Secrets of Romani Fortune-Telling: Divining with Cards, Palmistry, Tea Leaves, and More

Shares the knowledge and personal experiences of being raised to be fortune-tellers, providing tips on how to emulate the professional polish that Roma have perfected over the centuries.

＂Welcome to Fortune-Telling: We’re Your Friendly Neighborhood Gypsies.＂

In Secrets of Romani Fortune-Telling, Paulina Stevens and Jezmina Von Thiel introduce the history of the Romani people and their infamous relationship to fortune-telling. They share divination methods, tools, and techniques that have been created, adapted, or popularized by the Roma, including card reading, palmistry, dream divination, and tea leaf and coffee reading. They also share exercises to strengthen your intuition and discover your natural gifts and explain how divination helps with shadow work, blockages, and self-awareness.

Fortune-telling is both a job and a spiritual practice for Roma. The authors, cohosts of the Romanistan podcast, share their knowledge from their own personal experiences of being raised to be fortune-tellers, providing tips on how to emulate the professional polish that Roma have perfected over the centuries, as well as guidance for reading for clients with acumen and cultural awareness.

Secrets of Romani Fortune-Telling also features additional resources, enabling readers to further explore Romani culture and spiritual practices.

Jezmina Von Thiele (they/she) is a writer, educator, performer, and fortune-teller in their mixed Sinti Romani tradition. Their poetry, fiction, and nonfiction has been published in Prairie Schooner, The Kenyon Review Online, Narrative Magazine, and elsewhere under the name Jessica Reidy. Jezmina reads tarot, palms, and tea leaves online as well as in person at Deadwicks Ethereal Emporium in Portsmouth, NH. They also teach classes and workshops on divination, spiritual wellness, and the creative arts. Jezmina often tells fortunes and performs poetry with The Poetry Brothel, Boston’s premiere immersive literary event. Jezmina is also cohost of Romanistan, a podcast celebrating Romani culture, and owner and operator of the online vintage Etsy shop, Evil Eye Edit. Jezmina is based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Paulina Stevens grew up in an insular Romani-American family, destined to leave school, marry young, and become a fortune-teller. By age seventeen, her fate was sealed--until she decided to leave it all behind. Paulina is the subject of the podcast Foretold. Hosted by Los Angeles Times reporter Faith Pinho, the podcast follows Paulina as she navigates the consequences of her decision to leave her community and redefine her identity. The cohost of Romanistan, a podcast celebrating Romani culture, Paulina is based in Los Angeles.