an update on stripe

hello, friends. i am overjoyed, overwhelmed, over-the-moon excited to announce that stripe has updated their policy and removed “psychic services” from their restricted businesses list!

if you’ve been a subscriber to this newsletter or followed my work for the last year, you know that i’ve struggled with stripe removing me from their platform over and over, with very little communication about the details of the decision process. and when the brilliant angela chen, editor of wired’s ideas section, approached me to write a piece digging into this issue in greater depth, i jumped at the chance to tell this story, one that i know has impacted hundreds and hundreds of metaphysical businesses and self-employed creators over the years. while i hoped that this piece would push the conversation forward, i’m ecstatic at the response, and remain hopeful that other payments processors will follow suit and reconsider their own policies.

the world is a very difficult place right now, and for those of us in the united states, today is particularly stressful. but seeing change like this happen in real time, as a result of voices rallying together, is incredibly exciting, inspiring, and powerful.

a huge thank you to everyone that spoke to me about their experiences, to everyone that retweeted and shared, to WIRED and angela for giving this story the space it deserves. i’m beyond grateful, and am looking forward to seeing how this shift impacts small metaphysical businesses across the country.

in the wake of stripe’s removal of me from their platform earlier this year, i made devils & fools a free newsletter. and while i plan to continue offering free subscriptions, i also feel an obligation to personally put this policy shift to the test, and to continue reporting on how stripe follows through with this change.

with that in mind, i will soon be re-introducing paid subscriptions as an option here on substack — but don’t worry, free subscriptions will absolutely not be going away. as i’m in the process of finishing my book manuscript, this shift will not be introduced until january, to give me time to look into my options and decide what paid subscribers will receive as exclusive offerings.

wishing you a wonderful december, and thank you for reading!