"Someone thinks I'm losing my mind": Why did the millennials get carried away with magic

IN THE LAST YEARS, MAGIC, ASTROLOGY AND READING occupied Tumblr, YouTube and VKontakte no less than beauty blogs and shopping reviews. Suddenly, the esoteric ceased to be associated only with charlatans, who promise to send damage to the enemies and cure all diseases. Spread out the tarot or sit on the natal chart for millennials - entertainment, rest from gadgets and a way of reflection. The passion for magic in the era of Tumblr is also an opportunity to believe in yourself, because the witch is a new icon of emancipation. We talked to girls who reinvented magic, mixing it with Internet aesthetics and feminism, about how they decided to have a similar hobby and why they like Tarot fortune telling just like someone else does the modeling or jogging in the morning.

Spells, fortune telling, potions, omens and stunts fascinated me since childhood, but I could not help but notice the ambivalence towards magic by adults. Like many children in the 90s, I was warned that all the witches and healers were fraudsters, but at the same time, signs and horoscopes could be believed; I remembered and did not continue to understand the subject. My interest in tarot came much later; She dedicated me to this close friend, who had been involved in tarot for several years.

The main discovery for me was that Tarot is a tool for reading the present, not the future, and it is unacceptable to use it for predictions. First of all, it is a set of metaphors, archetypes and symbols that allow you to interpret your thoughts and states. The second important discovery is that it is not necessary to have a witch certificate or three hundred years of experience in order to practice tarot. It seems to me that with proper concentration, anyone can study the tarot. It is clear that the more experience you have, the more interesting it will be, it will be easier to tune in to read and interpret the meaning of characters. One witch, whom I know, is engaged in tarot longer than I live in the world - it is clear that her readings will be much fuller and more accurate. But for the experience in the tarot practice is needed. I like to practice on myself, do readings almost every morning and ask myself the most basic question: "What do I need to know about myself right now?" I live a difficult transitional period, because of which it can be difficult for me to realize my emotions and thoughts. Tarot helps me to do just that.

I am embarrassed to do readings for other people, because I have little experience; In addition, for reading you need to feel well a person, give him time and attention. Therefore, I do readings only for close people and only if I feel strong enough to somehow help. Nevertheless, the people for whom I did the reading, told me that it was useful and interesting for them - this, of course, is very pleasant to hear. I read a lot about cards and keep a small notebook in which I write down my own associations, quotes from the book of Khodorovsky about Tarot or ideas from some other sources (even one application!). In addition, I was lucky to live in San Francisco, a city with a long history of magical practices and many people who can very interestingly tell about it (here they also made my favorite modern film about witches "The Love Witch").

All my friends who know about my interest in Tarot are divided into two camps: those who think that I’m losing my mind (among them, for example, my boyfriend), and those who are also starting to get interested in and ask them to read the cards. I understand the stigma that people have with magic. Moreover, in the society of the prevailing worship of technology, witches are unlikely to be honored by most people. In addition, the witch is a classic image of a woman who realizes her power and uses her as she wishes. In the brilliant essay "Witch Kids of Instagram," this thought is expressed very precisely: people begin to understand that nothing in the world will change until someone feels scared enough. What is better for this than witches, frightening the patriarchal society so much that it is ready to burn strong women at the stake?

It is therefore not surprising that there is a strong connection between feminism and magic: both cause women to believe in themselves and achieve what they want. One of my favorite types of tarot is Motherpeace, round decks, created in Berkeley in the 70s by two feminists and researchers of the image of the goddess in culture. Virtually all the cards in this deck depict strong and wise women who work, are engaged in creativity, create, destroy - in short, live a very intense life, with all its joys and sorrows. The images on the cards are not at all similar to the conventional Ryder-Waite-Smith or Marseille Tarot soundboards, and this is the beauty of the cards as a medium: they change to remain relevant, but they always tell the same story - the story of complete knowledge and making yourself. And this is a story that is very interesting to me now.

My fascination with tarot began about six or seven years ago, when I learned that it could be a way of self-knowledge. Divination is first of all an opportunity to have a conversation with the subconscious, to awaken intuition. The latter, in my opinion, is not a gift from above, but simply a high level of information processing, which usually slips by. I am convinced that any Fome to an unbeliever can guess: it’s not necessary to wait for the “messages from above”, you can simply analyze your associative line, watch the train of thought - this is a very useful practice. Guessing is an additional opportunity to assess the situation, collect your thoughts, look at the problem from a new angle.

I do not inform everyone about my hobby, because this is usually followed by requests to tell fortunes - more often out of idle curiosity that I don’t like. Close friends know and sometimes ask for something to disintegrate, there are also senior comrades, to whom I, in turn, can turn to divination. I also subscribed to the public devoted to the Tarot and the "esoteric" in general.

The popularity of the mystical is growing, but, unfortunately, the magical sphere is heavily monetized and thoroughly imbued with the ideas of patriarchy: endless love spells, “harmonization of relations” Abyuzer - a good and understanding partner. I want feminism to penetrate the Russian occult sphere as actively as possible, because now it is in the wake of the patriarchal society. Women are assigned the role of servants, the image of the witch is built up as an ideal wife, mother and mistress. As if in the final analysis it is still necessary to think first of all about the man - with this, like the cult of beauty and "ideal" matter, it is necessary to fight.

A couple of years ago I ended up in an esoteric shop and saw a shelf with cards - the consultant explained what it was, and I bought a book about Tarot out of interest, and after a while - the first deck. Before that, I was not interested in either mysticism or esotericism - it was a new, sudden hobby. Now I’m already laying out clients and I want this to be the main job. I like helping people: the best praise is when a person with my help understands how he can change an unpleasant situation.

My friends and friends react calmly to the cards, for them it's just something cool. I am very pleased with this attitude, so that gratuitous friends have become a way of caring for me. I am for the ease in the Tarot and against the hidden mystery - in this sense, I like the community "Adequate Tarot". There is no place for terrible myths associated with fortune telling and horror stories about hereditary clairvoyants. I love this party very much, and in my circle of communication there are mostly only feminist tagologists. There are a lot of prejudices about tarologists, and I am glad to fight them. I even went to do the layouts on one femmeroyatiya - it was a great experience, it was great when the two important parts of my life intersected.

I dreamed of my own Tarot deck since I was fourteen years old, since my friend and I were resting on the lake - as I remember, it was raining and I pulled out the Jester. Then I became interested in esotericism - it became my defense from a toxic environment and gave me direction for working on myself. Just a business - meditate, pump over the chakras, in any incomprehensible situation, see the natal map or do yourself a deal, communicate with those same enlightened, and not with these all ordinary people.

When pumping anahata(heart chakra. - Ed.) once again it did not help to distract the guy from the computer, and her hands were cut to the elbow, I suspected that all this was not working. I broke up the Sabbath, shaved her head well, gave away the talked little gadgets and began to pull myself out of the swamp in more rational ways. True, then I stumbled upon one blog and realized that there is a huge gulf between magical thinking, which is now so fashionable to condemn, and magic. The first is a life-threatening fallacy, the second is a source of inspiration and a reason for celebration.

I like Vicki's value system - this "new-age religion" is a clean replica, but it sets the mood well. Wiccan authors, in my opinion, have done and continue to make their contribution to the ideology of equality and acceptance of those around them. Of course, in their books they can’t do without stupid things: they will offer to search for elves, or to prepare ointment from mandrake. But the point is not in ointments and elixirs, but to gain a broader view of the world.

In Wiccans, the main point of support is nature. Witches celebrate new moons, full moons, eclipses, changing seasons. All these rituals call not so much to slumber about wonderful times, as to look around and pay attention to something else besides work, home and relationships. Soon, for example, will be Lita - the summer solstice festival. We will get out with friends for a walk in the forest, have a feast, go on the grass, maybe take a dip at the springs.

Because of the work, I spend too little time on the Tarot, but my deck is beautiful - "Tarot of mystical cats." She was invented and painted by wonderful women, and she practically does not contain a negative. Tarot cards are generally very aesthetic, and the variety of decks shows how different interpretations of the same ancient archetypes can be. One day I will make my own and dedicate it to my favorite singer.

As a child, I, like almost everything around, believed in something mysterious, so at the age of thirteen I asked my sister for a Tarot deck as a gift and signed up for all sorts of publications about magic. Now this is an important hobby for me - another thing is that not every friend will tell you that after studying you do not knit scarves, but do the layouts. On the whole, people around are reacting calmly, but those who say that I am a charlatan can be understood: there is no scientific evidence for the existence of something “magical”.

I am glad that feminism has already appeared in magical communities. Recently I was pleasantly surprised to see that one blogger, surveying the Tarot deck, paid great attention to the representation of women. Or, for example, he positively assessed the card "Lovers", which depicts gender neutral characters.

A couple of years ago, I entered into a public, in which I wrote a lot about astrology in great detail. After that, I began to study the issue and analyze the natal maps of friends. I practice a kind of psychological approach: not only I look at the natal map of a person, but I also observe his behavior. All this I do rather for pleasure, to train thinking. I don’t impose astrology on others, but if my friends ask something, I’ll tell you more.

For me, astrology is one of many ways to understand yourself, to explore your personality. Thanks to this hobby, I was able to realize the reasons for some of my complexes, to better feel my potential and merit. For me, it is not surprising that mystical practices are popular among those who are concerned with feminism: I think people are tired of stereotypes and look for their own "I" through something that does not have a link to gender.

Photo: Uusi, DiKiYaqua - stock.adobe.com, Alexander Potapov - stock.adobe.com, bjphotographs - stock.adobe.com, Astrologer - stock.adobe.com