In case there was any doubt as to the status of Prince Harry’s defection from the royal family, consider the revelation in his no-holds-barred memoir, Spare, that he had sought guidance from a woman who claimed to have ‘powers’ and could relay a message from his late mother. Nothing says hard-exit from the stiff upper lip brigade like an admission of embracing the woo-woo.
But Harry is far from the only one finding solace in the strange. Pseudoscience and spiritual healing practices that were once niche have gone mainstream. Whatever gets you through the night, and all that. In Fitzrovia’s Mandrake Hotel guests can order room service from the Spiritual Concierge menu (think shamanic healing and sound frequency alignment instead of a burger in bed). Crystals are available to buy from Net-A-Porter; #tarot has 61.6 billion views on TikTok. Bumble has a resident astrologer; at the party to celebrate Mayfair boutique Koibird’s fifth birthday, attendees were treated to tarot readings and aura photography. Goop is valued at $250 million. ‘Mercury retrograde’ has taken up permanent residence in popular parlance as a catch-all to explain both major catastrophes and minor inconveniences.
