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2025 as The Year of Common Sense & Wellness - Implications for Psychic Services

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In these volatile times, shifts are happening abruptly.  Not too long ago psychic services, especially tarot readings, were high in demand. Mystical centers were opening up everywhere. Psychic phone lines were continually hiring. Folks hosting parties would have a tarot reader there for several hours. Then the momentum halted.  Here in this Arizona community about an hour from the border of Mexico three businesses providing a range of psychic services have shuttered. For a fourth I wonder how it can continue to keep going. For example, on Halloween there was only one client for a tarot reading and only four customers for the merchandise such as Wicca spell material. Fellow psychics in Maryland tell me there's a falloff in traffic in metaphysical retail. So, what is happening? Well, one factor is that we have entered the Year of Common Sense.  My own tarot reading practice is busy, both in-person and on a phone line, because this is known: The focus is pragmatic, not occul...

Shaking Off Regret - What ChatGPT Recommended

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There's so much turmoil in careers. No surprise, those in torment about what's going on in their workplace are coming to tarot readings. Mostly they want to deal with their regret about not going with Opportunity ABC or blowing Opportunity GHI. Currently they are miserable.  That feeling is displayed in the Five of Cups - the card of Spilled Milk. On their behalf I went to ChatGPT to find out what the collective wisdom might be. Well, the ChatGPT guidance was mostly cliche. (No competition from OpenAI for my tarot reading business.) The one piece that was useful is this: Set new goals. No matter the past, the present is always there for a fresh beginning.  For example, you might have backed off from starting your own online business, which would demand a lot of time, and stuck with a day job leading nowhere. That was because you live in a HCOL (high cost of living) area and can't take the risk of earning less, even temporarily. Also, you're aging. You hear that about ha...

AI Buddy Romi - Will She Put Tarot Readers Out of Business?

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  Romi goes by "she." That's because this AI device which fits in the palm of your hand delivers what is associated with women: understanding and caring. That's also what we tarot readers embed in our interactions with clients. Most come to us not for any great spiritual insight. They want a warm human connection who is doing deep listening.  Soon enough folks who check in regularly for tarot readings could connect the dots. They can derive from Romi what they usually take away from meeting with us. She has a range of facial expressions. She is programmed to ask about your day.   In the US Romi was rolled out at the 2025 Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas. However, currently she only provides companionship in Japanese. She was invented in Japan for nursing home residents to have access to this kind of interactional support.  As with all new technology, the price is steep. Retail she goes for about $580. There's also a monthly subscription fee of $12.  ...

Reality Check in Capitalism Is We Are Our Titles: Happy Title, Happy Life

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Over the years lawyers have come to me for a tarot reading.  As you know, you come to a tarot reading because you're in pain, not to gush about how great life is.  For lawyers, the form of the distress ranges from the need to size up the force field in a courtroom to emotional upheaval after they had made a mistake. About the latter: The price of making a mistake could include a lawsuit against them for alleged malpractice or even losing their license.  But when it comes to their titles such as US Attorney or Judge of this or that - and losing them as the political winds change - they have been silent. No texts from them for a tarot reading. They could not be coming for tarot readings because they don't want to know. The issue is too big: In the American brand of capitalism we are our titles. Suppose with the incoming conservative Trump administration the liberal legals can't land another plum position? They certainly don't want to manifest that. No Title, No Happy Life...

Fool Card in the Tarot - Finding Your Own Way

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  The first card in the Tarot deck is The Fool's card.  The symbolizes the very human need to take the risks of finding your own way. For so many reasons those who come to me for tarot readings even require "permission" to start on that journey of authentic self-discovery.  Essentially they feel that they "ought" to be putting all their attention and energy into traditional activities such as building a career, chasing after a love interest, being a caretaker and/or hitting the gym in a wellness program. Anything but an exploration of the self. So, in guiding them the next key card is the pause one. No surprise, that also means they are looking to me again to give permission for them to take the time to reflect. I trace this inability to invest in finding yourself to the curse of ambition. In working with lawyers, for example, I uncover that they were afraid to veer off from what they considered the path to financial security, influence and power. So they put of...

"Baby Girl" - About Being Human, From Masochistic Desires to Kinky Power

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  "If  'that' went on at my company, the CEO would be out." That's what a client for a tarot reading veered off on a tangent to say about the film released today "Baby Girl."  The plot focuses on a masochistic office romance between tech founder and CEO Romy and an intern Samuel who torments her. The cruelty extends to his bringing to her party a date from the office. Romy falls apart.  Many reviewers stick with the meme of the age difference. But the romance is simply a vehicle about what it is to be human.  Enter Sigmund Freud, whom few critics mention. It was Freud who made explicit the fundamental self-destructiveness of humans.  Romy represents just the tip of the iceberg. Samuel could have been murdered by the husband Jacob. He is playing with fire. The daughter Isabel risks her committed relationship with lover Mary by a kissy flirtation with another women. Esme, Romy's assistant, risks being offed by attempting to blackmail the boss, which h...

Not Even Trying: A Generation That May Never Grow Up

"All he wants to do is play soccer and hang out with his friends. He needs to get a better job."  Versions of that is what I am hearing more and more in tarot readings from one party in a relationship about the other. The "other" is usually a male. But they can be a female. In addition, I'm hearing this sort of thing from parents of teenage children who can't attach to goals such as succeeding in academics or music or sports.   None of these are even trying.  This week The Wall Street Journal refers to that as the inability to grow up. And it assesses it as a generational problem.  Young people aren't taking on the traditional responsibilities of adulthood: building a career, settling into a stable relationship, becoming a respected citizen in a community. Essentially they have big ideas about what the American Dream should be and they have little or no hope of reaching it. Specifically, notes WSJ: "A sizable share of this generation is worse-off t...