You Can't Fight The Magick

Diss it all you want, but it is impossible to ignore the growing popularity of alternative spirituality. We talk to three practitioners about their experiences providing supernatural services in Singapore.

- SUFFIAN HAKIM

I DON’T BELIEVE IN ASTROLOGY. After all, I’m a Leo, and we are quite stubborn in our beliefs.

However, even I cannot ignore the burgeoning popularity of alternative spirituality. An August 2022 survey by YouGov, an international online research data and analytics technology group, found that 26 per cent of adult Americans—that’s more than one in four—believe in astrology and use it to make moderate to important life decisions. According to the same study, over one in 10 believe in tarot readings. Additionally, a total of nine in 10 Americans believe in at least one expression of new age spiritualism, which encompasses a wide range of spiritual practices such as tarot, manifestation or the law of attraction, magic, astrology, karma, chakras, numerology, and astral projection.

Despite the lack of a similar study in Singapore, one can easily sense a similar wind of change. Bars and restaurants such as Employees Only host tarot card readers to serve and entertain guests. A growing number of Singaporean men and women are also taking up the mantle of spiritual practitioner, providing services ranging from simple tarot readings to spellcasting.

With Singapore’s multicultural background, divination has a long and diverse history. Despite the lack of records on the first practitioners, most of us are familiar with them.

Traditionally, Chinese divination methods include fortune-telling, which often involves calculating one’s fate based on their birth date and time using the Four Pillars of Destiny. There is also feng shui, the popular ancient Chinese art of geomancy, which interprets the flow of energy or chi within a space.