Update: As of October 2010, a court in East Ridge, Tennessee, ruled that a woman was exercising her free speech in fortune-telling for the public – read it here.
At the same time as the ACLU wins freedom-of-speech rights for fortune tellers in Maryland, Michigan is cracking down on their fortune tellers. Even Time Magazine is reporting on this news.
Elizabeth Dias at Time Magazine begins her article with: “Starting this week, fortune tellers in Warren, Mich., must be fingerprinted and pay an annual fee of $150 – plus $10 for a police background check – to practice their craft. The new rules are among America’s strictest on palmists, fortune readers and other psychics, part of a growing push to regulate a business that has never been taken, or overseen, very seriously.” Read the whole article here.
What’s your opinion about regulation of any kind? Is it necessary? How should it be done? Please comment.
Here’s one way around such discriminatory practices as reported a year ago in St. Petersburg FL.
Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me
Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog 
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September 7, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Jadzia
I think that most fortune tellers/readers that are offering their services to others are running a business. They should take responsibility as business owners and if states want to regulate them then they should require them to purchase a business license. Fingerprinting and doing police background checks is more than a little extreme, fortune tellers are not criminals.
September 7, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Marcia
In order to read professionally in my town and in the town next to me, I not only had to have business licenses in each town but also had to have two separate fingerprinting/Department of Justice background checks. It’s a one-time thing for the license, though. It was my choice to make this a legitimate business and that meant going through the hoops in the jurisdictions where I read. I see it as a part of the cost of doing business. I was not offended at the “invasion” of my privacy and having to pay for it, to boot, however. My day job requires much the same thing; it does not presume I am a criminal. It just is a precaution to make sure I’m not a criminal in a key position to hurt people. I passed the test of having a clean background for both. However, it in no way proves I am qualified to read tarot. The municipalities call it a “fortune teller license”. While I don’t agree with what they call it, I can’t let it bother me either. There are always going to be people who misunderstand what I do. But if I stay in the shadows, how will anyone understand me at all?
Does that license or background check mean anything to me? No. They are just the steps I needed to take to do what I want to do.
There are lots of things we do that don’t seem necessary for your goal. Do you really need to pass college algebra to get a degree in English? Probably not. But it is a university requirement. It is part of what you do in order to get something that has some kind of value to you, even if its value is only to someone else, like the municipality issuing your business license so you can read cards. Teachers have to be fingerprinted to protect children. I just hope it does weed out criminals.
What I do object to is making it so expensive that you can’t do business and making the requirements much harder and more expensive than any other business. To me that becomes discriminatory based on beliefs which is counter to the ideals of freedom.
September 7, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Don
Well I don’t like being monitored but I do believe that I should follow the same laws as a massage therapist or other personal service professional does
Don
September 8, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Jacqueline
If it will get the gypsies out of my town, I am for it! I have been fingerprinted before for other jobs in high security situations and I have not had any problems with it. I see it as a means to protect the PUBLIC from rip-off artists, not the professional reader. i have had too many clients that come to me after seeing the gypsies that charged $100.00 for a candle to be burned for them.
September 8, 2010 at 5:31 pm
mkg
Jacqueline –
I’m curious: how will fingerprinting get the gypsies out of your town? Is it illegal for someone who has been arrested and fingerprinted before to operate a business? If the local fraud laws are unable to deal with exorbitant charges for prayers and candles then how will exorbitant charges for licensing deal with it better? Wouldn’t a few articles in the local paper on ethical and unethical business practices be more effective?
BTW, I’m not against fingerprinting if that is legally and constitutionally required of all other businesses in the area.
You give excellent advice on finding a good psychic on your page at
http://www.tarotbyjacqueline.com/goodpsychicrootworkerspiritual.html
However, I suggest you consider eliminating the word “gypsy” from the text, because even in quotes, as you’ve used it, it is looking at a whole race of people perjoratively. Try substituting the words “Catholic” or “Jew” or even “Orisha” (a word for god or spirit that you use positively) in those contexts and I think you’ll see how denigrating it sounds. The advice is more far-reaching without limiting it to just those who dress or look exotic, anyway.
October 1, 2010 at 9:01 am
Erin Gunsinger
I don’t think there’s anything wrong necessarily with regulating the profession insofar as having “esoteric artists” register themselves as such. To voluntarily do so indicates their willingness to be held accountable for their level of professionalism. Nothing wrong with that at all. If you are honest and do not misrepresent your abilities, there’s nothing to be lost by it, and clients may even (perhaps) have some sense of security that the certificate on the wall means that this person is known to the authorities if they find themselves cheated.
Now what I see to be the problem is the mind-set and attitude with which this law has been created. There are those who aggravate the already-bad opinions that some may hold of esoteric artists by their lack of integrity, and unfortunately the world is set up in such a way as to be friendlier to that negative view than the positive…so anyone with something good to say about Tarot, palmistry, astrology, etc. has to work twice as hard as some idiot who knowingly preys on the fears and superstitions of the ignorant masses. The con-artist actually benefits by this by driving the esoteric arts even deeper underground, making them more taboo, more mysterious, and further enshrouding them in the mists of ignorance. And ignorance means “sucker” to the con-artist. If you want things to change, the esoteric arts need to be brought out into the light of day, shown for what they are and taking some of the mystery out of it. But things are set up in such a way now that it’s a bit like pushing a boulder up a hill.
October 2, 2010 at 2:45 pm
mkg
Erin –
Thanks for adding your opinion. I’m not sure what you are referring to by ‘regulating’? You mention a ‘certificate on the wall’ – those are not given out by municipalities. I think you are mixing up local business laws with certification and professional licensing. It sounds like you are in favor of the latter. For instance, a state might require that a person become ‘certified,’ pass an exam or obtain a specific degree in order to follow a certain profession in the state. In many situations certification is voluntary. I don’t believe this can be determined by cities or counties in the U.S. I hope everyone will learn the differences among all of these. Confusion about them is where many of our problems and future issues lie.
As I see it, a real problem exists when laws are passed based on “attitudes” and “mind-sets” whether they are positive or negative. Sure, we need to be aware of people’s attitudes and work to educate and assure people that “esoteric artists” (I like that designation!) are, or can be, ethical professionals. However, laws should not be based on local attitudes. My complaint (as discussed in other posts on this topic) is that the laws mentioned in this post discriminate among professions and penalize esoteric artists because of the attitudes and beliefs of some people who want to restrict their ability to practice their profession. That is unconstitutional. Fraud laws are better able to handle fraudulent situations, and professional con-artists are adept at using restrictive laws in their own favor—to drive out “do good” New Agers who are not going for the big money, for instance.
January 23, 2011 at 1:08 pm
Jacqueline
mkg,
I haven’t been on for awhile so forgive the lateness of my comment to your comment.
In most cases, the term “gypsy” gives a negative stance to a certain ethnic group of people, however, if I were to refer to certain peoples of Romanian descent, I would say Roma, as this is the term they want to be known.
I can see that in the past, the term “gypsies” was conjoined with the Roma, however, in our modern day, it is not. In fact, the people that I refer to in my town are of Latin descent, not Roma, so the term is used in my comments as a mindset or way of practicing a means of making a living. The way certain “gypsy” workers, such as car repairmen, roofers and the like, means that they are itinerant, and not located in one place permanently.
I must also say that the term “gypsy” has positive meanings, in the manner of shepherdship, craftware, music (The Gypsy Kings) and dance.
Again, it is the manner of ‘sleight of hand’, ‘cheating the client’ or ‘tricking’ that I use the term “gypsy scam artists”, much like cat yronwode of Lucky Mojo Curio Co. deems them as well.
My apologies to those offended, I mean no offense to the Roma culture, but my article stands as such.
Jacqueline
February 27, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Jacqueline
[Some text deleted by blog owner. Write me privately if you have an objection – mkg]
Ironically, I have had TWO people come to me this week (huh!) after going to someone who owns a “psychic shop” here in town. It is a mish-mash of products, and once, I went in for the “$10.00 palm reading special”. Within 10 minutes, I was ‘being held back by negativity that keeps me from achieving my goal’ and ‘I can do a “cleansing” for you for only $75.00 today, since you came in and got the reading. Normally, the cleansing is $150.00′. I said “Sorry, no can do”. OK, THIS is a scam, since I can create my own herbs and salts to do my own “cleansings” and I usually give away recipes to my own clients when I do their readings. This last week’ clients told me that one had to buy$250.00 worth of candle burnings to get over a problem; the other said she had to get rid of her necklace as it was holding an ‘evil spirit’. The lady decided to keep the necklace and not hand it over.
My first encounter with the “psychic shop” clients was a man who handed over a diamond watch to her because she told him that the giver of the watch wanted him dead. He said it couldn’t be – the gifter was the wife for an anniversary present. I asked him what he did – he said he gave her the watch. I then asked him she smashed it with a hammer right there on the card table and he said ‘No, she said she had to bury it on a mountain’. I told him she “buried” it at a pawn shop and he is none the wiser. This is the type of person our town is dealing with.
See, where I think I P.O. some people is the term “gypsy” and while it applies in the general populace as a race issue, it really isn’t. If people are acting like a ‘gypsy’, then they are trying to get as much out of a client as they can. Sad, but it seems that more are coming out of the woodwork with the economic times.
February 27, 2011 at 2:46 pm
mkg
Note: This is not an appropriate place to make claims about personal interactions with specifically named individuals. I’ve eliminated a post and some comments that reflect this.
Mary K. Greer
February 27, 2011 at 2:57 pm
mkg
Jacqueline & everyone else. I urge you, that if you encounter scams and other situations of clear fraud, please go to the police (if it happens to you) and urge others to do so. Every community has laws against fraud. Some individuals are embarrassed to be caught by schemers, so it’s your support and encouragement that can help them face what has happened and see that something is done about it.
February 27, 2011 at 10:29 pm
Jacqueline
In a perfect world, maybe so, but if the victim will not stand up because of fear of retaliation, then it is not my cause to be a champion of. I am not the victim here; I merely report what happened to me and what was told to me by others. I am one who is very vocal about these types of people, but I cannot fight everyone’s battles; it is in the lesson that THEY learn, not I.
February 28, 2011 at 11:31 am
mkg
Jacqueline –
I’m sorry if I phrased myself too strongly. I certainly didn’t mean that we should fight someone else’s battles. The word “urge” may have been out of place (for me that means expressing my opinion once strongly and then leaving the decision up to the other person)—when I actually mean to be supportive of people standing up for what is right. Speaking up at any level – as you have done here – is admirable in its own right.