ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Alya is a 27-year-old girl from the Siberian metropolis of Krasnoyarsk whose boyfriend is a mobilized soldier taking part in Russia’s large invasion of neighboring Ukraine. His lengthy absence and frequent lapses in communication prompted her to review tarot playing cards, a medieval system supposedly able to supernatural divination.
”I had needed to review tarot for a very long time, however by no means received round to it,” Alya, who like a number of of the folks interviewed for this story requested that her final identify be withheld, stated. ”However when my boyfriend went off to battle, I started doing readings. It calms me down.”
Alya is way from the one one who feels that means, with the Ukraine warfare approaching its second anniversary and no clear decision in sight.
In keeping with a Kommersant report in March that cited business analysts, the variety of folks enrolling in on-line programs for ”mystic applied sciences” like tarot playing cards was 20 instances higher in March 2023 than one 12 months earlier.
The Padma on-line occult faculty, as an example, purports to supply ”magic research from the start,” ”on-line programs to develop magical capabilities,” and ”sensible esoterica for learners and the superior” within the type of ”reside classes and grasp courses.” 4-day on-line seminars price about 8,500 rubles ($92). The Elara on-line mysticism ”academy” presents programs in tarot studying, ”candle magic,” and defenses towards ”the evil eye and curses.”
”Fortune telling and tarot studying is turning into a type of magical calming in these troubling instances, a magic tablet for resolving issues,” stated St. Petersburg psychologist Yelena Oster. ”One purpose that persons are so strongly drawn to magic in such instances is a need to search out stability in a altering world. Magic creates the feeling of management over the skin world.”
Oster added that the absence of dependable impartial info channels in Russia has led many individuals to show to deceptive Web sources, together with these buying and selling in mysticism.
”On this digital age, when the boundary between actuality and phantasm is being erased, our capability for crucial pondering has been considerably lowered,” she stated. ”In instances of disaster, folks lose confidence sooner or later and magic creates the phantasm of energy over one’s destiny.”
The marketplace for books on spiritual and occult themes has grown considerably in 2023, whereas gross sales of tarot playing cards on the Ozon on-line retailer have elevated 36 p.c over 2022, Izvestia reported final month. An increasing number of fortune tellers and card readers are promoting their companies on-line.
In July, Kommersant reported that demand for ”mystical applications” on Russian tv was additionally on the rise. ”Tv channels have begun rebroadcasting previous initiatives and introducing new ones,” the day by day reported, quoting consultants who related the development with a rising public need to know ”the explanations for all the things that’s occurring.”
’I Suppose I will Go Once more’
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Yekaterina Bykanova’s boyfriend volunteered to battle. He later signed a contract with the infamous Wagner mercenary group.
”I used to be doing readings continually,” Bykanova, a 23-year-old from Kursk, advised RFE/RL. ”Because of them, I realized all the things that was occurring to him. As soon as I learn within the playing cards about some form of leg wound. At that second, I hadn’t heard from him for some time. About 10 days after that studying, he wrote to me and stated all the things was OK. A month later he advised me {that a} pal of his had been wounded within the leg.”
”He’s residence now,” she added, ”however he plans to signal one other contract. I do not know the way I’m going to get by means of that — I can not think about. That is one thing unfamiliar and terrifying for me. However I’ve to consider in the very best.”
Tatyana, a 27-year-old girl from Krasnoyarsk, used tarot playing cards in a bid to be taught whether or not her mobilized boyfriend was being devoted.
”My boyfriend — quite, former boyfriend — is serving within the Kherson space,” she stated. ”I suspected he was being untrue after he grew to become secretive and belligerent. A month in the past, I made a decision to go to a mystic to examine on him. Ultimately, my fears have been confirmed. I discovered what I wanted to know. It was terrible that I used to be sitting and ready for him whereas he was betraying me — and never simply as soon as.”
She stated that her boyfriend later confessed — ”apparently he was bored with protecting up.”
”Ultimately, we broke up,” she stated. ”The mystic did this, together with her data of the magic playing cards. That helped me discover out in regards to the betrayal and in regards to the third occasion in our relationship. I am glad I went to the mystic. I feel I will go once more and see what awaits me sooner or later.”
Anna, a 31-year-old from St. Petersburg, consulted a psychic from Moscow to be taught that her husband was dishonest on her with a feminine soldier.
”I suspected that my husband was dishonest on me whereas he was away on the warfare and he or she confirmed it for me,” Anna stated. ”She noticed the deception within the playing cards and described the girl. Ultimately, my husband confessed. So why should not I consider in magic? However it’s OK. He’ll come again and we’ll get previous it.”
Margarita Yesenina is a 20-year-old from Pskov. Her husband is a mobilized soldier in Ukraine, and he or she pays a psychic in Moscow to burn candles for his well-being.
”Two instances I paid 1,000 rubles ($11) for a well being ritual after a comrade of my husband’s was killed,” she stated. ”My husband survived however had a concussion. Now he is protected by a candle. I ordered the identical ritual for our youngsters. I consider on this mystic and now I do know that each one will probably be effectively with my household.”
’The Circle Of Energy’
Russia and different former Soviet nations skilled an analogous surge in mysticism throughout and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. State tv carried faith-healing broadcasts that includes psychics comparable to Anatoly Kashpirovsky, who was some of the well-known folks in Russia throughout the Nineteen Nineties and was even elected to the State Duma. Kashpirovsky made an sudden return to the limelight in Russia in 2009, throughout the world monetary disaster.
As just lately as 2017, the Russian Academy of Sciences reported there have been about 800,000 religion healers and occult staff in Russia, in comparison with simply 640,000 medical medical doctors.
In February 2019, a gaggle of self-proclaimed witches carried out a ”magic ritual” known as ”the circle of energy” geared toward transferring ”mystical vitality” to President Vladimir Putin.
”The roots of magical pondering return deep into the centuries,” psychologist Oster advised RFE/RL. ”In a world filled with sudden occasions that can’t be managed, rituals, spells, a perception in magical amulets, and so forth., create the phantasm of management.”