Of Fortune-Tellers and Soothsayers: Keepers of Community Well-being
Governments call it fraud. Scientists call it superstition. So why do millions still find solace in the cards and stars?
My city has an ordinance against fortune-telling. When I first saw this I supposed it was a mere artifact of moral panic from yesteryear. But the relatively recent raiding of botánicas in Detroit, citing anti-fortune telling ordinances, indicates that these laws are still being used to target marginalized groups, immigrant communities, and working-class practitioners.
In a country founded on freedom of religion and speech, one would assume that charging curanderas and astrology readers with fraud would seem both an exaggerated use of the term and invitation to a lawsuit. But it appears that the biases against this form of community tending are just too entrenched in the powers that be, to expect their civility and reason.
If you take this legal discrimination and add a pinch of secular fear towards folk medicine, mixed into a menstruum of stigma against mental healthcare in general, then you’ve got the perfect brew of political marginalization.
However, marginalization is not a fashion — it’s a way of life.
And for just as long as fortune-tellers have been threatened with exile or death in ancient Rome (Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficiis, 81 BCE), condemned by secular authorities for practicing “witchcraft” (England’s Witchcraft Act, 1542), or “moved along” by anti-vagrancy laws (New York’s Gypsy Banishment Ordinance, 1911); soothsayers have clung to the cracks of civilization like tenacious medicinal weeds, and are just as ready to tend to those in need.
For as long as humans have sought meaning in life’s uncertainties, there have been those who read the signs — in the stars, in the palms of hands, in the patterns of tea leaves and the fall of cards. These practitioners — whether called fortune tellers, astrologers, soothsayers, or healers — have served a role far beyond mere fortune-telling. They have been, and continue to be, stewards of communal well-being, offering accessible, culturally rooted care long before the advent of modern psychotherapy. Their endurance across centuries and continents speaks not to superstition, but to their profound ability to meet a universal human need: the need to be heard, understood, and guided through life’s trials.
The Timeless Role of Intuitive Counselors
From the village coffee readers of Greece to the Romani drabarni (herbalist-seers), from Appalachian granny witches to Mexican curanderas, folk diviners have long functioned as community therapists. Their practices are embedded in cultural wisdom, passed down through generations not just as traditional performances, but as practical, living systems of care. These practitioners do not simply predict futures — they help people navigate the present. In Vietnam, thầy bói (fortune tellers) are consulted before major life decisions, blending Buddhist philosophy with folk insight. In Romania, descântătoare (traditional healers) use prayer, herbs, and divination to treat ailments of both body and spirit. These traditions recognize something modern psychology is only beginning to fully appreciate: that healing requires more than clinical diagnosis — it requires narrative, ritual, and a sense of belonging.
The Therapeutic Power of Ritual and Narrative
At the heart of fortune-telling, astrology, and other divinatory practices lies something modern therapy often struggles to replicate: the sacredness of ritual and the power of narrative.
A tarot reading is not just about the cards — it is a ritual that creates space for introspection. The shuffling of the deck, the selection of cards, the arrangement in spreads — all serve to slow the mind, focus attention, and invite reflection.
A tea-leaf reading session follows a specific rhythm: the drinker finishes their coffee, places the saucer on top, then waits as the reader deciphers the grounds. The ritual itself — the waiting, the turning of the cup — creates space for reflection.
Narrative, too, is therapeutic. A fortune teller doesn’t just say, “You will meet someone new.” They say, “After this period of solitude, a person will enter your life who mirrors your own growth.” The difference is critical. The first is a prediction; the second is a story, one that reframes solitude as preparation.
Similarly, astrology does not merely attribute life’s challenges to planetary movements; it offers an amphitheater to observe Life dynamics, reframing personal struggles as part of a larger, meaningful cycle.
The therapeutic power of folk divination lies not in supernatural claims, but in the structured, symbolic frameworks they provide. Recent research has illuminated why ritual practices — from tarot readings to astrological consultations — hold such psychological power. As explored in The Hidden Powers of Everyday Rituals (MIT Press, 2020), rituals provide structure and meaning during times of uncertainty, offering psychological benefits that transcend their specific content.
Research supports what these traditions have known all along. Studies in transcultural psychiatry have shown that ritual practices — whether tarot, astrology, or traditional healing ceremonies — can reduce stress and anxiety. A 2021 study found that clients of Mexican curanderos exhibited cortisol levels comparable to those in talk therapy, suggesting that the symbolic and communal aspects of these practices have measurable physiological benefits. The act of storytelling — whether through astrological transits, the archetypes of tarot, or the metaphors of a palm reading — allows individuals to reframe their experiences in ways that foster resilience.
The Pandemic’s Validation of Fortune-Tellers
When COVID-19 upended the world, these age-old practices saw a revival — not as quaint superstitions, but as vital coping mechanisms. In Brazil, where therapy remains stigmatized in many communities, WhatsApp groups buzzed with offers of free búzios (cowrie shell) readings to ease isolation anxiety. Filipino millennials, unable to visit traditional hilot healers, turned to online orasyon (prayer-based) consultations. Even in wealthy nations, exhausted healthcare workers downloaded astrology apps, finding comfort in the idea that their burnout coincided with Pluto’s transit.
This wasn’t escapism — it was resourcefulness. In Lagos, where lockdowns made therapy inaccessible to most, market astrologers adapted by offering “pandemic specials”: short, affordable readings focused on practical resilience. In Appalachia, hereditary tarot readers revived the tradition of “kitchen table” sessions via Zoom, charging sliding-scale fees. These practitioners weren’t replacing therapists; they were filling gaps in a broken system.
The COVID-19 crisis demonstrated the limitations of institutional mental healthcare and renewed interest in traditional support systems. As therapy waitlists grew and isolation increased, many turned to alternative sources of comfort. The BBC reported that astrology experienced a significant resurgence during the pandemic, as people sought meaning and structure during uncertain times (BBC Worklife, 2021).
This resurgence wasn’t about rejecting science, but about seeking accessible, immediate support during unprecedented stress. Traditional healers adapted with virtual consultations, while online divination communities became digital support networks for the isolated.
Challenging the Therapeutic Hierarchy
Despite their proven benefits, folk healing traditions are often dismissed as mere superstition, while clinical therapy is enshrined as the only “valid” form of mental healthcare. This bias reflects deeper systemic inequities:
- Financial Gatekeeping: Therapists charge $100-$200 a session and tarot readings are often offered sliding-scale, despite both offering emotional support. Licensing requirements privilege academic credentials over cultural wisdom, excluding elder knowledge-keepers who lack formal degrees but possess generations of insight and natural abilities.
- Cultural Narrowness: Mainstream therapy often assumes that healing must follow scientific, linear, individualistic, talk-centric models. Yet for many, especially in collectivist cultures healing is communal, symbolic, and interwoven with spirituality. A Navajo hand trembler diagnosing “soul loss,” a Senegalese marabout prescribing protective verses — these frameworks resonate where clinical jargon falls short.
- Legal Stigma: Outdated laws against “fortune-telling” persist in many places, disproportionately used to marginalize Romani, Black, immigrant, and working-class practitioners. The double standard is glaring: a therapist interpreting dreams is “analysis”; a card reader doing the same is “fraud.”
- Medicalization: Redefining folk healing within the medical paradigm ennobles regulations and license requirements as part of a larger “public health” effort. But, not only does this sidestep crucially important constitutional concerns over free speech and freedom of religion; this practice makes poor and informal practitioners vulnerable to charges of “fraud.”
A Way Forward: Honoring Folk Wisdom Without Co-opting It
The solution is not to medicalize folk healing. Forcing it into insurance billing codes, sterile offices, and standardized education would strip it of its vitality. Plus, many of the beneficial qualities of folk healing are there because it operates outside of institutional norms, and are accessible when those institutions crumble and society becomes uncertain.
Instead of formalization, I propose:
- Decriminalize and destigmatize these practices, repealing archaic laws that target marginalized healers.
- Create bridges, not hierarchies, between clinical and folk systems, training community health workers to recognize when someone might benefit from both a therapist and/or a traditional reader.
- Preserve oral traditions by supporting elder practitioners in passing down knowledge before it is lost.
- Recognize fortune-telling as a pervasive legitimate cultural practice for all cultures, races, and income brackets.
Conclusion: Expanding Our Understanding of Care
The future of universal healthcare lies in recognizing the value of multiple healing traditions. Clinical therapy and folk wisdom are not competitors — they are complementary approaches that, when used appropriately, can provide more complete care for diverse populations. By honoring these traditional practices, we expand our capacity to meet people’s needs in culturally meaningful, and timely, ways.
Sources:
BBC Worklife (2021). “Why astrology is so popular now”. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210205-why-astrology-is-so-popular-now
MIT Press Reader (2020). “The Hidden Powers of Everyday Rituals”. Available at: http://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-hidden-powers-of-everyday-rituals/
Trotter, R.T. & Chavira, J.A. (1997). Curanderismo: Mexican American Folk Healing. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/1281659
