The Labor of Esoteric Practitioners in New York City
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2014 Enchanted Entrepreneurs: The Labor of Esoteric Practitioners in New York City Karen Gregory Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/218 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Enchanted Entrepreneurs: The Labor of Esoteric Practitioners in New York City by Karen Gregory A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2014 © 2014 KAREN GREGORY All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. NAME April 24, 2014 Dr. Patricia Clough Date Chair of Examining Committee NAME April 24, 2014 Dr. Phil Kasinitz Date Executive Officer NAME Dr. William Kornblum NAME Dr. Vincent Crapanzano NAME NAME Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract Enchanted Entrepreneurs: The Labor of Esoteric Practitioners in New York City by Karen Gregory Adviser: Patricia Clough Through participant observation and in-depth interviews, this dissertation weaves portraits of urban esoteric practitioners together with contemporary social theories of labor in order to explore the embodied and subjectifying project of becoming a psychic or intuitive practitioner capable of offering emotional and psychological “support” to city dwellers. By placing this project in a larger, contemporary political-economic framework, this dissertation looks to explore how spirituality is “entangled” (Bender 2010) in both social structures and cultural practices, as well as shifting configurations of work and the nature of labor. Here, we meet a network of individuals who are predominantly Tarot card readers (although they also combine practices such as Spiritualism, Paganism, Ceremonial Magical practice, Astrology, Numerology, and Reiki into their work) who have come to study and use the cards not only as a part of a personal “quest” for meaning or experiences but also as an attempt to make Tarot “work” for them. This work is personal and subjective, taking the form of self-management (Rose 1989, 2006) and investing in the self (Fehrer 2007), as well as social, entrepreneurial, and increasingly digital in nature. This dissertation explores this spiritualized entrepreneurial project by tracing the ways in which the shifting nature of work and labor in the United States has been experienced by individuals as both destabilization and opportunity, or what has been called “precarity” (Precarias a la deriva 2004; Beradi 2009; Neilson and Rossiter 2005; Mitropolous 2006; Ettinger 2007; Dowling 2007; Berlant 2007, 2011; Gill and Pratt 2008; Hardt and Negri 2009). In the wake of market demands for increased worker flexibility, as well as the increased privatization of risk, these esoteric practitioners have repurposed “New Age” practices and older American metaphysical traditions as a way of recalibrating both the self and the structure and potential of their work life. Here, links between Tarot card flips, the affectivity of symbols, the desire to articulate or speak one’s “truth,” and marketing logics are entangled and seen as sites for the possibility of enchantment, as well as sites that invoke both subtle and overt forms of labor. iv Acknowledgements This dissertation has been long in the making and there are many, without whom, it would not have been possible. First, I would like to say thank you to the Graduate Center and its incredibly vibrant and powerful community of scholars/workers/activists/students. I have learned much from you over the years. Not least among the things I have learned is that studying, working, and completing your dissertation in the public university is an unparalleled experience. We struggle, we strive, and we support one another. There are many thanks that must be given, in this respect, to my fellow graduate students. Thank you to Mitra Rastegar and Elizabeth Bullock for your readings and comments on early drafts of this dissertation. Thank you to Andrea Siegel for your incredible sense of humor and perspective. Thank you to the entire “Participatorier” project— Emily Sherwood, Fiona Lee, Kara Van Cleaf, and Jen Jack Gieseking—for your support and your laughter and your precious time spent writing in the library. Many thanks also to Renee McGarry and to Leila Walker for their support and to Erin Martineau for her friendship (and her home as a place to write and gather myself.) I could not have done this without you. In addition, Josh Scannell and Benjamin Haber have been incredible intellectual interlocutors, writing partners, performance conspirators, and conference travel companions. Finally, I would like to say thank you to the Digital Labor Working Group, which I helped to found along with Andrew McKinney, Tom Buechele, and Kara Van Cleaf. It has been a pleasure to write and learn along side you all. Thank you. In addition to the rich student community at CUNY, this dissertation would not have been possible without the tireless support of my dissertation chair, Dr. Patricia Clough. Patricia has been not only a true intellectual inspiration, but a friend and she has believed in this dissertation every single time that I was ready to quit or change directions. Thank you. I would also like to thank Dr. William Kornblum, who told me to “Go out and do it!” In many ways, it was this simple, but stern advice that redirected the dissertation away from a study of a domestic violence hotline and helped me to head out into a new ethnographic field. In addition, many thanks to Dr. Vincent Crapanzano for his erudite storytelling, whose written work and class lectures were a guide to the research process. And, I would be remiss not to thank Dr. Catherine Silver for her support and guidance in the early stages of graduate school. In addition to my excellent advisors, I would also like to thank Dr. Joseph Ugoretz and the Instructional Technology Fellowship, which has shaped my pedagogical approach to teaching and learning, as well as provided needed financial support for the writing stage of this dissertation. CUNY is truly made a unique place by the work of Dr. Ugoretz and by the community of deeply talented and generous Fellows who compose the program. I am not sure I will be able to live without our listserv. I would also like to take a moment to thank Dr. Marian Arkin, Dr. Judith Summerfield, and Dr. Erin Martineau for the chance to have participated in the Writing Across the Curriculum program (at LaGuardia Community College.) Together, my fellowship experiences at CUNY have paved the way for me to become a public university professor—a scholar and teacher deeply and passionately committed to remaking high quality public education. v I must also, of course, issue a tremendous thanks to the Tarot Center and its students for their generosity and time and patience. This dissertation was dependent on your generosity and your willingness to take me in. Thank you for your teaching and for the gift that is Tarot. Finally, every thank you in the world must be given to Robert Fellman, my husband, partner, friend, copy editor, and tireless supporter. There is no way this work would have possible without you. You have been a shoulder to cry on, a radical advocate, and a hilariously funny companion who continues to make doing this work worthwhile. Many, many thanks, my friend. vi This dissertation is dedicated to my father, Robert Gregory. vii Contents Introduction: 1 Solves All Problems Chapter One: 33 The Shifting Spiritual Marketplace Chapter Two: 83 Social Actors Beyond Belief Chapter Three: 135 “Talkin’ Crazy”: From Fortune-Telling to Truth-Telling Chapter Four 173 “Doing Women’s Work”: Affecting the Future Chapter Five 198 Enchanting the Entrepreneur Conclusion 233 Appendix I 238 Bibliography 243 viii "The carrier of man's values is no longer the "general human being" in every individual, but rather man's qualitative uniqueness and irreplaceability. The external and internal history of our time takes its course within the struggle and in the changing entanglements of these two ways of defining the individual's role in the whole of society. It is the function of the metropolis to provide the arena for this struggle and its reconciliation. For the metropolis presents the peculiar conditions which are revealed to us as the opportunities and the stimuli for the development of both these ways of allocating roles to men. Therewith these conditions gain a unique place, pregnant with inestimable meanings for the development of psychic existence." – Georg Simmel, The Metropolis and Mental Life ix Introduction: Solves All Problems The tavern’s costumers jostle one another around the table, which has become covered with cards, as they labor to extract their stories from the melee of the tarots, and the more the stories become confused and disjointed, the more the scattered cards find their place in an orderly mosaic. Is this pattern only the result of chance, or is one of us patently putting it together? — Italo Calvino, The Castle of Crossed Destinies How inadequate is all this epistemology and transcendental phenomenology for understanding of the visions of visionaries and seers! —Adolfo Lingis, Dreadful Mystic Banquet Through participant observation and in-depth interviews, this dissertation weaves portraits of urban esoteric practitioners together with contemporary social theories of labor in order to explore the embodied and subjectifying project of becoming a psychic or intuitive practitioner capable of offering emotional and psychological “support” to city dwellers.