It's the future: Nearly a third of US adults consult astrology, tarot cards
It's the future: Nearly a third of US adults consult astrology, tarot cards
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What is Mercury retrograde? What the astrological phenomenon means.
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J Davis-Jones knows what it's like to struggle with life's demons. The Dallas-based tarot reader and theater artist fought their way back from the void with the urge to be loud about what they had learned in their healing process.
Part of that had come from tarot cards, with which Davis-Jones now dispenses hope and positivity on their TikTok account with a global following exceeding 204,000, many of whom reflect Davis-Jones' own identity as a young member of the LGBT and BIPOC communities.
"Tarot is a tool to connect with your intuition," said Davis-Jones, 28. "It's a way to gauge your guides, to give your angels and God, the great spirit, a voice in your life.... The cards have meaning, but the more you study and learn it, the more you develop this deeper intuitive side."
A new report from the Pew Research Center indicates nearly a third of U.S. adults consult astrology, tarot cards or fortune tellers at least once a year, with the share highest among women, young people and the LGBT community.
A third of those who do say they do so to gain helpful insights, while the rest say they pursue the practices just for fun. LGBT adults are most likely (29%) among the survey's analyzed demographic subgroups to say they use either tarot cards, horoscopes or fortune tellers to get helpful insights, and 21% of LGBT adults said they relied at least 'a little' on these practices when making major life decisions.
The past decade has seen rising interest in New Age practices, largely associated with young people seeking mental wellbeing. Some, like Davis-Jones, have cultivated social media followings initiated by pandemic-related anxiety and social distancing.
The trend comes as Gen Zers and Millennials have increasingly broadened or reconstructed their spirituality around non-traditional religious activities while abandoning Christian faith systems and increasingly describing themselves as agnostics, atheists or "nothing in particular."
Beliefs marked by gender and age differences
The Pew Research Center survey of nearly 9,600 U.S. adults, conducted in October, found 30% of people pursue at least one of the new age practices annually, with differences in gender and age. For example, 43% of women aged 18 to 49 said they believe in astrology – the notion that the position of celestial objects can affect people's lives – compared to 20% of men of similar age; overall, women are about twice as likely as men to believe in astrology (35% to 18%).
LGBT adults were more than three times as likely (33%) as non-LGBT adults (9%) to consult tarot cards – a deck of cards featuring images and archetypes used to interpret one's situation – at least annually, with 15% of LGBT adults doing so once or twice a month. Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of Americans aged 18 to 29 said they used tarot cards at least annually, compared to 11% of the general population, 6% of Americans aged 50 to 64 and just 3% of those 65 and older.
"Something happened with the quarantine, where we were forced to go back to our roots," said Davis-Jones, who launched their TikTok account after their work as a bartender dried up with the pandemic lockdown. "We were all on autopilot, just going to work — and then overnight, we were forced to see ourselves."
The portion of Americans who believe in astrology hasn't budged much in recent years, slipping to 27% compared to 29% in 2017. Gallup polls between 1990 and 2005 consistently found between 23% and 28% of Americans believed in astrology, the Pew report noted.
But LGBT adults were much more likely (43%) to do so than non-LGBT adults (27%), the report found. More than half of LGBT adults (54%) said they consulted astrology or a horoscope at least once a year, with the share higher among LGBT women (63%) than LGBT men (40%).
Among religiously affiliated Americans, Hispanic Catholics (39%) and Black Protestants (33%) were the most likely groups to say they used astrology, in addition to 35% of those who described their beliefs as 'nothing in particular.'
Few Americans report consulting with fortune tellers: Just 6% of all U.S. adults said they did so at least once or twice a year. However, the figure was more than twice as high among Asian Americans (15%) and adults under 30 years of age (14%). Just 3% of White Americans and 2% of adults aged 65 and older reported doing so.
Compared to one in 20 U.S. adults overall, 12% of both Hispanic Catholics and Asian Americans said they relied 'a little' on either astrology, tarot or fortune tellers when making major life decisions. The figure was slightly lower among Black Americans (11%) and Hispanic Americans (9%) and lowest among White Americans (4%).
Just 1% of U.S. adults said they relied 'a lot' on such practices to make major life decisions. White evangelicals and atheists were among the groups most likely to say they never engage in such practices, the report said.
In Dallas, Davis-Jones, the tarot reader, said most paying clients come looking for healing. Sometimes that's easier with another person, they said.
"There was a time in my life when tarot became a way of finding my breath and my healing again," Davis-Jones said. "That's the value this offers. I'm not a therapist. I'm not here to fix them, I'm just here to hold space for that spirit to enter the room and speak to them. For somebody who's lost to feel seen."
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