The only shame I have in writing this is that I knew something was wrong but continued to give the benefit of the doubt. I assure you I am as frustrated as you are seeing multiple opportunities to cut my losses and leave but instead being nice and giving the benefit of the doubt.
About two months ago I was introduced to a man at an informal occult gathering. John (not his real name) was presented by himself and a friend of his as an extremely gifted man who was not only talented in the arcane arts but also a successful businessman. John had barely even introduced himself to me before he began discussing his high-profile clients, and even showing me photos of him posing with other successful businessmen and royalty from across the globe. He insisted on taking my number and casually mentioned him having a shop where he would like to have me reading tarot someday.
If I am completely honest with myself, pretty much immediately I got the ick from this guy. Too much happened too soon- he was acutely over-friendly and seemed obsessed with status and luxury to a frightening degree. The events I’ve just described in the previous paragraph took place over the course of about 5 minutes, before he was hurried away to be introduced to another person. In spite of my gut feeling of ick, I thought that there is no way a guy who was so highly spoken of and clearly successful could be that bad. My gut must have been wrong because there was evidence and testimony he was a genuine, polite, successful man.
I largely forgot about the encounter after I returned to my home city. It was about two weeks later John phoned me and asked me if I was planning on coming back to the city in which we had met any time soon. I had to tell him no, that my plans to read at a Halloween event were cancelled and I couldn’t justify just popping back casually. He complained that he was just swamped with clients at the shop, extremely busy and he needed to get another good reader in so he could have the time for his high-profile clients. He suggested he purchase me a flight so I could be a visiting reader but this never materialised. Several weeks later, I was planning on heading back down that way anyway as I needed to attend some medical appointments. John, coincidentally, phoned again a few days prior, again asking if I was coming down. I said I was and he said he would love to have me read at the shop. Being strapped for cash and having had a terrible Halloween, I agreed. This was a huge mistake, one that I made under pressure but against my better judgment; and I think he knew this.
From the get-go, things were off. He told me to meet him at 1:30pm, but didn’t show. “My son had to buy something so I had to leave, but I’ll be half and hour/45 minutes” he told me when I asked where he was. He didn’t show up for over an hour. When he did, he told me to meet him at a market. The unit he rented at this market was unkempt, dusty and he kept the shutter almost completely closed. The whole thing just had a weird vibe but yet again, I dismissed this as occult quirkiness. We sat and discussed my coming in to read there for a few days and there was a promise of many paying clients. He even said he “100%” wanted to open a shop where I live and asked me to find a place for this. I told him that my time is precious as I need to spend it seeking out my own clients- that things were financially difficult for me and I couldn’t just spend time looking for a shop with no guarantee of the business coming to fruition. He assured me that he would help me if we did this, and when I told him that, frankly, if he wanted my help with this he would need to arrange to pay me for my time and labour, he agreed. His exact words being “of course, yes, I will help you”. I now believe he was assessing how vulnerable I was. People who need money for bills and food lose some of their judgement out of fear of missing out, and that is exactly where I was at.
The next day I came to the unit and the traders next to me all confirmed my gut feeling- John rarely, if ever, gets clients. It’s a quiet market anyway and customers think that John's unit is closed. His signage was outdated and cheesy and didn’t look like what a legitimate, high-end divination business would have. I was annoyed but I also gave him the benefit of the doubt, against the relentless gut feeling that was telling me to leave and never contact John again. I called him and explained that I was sure no one was going to come with the way the unit was set up. He told me I was welcome to change things there- so, I did. I rearranged and organised the little shop. Yet still, it remained really quiet. The droves of clients that had been promised to me were non-existent.
I spoke to John that afternoon when he came to the market. I explained that it was much too quiet, he had ineffective advertising and no social media. He agreed with me and said that he needed to set up social media channels and needed new flyers and business cards but didn’t know how to do this himself. I showed him my social media and told him I would be happy to set up and run his social media- for a fee. I will admit that I never named a price because he immediately agreed with me. I explicitly said “I can’t do this for free” And he said “of course, I wouldn’t want you to do this for free!”. He was so confident and acted like payment was no big deal, effectively putting me off guard. He sent me away with a list of demands, and I felt like perhaps I had got through to a man who was too proud to ask for help. My ego really let me down on this one, and I believe this is precisely what he wanted me to think.
On the final day at the unit, I was furious. The fellow traders around the unit had told me that John hated what I had done with the shop, completely contradicting what he said to my face. I called him and confronted him- and this is when things took a truly bizarre turn. He said he didn’t know what the other traders were talking about, that he liked what I had done. John said the unit rent was expensive and it was whatever he could do to get any clients at all. He had contradicted his grandiose claims that he was up to his eyeballs in customers. He had lied to me. John went on to say that he had borrowed money from his wife to pay the rent on the market unit that month too, having not broken even. I point-blank asked him if the new shop he wanted to start in my city was feasible, if he had the funds to do that. His answer- “I just need to talk to a solicitor, but yes it will be fine. Although, how about we start a different business up there? I want to start a takeaway you know, make lots of money doing that…” He had completely lost the plot and the veil had fallen- this man was a broke fantasist.
I was astonished and angry- I had spent my time and money travelling to his market on the promise of lots of clients and him paying for the marketing services we had agreed I would do. He wasn’t wealthy, he was broke. He could tell I was pissed, and in true narcissistic style, tried to smooth it over. He told me to meet him in half an hour; he would pick me up from the unit and we would discuss all these thorny details over a drink, that it was a misunderstanding and we just needed to speak. And once again, ignoring my gut feeling that I should just walk away, I gave him the benefit of the doubt without any reason to and agreed. He came to pick me up and had another man in the car with him- a friend he needed to drop off at home first and then we would go for a drink.
We drove for about 50 minutes to drop off his friend, with no traffic-much longer than had been suggested. He asked my age on the car ride and when I told him I was 30 he was shocked- but then insisted I was wrong about my age and insisted that I was actually 20. I kept assuring John I was a whole decade older than that and finally he ‘met me in the middle’ and decided I was 25. He seemed to need to infantilise me to the point of insanity. He then wanted to park his car at home and insisted we take public transport to his private members club for a drink. The conversation on the way there was bizarre as he wildly alternated between claiming he was struggling financially and boasting about his celebrity clients, how exclusive this club was and how much he gives to charity. This boasting continued at this ugly, old, fancy club that presumably costs a fortune in members fees. It was completely clear to me by now- this man never had any intention of paying me, and he was hoping that I would be strung along much longer than I was. I was too trusting, yes, but he was also banking on me being naive and completely inexperienced. I finally saw right through him. The car ride was done to confuse me, the club chosen as a venue to attempt to slow my logic and processing and put me on the back foot. It didn’t work. I humoured him and then left, cutting off all contact without a goodbye.
***
It was only a few days later when I spoke to a lady about what happened, she pointed out something significant that I hadn’t even considered- right from the get-go John's corruption was undeniable. If he really had CEOs and royalty as clients, they would have almost certainly insisted he sign an NDA. People in the public eye, particularly royalty, would insist on this. From day one, this man was either betraying the trust of his clients or downright lying about them actually being his clients. My mind jumped back to the member’s club he took me to- doubtless he would have encountered some high-profile and high net-worth individuals there. Was it possible it was all a charade founded on chance encounter selfies with a few wealthy people? This taught me that even when our logic hasn’t caught up with us, we know that there is something wrong even before the penny drops. This is why you should trust your gut, even when the presentation is shiny.
Cutting off all contact and accepting that he had syphoned some free labour off of me and there was nothing I could do about it now was the best possible thing I could have done. Accepting that I should have ended the association sooner was a little harder to let go of, but I can’t turn back time. I spent my train journey home drafting a contract template for all future collaborations- if my future collaboration partners are really drawing in clients, they shouldn’t be afraid to sign something guaranteeing a minimum income.
Pragmatics aside, this experience has cemented the fact that the occult is unfortunately very attractive to people who are just out to exploit others. Many of us are struggling and hustling, and turning down an opportunity is very difficult, even if our instincts are telling us to say no. People who look not only skilled and spiritual but also successful and generous are like gold dust, promising opportunities and a chance to improve income and connections. The unfortunate reality is that for every genuine person like this, there are likely dozens of fakers and con-artists who will work a room so well that they’ll have you ignoring your own intuition. My new rule is that anyone who really sees a potential for a collaboration or to hire me will be happy to submit to some basic vetting and questioning as well as creating a paper trail as a guarantee. Genuine people will have no issue doing this, and this acts as a narcissist repellent too. Don’t be afraid to demand accountability even from established occultists. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself in this scene.