Gen Z can’t control the future, so they’re paying witches and tarot readers to make it feel more manageable

This summer, with torrential rain threatening her outdoor wedding, a bride did the one thing left on her checklist. She hired an Etsy witch to cast a spell for clear skies. 

“I just didn’t know what else to do,” she told her bridesmaid, Brooke Bekoff. “I hope it works; it can’t hurt.”

A weather app had already told her it would rain, for free. Horoscopes, tarot cards, and astrology explainers are also only a scroll away. Yet consumers continue paying for what free content can’t offer—someone to interpret their fresh breakup, career decision, or fear about the future.

That desire for personalized guidance has built a big business. The U.S. psychic-services industry generated $2.3 billion in revenue in 2025, according to a July 2025 IBISWorld report. Revenue grew at an annualized rate of 5.5% over the five years through 2025, with nearly half of women ages 18 to 49 consulting astrology or a horoscope at least once a year. But IBISWorld describes the market as highly fragmented, leaving room for entrepreneurs who want to organize it.

Bekoff, 29, is one of them, and her idea started at that very wedding. The rain continued as the bride got ready. But then, in a moment Bekoff described as straight out of a movie, the clouds parted right as the bridal party headed outside. Sunlight replaced the downpour, and not a single drop fell during the ceremony until it started to pour again after it ended. 

What struck Bekoff, a former growth product manager at TaskRabbit and Robinhood, wasn’t just the weather. Of roughly eight bridesmaids, she recalled five or six saying they had recently hired Etsy witches for needs of their own. They lived across the country and ranged from Gen Zers to millennials.

“I remember that being like, ‘Wait a minute, this is such an interesting opportunity,’” Bekoff said. “There’s really something here culturally.”

Paying for interpretation, not information

Part of that culture plays out online, where the pitch often opens with a hook:........

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