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.

Fortune Telling May Become Legal in Casper

While some cities are beginning to crack down on fortune telling, the 1929 law banning it in Casper, Wyoming may be getting repealed.

ABC Local News 8: The Casper ordinance banning fortunetelling for profit dates to 1929. Shop owner Nella Forest says so far, no one has arrested her -- or anyone else she knows -- for fortunetelling.

She says if a law's not being enforced, it needs to be taken off the books.

Forest also is a Wiccan, and says the law demeans her beliefs and feels like "discrimination."

The City Council has agreed to look into repealing the ordinance.

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."

UK Palmist Tried and Convicted for Fortune Telling

Think you can be a palmistry professional and keep getting away with breaking the laws regarding fortune-telling? Well think again.

Despite having her clients sign a waiver, an experienced (and apparently charlatan) palm reader in the UK was convicted for her blatant misuse of palmistry.

Palmist misforecast her court verdict:

Martha Archer, professionally known as Madame Naomi, a native of Selby, but who has resided at Scarborough some years, was charged in two cases, with fortune telling by means of palmistry. (She advertised in local papers, and was visited by the wives of four police officers.)

She appeared to have compelled each visitor to sign the following form: “I wish to be entertained by Mme Naomi with reading of palmistry according to my agreement, and I acquit her of any intention of deceive or impose upon me.”

She told each of the four witnesses that she was not a fortune teller, but she read their palms, and told them certain things that would occur in the future.

Her defense? - She claimed that her clients were not being misled because they believed what she was telling them was "rubbish".