The Phelps Mansion Museum opened its doors to Binghamton’s spiritual community last Saturday with its third Psychic Fair, which hosted mediums, tarot card readers and psychics in addition to several vendors selling spiritual paraphernalia.

Rose Mundschenk, 32, of Vestal, was one of the organizers and tarot readers at the fair. Raised Roman Catholic, she recalled that as a child, she would ask God questions about the people around her and receive answers through her “clairsentience,” or the ability to hear messages through intuition. Mundschenk became disconnected from religion as she grew up, but as an adult, a difficult breakup led her to revisit her spiritual beliefs.

“Through meditation and tarot, I understood that the love I had been seeking through romantic relationships had been within me this entire time,” Mundschenk wrote in an email. “That instead of looking for love, be love. Embracing that you are whole without needing love from others for your validation. Tarot and meditation is my medicine and allowed me to release emotional codependency.”

Mundschenk is a member of the Gathering Hearts of Light, a small group of women with various religious backgrounds who connected over their psychic and other spiritual abilities. They were the organization behind the fair.

“The goal is to uplift each other and practice our innate skills,” Mundschenk wrote. “Each member of the group has the same desire of providing messages of healing and love.”

Many of the fair’s vendors vouched for the positive impact of the Gathering Hearts of Light and the larger spiritualist community in Binghamton. Mark Troncone, 45, of Endicott, and the owner of Good Vibrations, was a vendor at the fair, selling tumbled and carved crystals. He explained how, despite the pushback from those resistant to new-age spirituality, the Gathering Hearts of Light continues to spread its message.

Lorie Jarrold, 66, of Vestal, who developed the idea for the Psychic Fair, is also a member of the Gathering Hearts of Light, was present at the event, selling handmade bags for crystals, tarot cards and other spiritual or personal objects. Jarrold had a few goals for the fair, including educating the community about spirituality and dispelling stigmas surrounding spiritualist beliefs. She also wanted to share the joy that spirituality brings into her life.

“When you go to a reader, you can connect with your loved ones, and sometimes for some people, that gives them a sense of peace within themselves,” Jarrold said. “For me, to know that there are literally hundreds of people walking around with bags that I made gives me a knowledge that part of my good energy is going out there to the world.”

Amanda Eggleton, the museum’s rentals coordinator, explained why they host events like the Psychic Fair.

“The mansion is so steeped in history that we want to bring that history to more people,” Eggleton said. “We have our own members and our own followers, but when we do different events like the Psychic Fair, that’s bringing in a whole different crowd of people, so it kind of passes on the history to a new group of people.”

The museum hosted the event for the first time last year. Now that the event will be held biannually, community members can expect another Psychic Fair this spring.