identifies him as a psychic more than anything else, and I didn't need second sight to see it was working. Passersby were genuinely curious, and even when their feet kept moving, their eyes stayed on Lafferty.

It wasn't long before Jahleah Hollis, 14, and her uncle came up to the table. The teenager took a seat in front of the candles, and Lafferty began flipping cards.

"Don't trip," he told her. "Everything is always going to be exactly as God intended, so there's nothing to be anxious about or upset or nervous."

He turned over a few more cards.

"But you don't have your anger under control," he continued. "So, you shut down, right? And you distance yourself from people."

She nodded.

More cards fell on the table.

"You still have a broken heart, right? That's what you're going through," Lafferty said.

She nodded, and then he went as far as to guess why the young man she was pining over wasn't interested in her.

A small look of shock crept across her face.

"Oh my gosh, I thought about that," she told him.

"So pray about things you can't change, OK? Quit trippin' about boys," he said. "Worry about your relationship with God and your schoolwork."

After she left the table, Lafferty told me doing a reading is a lot like looking into a filing cabinet. Sometimes that means catching a glimpse of the most embarrassing thing that happened to someone in high school, the worst thing they've ever done, or a secret interest they don't want anyone to know about.

He can't stop reading minds any more than the human mind can stop thinking, he said. There's no way to turn it off, so instead, he tries to use his power for good and believes God puts him in certain situations at certain times to help people.

"It seems like everything goes a little bit better when I embrace what (God's) doing through me," he said.

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A few minutes later, Christopher Van Norman, a self-described skeptic, and wanderer, who's hitchhiking through all 48 continental United States, joined us at the table. The two men had talked for 45 minutes the night before and it was clear the experience had rattled Van Norman.

"Don’t tell me any more, man," he said, laughing sheepishly.

While Van Norman wouldn't go as far as saying Lafferty had turned him into a "believer," he did say the fortune teller was "incredibly knowledgeable and intuitive." Their conversation had been one of the most meaningful exchanges he’d had in the 28 states he'd already traveled.

"He just brought up a lot of stuff that I've been thinking about, that is really very relevant to what I'm doing," Van Norman explained. "He had words for things that I didn't. … I'm a skeptic and I didn't feel that way with him. I didn't feel like he was duping me in any way."

By the time Lafferty passed me the tarot deck to shuffle, I'd seen enough that I was curious about what he'd say.

Full disclosure, Courier Journal readers, without my own knowledge of the spiritual world, I didn’t follow all the details of what Lafferty told me or the specifics about how each card played into my life. My account, here, won't do the full reading justice.

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He asked me if I could feel a tingling in my fingers (I could) and a throbbing in the back of my head (ah, maybe?). Then he told me I'm a sweet person (I like to think I am), and that I live a boring life.

I made a face.

Then he explained that boring wasn’t bad, it just wasn't wild.

I suppose my life is much quieter than some of the people, who seek him out on the bridge.

He told me he sees good things ahead for me. Really good things. (Woohoo!)

He asked if I wake up every night at 3:33 a.m. (Not that I'm aware of.) He suggested I keep an eye out for number patterns. Those are moments, he said, when there's something staring into my consciousness and directing me.

He said there was something related to my health that will be worth celebrating soon. (Great!)

Then he started digging into my relationships with people in my life.

He laid down a few more cards. His face sort of twisted. He flinched.

"You've been stepped on," he told me. "Someone stepped on you."

He paused and was visibly uncomfortable.

"Your whole demeanor just shifted," I told him, watching him, curiously.

"Yeah, whatever that was, was awful," he said, as though he could feel what I felt.

His wording was just specific enough that I had a guess at what he may have found in my mind. But rather than go down that painful rabbit hole, from there he took the reading in a different direction.

I was relieved. Who knows, maybe he knew that, too.

So he told me I was going to help someone important to me through a tough situation, and he offered a specific suggestion of what it might be.

He looked sad when he said it.

I felt crushed when I heard it.

The idea of it made my heart sink, so much so, that a full week later even naming it makes me uncomfortable. So I won't.

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If seems like I'm being vague with the specifics of the reading Lafferty gave me, I suppose I am.

Assuming there is a filing cabinet in my mind filled with the best and worst moments from my past, present, and future — I'm not sure I want to see what's in it, let alone give a stranger full access to it.

Maybe I should have thought of that before I told my editor I'd write this column.

But this column was never meant to be a critique or investigation. It's supposed to be a slice of life about a Louisville man who spends a lot of time in a very popular place.

I’m not here to tell you whether Lafferty is the real thing, and he colorfully admits he's not sure he is, either. He credits his power to God and says his best days on the bridge are when he gives people a deeper understanding of their lives.

At the very least, he gave me a reading worth being vague about.

Perhaps, that in itself is telling.

Features columnist Maggie Menderski writes about what makes Louisville, Southern Indiana and Kentucky unique, wonderful, and occasionally, a little weird. If you've got something in your family, your town or even your closet that fits that description — she wants to hear from you. Say hello at mmenderski@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4053. Follow along on Instagram and Twitter @MaggieMenderski. 

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Meet the Louisville fortune teller working at the Big Four Bridge