About Maya

Maya Verghese is the lead tarot and astrology writer at Raka. She has spent more than a decade working with Western tropical astrology, the Rider-Waite tarot tradition, and depth psychology, and writes for adult readers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

Her approach is honest, mildly skeptical, and rooted in a simple premise: a tarot card or a natal chart is a mirror for self-reflection, not a prediction of what the universe will do to you. She writes for readers who want the symbols taken seriously without being sold a fantasy.

Before writing full-time, Maya worked in publishing and edited essay collections on comparative religion and Jungian thought. She reads charts and pulls cards for a private client list and has contributed to independent zines and the Raka blog since 2026.

Credentials & expertise

10+ years studying Western tropical astrology (natal charts, transits, progressions, synastry)
10+ years working with the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot tradition + comparative deck study
Background in Jungian depth psychology and archetypal criticism
Trained under independent practitioners; not affiliated with any commercial certification body
Writes primarily for adult readers in USA, UK, Canada, and Australia

What Maya believes about these tools

"Tarot and astrology are technologies of attention. They work not by predicting the future but by focusing your reflection on what you already sense but haven't named. A good reading is a good conversation with yourself, catalyzed by an image or a chart. That's the whole trick."

Maya is explicit that tarot and astrology are not substitutes for professional therapy, medical care, financial advice, or legal counsel. Her writing is positioned as self-reflection and cultural education only.

Editorial standards & process

Every article on the Raka blog is drafted, fact-checked, and edited by Maya to a consistent standard:

Sources are named. Any historical claim, astronomical fact, or research citation names the author, book, or study directly (Waite, Pollack, Wen, Judith, Miller, NASA, Pew, Statista, etc.).
No fake statistics. Every stat cited is either from a named published source or explicitly flagged as an in-practice observation from client work.
No fake reviews or testimonials. Raka does not publish invented user quotes or fabricated star ratings.
AI-assisted, human-authored. Maya uses AI tools for research synthesis and first-draft scaffolding, but every published article is edited, fact-checked, and voiced by a human before it ships.
Corrections are transparent. When an error is found, the article is updated with a modification date and, where material, a visible correction note.
Not medical or financial advice. Every guide includes a clear disclaimer that tarot, astrology, and numerology are for self-reflection only — not substitutes for licensed professionals.

How Maya writes about these subjects

Maya's writing draws on three overlapping traditions:

Western tropical astrology — the calendar-based, seasonally-anchored tradition documented in the work of Liz Greene, Steven Forrest, Chani Nicholas, and Susan Miller. This is the framework used across US, UK, Canada, and Australia and is distinct from Vedic (sidereal) astrology practiced in India.
Rider-Waite-Smith tarot — the 1909 deck commissioned by A.E. Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, published in 1910. Interpretations draw on Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Rachel Pollack's Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, and Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot.
Jungian depth psychology — treating symbols as reflections of the unconscious, following Carl Jung's writing on individuation and shadow work, and Marie-Louise von Franz's later work on fairy tales and archetype.

Contact Maya

For editorial questions, corrections, expert quote requests, or guest post proposals: [email protected]. For press & media inquiries specifically: [email protected]. Maya is available for journalist interviews and podcast appearances on topics including tarot history, sun-sign astrology myth vs. practice, numerology fundamentals, and the ethics of AI-assisted spiritual content.

Published articles on Raka (160+)

Browse the full Raka blog for every article Maya has written — 160+ in-depth guides averaging 3,500-8,000 words each, covering angel numbers, astrology, tarot, chakras, life path numbers, and daily horoscopes.