What’s up, swimmers?! This is the first of two conversations I’m bringing you this month, and it feels absolutely right for the deep, spiritual waters of Pisces season.
It was a real honor to speak with Jezmina Von Thiele and Paulina Stevens, co-hosts of the Romanistan podcast and authors of Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling: Divining with Tarot, Palmistry, Tea Leaves, and More. The ecosystem of their work is rooted in advocacy for Roma people, and education around the continued oppression they face, and the culture and practices that have helped them survive. Jez and Paulina’s creations are fiercely loving offerings to both Roma and non-Roma people, and their book is so generous and fascinating!
Who doesn’t want to know a little more about their path based on their palm?
Jezmina Von Thiele (they/she) is a writer, educator, and fortune teller in their mixed Romani tradition. They write poetry, fiction, and nonfiction published in Prairie Schooner, The Kenyon Review Online, Narrative Magazine, and elsewhere (some published as Jessica Reidy). They also offer editing and creative coaching/consulting and services for artists and writers of all types. Jezmina reads tarot, palms, and tea leaves online, and in-person at Deadwick's Ethereal Emporium in Portsmouth, NH. Jezmina also tells fortunes and performs with The Poetry Brothel—Boston. They are co-host of Romanistan, a podcast celebrating Romani culture, alongside co-host Paulina Stevens.
Paulina Stevens (she/her) was raised within her Muchwaya Romani family’s fortune telling and wellness traditions. She opened Romani Holistic, CA, a spiritual shop that offers readings, house cleansings, and one on one coaching with clients. She is the co-host of Romanistan Podcast, and also featured on the LA Times podcast, Foretold, which tells the story of Paulina’s decision to leave her arranged marriage and community, fight for custody of her children, and start a new life, walking between the Roma world and non-Roma world. She is currently a student of biotechnology at Miracoasta College.
In Secrets of Romani Fortune-Telling, Paulina and Jezmina share the knowledge and personal experiences of being raised to be fortune-tellers. 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.
And beyond the podcast and the book, they’re also preparing for the inaugural Romanistan Festival, taking place in New Orleans on March 28-30th. The event line-up can be found on their website, and tickets are still available for purchase!
Jezmina and Paulina are total delights who both have great voices, which only sweetens their incredibly powerful and important messages. While it is not their job to educate non-Roma, they are generous and firm in their teachings and boundaries, and I have a deep respect for the ways in which they work in their familial trades. Both are available for readings and I encourage you to check out their varied offerings.
Some of my favorite moments from the episode include:
Jezmina, on non-Roma tarotists: “My hope is that when I share this, too, for non-Roma who do this work, whether for fun with their friends or professionally, I hope that they also share… where a lot of this Western fortune telling has been so influenced by our practices. I hope that they also share and educate and just it becomes normal to celebrate Romani people doing these things, especially when Roma are still persecuted and painted as scam artists for doing our work.”
Paulina, on dream divination: “So I would say like little things that normally would seem positive in a dream to us were negative, and the negative things, like cutting off your hair or your teeth falling out, were kind of like pieces of you that needed to like come off. And what is interesting is when those things would happen in real life, like when we would be going through something, you know, the grandmothers would be like, let's cut your hair. We need to cut off the… darkness or whatever, like, cut off some of the bad luck.”
Jezmina, on platforms and responsibility: “I've personally found it really challenging trying to recognize that any time that you're from a marginalized group and you have any kind of platform that, even if you're saying you are not, you are representing your whole culture. And it's become very important for both Paulina and I to clarify that. that we don't speak for all Roma, that there is diversity among us, even though there are strong commonalities and we're all connected by our culture and our practices.”
Paulina, on her mother and the title of witch: “I went to visit my mom… she lives in the back of her store in this tiny little beach town, and she always puts this sign out whenever she's in that's called like, The Witch Is In. And she had just given me this… lecture about how all of our family are witches, and like, ‘you're a witch,’ and… I was like, ‘I understand mom, but I just I don't really say that, or you know, I don't really call myself that.’ And then some people walk in the store and she's like, ‘And these are all my daughters and they're all witches.’ Okay, yes, yes, we are.”
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