‘People are looking for hope’: tarot cards, psychics and spiritual healing more popular in Hong Kong amid pandemic

Two Hongkongers describe the spiritual guidance tools they use – psychic readings, reiki, singing bowls and tarot cards – to cope as the pandemic drags on

‘When life is out of control, like it is for many during this pandemic, there’s a natural search for existential meaning,’ says a retired professor of health

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Letao Wang, who has conducted psychic readings in Hong Kong for more than a decade, says the pandemic is taking a toll on people’s mental health. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 7:15am, 7 Mar 2022Updated: 9:38am, 11 Mar 2022

Letao Wang has spent more than 10 years dispensing advice on love, money and careers to hundreds of people in Hong Kong from all walks of life.

What’s different in today’s Covid-19 climate, he says, is an overwhelming lack of hope among his clients.

Wang is one of the city’s most in-demand psychic readers, although he prefers the label spiritual counsellor – just don’t refer to him as a fortune-teller, like a lot of the media in Hong Kong have.

“People feel stuck,” says Wang, the founder of The Kingdom Healer, which specialises in tarot, astrology and numerology.

Wang specialises in tarot, astrology and numerology. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

“Before the strict quarantine restrictions, Hongkongers were big travellers,” he says. “It kept us mentally sane, a little escape from our dramas and a time to recharge.

“But that’s not happening now, and it’s taking a toll on people’s mental health, which is such a big issue not just in Hong Kong but globally,” says Wang, who incorporates mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy into his sessions. He holds a degree in counselling from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.