Fortune-Telling in Korea: Where Tradition Meets the Future

On a crisp afternoon of January 2nd, 2026, a woman in her thirties climbs to the third floor of a quiet office building in Seoul's Gangnam district, arriving right on time for her 3 PM appointment. The space looks less like something mystical and more like a consultation room—clean, minimalist, professional. She sits across from the fortune-teller, ready to learn what the new year will bring for her career, romance, health, and wealth.

This is modern Korean fortune-telling, and it's far more common than you might think.

New Year Fortune-Telling in Korea: An Annual Ritual

Every January, Korean fortune-tellers become some of the busiest people in the country. It's called sinnyeon-unse (신년운세)—literally meaning "new year fortune." When the new year arrives, people from all walks of life become interested in what lies ahead. From college students worried about finding jobs to people preparing to move, to CEOs making business decisions, many Koreans quietly seek fortune-tellers' advice about the coming year. Some even visit fortune-tellers before marriage, asking "Should I marry this person?" Isn't that ironic?

The ways people consult fortune-tellers have become increasingly diverse. In the past, people would visit based on word-of-mouth recommendations about who "gets it right." The power of such recommendations remains strong even today. But nowadays, people also consult by phone without meeting in person, or receive consultations only through text via the internet or apps. With the rise of tarot reading, scenes of young people lining up in front of tarot shops have also emerged.

The Origins of Fortune-Telling in Korea

Korean fortune-telling is not a recent phenomenon. Fortune-telling in Korea is said to have begun around the 800s CE. As time passed, in the 1500s, a man named Yi Ji-ham published a book called Tojeong-bigyeol, which made fortune-telling more widely known. (However, there are many historical opinions that the actual author of this book was not Yi Ji-ham.)

Fortune-telling penetrated deeply into commoners' lives in the late 1800s. As the national economy struggled and commoners had nowhere to turn, they began seeking out fortune-telling. However, the actual establishment and proliferation of "fortune-telling parlors" in Korea didn't happen until the relatively recent 1970s.

Here's an interesting question worth pondering: Did people in ancient times really remember and consider important the exact hour of their children's birth? Even in the 20th century, weren't there many people whose birth dates weren't even accurate?

Main Types of Korean Fortune-Telling

First, I want to briefly discuss the meaning of the word commonly referred to as "jeom" (점, fortune-telling) in Korea. When Koreans generally say "I'm going to get my fortune told," they're talking about two things: sinjeom (spirit divination) and saju (Four Pillars). The word "jeom" originally came from sinjeom.

When Koreans say "I got my fortune told" or "Someone said this person reads fortunes well. Want to go together?", the word "jeom" is a collective term for both sinjeom and saju. That's why people then ask: "Is it sinjeom? Or do they read saju?"

Many people think saju and sinjeom mean the same thing, but in fact, they're completely different worlds. Tarot is somewhat distinct from these two and can be seen as a third realm that has recently become popular.

Saju (四柱, Four Pillars of Destiny)

Saju is an academic discipline. It's a system that analyzes a person's innate personality, the flow of fortune, and life direction based on the year, month, day, and hour of birth. Saju speaks to a person's fortune through thousands of years of accumulated data from people's lives and logical calculations.

Therefore, saju is something anyone can learn and practice through study. People call places where saju consultations are given cheolhakgwan (철학관, "philosophy centers").

Sinjeom (Spirit Divination)

Fundamentally speaking, the word "jeom" refers to sinjeom. However, as saju became popular in Korea, people began using "jeom" to refer to both sinjeom and saju collectively.

Sinjeom is the act of receiving and delivering messages through divine energy. In Korea, people commonly called mudang (shamans) typically perform this. That's why places where sinjeom is practiced are usually called sindang (신당, "spirit halls").

Unlike saju, which anyone can practice simply by studying, sinjeom is different. It's said that only people whom the spirits have permitted—that is, people who possess singi (神氣, divine energy)—can properly read fortunes this way.

Tarot

The newest addition to Korea's fortune-telling scene is Western tarot, which has exploded in popularity over the past decade. Small tarot shops have appeared in trendy neighborhoods, particularly attracting young Koreans in their 20s and 30s. It's seen as more casual and less intimidating than traditional saju, and has helped make fortune-telling more openly acceptable among the younger generation.

Gwansang (Face Reading) and Palmistry

These are more accessible and quicker forms of divination. Gwansang practitioners analyze facial features—the shape of the forehead, eyes, nose, and mouth—to read personality and fate. Palm readers examine the lines on hands. While considered less comprehensive than saju, they're popular for quick consultations.

The Paradox: Between Belief and Doubt

I've witnessed fortune-telling's strange power firsthand. Once, I accompanied my boss to a fortune-teller. It was a place that told fortunes based on saju, and after writing down my boss's Four Pillars, the fortune-teller said, "Your daughter has a problem with her legs." My boss's face went pale—his young daughter had polio. How could the fortune-teller have known?

But there's another memory that tempers that amazement. Another fortune-teller once told me I'd face health issues in 5 and 10 years, so I should exercise regularly. Sound advice, but... the fortune-teller himself sat there with a broken arm, complaining about his own health problems. If he could see my future health issues, why couldn't he prevent his own?

This is the essential Korean attitude toward fortune-telling: simultaneously believing and doubting, taking it seriously while acknowledging it might be nonsense. Officially, fortune-telling is considered misin (迷信, superstition), something educated people shouldn't really believe in. Yet politicians consult fortune-tellers before elections, business owners check auspicious dates for store openings, and parents have their children's saju read to help choose career paths.

Even religious Koreans participate. Christian churchgoers check their tojeong-bigyeol (an annual fortune almanac) on January 1st. Buddhist believers visit fortune-tellers at shamanic shrines after their temple visits. It's an open secret: the official culture says "don't believe," but the real culture says "just in case."

Why Fortune-Telling Endures in Modern Korea

To understand why modern Koreans still visit fortune-tellers, you need to understand Korea's unique spiritual landscape. Unlike Western societies where Christianity largely displaced indigenous beliefs, Korea has layered multiple spiritual traditions on top of each other without fully abandoning any.

At the bottom is Korean shamanism (muism, 무속)—the ancient belief that spirits inhabit nature, mountains, and ancestors. Then came Buddhism (4th century), Confucianism (14th century), and Christianity (19th century). Rather than replacing each other, they coexist like a kind of spiritual buffet. A Korean might:

• Attend church on Sunday (Christianity)
• Honor ancestors at memorial services (Confucianism)
• Visit a Buddhist temple with the whole family on holidays (Buddhism)
• Check their saju before moving or a job interview (folk belief)
• Avoid seaweed soup before an exam because it's "slippery" and might make them fail, according to popular belief

Fortune-telling fits perfectly into this eclectic spiritual ecosystem. It doesn't demand exclusive belief or conflict with other religions—it's simply another tool for navigating life's uncertainties.

This differs significantly from Western fortune-telling traditions. Western astrology and tarot tend to offer general guidance or psychological insights. Korean saju, by contrast, claims to reveal your specific destiny with remarkable detail—the year you'll get promoted, whether your business will succeed, even the ideal name characters for your child based on their cosmic energy balance.

In an era of rapid change and fierce competition—Korea's notorious education system, brutal job market, and social pressures—fortune-telling offers comfort and direction in an uncertain life.

Conclusion : Fortune-Telling in Korea Today

Korean fortune-telling culture as we approach 2026 is neither purely ancient tradition nor simple superstition. It's a living practice that has evolved from state shamans reading eclipses to modern apps offering saju analysis via AI. It's a multi-million dollar industry operating in the shadows of Korea's high-tech, Christian-majority society.

Most importantly, it reveals something essential about Korean culture: the ability to hold contradictions comfortably, to be simultaneously modern and traditional, skeptical and believing, rational and spiritual. A Korean can work at Samsung developing AI by day and check their lunar fortune by night without perceiving any contradiction.

So when you see a well-dressed Korean professional quietly slipping into an unmarked building in Seoul, they might just be visiting a fortune-teller—participating in a ritual that has connected Koreans to their sense of fate and destiny for thousands of years, now just a phone call or app download away.