A new survey from the Pew Research Center has found that 30 percent of U.S. adults say they consult astrology, tarot cards or a fortune teller at least once a year.

In an effort to gauge the extent of the rising popularity of New Age practices, Pew conducted a new survey which found that as many as 30 percent of the US population indulges in these practices at least once a year.

However, more than 20 percent of those dabblers say they do so just for fun with very few relying upon them to make major decisions.

“Just 1 percent of U.S. adults say they rely a lot on what they have learned from these practices when making major life decisions. An additional 5 percent say they rely a little on what they have learned,” the survey revealed.

On most questions, age and gender were major factors in determining who uses these practices. For example, younger adults, especially younger women, are much more likely to believe in astrology and to consult horoscopes. The survey found that 43 percent of women ages 18-49 say they believe in astrology compared to just 27 percent of women age 50 and older. Only 20 percent of men ages 18 to 49 say the same, and just 16 percent of men over the age of 50 admit to occasionally indulge in these practices.

But those who actually believe in astrology are very few, according to the survey.

“Despite recent attention to astrology, the number of Americans who believe in astrology doesn’t appear to have changed very much in recent years. On the new survey, 27% of U.S. adults say they “believe in astrology (the position of the stars and planets can affect people’s lives).” That is not significantly different from what we found when we asked an identical question in 2017 (29%).”

Other key takeaways from the survey include:

• Religiously affiliated Americans and religiously unaffiliated Americans are equally likely to believe in astrology (27% and 28%, respectively) while atheists, agnostics, White evangelical Protestants and Jewish Americans are less likely than the general public to say they believe in astrology.

• About one-in-ten Americans consult tarot cards at least annually.

• On the whole, religiously unaffiliated Americans are slightly more likely than religiously affiliated Americans to say they consult tarot cards at least yearly (14% vs. 10%).

• Religious differences in consulting a fortune teller are not very pronounced. When asked about consulting astrology or a horoscope, tarot cards, or fortune tellers, White evangelicals and atheists are among the groups that are most likely to say they never engage in the practices.

• Americans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) are especially likely to consult astrology or a horoscope, and tarot cards.

• Overall, 16% of Hispanic Catholics and 14% of Black Protestants say they engage in these practices mostly for helpful insights and not just for fun.

Although most Americans say they engage in these practices just for fun, they’re still spiritually dangerous.

“Tarot cards, Ouija boards, seances, and other similar activities are all dangerous forms of divination,” said Catholic Answers apologist Tom Nash to the Catholic News Agency.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, we are to reject “all forms of divination,” because they “contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone” (No. 2116).

The main problem for dabblers is that engaging in divination, even if just for fun, means “we’re likely to get drawn deeper into a life of vice and related problems,” Nash added.

This is because, In spite of the rise of “nones” in American culture, people who are turning away from organized religion to pursue their own spiritual paths, the yearning for greater meaning and understanding remains.

“...[H]uman beings remain human — made in the image and likeness of God as body-soul composites,” Nash said, referencing Genesis 1:26-27. “In our very being, we realize that there’s more to life than just our temporal, material world.”

Without Christ to fill that spiritual “vacuum,” he said, “we’ll tend to seek out other outlets.”

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