Why I Fired My Psychic
Projekt Rattloch Number 23.
I know it’s the 7th already, but, Happy New Year. You good?
This is the time of year where we feel like we need to change everything in our lives. New plans, new systems, new versions of ourselves.
This is not a lesson, because I don’t know what I’m doing.
What I do know is that this feeling is not exclusive to January. If you read through my Substack, you’ll see a pattern. Every so often, I arrive at a point where I feel like I’ve figured something out. This is the way forward. This is what I should have been doing all along. The thing I was doing before was wrong.
Then it changes again.
I go through these moments where I think I’ve cracked it, and then I feel bad for not cracking it sooner. One of the recurring examples of this is my relationship with my artwork.
This time last year, I was in the same place. I was convinced I needed to focus on my art. Then that shifted, and I told myself I needed to focus on earning money. Earning money became a separate, serious thing. That’s when AI entered the picture. Business skills. Strategy. Optimisation. All sensible. All justifiable.
And all slightly offset from the thing I kept returning to.
Then, in a moment of old habit born from frustration, I messaged a psychic named Charles.
I didn’t seek him out in any meaningful way. He appeared as an Instagram ad for a site called Nebula. One of those quiet, well targeted interruptions that arrive exactly when you’re already questioning yourself, in vulnerable mode. They pull you in with three minutes free. I tapped it without thinking. That alone probably says enough.
I asked him deep, searching questions. I asked him about the specific blocks keeping me in my day job. I asked him whether I needed to learn new business skills or just leave. I was looking for a cosmic sign that it was safe to jump.
Here is the conversation, verbatim.
The Charles Conversation
Me:
I feel stuck in a cycle. I have a day job that drains me and I want to leave to focus on my art, but I feel scattered and guilty. Can you see what the main block is that stops me from finally making the switch?
Charles:
Hello dear, nice to see you in this chat. How are you?
Me:
Good.
Charles:
Really sorry to hear about your situation. Let me pick up a card for you and see for this.
Charles:
The card that showed up is the Ten of Pentacles.
Charles:
Dear, I see this is a transitional year and the fears of leaving the job will be eliminated this year.
Me:
Thank you.
Charles:
But for this you have to work a little extra to build a firm and strong base for your art work with your full determination and enthusiasm.
Me:
I need to clarify something important. I am on a fixed salary, so working harder at my day job will not earn me any extra money. When you say “work a little extra to build a firm base,” do you specifically mean I need to put that extra work into my art business to make it profitable before I quit, or are you seeing a different income source entirely?
Charles:
Hello dear, nice to see you in this chat. How are you?
Me:
Ok.
Charles:
Allow me a moment to pick a card for you and see for this.
Charles:
The card that showed up is the Ten of Pentacles.
Charles:
This card shows that this year shows positive changes and I see new opportunities and start seeking new skills this year.
Ok, so in that last response he didn’t really answer the question directly. Whether that was deliberate or not, I don’t know. But I didn’t need to ask any more. I’d already got what I needed. Charles was fired with immediate effect.
That conversation cost $4.49 a minute for the five additional minutes after the three freebie minutes.
And that was the moment it finally landed. His response was the reminder I needed.
Focus on your art.
Growth.
Transition.
Trust yourself.
The same conclusion I keep arriving at, dressed up in different language.
Whilst pricing Ready to Fly at £25 so someone could walk away with a piece of my work for the price of a round of drinks. I was writing narratives about fragile hope blooming amidst the wreckage. I was turning my outsider status into a real art business, not a side note.
The Charles comment was the straw that broke the belief camel’s back. Not because it revealed something new, but because it made it impossible to ignore what I already knew deep down.
Something really shifted. I think.
I spent the remainder of the afternoon with great gusto, finalising the entire ten piece exhibition collection as part of a three-person group exhibition. I matched ten portraits to ten Devo songs. I built a psychological narrative for each one. I calculated the pricing strategy. I formatted the inventory list for the organisers.
I saw this: If I am serious about this art lark, my art cannot be the thing I circle back to after reassurance, learning, alignment, or permission. It has to be the thing everything else is built around. It is the foundation. It’s never been a hobby and should not be treated as such.
We are not waiting for signs.
We are not waiting for permission.
We are Devo.
And we are ready to fly.
It’s a Beautiful World.
P.S. A few pics from said exhibition. I sold the John Cleese piece when I was setting up, so grateful! The guy said the message really resonated as he was diagnosed with adult ADHD at 53 (now 70).
John’s message:
I knew you were going to say that...
hehe
I am psychic.
Did your psychic see it coming?