Victorians look to spirits, tarot cards, mediums for life advice.
Anxious Victorians are forking out money to psychics for career and life advice, with new spiritual businesses springing up during the pandemic.
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Young Victorians are increasingly turning to psychics for guidance on their lives and career paths, as they emerge from two years of Covid chaos.
The Herald Sun can reveal demand for consultations with psychics among people aged 16 to 30 has soared over the last couple of years, as youth in particular seek guidance from the spirit world.
And many are chucking in their jobs or uni courses, and changing their life paths, in order to follow ‘advice from the universe’, in what workplace expert Associate Professor Timothy Bednall warns could be a mistake.
Assoc Prof Bednall, from Swinburne University’s Centre for the New Workforce, said young people should be wary of taking career or life advice from psychics or fortune tellers and instead look to psychologists properly trained in vocational assessment or career guidance.
An hour session with a well-known Melbourne psychic in Melbourne typically costs between $180 and $220, which can be more than an expert career counsellor.
However, some psychics, such as medium Janelle Bridge, started offering cheap or even free spiritual services via social media platforms like TikTok during the peak of the Covid crisis, and saw demand for online consultations skyrocket.
“I was asking myself, how do I help people?” Ms Bridge said, adding she had noticed a wave of young, female university graduates seeking career guidance.
The experience for Melbourne based psychic Julie Zdravkovska was similar, with a surge of people between the ages of 16-32 contacting her for readings.
Many claimed to feel lost and frustrated due to their diminishing freedoms as a result of the pandemic.
“They had plans to either travel the world, start their course or a new job or were half way through all these things when it was all put on hold,” she said.
“The fear and anxiety it caused was heartbreaking to witness.”
Remi Oswald, 23, decided to book a session with a psychic in March last year on a friend’s recommendation.
The Melbourne medium told the then junior brand manager she would quit her job, but that her new employment would be short lived.
Surprised, she explained that she had just resigned from a job in marketing and was looking for a job in public relations.
But Ms Oswald was told PR was not her destiny.
The psychic said she was destined to become a primary school teacher, specifically teaching children in grade one and two.
Shocked a complete stranger had just told her she was fated for a job she had always contemplated, Ms Oswald decided to take the advice on board.
“A couple of days after my reading, I enrolled in a masters of primary education,” she said. “It was almost like a light flicked on in my brain.”
While she has now deferred her course due to a full time job, she plans to return to the teaching degree in the future.
“I’m very happy with my current occupation, but I thought iso was the best time to test the theory and get the ball rolling,” Ms Oswald said.
Former oncology nurse Brielle McHenry, 25, had a similar experience.
While the now managing director of a budding fashion brand had her psychic reading back in 2017, it was during the pandemic the prophecy unveiled.
It was while holidaying in Noosa in November 2017 that Ms McHenry handed over $50 to a psychic at a stall at the Eumundi Markets, curious about what her future may hold.
At the time, the 20-year-old was happily studying for a nursing degree and also helping her mum with a fledgling clothing business, at a local market on weekends.
The psychic told Ms McHenry she was receiving intel from spirits which were telling her that while woman sitting in front of her was bound to succeed as a nurse, it was not the career she was destined for. In fact, she was destined to build a new and successful career in a more creative field, the psychic said.
Until that point, Ms McHenry had not seen herself as the creative type.
“It made me feel excited,” Ms McHenry said, adding she felt “almost a sense of relief that there was a beautiful, life changing opportunity ahead”.
Continuing with her degree, she soon found herself working on an oncology ward, where she flourished and was quickly offered a promotion.
But as the pandemic continued and she helped her mum at the market stall, Ms McHenry started to seriously entertain the idea of a new ‘creative’ career path, as suggested by the Eumundi Markets psychic.
Ms McHenry quit nursing altogether in late 2020 to take on a full time role at her mum’s fashion brand, Salt and Soda Designs, which – with her hard work – transformed from a small market stall to a thriving online store.
“It was a little crazy but also so happy that I had made it to the place I was destined to reach,” said Ms McHenry. “It felt like everything had happened for a reason leading up to the moment of change.”
William White, 23, who sought the guidance of psychic Julie Zdravkovska during the peak of the Covid crisis said his “session was incredibly intense, with lots of crying”.
“I wasn’t crying because I was sad, I was crying because I felt like she understood me,” he said.
Ms Zdravkovska predicted two major changes to the architecture student’s life; the first being
he would enter his first romantic relationship with months of the reading and the second that he would look to starting a marketing degree.
Within months, Mr White found love.
“When this prediction came true, it made me reconsider the other comments she had made – especially about my career and what I wanted out of life,” he said.
Psychic Julie Zdravkovska’s big predictions
> Footy: Bulldogs and Richmond, among the teams to be in the finals with Richmond on the comeback trail to regain its place as one of the AFL greats. Melbourne will most likely not be able to make history for a second time running. Sydney Swans may struggle to make it to the end.
> Ukraine, Ukrainian: WW3 is not about to break out. The conflict will stay between Ukraine and Russia. Just as we think all out war is about to break out, someone will pull the plug and tensions will simmer.
> Australian elections: Labor will have solid followings in both upcoming federal and state elections. It will be a close call in the Federal election but Labor seems to be coming out on top.
> US: Trump will not be elected president again.
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Originally published as Victorians look to spirits, tarot cards, mediums for life advice.
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