Courtesy of Jezmina Von Thiel
- Jezmina Von Thiel is a fortune teller from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
- Von Thiel began her training as a fortune teller at age 4, and started working professionally at 16.
- "I don't claim to have divine power that helps me predict the future," she told Insider. "I'm more of a mirror to your own life."
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jezmina Von Thiel, a fortune teller from Portsmouth, New Hampshire about her life as a fortune teller. It's been edited for length and clarity.
My Romani grandmother immigrated to the United States in the 50s to escape the brutality of post-war Germany. She taught me dream interpretation, intuition exercises, laying of hands for healing, rituals, card reading, palmistry, and tea leaf reading.
Teaching me the family trade was a way to retain a part of her fragmented childhood.