South Korea has 1 million shamans and fortune tellers
Economic downturn in South Korea sees an increase in practitioners despite fortune-telling houses also being hit by recession
By Chyung Eun-ju
As Korea goes through an economic downturn, the number of Korean shamans and fortune tellers is growing rapidly.
With unemployment growing, the barrier to becoming a shaman or fortune teller is lower than other areas where a degree or license is required. The same phenomenon occurred during the IMF financial crisis.
The groups with the most members are the Korean Kyungsin Federation and the Korean Fortune Telling Association, which each have around 300,000 registered members and 200,000 unregistered people – a million people in all. The number of members has doubled from 10 years ago when there were around 140,000 members in the Korean Kyungsin Federation in 2006.
Shamans and fortune-tellers have a similar goal, but the methods are different. Korean shamans, also called “mudang,” communicate with the spirits to predict someone’s future, while a fortune-teller uses physiognomy to tell the future, or prophecies based on the Book of Changes, four pillars or Eastern philosophy.
According to a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism report on religious practitioners in 2011, there are 14,483 Protestants, 46,905 Buddhists, and 15,918 Catholics. Shamans and fortune-tellers are not considered religious practitioners, but are categorised as service practitioners.