Self-study for 2 months to achieve a quick success. Tarot has become a "sure-profit" side business for young people.
"Love-Blinded" Supporters Sustain Half of the Metaphysical Circle
In the bustling Beijing market, tarot readers have the least trouble finding business. Always surrounded by three to five people, they have a steady flow of customers and revenue.
In March this year, when Chunxiao visited the market, she was immediately attracted by the sign of "Tarot Reading".
"Please help me calculate my financial fortune." This is the issue she is most concerned about in 2024. She has been in the real estate industry for three years, and this year is the worst year with people feeling anxious.
The tarot reader skillfully operated on the deep purple flannel printed with the Tree of Life, shuffled the cards like playing mahjong, and drew three cards to explain to her one by one. She can't remember the specific cards, only that the tarot reader told her that her financial fortune is not good this year, and it is best to save expenses, but someone will give her a sum of money next year.
"I find it very interesting. How can she calculate that someone will give me money next year?"
Chunxiao developed an interest in tarot cards. On Bilibili and Youtube, she checked several self-study guide videos on tarot cards and started learning from the basic card meanings.
Some self-study tarot textbooks
Understanding tarot cards is not very difficult - a set of 78 cards, 22 "Major Arcana cards" (from Fool No. 0 to World No. 21) have more abundant meanings, and 4 groups of "Minor Arcana cards" ("Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles", each consisting of numbers 1 - 10 and 4 court cards) are slightly simpler, representing more daily and detailed contents.
After understanding each card, Chunxiao advanced to learn different card layouts and the possible solutions of card patterns. After one month like this, she could come out and try to help others interpret the cards.
She wanted to practice first and posted a post on Xiaohongshu offering to interpret tarot cards for free. Soon, there were more than 100 comments under this post, and 80% of them were related to love: "Does he still have feelings for me?" "We lost contact. Will he come to me?" "Will we get back together?"...
Chunxiao's replies in the comment section
Chunxiao replied to the comments one by one, and then received many secondary questions from sisters. For example, a sister asked: "What is his opinion of me?"
"He thinks you are a slightly wealthy and stable girl."
"Then what is he thinking now?"
"This is another question. You can send a private message."
When it comes to emotional status, girls' questions are endless.
Soon, she reached the step of arranging private messages for personalized divination, and naturally, she could start charging. Originally learning tarot out of interest, Chunxiao unexpectedly discovered that This seems to be a great side business opportunity. Among many metaphysical fields, tarot seems to have the widest audience and is the most recognized by everyone.
She studied the marketing model of tarot measurement on the market: On social media platforms such as Douyin, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu, there are many public divination videos. The model is mostly - the tarot reader selects 3 indicators (which can be any jewelry, ornaments, or patterns), allowing the audience to sense the energy in them and choose a group they like to see the corresponding card interpretation.
In public divination, a lot of information is usually listed, covering studies, careers, emotions, etc., and then analyzed from the current situation to the future comprehensively. The blogger will note at the beginning: "There are many people watching public divination, and the energy is very complex. The information may not correspond one by one. Please select the information that suits you." The implication is that if necessary, you can also make an appointment for personalized custom divination.
After watching several public divination videos, I also tried to join several tarot fan groups, and soon someone sent a private message: "You can go find a master to have a look. At that time, I found a master who looked at fate to help me. If you can't let it go, you can find one. Maybe it can help you."
The premise is that I did not publicly release any personal information. Receiving such a private message, The other party seems to assume that users who join the fan group and further seek customized services come for emotional issues.
There is a saying in the circle called "Love-Blinded supporters sustain half of the metaphysical circle", as Shanzhuaozhua, who has two years of full-time tarot reader experience, told "Post-Wave Research Institute".
Since switching to being a tarot reader, she has accumulated nearly 30,000 fans on Bilibili. In November 2022, her first public divination video quickly achieved more than 10,000 views, with the title: "Help You Let Go of Someone with a Deep Attachment".
The tarot card public divination video with the highest view count in "Shanzhuaozhua" account
Emotional topics are in strong demand. Especially in the metaphysical field, tarot is recognized as "low learning threshold". Many people misunderstand that its core is to interpret the pictures. As long as the basic card meanings are understood, even complete outsiders can talk for more than 10 minutes. "You can try and know that it is really not difficult to learn. If you are interested, you can also learn." Shanzhuaozhua said.
But this profession is "easy to start but difficult to master", and it requires a lot of experience accumulation. "Because tarot is just a tool, it does not have a precise direction. The difficulty lies in using such a simple model to understand all the complex things in this world and select more accurate things from the vast ocean to provide to customers."
This requires the tarot reader to accumulate cases by themselves or start from personal experience to help the tested person complete this matching.
In the early stage, Shanzhuaozhua also charged 88 yuan for one question, using this pricing that "even college students can afford" to practice and accumulate experience. Later, the price gradually increased to 128 yuan for one question, and it is expected to answer for about 20 minutes each time.
But soon some customers questioned that her pricing is a bit low, and the price of 128 yuan will make them think, "Is this person not accurate?" So she "was forced to raise the price" to 200 yuan once.
A Psychological Counseling Suitable for Chinese Babies
It is very difficult to screen out a reliable tarot reader on the Internet. After all, in the current tarot market, some beginners may only have learned for 1 - 2 months, but they dare to take orders at the same price. There is no industry-recognized certificate in this industry. Obviously, there are more and more big deceivers.
But what is considered being deceived? In the metaphysical field, this question is difficult to answer.
The most superficial understanding is that "not accurate" is being deceived. However, whether the answer given by a tarot reader is accurate mostly depends on the subjective feelings of the customer.
Lolo once witnessed a "debate" between a friend and a tarot reader. Her friend is a metaphysical enthusiast who likes to "calculate" whenever there is something, which is equivalent to an after-dinner entertainment in life. At that time, she was about to join a new company. In fact, she had already decided to go and had contact with the team members, and they got along very well.
In order to confirm her judgment, this friend found an offline tarot reader to measure her development in the company, but the result was very poor. The friend got anxious and repeatedly explained to the tarot reader how good the company atmosphere was, but the tarot reader said that the cards showed this - If you think it's not right, then you must not understand it comprehensively enough. What I see is the farther future.
The friend originally insisted that the tarot reader was not accurate. Under the tarot reader's step-by-step analysis, she also began to think from another perspective - Is there any problem that may not have been noticed? What potential hazards may this job have?
Strangely enough, the two people who did not agree with each other at first actually reached a consensus after a quarrel: This job can be taken, but there may be problems in interpersonal relationships.
In Lolo's opinion, her friend finally denied her own judgment and stood on the tarot reader's side. "As an onlooker, I think the most wonderful point is that A tarot reader is a rare character in your life. Even if he firmly stands on the opposite side of you, you will not be so disgusted. You even think he is very professional, and he is not shaken by the things at your practical level. So you will not want to quarrel with him so much, and even doubt yourself a little."
In the end, that friend left the job after working for a while. Lolo thought, "But you said, isn't work like this? It starts smoothly, but it may end up with leaving."
Image source pixabay
Rather than predicting the future, this is more like a kind of self-expectation or suggestion. And tarot also has a veil of mystery, maintaining a harmony between the counselor and the client.
Driven by her friend, Lolo also found a tarot reader to measure several times. She came to an interesting conclusion that most of the offline tarot measurements seemed to be quite effective - she calculated many emotional problems, and every time she went to the tarot reader for verification when she was quite sure in her heart, the other party's answers were more or less accurate.
The only times she felt it was very inaccurate were online. She paid a fee of 80 yuan to measure which of the two job offers to choose, and the tarot reader gave an answer opposite to her expectation. Another time was about traveling. The tarot reader firmly said that the result was very bad, which caused her friend to directly cancel the trip and ruined her plan.
"I think they are very good at observing words and expressions. For example, some micro-expressions, that is, as soon as I frown, he will suddenly change his wording. Online, he cannot observe accurately and can only output unilaterally, sending you a long voice message, and there is no communication between you two." Lolo told "Post-Wave Research Institute".
The card layout captured by the tarot reader when Lolo did the online measurement
Before switching to being a tarot reader, Shanzhuaozhua was in the consulting industry, and she admits that tarot is indeed very similar to psychological counseling, "You can understand it as a kind of psychological counseling very suitable for Chinese babies."
From the process point of view, the first step is to clarify the visitor's problem. Many visitors who come to the tarot reader are very confused in their hearts. The tarot reader needs to guide him to express his real confusion and establish trust with him. "It requires a certain emotional quotient and speaking skills. The customer must like you first. You cannot speak in an aggressive, or condescending and morally binding manner."
Some customers who came here told Shanzhuaozhua about their "being deceived" experiences. They once found some tarot bloggers to do private divination. The other party may just push a few cards and simply explain the conclusion to him for about 5 minutes.
This "sense of being deceived" is more because the service is not comfortable. Customers feel that the other party has not given them the expected feedback - Before giving them an "accurate" prediction, it is more important to first become a qualified listener and companion.
Chunxiao deeply resonates with this, especially the "love-blinded" netizens who come to her for private divination. They basically spend half of the time describing the conflicts and problems they have with their crush, partner, or ex. Sometimes they don't even care about the meaning of each card or what the tarot reader specifically said.
They are just very confused and urgently need Chunxiao to provide some emotional comfort.
I asked, "Then if the other party doesn't want to reveal the real situation, how do you guide them?"
"No, they are all very willing to talk. They lack someone to talk to."
"Isn't this the same as connecting with the live broadcast room of a love blogger?"
"How do you know they haven't gone?" Chunxiao asked me in return, "This is the same group of people."
Does a Tarot Reader Have Ethics?
Enlarging the negative interpretation of tarot cards - This is a methodology that Chunxiao, who has only been learning tarot for 3 months, is familiar with when dealing with most customers who consult about emotional problems.
After learning tarot, she found that among the 78 cards, for emotional problems, there are only about 5 cards that are obviously very positive. As for other card types, the meanings are half and half, which can be positive or negative.