By Reya Mehrotra
When the lockdown was imposed in March final year, Puneet Gupta’s astrology enterprise saw a sudden decline. “We had been consistently growing since we started our platform in 2017. But when the lockdown was imposed, the business went down,” says Noida-based Gupta, CEO and founder, AstroTalk, an on-line astrology portal.
The slump, nonetheless, was shortlived as, inside two weeks, persons began reaching out to them once more. The triggers had been Covid anxiousness, layoffs, shrinking enterprise, queries about the pandemic and a desperate need to have for hope. So a great deal so that enterprise surpassed even pre-Covid levels. “By the first week of April, we had recovered and were doing business worth Rs 25 lakh a day as compared to Rs 10 lakh a day before Covid,” shares Gupta.
AstroTalk is not alone in witnessing a sharp boom in enterprise post-Covid. With uncertainty prevailing about the pandemic, scores of persons flocked to astrology services to allay their fears and seek ‘answers’. In the approach, the sector hit a jackpot, with numerous astro ventures coming up to fulfill demand. In India, apps like Ganesha Speaks and Guruji saw a substantial upsurge. While AstroYogi saw more than 20% surge in customers, AstroSage, with more than 40 million app downloads, noticed a one hundred% raise in the 1st quarter of 2020.
Interestingly, this phenomenon is not just restricted to India. Globally, as well, psychic and mystical services saw an upswing. Take, for instance, New York-headquartered Sanctuary, which offers on-demand astrology readings. The app witnessed “real growth in paid offerings, surge in new users and deep engagement in 2020,” mentioned CEO Ross Clark. Other apps like Co-Star, The Daily Horoscope, TimePassages, iHoroscope, AstroMatrix also became well-liked. San Francisco-based Sensor Tower, which offers industry intelligence and insights for the worldwide app economy, estimated that the US spent $39.7 million on the top rated 10 astrology apps in 2019, a 64.7% raise from 2018. The psychic services sector in the US, which comprises palm reading, astrology, aura readings, cartomancy, and so forth, grew at an annualised price of 1.6% from 2014 generating it a $2.2-billion sector by the finish of 2019, as per industry analysis organization IBIS World. Experts say this development will continue in the next 5 years.
In pre-Covid occasions, people’s interest in astrology was the direct outcome of the uncertain occasions and, today, the pandemic has elevated that anxiousness manyfold, major to a substantial push for the sector across the globe. According to a survey performed by AstroTalk—which at present has 1,200 astrologers and 300 tarot readers on onboard and whose app has more than one million downloads—American customers choose psychic and tarot readings, though Indians choose astrology. AstroTalk has hired astrologers and readers across languages as persons are more comfy speaking to a person who speaks the identical language. “We also have a good NRI base and so we are hiring people from America and Canada,” says Gupta, adding that immediately after India, most of their customers are from America, Canada and UAE.
Rising tide
Delhi-based Gunjan Sharma, a communications specialist throughout the week and tarot reader and reiki healer on weekends, says she did more readings in the previous year than the prior two years combined by means of phone calls, WhatsApp and her social media web page Tarot with Gunjan. The peak period, says Sharma, was amongst April and June final year.
Roshan Sylvia, a France-based Indian tarot reader, spiritual healer and palmist, took a break from her YouTube channel, which has more than two lakh subscribers, in 2020 as she discovered the year’s energies overwhelming. And but she witnessed an raise in views on prior videos, as effectively as her quantity of subscribers. “I had thousands of requests for personal consultations during the lockdown,” says Sylvia, who has been in the profession for 5 years. According to her, the queries that persons asked most in 2020 ranged from overall health to partnership troubles, jobs and finances. Sylvia, who has a superior quantity of followers not just in India, but other nations as well, says persons seek astrology more in desperate occasions. “Astrology and divination have always been a refuge in times of uncertainty, as one needs assurance.”
Another astrologer for whom work stress has quadrupled given that the pandemic is Lucknow-based Mridul Misra. “There are a lot of questions related to careers and opportunities to travel abroad as people are anxious about their jobs and finances. Some even ask when work from home will end and when new jobs will come up. There are questions about marriages too,” says Misra, who has been in the enterprise for 20 years.
Delhi-based astrologer and vaastu consultant Jai Madaan also observed a 30% development in enterprise. “When times are tough, people need guidance, direction and answers and so they gravitate towards things that feel natural to them. Initially during the pandemic, there were no answers in science, so they turned towards us to see if the cosmic world had an answer,” says Madaan, who has been a motivational speaker, astrologer, life coach, corporate trainer, partnership counsellor, spiritual healer, graphologist and face reader for 12 years now. Talking about the appeal, she says, “It is just a sugar pill, but one that can fix ailments because that mindset is there. People were insecure as they lost jobs and loved ones. They were also worried about their relationships since a lot of people were distanced from their partners. Many individuals over 40 also had concerns about the health of their parents and children.”
Launched in 2018, Astrobuddy is yet another astrology services app that is benefitting from the new wave of these searching for answers from the stars. Founded by astrologer Bhupesh Sharma, the app struck gold with the arrival of the pandemic and reached its peak in 2020—there was a 150% jump in the quantity of calls and text chats versus the base figure a year ago. Elaborating on the most typical queries persons wanted answers for, Sharma says, “Earlier, 60% of the questions revolved around relationships and marriages and 40% around financial issues and jobs. But now, after the pandemic, 60% questions are about jobs, finances, alliances and careers, and 40% around relationships. People are also asking questions like when will Covid end.”
Sharma says the competitors in the sector has come to be more intense now. “Initially, there was not much competition, but now, many astrology portals have come up, as internet speeds have gone up.”
Talking about the challenges of establishing an astrology portal in a nation exactly where nearly each household knows an astrologer, Gupta of AstroTalk says, “Establishing an online astrology portal in such a place was challenging at first, but we noticed that once a user had a free session, they came back for a paid one. It is easy to acquire a customer here. People already know about astrology.”
Counselling mode
The pandemic has observed situations of anxiety, anxiousness and depression go up across the globe and numerous astrologers say they discovered themselves donning the counsellor’s robe as effectively to aid persons. “We maintained that it’s a difficult time but will pass. Every person has been impacted because of the pandemic in some way or the other—some have come out easily while others have been hit hard… while talking to people, we realised that they needed more of a counsellor’s help,” says Bhupesh Sharma of Astrobuddy.
This is how Serefe, a counselling and therapy platform, was born. The brainchild of Delhi-based Seema Gandhi (who holds a doctorate in micro-finance), Serefe, which began in August 2020, gives counselling services in places like mental overall health and profession, hypnotherapy, dance and movement therapy, previous life regression, spiritual and crystal healing, and so forth. It has counsellors (on-line and offline) across the nation and has tied up with hospitals to come up with clinics in cities like Gurugram, Mumbai, Lucknow and Jammu. The notion, says Gandhi, originated when they discovered that a quantity of Astrobuddy customers had been depressed or anxious—Gandhi and her husband are Astrobuddy’s silent partners/investors.
The response so far, she says, has been fairly positive. “At least 10 corporates across the country have come forward to seek counselling packages for their employees. Our clinic in Jammu has done especially well because there aren’t many mental health counselling services there. We also conducted research that showed that Jammu had a number of mental health patients as the place has gone through a lot,” she adds.
Gupta of AstroTalk says he was shocked to notice particular trends amongst persons final year that reflected the need to have for a counsellor. “We noticed that people were asking the same questions again and again and were talking for as long as 15-20 minutes when a five- to six-minute session can answer a question. That’s when we realised that what they actually needed was counselling,” he says. “People in India don’t realise that they are treating astrology as counselling as it gives them hope. There have been researches aplenty that suggest that after every pandemic, astrology businesses boom,” says Gupta, who has introduced a quantity of new characteristics like no cost birth charts, live sessions and astrology lessons on his platform.
When an astrologer provides tips to seekers, it provides them positivity, believes astrologer Mridul Misra. “If the planetary positions are bad for a person, we tell them the truth, but we also give them certain solutions like donating to the poor or feeding animals that will help motivate them and earn them good karma,” he says.
Delhi-based Gunjan Sharma, nonetheless, cautions that astrology cannot be the ultimate refuge and cannot replace the need to have for a psychologist. “People need to understand that a psychiatrist or therapist is the way to go when you need help with mental health. With tarot and oracle card readings, we tend to speak a lot about the message of hope, positive thinking and law of attraction/universe, but all these will work temporarily for those who really need help from a therapist.” As an oracle reader, she says that even if the cards turn out to be adverse, the readings finish with a guidance message to motivate the seeker.
Spiritual healing
India has a lengthy history of spiritual healing, with an endless and ever-growing quantity of spiritual gurus. Many have discovered followers abroad as effectively. Mystic Rajneesh, far better recognized as Osho, for instance, enjoyed a powerful follower base in all components of the globe. From celebrities flocking to them for healing to the typical man turning to them as aspect of their faith, numerous households today have a spiritual guru whom they swear by. Recently, actor Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness and life style brand Goop also released a list of well-liked spiritual and power healers supplying remote sessions. These integrated the likes of Dana Childs, Frank Butterfield, Diane Goldner, Sonja Grace, and so forth.
Likening astrologers and tarot readers to spiritual healers, Roshan Sylvia says they do not just aid persons on the psychological level, but also on the spiritual level. “It’s a combination of the mind, the body and the soul. I have to find the right balance between giving them the truth of the situation and keeping them positively hopeful,” she says.
Delhi-based Madaan, nonetheless, disagrees, saying there’s a distinction amongst searching for a healer’s aid and taking guidance from an astrologer. “A spiritual healer uses a simplistic way of managing things through healing a person mentally, physically and emotionally. Healing revolves around cleaning of auric, energy and magnetic fields around a person. On the other hand, an astrologer is an expert in understanding outer space changes and how they affect our minds and positions in life. Healing, thus, is more rooted in divinity, while astrology is more calculative. Outer space changes affect our mind position in life,” says Madaan, adding that Indians are typically more spiritual than persons in other components of the globe as our mythologies, religions and scriptures all speak about previous life and rebirth. “So when you talk about the past, present and future in a healing and therapeutic way, it relaxes people and makes them happy,” she adds.
Indore-based healer Krishna Mishra, popularly referred to as Krishna Guruji by his followers, received an overwhelming quantity of calls final year. Mishra, who has been invited to quite a few nations like the US, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Thailand, Dubai, Romania and quite a few states in India for healing by means of prayers, says he healed numerous about the globe final year by means of video calls and phone calls. “I call it ‘divine astro’ healing. Usually, three types of people come to me—those who are worried about jobs and finances, those worried about relationships, and those worried about health. I mostly heal only those who want healing for their health because I have healed myself healthwise too,” says Mishra, who was operated in 1982 for a brain tumour, which left the ideal aspect of his body paralysed. He then began education to create with his left hand and progressively healed himself and even got himself a job. “Now, I am independent and want to heal others as well,” he says.
Since the lockdown was imposed, Mishra says he has been praying for the globe to heal. “Whenever people call me for healing, I listen to them and then say a prayer for them. That is the only process. I believe collective prayers can do wonders,” says Mishra, who has been healing persons for 10 years now.
Since the pace of life slowed down throughout the lockdown, persons had been capable to tap into their spiritual side, feels Mumbai-based Tamanna C, a psychic, spiritual therapist, columnist and author, who identifies herself as a clairvoyant. Tamanna, as well, noticed an raise in the numbers of consumers as the uncertain occasions brought in persons an “urge to transform”. During the lockdown, Tamanna says, persons had been okay with the slow pace of life, but had been concerned about relationships. Usually, the finish and starting of a year are the busiest occasions for her as persons want to know how the coming days will unfold. The most often asked queries, she says, stay about adore, marriage, profession and finances.
Quote 1: Initially, there was not a great deal competitors, but now, numerous astrology portals have come up
— Bhupesh Sharma, astrologer & founder, Astrobuddy, an astrology services app
Quote 2: By the 1st week of April 2020, we had been performing enterprise worth `25 lakh a day as compared to `10 lakh a day just before Covid-19
—Puneet Gupta, CEO & founder, AstroTalk, an on-line astrology portal
Quote 3: It is just a sugar pill, but one that can repair ailments since that mindset is there
— Jai Madaan, a Delhi-based astrologer and vaastu consultant
Quotes 4: People need to have to realize that a psychiatrist or therapist is the way to go when you need to have aid with mental overall health
—Gunjan Sharma, communications specialist, tarot reader & reiki healer