This message was destined to find you.
At least that’s the sort of thing tarot card readers on YouTube say.
Madison Wood was only 23 when her YouTube channel hit 100,000 subscribers. The Ohio native majored in psychology and worked at a rehabilitation center after graduating — now she’s reading tarot cards for millions of people on her YouTube Channel, EsoTarot.
Wood creates what’s called a “pick-a-card” tarot reading. With videos like “how they’re currently feeling about you” and “if you’re seeing this, there’s something you need to know,” just about anyone who seeks clarity on their life and current circumstances could be drawn to pick a card.
Traditional tarot readings have long worked the same way: you visit a tarot reader — sometimes referred to as a psychic — with a big question about your life, such as, “Will me and my partner break up because of our latest argument?” or “Should I change my career?”
The tarot reader then lays out cards from a tarot deck — usually there are 78 of them, all with their own unique meanings. The combination of cards they pull out tells a story. Knowing some of the person’s life circumstances, the tarot reader interprets the cards and provides them guidance.
For hundreds of years, this involved going into a psychic shop, approaching someone on the side of the road or perhaps sitting on their apartment terrace on the Venice Boardwalk to get your cards read. But now, you and millions of others can get a reading by clicking a button on YouTube.
Most YouTube pick-a-card readings feature three to five piles of tarot cards, labeled by number. The viewer is meant to choose the pile they are most drawn to and then click on the timestamp in the video’s description, instantly sending them to their tarot reading.
Reading tarot cards on YouTube is Wood’s full time job and she’s just one of many in the business.
Carey Underwood, not to be mistaken with the singer, Carrie Underwood, has also found success as a tarot reader on YouTube. A Canadian living in Japan, Underwood’s YouTube channel is called Kino Tarot and has over 342,000 subscribers.
Wood, who is based in Ohio, and Underwood, who is in Japan, became friends online and have collaborated on tarot reading videos together.
Both in their 20s, the two bonded over their shared career. Wood has formed friendships with other YouTube tarot readers, like The Hermit Tarot, as well, “some of my most deep and profound friendships have been with other readers,” she said. Most tarot readers name their YouTube channel something related to tarot or spirituality, making it easy for potential viewers to find them.
With the internet and social media, tarot is more accessible to more potential customers than ever. It’s completely changed the game — and business itself — for readers and guidance seekers.
It’s Tarot 2.0.
And in the age of social media, these digital tarot readers are establishing themselves as a different kind of “influencer” for a whole lot of people; tens of millions, by some measures.
YouTube tarot readers like Kino Tarot and EsoTarot have the power to alter people’s perceptions of their lives and decisions.
A user with the handle @PiggyK commented, “I literally was in tears. Kino, you exactly described what I am going through,” and @starrydreams.19 commented “The first three cards of Pile 2 HIT HOME” under one of Kino Tarot’s videos.
They aren’t alone. EsoTarot’s YouTube channel, which she started in January 2020, has accumulated 66 million views and 387,000 subscribers. Kino Tarot’s channel has over 58 million views.
Just like many influencers, these next-generation tarot readers are often trying to make a fortune — telling people’s fortunes.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were all stuck at home and in turn, stuck on our phones and computer screens. This made it the perfect time for influencers, including tarot readers, to grow their following on social media.
Wood said that after she started her YouTube channel in January 2020, she began posting regularly that summer. By January 2021, she surpassed 50,000 subscribers — and then doubled it the following month.
Next thing Wood knew, she was making more money than her actual job at a mental health rehabilitation center.
Success came “quite quick, actually,” she said. “And I was like, well, I don’t know what’s going to happen with this, but I’m going to take the opportunity and just see where it leads me.”
Then, in 2020 — the year the pandemic began — TikTok became the most downloaded app in the world.
That was the year Meghan Rose’s astrology TikToks went viral. The 30 year old, originally from New Hampshire, now has over 106,000 followers on the app, where she specializes in astrology.
Rose gives insights on upcoming planetary movements and what they mean, “On 7/3/23 we have a full moon in Capricorn that will illuminate all of the ways your life is being held back from abundance. Use this energy to remove anything draining your time, money and energy.”
Other videos share her interpretation of each sign, such as her love letter videos to each zodiac sign that give details on their characteristics she admires.
The L.A.-based astrologer also reads tarot for clients privately through email and writes “tarotscopes” for Glamour Magazine each month. According to testimonials on her website, some of her clients include “Gossip Girl” actress Kelly Rutherford and Olympic gold medalist Kerri Welsh Jennings.
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Meghan Rose charges $222 for her 30-minute email tarot readings. Prices for in-person tarot readings at a traditional psychic shop, like the Psychic Eye Book Shop in Sherman Oaks, start at $25 for 15 minutes and $55 for 60 minutes.
Rose said she’s never working more than four hours in a day and only takes clients on Wednesdays. “I don’t remember the last time that I was working more than 20 hours a week” she said. According to Rose, it’s been her only source of income since February 2020, making her about $200,000 a year. In a YouTube video by Linkedin titled “I make $200,000 reading tarot cards,” Rose dived into career journey.
Rose said the most lucrative stream of income from her different tarot endeavors is from her brand deals with companies like Amazon, the NFL and the luxury brand, Saint Laurent. She said that for Amazon, she did tarot readings at a launch party at The Grove, an outdoor shopping center in Los Angeles, for one of their original films.
For the NFL, she did tarot readings for a company party. In addition to her monthly tarotscopes for Glamour Magazine, she’s also the resident astrologer at HEIMAT, an upscale Los Angeles members-only fitness club and has her own paid newsletter called Star-Crossed, along with a podcast of the same name.
Popular YouTube tarot readers like Vanessa Somuayina have designed their own tarot cards and sell it as merchandise, just one of the many ways modern tarot readers have made their work lucrative. Her custom tarot decks, like “The Pastel Journey” ranged from $44 to $77 on her online spirituality business, Beau Life, in 2024. That year, Somuayina sold master classes on how to read tarot for $777 — which is considered an “angel number” in numerology.
Meghan Rose said that Vanessa Somuayina was actually one of the first readers she watched on YouTube. But soon after, she realized the addictive qualities of those kinds of videos.
Rose warned aspiring tarot card readers, “It’s so important to me that people don’t do this work for clout or following or monetary gain or fame. It’s such a vulnerable space to get, to tap into somebody’s psyche.”
Wood says that she thinks people get attached to tarot YouTube videos because they want answers, “I think [wanting to get] answers is a common thing. One thing that Christians always say about tarot is like, well, you keep coming back to it, and it’s like, ‘do you not go back to your Bible and look for wisdom there?’”
Free readings on social media, like the YouTube pick-a-cards, are incredibly accessible, but people might even get addicted to in-person, paid, readings.
Employees at the Psychic Eye describe some of their regular customers as “psychoholics” — people who seem addicted to psychic readings and call for appointments frequently. “It’s like therapy for them,” Oskar Heredia, who works at the Psychic Eye, said.
The Hermit: Addicted to Tarot
Viewers can pay $5 a month to be a part of Kino Tarot’s community on Patreon and can pay $5.55 on Vimeo to access extended readings for EsoTarot. This is an optional addition to their general readings posted as regular, free YouTube videos.
Some viewers feel that these readings, made for a smaller community, resonate more with them. “Girl I gotta pay you more cuz I’ve been watching you for a few years now and you really don’t miss. AND ITS ALWAYS PILE 2. Everything resonates” said a user named Mari. There’s no way to confirm that the people behind the comments are real or “bots.”
Tarot readers on TikTok, like @Witch of the British, have videos meant to instantly hook viewers, exclaiming “if this video came up on your ‘for you page’ this video is for you. This person is lowkey obsessing over you. You have a love interest.”
Rose says she’s veered away from making videos like these, because she knows the power they have over someone’s mind and how easy it is for people to get sucked in.
“It didn’t resonate with me to use tarot as a modality online. So now, like, even when I post astrology content, I kind of evade myself from going down horoscopic insights.” she said.
Rose also questions the intent behind some of the short-form tarot videos. She explained, “I believe that the messages that come forward need to be delivered with pure intent, and I think when they’re being shared on a mass scale, it’s really easy for people to get a lot of ‘likes’ or get a lot of followers, or get high engagement and lose sight of being honest.”
Similarly, although Wood produces tarot content on YouTube, she avoids short-form content like TikTok or Instagram Reels.
When talking about the TikTok tarot videos that jump out at viewers, Wood said “I think that it kind of takes away the consent part of tarot. You know, with my videos, you have to click on them, and if at any point you don’t like what you’re hearing, you can click off.”
Because Wood studied psychology in college, she says she has concerns about the effects of short-form content on viewers’ mental state.
“[Social media developers] designed it to exploit the human psyche. It is designed to get you addicted to the dopamine. It is designed to get you addicted to those little hits and it sucks you in in a way where, like, you lose an hour and you don’t recall anything you just saw” she said.
Dopamine, known as the brain’s “feel-good” chemical by scientists, is released in the brain when you do something enjoyable. According to a study in the Journal of Neurology and Neurophysiology, using social media creates a surge of dopamine in the brain. The short bursts of positive feelings provided by social media apps like TikTok can leave individuals looking for more — creating an addictive loop, according to the study.
When you combine social media’s addictive nature with people’s constant curiosities about what’s next in life, it makes sense why this new age of tarot is particularly alluring.
“People want to hear about how the person they like feels about them. They want to hear about, you know, what’s happening in the near future. They want to know,” said Wood.