Over the last few years, Gen Z have become obsessed with all things supernatural.
Practices which gained popularity in the UK during the Victorian period, including tarot reading, seances and mediums, have experienced something of a renaissance.
But since social media trends including “Tarot Tok” and the hashtags #crystal and #astrology have gone viral, getting millions of likes and even live readings being held on TikTok, so too has scepticism about the spiritual practices.
Marilyn Devonish has been a tarot reader for 25 years. She said: “What I have seen is people coming to me who would not normally be interested in this topic, because it’s no longer in the realm of the deep and the dark and the scary and all the rest of it.”
Watch Marilyn, Haifa Barbari, a third generation reader and elementologist, and one ordinary gen z-er who claims to have been encountering the paranormal since the age of 14, explain the state of modern spiritualism today.
Scepticism & stereotypes
Marilyn explained: “There are lots of businesses and organisations who use tarot readers, clairvoyants, and psychics as advisers.”
But scepticism about tarot is part and parcel of the job.
Marilyn said that she tries to no longer engage in those conversations and debates: “My response to sceptics was born out of becoming a hypnotherapist in 2000.
“At first I was so excited, I wanted to tell everyone about this, it can change your life! And then I realised hypnotherapy was one of those ‘woo woo’ subjects that are on the fringe and people are very sceptical of it.
“And so my answer is similar to tarot: people say ‘I bet you can’t hypnotise me’, and I say ‘yeah you’re right, I probably can’t!’ And they’re absolutely right: my job as a hypnotherapist is not trying to ‘bend your will’ or make you do something you don’t want to do, so no I can’t hypnotise you!”
Perhaps the most convincing aspect of Marilyn’s work is that she admits to casting doubt upon it herself: “With tarot, I don’t know exactly 100% what happens when we die!
“But when I get to the pearly gates, one of two things could happen with regards to tarot. God, Buddha, whatever your deity is can say, ‘Marilyn, you know that thing with the tarot? It wasn’t real.’
“I wouldn’t be upset about that, because I would be like ‘man, I had a good time, I learnt a lot with my clients, no worries!
“Or they could say it was real, and I would be like ‘oh my god’. If I had decided to stay sceptical until 32 I would be so annoyed that I missed out! So for me it’s a win win.”
Marilyn concludes: “I have fun with it, people find it useful, it enriches their lives in ways that I cannot even begin to talk about today.
“So whether it’s real or it’s not in terms of the tangible sense of the word, that’s now irrelevant for me. The fact of the matter is, it helps people, it’s crazy cool fun, and it adds a whole different dimension to life as we know!”
Spiritual empowerment
Haifa Barbari, a third generation reader and elementologist, noted the rise in interest in the spiritual too: “There is a rise in working with these tools and understanding these languages, that you can see and not see.
“But the clients that come to me are of all age groups, demographics…High level insight does not discriminate! People just might not tell you that they’re doing it, but they are.”
Haifa has a specific niche within the spiritual realm that she works with.
She explained that her job as an elementologist is to: “connect high level insight through these portals to specific actions in our day to day lives.
“That’s why I call it elementology – it’s blending the elements and -ologies of tarot symbology, astrology, to our psychology and use it to take control of our destiny, and that’s how I was taught.
“And really the best way to use it, is based on taking those insights and using it for yourself, to tap into insight with yourself. Then turn it into action – what do you do with it?
“I was taught to use these languages to empower, to understand and co-create with what you can’t see and be guided to create new realities that you want.”
Paranormal encounters
Amy, a recent graduate, never searched for the paranormal – it found her.
From the age of 14, she started experiencing strange feelings, seeing things in the corner of her bedroom, and having deep emotional resonances and understandings of historical trauma that she couldn’t explain.
Having studied law and self-described as “quite a factual” and “not an emotional person”, Amy explained that she found it “bizarre” when she started encountering these experiences.
Amy said: “I guess I’ve always been, what people would say, sensitive.
“I didn’t know what it was when I was younger, but I always had feelings walking around kind of old places and old houses, or I’d go into certain rooms and I’d be like no, I don’t want to be in here, this is not a good place to be.”
Everything changed when she reached adolescence: “I was never really someone who believed in ghost stories and all that kind of thing.
“I think it was when I hit puberty, weirdly, that I started sort of having my own interactions with this kind of thing.”
Amy recalls experiencing an overwhelming feeling of anger in catacombs in Malta on a family holiday, seeing a man in a bowler hat in the corner of her bedroom asking for his land back, and having a protective crystal snatched from her by a resentful spirit.
She interpreted the paranormal encounters she had as: “a desperation to be felt, to be acknowledged, wanting to have some recognition of what they’ve gone through.
“These people I think are a bit stuck in between, I don’t between what – I’m not going to speculate on the afterlife.”
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