Divination or scam? The rising popularity of tarot cards reading

Nineteen-year-old Kimmy Wu Ching-tung was listening to her love prophecy at the Tarot Centre in Mongkok.

“The Tarot reader said I will meet my next boyfriend in March,” Wu laughed, “He will be 175cm tall, meticulous in character, and have a tattoo on his left shoulder.” 

Wu is a barista at a coffee shop in Tai Wai, and this is the fourth year since she has started seeking tarot readings. “I usually seek metaphysical help for relationship issues or career paths,” said Wu. 

Wu is not alone. On Instagram, there are 29.9 million posts under the hashtag “tarot”, nearly 121,000 posts in #hktarot, and over 5,000 posts offering Tarot interpretation services in Hong Kong. The most popular divination bloggers on Instagram have over 40 million followers.

Mani Cheung, 47, is the founder of the Hong Kong Tarot Association. The number of divination courses provided within her association has doubled since 2022. 

“Course services we offer are always full, with around 60 to 100 students a year,” she said, “and people from 20 to 50 years old love to participate in it.”  

The principle of tarot card interpretation is the customer’s subconscious projection.

Usually, the tarotist would ask the client to randomly choose one of the Tarot cards spread out on the table based on their subconscious mind, and then the tarotist would interpret the card according to the pattern on it. The more cards drawn, the more information will be interpreted.

“Tarot reading involves frequency. The cards customers pick can already reflect a certain state of their mind, which is similar to subconscious projection,” said by Diva Chugani, a 40-year-old Indian Tarot reader in Hong Kong. She is also the owner of a tarot shop l in Tsim Sha Tsui. 

Each card, the reader claims, can represent different meanings according to customers’ questions. 

“For example, if there's a card of death it can mean the person is going to experience some kind of death,​​ whether it's a family member or himself or herself or it could be the death of a certain personality trait,” said Chugani. 

“So there are many meanings based on the surrounding cards.The skill of a tarot card reader is to read where the cards are placed, and be able to form the narrative,” she added.

Prices for tarot divination services vary. The cheapest tarot reading on Instagram only costs HK$15 per question. But the average charge for a 10-minute tarot card reading costs from HK$250, according to data collected by Toby, a Hong Kong-based service purchasing platform.

“I prioritise energy exchange over the money trade,” said Chugani. As a yoga teacher and English tutor, Chugani sometimes charges as little as HK$10 or HK$20, but in-depth sessions always cost over HK$300.

"There’s no fixed rate in this industry, the longer you have been a tarot reader, the higher you charge," said Chugani. 

Wu spent HK$500-600 every month on Tarot interpretation, and so far, she has spent nearly HK$30,000 over four years. “After graduation from high school, I wanted to apply for a job as a barista, so I went and divined which shop would be a good fit for me,” Wu said. “Then the tarotist told me that NOC coffee was a good option. So I went for an interview and I managed to get in.”

Cathy Huang, 23, a student from Beijing Normal - Hong Kong Baptist University, is another Tarot fan. She started fortune telling in her 20's, and has spent HK$1,500 in one year.

She believed it solves her anxiety about the future.

“I went to Natsuki Tarot in Mong Kok for divination last year. At that time, I just broke up with my ex-boyfriend, and I really wanted to know whether there was a chance to get back together with him,” she added. “When I heard the divination results were not as good as I had hoped, I was rather more relieved.”

Huang also divined questions about the future career that she dreams of working in university. After she was told that she would get an advanced degree, she felt more confident and passionate about her undergraduate studies.

Fifi Xu, a mainland customer who likes to visit divination shops, also said, “The divination market in Hong Kong is more open than the mainland.” When searching for shops on social media, she found that more and more mystical shops had opened in Hong Kong in the past two years.

“Whether it’s Eastern or Western metaphysics, the government has never intervened,” said Cheung. “You only need to submit the registration form for societies provided by the Hong Kong Police Force, such as a business registration certificate to the police station, then you can become a government-registered group organisation.”

However, scams happen sometimes.

In 2023, over 180 people in Hong Kong were deceived into purchasing fake "stocks" for fortune telling, resulting in losses exceeding HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) within a single week, according to Hong Kong Police.

In August 2024, Hong Kong Police arrested two people involved in a HK$400,000 tarot fortune-telling fraud case, in which one of them solicited customers through her social media account, while another claimed to be a tarot reader and blackmailed the victims.

“The most common trick is to say that your fortune is down and you have encountered ghosts, and you need to spend HK$3,800 or HK$9,800 to perform an exorcism ritual,” said German Ho, 45, owner of the Purple Moon New Age shop. “Many stores on Instagram will induce you to continuously consume in this way. "

When people realise that there is no effect and want to stop, the scammers would continue to deceive them by saying that they have not done enough rituals.

“You first understand who is doing the divination for you, and don't do divination easily on the Internet, otherwise, you will be easily deceived,” said Cheung.

The Tarot Association, she said, is supposed to  l issue certificates to tarot masters who pass an exam, which is also a way to distinguish whether the tarot master is experienced.

Chugani acknowledged that fraud is a persistent issue in the industry. “You need to assess the tarot reader's trustworthiness and the pricing,” she said.

Priyanka Gee, Chugani’s customer, 43, said trust plays a big part of the process“I turn to divination whenever I need it,” said Gee. “Fortune telling offers more than just financial guidance, it's an exchange of energy, not about the money.”

Wu also believed that the meaning of divination is the projection of personal beliefs.

“Fortune telling is just psychological comfort. It all depends on you,” she said. “I will keep spending money on divination, and I do not care about the consequences. Sometimes it is better for me to prepare for the future,” she added.