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This summer, with torrential rain threatening her outdoor wedding, a bride did the one thing left on her checklist. She hired an Etsy witch to cast a spell for clear skies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just didn\u2019t know what else to do,\u201d she told her bridesmaid, Brooke Bekoff. \u201cI hope it works; it can\u2019t hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
A weather app had already told her it would rain, for free. Horoscopes, tarot cards, and astrology explainers are also only a scroll away. Yet consumers continue paying for what free content can\u2019t offer\u2014someone to interpret their fresh breakup, career decision, or fear about the future.<\/p>\n
That desire for personalized guidance has built a big business. The U.S. psychic-services industry generated $2.3 billion in revenue in 2025, according to a July 2025 IBISWorld report. Revenue grew at an annualized rate of 5.5% over the five years through 2025, with nearly half of women ages 18 to 49 consulting astrology or a horoscope at least once a year. But IBISWorld describes the market as highly fragmented, leaving room for entrepreneurs who want to organize it.<\/p>\n
Bekoff, 29, is one of them, and her idea started at that very wedding. The rain continued as the bride got ready. But then, in a moment Bekoff described as straight out of a movie, the clouds parted right as the bridal party headed outside. Sunlight replaced the downpour, and not a single drop fell during the ceremony until it started to pour again after it ended.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What struck Bekoff, a former growth product manager at TaskRabbit and Robinhood, wasn\u2019t just the weather. Of roughly eight bridesmaids, she recalled five or six saying they had recently hired Etsy witches for needs of their own. They lived across the country and ranged from Gen Zers to millennials.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember that being like, \u2018Wait a minute, this is such an interesting opportunity,\u2019\u201d Bekoff said. \u201cThere\u2019s really something here culturally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of that culture plays out online, where the pitch often opens with a hook: Stop scrolling. This message is for you.<\/em> A tarot reader flips cards for someone who just went through a breakup. An astrologer tells Virgos that their dream job is right around the corner, so stay and watch this video.<\/p>\n The message can feel uncannily specific, but it didn\u2019t necessarily appear by chance. Someone who watches, likes, or shares videos about breakups is likely to be served more of them\u2014including spiritual guidance that speaks to the same worry.\u00a0<\/p>\n The appeal has even become a joke across Instagram and TikTok: \u201cMe going to a tarot reader instead of a therapist because I need hope, not a diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n Kaidong Yu, a marketing researcher at City University of Macau, frames it as the difference between information and interpretation.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is already an enormous amount of free mystical content online, so scarcity of information is probably not the main source of value,\u201d he told Fortune<\/em>. What a paid practitioner offers instead is specificity: \u201cWhat does this mean for me, in my situation, right now?\u201d<\/p>\n That value may have little to do with getting a better prediction, Yu said. It may come from \u201cthe feeling of being heard, receiving a coherent narrative, validating an intuition or turning a confusing situation into a manageable set of possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Buyers don\u2019t necessarily have to believe the magic works. In Yu\u2019s research on mystical consumption, one participant said feng shui objects made him feel more confident even if they didn\u2019t change his luck. Another said tarot didn\u2019t provide an answer but helped them think through their options.<\/p>\n \u201cThe practice does not have to eliminate uncertainty,\u201d Yu said. \u201cIt can simply make uncertainty more psychologically manageable.\u201d<\/p>\n Bekoff set out to sell exactly that. After the wedding, she built Divina, a marketplace where practitioners offer tarot readings, spell work, Reiki, astrology, and other spiritual services. She launched the website Sept. 1.<\/p>\n The model borrows from TaskRabbit, where Bekoff previously worked as a growth product manager. Practitioners set their own rates, and Divina takes a 10% cut of each booking.<\/p>\n Bekoff expected to spend her first month recruiting practitioners. She didn\u2019t have to. Divina grew organically from two or three practitioners to more than 100, offering over 200 listings. Many already had social-media audiences and experience selling their services online.<\/p>\n Demand remains much smaller but is beginning to follow. Divina has recorded more than $1,000 in bookings and receives a handful each day, according to Bekoff. Customers most often seek guidance about relationships, careers, money, and pregnancy, with offerings ranging from written tarot readings and photographed card spreads to \u201cwomb readings\u201d for expectant parents.<\/p>\n Some practitioners need a new storefront because of enforcement elsewhere. Etsy\u2019s policy prohibits spellcasting and services promising outcomes such as love, wealth, or employment. It permits tarot and psychic readings when customers receive something tangible, such as written results or a recording.<\/p>\n The policy is longstanding, but sellers say Etsy has recently removed shops that operated openly for years and accumulated thousands of reviews, according to Vice<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Etsy did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Running a marketplace for the mystical carries some risks. Bekoff said she reviews every practitioner application and requires identity verification. Customers then have 72 hours after receiving a service to report a problem before payment is released to the practitioner.<\/p>\n Customers must also acknowledge that they are not purchasing a guaranteed outcome. Someone paying for clear skies or a dream job is buying the service performed\u2014not a promise that the wish will come true.<\/p>\n That distinction is central to the business. Yu describes the product as \u201ca structured experience of hope and control.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The same search for agency is showing up beyond tarot, and it isn\u2019t necessarily pulling young people away from religion. Harris Poll data found 33% of Gen Z identifies as religious, compared with 18% of baby boomers, 22% of Gen X, and 19% of millennials.<\/p>\n But many young adults aren\u2019t choosing one spiritual path. Libby Rodney, chief strategy officer at The Harris Poll, calls the mix \u201cthe Faith Stack.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChurch AND manifestation AND tarot,\u201d she wrote on LinkedIn. \u201cNot as contradiction. As construction.\u201d<\/p>\n Half of Gen Z respondents practice manifestation by focusing their thoughts and actions on a desired outcome or use vision boards\u2014collages that visually represent their goals\u2014while three in 10 practice astrology or tarot, according to Harris. For many customers, a paid reading is not competing with a Sunday service or even with a free horoscope. It is one more tool in a spiritual kit they are assembling themselves.<\/p>\n Fifty-seven percent of Gen Z respondents said they had turned to spirituality to feel greater control over their futures. \u201cThat\u2019s the reason that they are spiritual\u2014they\u2019re looking for some sense of agency and control,\u201d Rodney previously told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n Yu cautioned that reassurance can become harmful when it starts replacing, rather than supporting, someone\u2019s ability to make decisions. But for a person who feels powerless, even a symbolic action can offer a place to begin.<\/p>\n And for the bride, it did. Whether the Etsy witch changed the weather, the forecast shifted, or the bridal party simply got lucky is almost beside the point.<\/p>\n \u201cWho knows if it was the Etsy witch? Who knows what it was?\u201d Bekoff said. \u201cI guess that\u2019s what faith is.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nBuilding a marketplace for the mystical<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Selling hope without guaranteeing results<\/strong><\/h2>\n