Buying Homemade Aprons and a Psychic

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Claire Carusillo on the psychics of Etsy:

Etsy has 8,694 results (and counting!) for “tarot reading,” 7,650 for “psychic reading,” and 945 for “astrology reading.” The Etsy psychic community conducts its business digitally, sending results over email, video chat, or text message. Psychics and fortune tellers can perform their services as quickly as they would were a customer to enter a neon-lit storefront, depending on when they see the request on Etsy and receive payment, up front, using PayPal, debit card, check, or money order. But instead of wandering into a physical shop and displaying vulnerability to a mystical stranger, Etsy customers experience readings from the comfort of their own homes.

Lyz's writing has been published in the New York Times Motherlode, Jezebel, Aeon, Pacific Standard, and others. Her book on midwestern churches is forthcoming from Indiana University Press. She has her MFA from Lesley and skulks about on Twitter @lyzl. Lyz is a member of The Rumpus Advisory Board and a full-time staff writer for the Columbia Journalism Review. More from this author →