Jezmina Von Thiele

Jezmina Von Thiele (they/she) reads tarot, palms, and tea leaves in their mixed-Romani tradition. Jezmina teaches classes on divination and spiritual self-care online, on Patreon, and in-person; offers individual readings and coaching; and is a resident fortune teller at Deadwicks Ethereal Emporium in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Jezmina and co-author Paulina Stevens wrote Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling, available for preorder now and out October 1, 2024.

Jezmina is a co-host of the Romanistan podcast, a celebration of Romani roots, rebels, and culture, alongside Paulina Stevens (subject of Foretold by the Los Angeles Times). Together they spotlight Romani people and organizations doing good things, and they also feature some non-Romani “international relations” guests. Listen anywhere podcasts are found. Paulina and Jezmina also offer creative consulting for projects about Romani people as well as cultural sensitivity editing. They are working on a book together as well. Visit romanistanpodcast.com for more.

The Romani people are an Indian diasporic ethnic group known by the slur/misnomer Gypsies (which only Roma can use and reclaim). Roma arrived in Europe from India in waves beginning in the 1300s, where they were met with persecution which still continues. As a response, Roma worked fortune telling, and as well as other trades to survive, and were the first to use tarot as a divination tool. Roma’s forced nomadism spread and popularized tarot, and our other skills and knowledge throughout the world. Roma are still fighting for basic rights worldwide.

Jezmina is also a writer, artist, editor, creative coach, and educator under the name Jessica Reidy, and their work poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and academic writing, under both or either names, has appeared in Narrative Magazine, The Kenyon Review Online, Prairie Schooner, RomArchive, Taschen’s Witchcraft, Wagtail: An Anthology of Roma Women Poets, and other publications. They offer creative coaching, consulting, and editing services, and they are in the process of writing and publishing their own book-length projects.

You can find Jezmina on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, and Patreon, and at www.jezminavonthiele.com.