The Little Red Tarot Shop is closed today in protest of Black Friday.

Why?

Black Friday is one of Capitalism’s most sacred festivals.

Capitalism teaches us to ignore what our hearts and souls and bodies know – how to truly nourish ourselves and meet our own and each others’ needs.

Capitalism teaches us that we are broken, or lacking – and that buying things will fix us.

Capitalism relies on ever-increasing growth, which means convincing us of an ever-increasing need, so we buy ever-increasing amounts of stuff, which end up in ever-increasing landfills.

Yet the more we believe we need “stuff”, the further out of touch with ourselves we become. The more we buy, the more we suffer. The more we shop, the less we feel.

The mindless consumerism that Black Friday has come to represent is having a devastating effect on our individual and collective mental health, our communities, and our planet.

And even my tiny tarot shop is a part of this machine.

This Black Friday Buy Nothing Day, ask yourself if you really need to buy anything at all.

(Including that new must-have tarot deck.)

I understand that many of you are here to buy Christmas presents for loved ones and that you may find this frustrating. Please be patient! We’ll be open again as normal tomorrow morning.

Thanks for thinking twice about what you consume – today and every day.

Love,

Beth x

Escape the Shopocalypse! More info at Buy Nothing Day.

+ read this too: Too right it’s Black Friday: our relentless consumption is trashing the planet

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In closing my shop today, I will obviously take a financial hit. This shop is a micro-business. It is my sole livelihood, and it contributes to the livelihoods of many independent artists and creators. I’m proud of this little store, which helps to bring incredible and political artwork to folks who use the items sold here for personal and spiritual development. I love my job, and I love my shop.

And – as a tarot reader and a person who believes deeply in personal and collective liberation, it is more important to me to make a statement against capitalism and consumerism.
Until we bring down capitalism – the patriarchal system responsible for every oppression I can name – none of us will be free. Not spiritually, not physically, not politically. Not collectively, and not individually.

Also:
This is written without a shred of judgement of my dear, dear friends running shops and making their living online. Some are using Black Friday to make much-needed sales or gain new customers, and I support them. The decision to close today is right for me, but it’s not the only way for small businesses to answer to the capitalist machine, and it’s not possible for everyone. My business is in a secure enough position for me to make this decision today, and last year, but this was not the case in earlier years. It is because of customers who choose to shop small and buy independently published tarot decks, and because of the wonderful folks out there who make them and sell to me, that I have been able to make a living connecting the two. I’m grateful. Very grateful.

I’m not anti shopping, and I’m not anti money.
Money is not the problem, buying lovely things is not the problem, and a healthy, just economy is not the problem.
Capitalism – a system that is designed to create inequality and feelings of inadequacy – is the problem.

So, if and when you shop, when you can – shop small.

Support independent shops, who in turn support independent artists and makers. Support your local shops. If you believe as many do that money is an exchange of energy, share it wisely, in places where that energy makes a difference. Your hard-earned cash can make a difference to real people, it can help us to keep on writing, making, visioning, healing, growing, creating, being. Know that. Know that as a consumer, you have that power, you have that choice.

And if you take nothing else from this, just – fuck Amazon.
Seriously. Fuck them.