Blind fortune-teller Song Oh-soon relies on the 'Four Pillars of Destiny' astrology in braille and on her four decades of experience in careful listening. Photo by AFP
At 86, Song is one of the last members of a community of visually impaired practitioners that drew generations of South Koreans seeking answers and advice about everything from illness and money to love and fate.
In one of the world's most AI-connected societies, the village's greatest challenge is not fading belief in fortune-telling, but the way it is consumed.
Song remains adamantly offline, relying on the "Four Pillars of Destiny" astrology in braille and on her four decades of experience in careful listening -- a skill her automated competition cannot match.
"There were people who came here wanting to die," Song told AFP in northern Seoul's Mia village. "I persuaded them to keep living."
