The high priestess of Regent’s Canal

Tarot cards, Uggs, and a looming dark force: the Canal & River Trust

Illustration by @cllmrolodex

Morning — Happy New Year and welcome back to the Spy. Expect a big round-up in your inbox tomorrow, where we’ll be blasting through everything we’ve missed during our festive break.

But first, we’re getting a glimpse into the future. Or rather, the future of writer Josh Taylor, who recently headed to Regent’s Canal for a date with destiny. Nicola Kutler, a.k.a. High Priestess Tarot, has been dabbling with the occult on her canal boat for years, offering tarot card readings to a surprisingly wide range of Londoners (“there’s a lot of people in the corporate world”).

But as veteran Spy readers may remember, all is not well within the city’s boating community, given recent changes to mooring fees and rules pushed through by the keeper of the capital’s waters, the Canal & River Trust. Nicola is also being swept up in the changes — so Josh booked himself in to learn more.

A session with the high priestess of Regent’s Canal is below.

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An off-grid, occult life on London’s canals

By Josh Taylor

Regent's Canal, a permanent feature of TimeOut articles telling tourists and newcomers what to do with their weekends. Punters shuffle past each other, giggling at the drowned Lime bikes as they browse books in ‘Word on the Water’ or dine on ‘The Feng Shang Princess.’ But further towards the canal's western boundary, nestled away in Lisson Grove Moorings, sits Nicola Kutler's wide-beam boat, from which she has been offering tarot readings, under the name High Priestess Tarot, for years.

When I approached Nicola for a reading and interview, she suggested Friday 13th December. Despite my interest in tarot being strictly secular, akin to a form of mindfulness rather than anything spiritual, this coincidence put me on edge. It was a particularly damp morning - hardly the most reassuring weather - with everything absorbing tinges of London grey by the time I reached (thanks to extensive direction from Nicola) the East entrance to the mooring. She emerged from her barge to greet me, diminutive, shuffling along in her Uggs, neon pink woolly jumper, and leopard print leggings.