Some psychics report a boom in business as more people worry about finances. Rosanna Schaffer-Shaw examines a client’s palm.

By LILY KOPPEL

NEW YORK - “Are you unhappy and discouraged? Do you experience more bad luck than usual?” These words, on a flier stuck inside a subway car packed with commuters, seemed to speak to the general feeling of anxiety stoked by the extraordinary financial roller coaster ride the United States has been on. The advertisement for a psychic went on to promise “24-hour results to any problem guaranteed.”
There are hundreds of storefront clairvoyants and high-end spiritual advisers in the city. With the turmoil engulfing the markets, some psychics say they have been experiencing a boom in business linked to worries about money.
“It used to be always love, love, love. Now it’s money, money, money,” said Mary T. Browne, who was once described by Forbes magazine as “Wall Street’s psychic adviser” because she counts people with financial sector jobs, as well as celebrities, among her clients. “You can’t think about love when you can’t pay the rent. ”
Ms. Browne, 50, is careful to distinguish herself from what she calls “storefront gypsies who take advantage of people’s fear.” Often dressed in Chanel, she has been telling fortunes for 28 years, doing readings for $400 each out of her office on the Lower West Side of Manhattan and at her home in Woodbury, Connecticut, about 150 kilometers north of the city.
She has received many thank-you cards recently, including two from clients whom she said she dissuaded from leaving their jobs 18 months ago for higher-paying positions at Bear Stearns. “This was way before the rumblings of its demise,” she said. Bear Stearns, facing potential bankruptcy, was bought by JPMorgan Chase & Company in the spring, and many of its workers lost their jobs.
In an apartment in the East Village, another psychic, Rosanna Schaffer- Shaw , offers her insights under the name Fahrusha, which she translates from Arabic as butterfly or moth.
“People are concerned about their jobs,” said Ms. Schaffer-Shaw, who specializes in tarot card reading and palmistry, and charges $150 per session.
Recently she was advising clients who requested that they be identified by a single initial, some because they worried that their turning to a psychic might cause problems at work.
There was Mr. P, who until recently held an executive position at a major financial firm at the center of the mortgage meltdown. He posed his first question: “Should I discontinue my relationship with my employer?” (He had been offered another position at the same firm.)
Ms. Schaffer-Shaw laid out three cards. “Probably not,” she said. More questions: “Should I move to Puerto Rico?” “Should I write a book about what I know?” “Is there any possibility I will be in jail in five years?”
Sensing his anxiety, Ms. Schaffer- Shaw pointed to the cards and exclaimed, “You got the Ace of Happiness!”
After Mr. P left, she said that while she was always straightforward about what she read in the tarot cards, she tried to couch negative prognostications in positive terms and make clear to her clients the role free will plays in their lives.
“When I see things are dismal, I feel compelled to make things better,” she said. “I tell people the truth, but I try to tell the truth on the upside. With an extraordinary will, a person can change their future.”