Laws Regarding Palmistry

Palmistry is one of those grey areas when it comes to its governing laws and regulations in most countries. Normally it's the municipal laws and by-laws that you really have to look at. To read palms in one city may require nothing - Not even a business license. In another area you might need a business license and then have to make applications for additional permits as well, all prior to doing any paid palmistry work.

For example, in Santa Barbara California you have to look at Chapter 5.40 of their municipal code. There you'll find that palmistry is specifically listed as one of the "fortunetelling" practices that requires an "appropriate business tax".

The Santa Barbara Independent: We’ve all seen the signs for Madam Rosinka’s fortunetelling businesses, but other than that, we’re no Salem. Or so it seemed before reading Chapter 5.40 of the Santa Barbara Municipal Code.

Not that such practices are discouraged — rather, they’re perfectly permissible, so long as the magician pays the appropriate business tax. Among the professions for which a permit is required are astrology, palmistry, phrenology, life reading, fortunetelling, cartomancy, crystal gazing, and clairvoyance. You think that’s a comprehensive list? No. There’s also clairaudience, magic, necromancy, psychism, psychometry, mind reading, mental telepathy, automatic writing, spirit writing, trance mediumship, and sandgazing. If you’re reading this and asking, how could they have forgotten potion making in this list, rest assured — they didn’t. They also included materialization, ballot reading, conducting trumpet séances, prophecy, augury, divination, and the making of “magic articles.”

For anyone considering palmistry as a profession, it's just one more example of why you need to carefully check out the laws and licensing requirements in your exact area ahead of time.

Sciences of Palmistry Are Garbage?

Have you heard yet about the tragic (and ongoing) story of palm reader and author Andrew Fitzherbert, who was convicted of murder based solely on questionable DNA evidence? The prosecutor even mentioned "the garbage bin of the sciences of palmistry".

Online Opinion: In August 1999, palm reader Andrew Fitzherbert was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Brisbane veterinarian Kathleen Marshall, 52.

Fitzherbert, then aged 49, had no criminal record and those who knew him described him as a pacifist. An acclaimed palm reader, with three books on palmistry published, he did readings from his home.

The hearing began in July 1999 in the Brisbane Supreme Court. The cornerstone of the defence was DNA evidence given by Ken Cox, a forensic biologist from a laboratory with a history of errors.

Fitzherbert had a rock solid alibi. If the evidence of the alibi witnesses was to be accepted, there was simply no opportunity for the accused to commit the murder, and what was conspicuously absent was a motive.

Prosecutor Paul Rutledge described the DNA evidence as going “cleanly, directly to the heart of the matter”, and said Fitzherbert was a liar, reminding the jury they’d been given the “expert evidence” of a scientist compared to the “garbage bin of the sciences of palmistry”.

However, Bond University’s Chair of Criminology Professor Paul Wilson points out that DNA evidence is not infallible, as most people think. “Forensic Science is part art, part science. It’s very, very dangerous to convict purely on forensic science evidence and even with DNA evidence there can be problems. How DNA is collected, transported, stored, analysed, interpreted can lead to errors and miscarriages of justice.”

Fitzherbert’s lawyer, Laura-Leigh Cameron-Dow says. “Ken Cox included test results in his analysis that shouldn’t have been recognised in court as reliable. The defence didn’t query Cox as to whether the results received from samples were strong enough to be recorded as positives under scientific guidelines established for use of DNA evidence in the courtroom.”

Fitzherbert appealed his conviction in March 2000 and acted for himself. He was unsuccessful.

Fitzherbert had the right to retest the blood samples at the government’s expense at the time of his trial and at his appeal, but was not made aware of that right. Since 2003, Cameron-Dow has made several requests to the Queensland Attorney-General to release crime scene samples for testing.

Attorney-General Kerry Shine said he wouldn’t allow further testing as all items had been tested, and there was nothing wrong with the DNA testing method. Cameron-Dow claims not all items were tested and Cox admitted this.

Read the full article by Mary Garden

Sounds to me like it was more of a persecution than a prosecution. So why wasn't more done then, and what can be done now?

How Do You Test a Psychic in The Witch City?

Salem Massachusetts has more than 20 fortune tellers, and many of them are in prominent downtown locations. City councilors are trying to figure out how to regulate their business before things get even further out of hand.

The News and Tribune: Should Salem's fortunetellers have to pass a test of their own to prove they're psychic?

City councilors, hoping to crack down on fraudulent fortunetellers, are trying to define exactly how a psychic can become licensed to set up shop in the Witch City. They want candidates to undergo a criminal background check and to either live or run a business in Salem for at least a year.

But many psychics want the city to go a step further | make sure they're actually qualified to predict the future.

"It's become a free-for-all," said Laurie Cabot, the official witch of Salem. "Anyone who says they're psychic can come into the city. We don't even know where they come from. We don't know their qualifications."

Another Old Law Gets New Prosecutions

It's really time that the laws regarding palmistry, astrology, tarot cards and psychic readings were reviewed and updated. In Canada, for example, the law pertaining to palmistry comes under "Pretending to practice witchcraft, etc.".

One palmist convicted in the UK, and now more readers find their professions limited in some cities in the USA.

Banned from Philadelphia: Apparently, a week or two ago someone in the police department brought an old law to the attention of prosecutors: reading tarot cards, gazing into crystal balls, or pretending to be able to read people’s thoughts “for gain or lucre” is a 3rd degree misdemeanor. This law was passed sometime in the 1960s, but everyone had forgotten about it.