Reading The Apple Event Tea Leaves With Actual Witches

We asked soothsayers to predict what’s coming from Apple on Sept. 9. (We also put a spell on Eddy Cue.)

When Apple sends out invitations to its events, like the one coming up on Sept. 9, the tech press loves to try to "read the tea leaves" in a search for clues as to what will be announced. But what the hell do a bunch of tech bloggers know about divination? In order to find out what's really going to happen at the Sept. 9 Apple event, you need someone who can actually read tea leaves. Professional journalists are useless at this. So I asked professional psychics.

Could occult practices help me get a leg up on well-sourced Apple futurists like 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman, or BuzzFeed News' own Apple seer John Paczkowski? And moreover, could they help me ~influence~ the future? Could they, for example, make Eddy Cue dance again? This wasn't just idle curiosity. With the right incantations, I could become one of the most powerful tech bloggers in all of New York. So I set out on a voyage of discovery.

Enchantments is a narrow shop in the East Village that specializes in making custom candles for customers. It came highly recommended — several trustworthy friends have told me about the special mystical candles made there. Plus BuzzFeed's resident witch Arianna Rebolini said that's where they go for all sorts of mystical advice when doing the Witches' Counsel series. She warned that although they probably wouldn't give any concrete predictions about Apple's event invitation, they could look it over and analyze it from a spiritual level. "Witches are very intuitive," Arianna explained. "And it has a lot of colors — they could analyze the meaning of the colors."

Over the phone, I explained to the friendly sorceress at Enchantments that I had a sort of unusual request. I explained that I wanted an analysis of the invitation — could I come by and show it to them? The witch said that they were VERY BUSY in the store, but she could do a 45-minute reading for $60, but only after 6:30 p.m. I explained that I didn't need a whole 45-minute reading, just a quick glance — could I pop by? The witch told me it was fine, but she'd charge me $30 for a 10-minute lookover. "I'm the one with blonde dreadlocks," the witch Amo told me.

When I arrived, I didn't see anyone with blonde dreadlocks, just three other very thin women with varying confusing haircuts. I browsed the candles as they helped another customer. They had penis-shaped candles AND vagina candles. I asked a woman covered in tattoos with long pink pigtail braids if Amo was around. She told me I was too late, Amo was in the back doing a reading (apparently she does midday readings for other people). Pink hair reiterated that they were really busy. Apparently there were a lot of penis candles to be made; I assured her I'd be quick.

I pulled out the invitation and explained that it was for an event where Apple unveils its new top secret products, and that some people believe there are clues about what those products might be hidden within the invitation. She seemed annoyed. "This is about Apple?" She rolled her eyes.

"Is there anything about this image that you think could mean anything?" I asked. "Like any spiritual intuition?"

"No. This is just…we're really busy here. This doesn't mean anything," she answered.

"What about the colors, do the colors mean anything?"

"I mean, colors mean what they mean. But on this, it's just an invitation. It doesn't mean anything. We're busy. I dunno, it kind of looks like a cat eye."

"Oh, yeah, it's supposed to be the top of the Apple logo. Do you think there's any significance in how it's cropped at the top?"

The witch finally blew her cool. "This isn't a magical symbol," she said matter-of-factly.

"Well," I countered, "It's kinda magical...to some people."

This was more than the witch could handle. She raised her voice: "THIS ISN'T A MAGICAL SYMBOL. THIS IS A WASTE OF TIME. YOU'RE WASTING OUR TIME. WE'RE VERY BUSY." The witch walked away from me without saying goodbye.

Dejected and somewhat frightened at ha