The Tarot Room – Georgianna

Flag of New Zealand

Most New Zealanders believe that some people may have psychic powers. Or at least that was the conclusion of the UMR study released last week.

In September, UMR did on-line interviews with 1000 New Zealanders 18 years of age and over as part of a series on what New Zealander’s believe.

This first survey asked about God, Jesus, UFOs, astrology, psychics, and life after death.

According to the results, most people questioned believe that Jesus was a real person, that there is a God or a universal spirit, that there’s life after death, and that there’s a possibility that some people may be psychic.

Granted a lot more people believe that Jesus was real (78%) then believe in psychics (55%), but it’s still more than believe that UFOs have visited Earth (33%) or that astrology can predict the future (24%).

I was sort of surprised that so many more people believe in psychics than astrology. I would have thought that those numbers would have been more even.

And it was interesting that the older people got, the more likely they were to believe in the possibility of psychics.

Less surprising though was that more woman (67%) believe in psychics than men (44%). Just stop by a Tarot conference sometime and you’ll see a lot more ladies there then gents.

There’s a lot of interesting information in this study. I’d like to see the actual questions asked.

Future releases in the series will look at beliefs about Maori culture and public faith in herbal remedies.

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Tommy and Marie Costello have won their battle against the fortune-telling ban in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Last September they filed suit against the City claiming that the ban was an illegal restriction of free speech in violation of both the U.S. and Mississippi constitutions.

On Tuesday, a federal court agreed, and handed down a preliminary injunction against the ban, prompting Hattiesburg City Attorney Charles Lawrence to recommend that the ordinance be repealed.

According to City Councillor Kim Bradley, it will take another 90 days before the ban is lifted. In the meantime, Council will come up with zoning regulations for new psychic establishments.

As of Tuesday, however, the Costellos and their shop are open and ready for business.

I congratulate them on their win and thank them for their courage to take a stand.

This ban has been in place for almost 100 years, and as Councillor Bradley acknowledges in the news clip below, the change is overdue.

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Babylon Village

This past September, I posted about proposed new regulations for professional psychic readers in Babylon Village, Long Island.

The proposals included obtaining a license, being fingerprinted, buying liability insurance, and locating in the industrial part of town.

Last week, Babylon Village trustees decided to drop these proposals.

According to Newsday, village attorney Joel Sikowitz said the decision was based on ‘investigation, input from the public, and analysis of the facts.’

Though the regulations have been shelved for now, Mayor Ralph Scordino left the question open, with the possibility of revisiting it some time in the future.

Hopefully, they won’t find that necessary. I think they made a good decision.

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EEG Spike Waves

Some serious psychic experimentation is being done in my own backyard.

Well, not literally in my back yard, but not too far away at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario.

Mandy Scott, an MA student in psychology, is doing research on what’s actually going on during a psychic experience. Specifically, what’s going on in our brains.

Scott will be performing a series of experiments involving Remote Viewing, where subjects are asked to describe photos without actually looking at them.

Six times over the course of six weeks, each person will be asked to hold a sealed envelope with a picture in it. While they record what they think the image in the envelope is, EEG monitors will record their brainwaves.

Subjects will be split into three groups, the first being a control with no psychic experience whatsoever.

The second group will also be ‘non-psychics’, but will undergo some training in psychic techniques before they start the experiments.

The final group will be made up of people with prior experience in psychic readings.

Scott is already convinced that something’s going on, she just wants to pinpoint what that is and where it’s happening in our brains.

She’s also interested in whether the ‘psychic’ group proves to be any better at seeing the hidden images than the other two groups.

If you want to help her out, she’s still looking for people to be involved in the research.

She can be contacted through the university at 705-675-1151.

I look forward to seeing her results.

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Mississippi Flag

In September, I wrote about Tommy and Marie Costello’s suit against the City of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

They argued that the fortune-telling ban that forced them to shut down their business last December is an illegal restraint on their rights to free speech and due process per the US and Mississippi constitutions.

Last week, the city responded with their answer, claiming that the present law does not violate US or state constitutions.

They also contend that in order to protect the health, safety and welfare of the residents of their city, Hattiesburg has a legitimate interest in regulating, or in this case outlawing, psychic businesses.

This sounds a lot like the argument made by Chesterfield County, Virginia a few weeks ago.

In that case, the Virginia Federal District Court upheld the right of Chesterfield to heavily regulate what they describe as ‘fortune-telling’.

It flies in the face, however, of the 2010 decision by the Maryland High Court that prohibitions on such businesses are in fact violations of the federal constitution.

It’ll be interesting to see how the courts decide. As might be expected, I’m rooting for free speech.

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Baba Vanga

Bulgaria’s most famous clairvoyant, Baba Vanga, was honoured last week on the 100th anniversary of her birth.

Though some sources list January 31, 1911 as her birthday, the people of Rupite, Bulgaria, where she lived and worked for most of her life, seem to think October 3rd was the day. I’ll take their word for it.

There was a mass in her honour at St. Petka’s church, and a silver covered statue of her was unveiled for the first time.

The 1.8-meter monument, created by Prof. Emil Popov, shows her sitting on a bench near a table, just as she typically sat when doing readings for the thousands of people who sought her out through the years.

Blind from the age of 12, she started to attract attention for her visions in her late teens. Through decades of radical change, she sat where she was while politicians, celebrities, and regular folk came to her home in droves.

She’s said to have regularly read for more than a hundred people a day, offering psychic predictions, positive advice, and herbal remedies for healing.

Baba Vanga Stamp

Baba Vanga is credited with predicting many major world events, everything from the assassination of Indira Ghandi and her son, to the breakup of the Soviet Union, to the 9/11 attacks on the US.

Of course there’s a lot of skepticism surrounding some of the things attributed to her, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church referred to her as a ‘pseudo-icon’. But in Rupite at least, they see her as a woman who did her best to help people, and that she did it well.

Her home has become a museum, and the town of Rupite, near the Greek border has become a monastery-like complex since her death in 1996. It attracts tourists from all over the world, and for this special event, hundreds of people arrived to show their respects.

Who would have thought a psychic from a tiny volcanic town in Bulgaria would achieve such world-wide notoriety and love? Maybe she did, but I find it remarkable.

Happy belated birthday Baba Vanga! I’m glad you were around.

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In today’s Tarot Views the News, I’ve pulled a card for Steve Jobs, who passed away last Wednesday.

This is not meant to be a predictive or mediumistic reading, but just a one-card look at Jobs’ legacy.

The card I pulled was #16, The Tower. It’s one of the most shocking cards in the deck, typically describing just that, a shocking event, something unexpected, and often dramatic.

When the Tower’s around, you can’t look at the world the way you used to.

And doesn’t that describe the legacy of Steve Jobs?

Because we knew of his illness, it wasn’t so surprising that he passed, but his passing still sent shock-waves through the world of technology and way beyond.

As the lightening topples the Tower’s crown, the king was struck down.

But his time with us was at least as shocking. It was with Tower-like energy that Jobs hit the scene with the first Macintosh. You might say he electrified the computer industry.

Looking at the windows of the Tower in the card’s image, don’t they kind of remind you the front of this first computer?

The Mac was completely different from all the others. It changed everything, making it possible for people who knew nothing about computers to jump in and discover a brand new world.

They were fun, powerful, and most important, easy to use for average people. They still are. I’m working on one right now, and have been since 1997.

And then of course there’s the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. I can hardly imagine organizing my pictures without iPhoto. And iTunes has revolutionized music.

Even Apple’s packaging, ad campaigns, and stores changed how technology is viewed by the general population. It became both accessible and highly desirable.

As everyone does, Jobs faced his own personal Tower situations. He was publicly fired from the company he founded, and was forced to start fresh.

In true Tower style, he built up Pixar, another ground-breaking company, before returning to Apple to shake things up there some more.

When teaching people about the Tower card, it can sometimes be challenging to come up with positive examples of this energy. I think Steve Jobs is one of those examples.

He was a Tower we’ll all miss. He made us think different, and I thank him for it.

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Flag of Virginia

This week, the Virginia Federal District Court rejected a constitutional challenge to Chesterfield County’s fortune-telling regulations.

Patricia Moore-King, working under the name of Psychic Sophie, is a psychic practitioner, spiritual counselor, Tarot writer and teacher.  She challenged the law after being denied a business license back in 2009.

The county deemed her a ‘fortune-teller’, and rejected her application. In Chesterfield, a fortune-teller is defined as,

Any person or establishment engaged in the occupation of occult science including a fortune-teller, palmist, astrologist, numerologist, clairvoyant, craniologist, phrenologist, card reader, spiritual reader, tea leaf reader, prophet, psychic or advisor or who in any other manner claims or pretends to tell fortunes or claims or pretends to disclose mental faculties of individuals for any form of compensation. 

Chesterfield County, Virginia

Though fortune-telling, or psychic reading isn’t technically illegal in Chesterfield County, the rules are so tight it might as well be.

To open a psychic business, the operator must start by paying a $300 tax in order to obtain a business license. It’s worth noting that most businesses in the county that earn less than $10,000 a year don’t have to pay such a tax. Nightclubs and adult businesses only have to pay $100.

In addition to the tax, a ‘fortune-teller’ has to submit five personal references from residents of the county confirming their ‘good character and honest demeanor,’ and that they’re ‘bona fide county residents’.

The references are sent to the Chief of Police who can then choose to do a criminal background check on the applicant and make further inquires about their moral character. A Police Permit must be granted in order for a license to be approved, and the Chief of Police has final discretion.

Performing fortune-telling services without a license can lead to fines of up to $500 for each offense.

If a license is approved, the psychic business can only be established in the General Business District. Other businesses zoned to this district include adult businesses, pawnbrokers, auction houses, material reclamation yards, and vehicle impoundment lots.

Even within the general business zone, and while holding a license, there’s no guarantee a psychic reader can set up shop. They must first obtain a Conditional Use Permit, which may or may not be granted. Both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors must review the application. Either can reject it, or prescribe additional conditions to the rules already in place.

In her complaint, King argued that her work constitutes free speech according to the US Constitution, and that the zoning laws and onerous license procedures inhibit her freedom of expression and discriminate against her based on her beliefs, viewpoint, and content of expression.

She also maintained that the regulations violated her freedom of religion. She felt that by defining her work as ‘fortune-telling’ and ‘occult’, and restricting that activity, she and her beliefs were being discriminated against without any compelling governmental interest for doing so.

The Virginia Federal District Court disagreed. They decided that her predictions and counseling services were ‘inherently deceptive commercial speech, and that the regulation of them is reasonably drawn.’

They rejected the argument that King’s rights were violated under the First or Fourteenth Amendments, or the Religious Land Use claims she brought forward.

It’s a disappointing decision. I hope it gets appealed and eventually overturned.

If you’re interested in reading more about it. Jason Pitzi-Waters has been covering the case for a while and has an excellent post about it up on his blog. There’s a fantastic quote from Mary Greer at the bottom of the article.

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Ace of Swords

Last week, a sixth-century iron sword was found in an ancient burial mound in Fukuoka, Japan.

What’s especially interesting about this sword is the 19 kanji characters engraved on it showing the date January 6th, 570 based on the Genka calendar.

Researchers are excited because the sword is the oldest item indicating Japan’s use of a calendar in ancient times.

And it’s also the first concrete evidence that the Chronicles of Japan, an eighth-century history of Japan, may have been correct in describing how the calendar spread across that country.

As a Tarot reader, I was especially drawn to this story because it featured a sword, one of the traditional suits of the Tarot.

The Ace of Swords often represents focus, clarity of mind, and the seed of new ways of thinking.

I think it’s wonderfully appropriate for a sword to be evidence of a new way of thinking for the ancient Japanese. The introduction of a calendar must have really shifted perspective.

And I can’t help but notice that not only were there 19 characters on the sword, the date 1/6/570 adds up to 19, the number of the Sun.

It looks like this ‘epoch making item’ is shining some new light on the history of Japan.

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Babylon Village

The Board of Trustees for Babylon Village, Long Island, is considering a set of new regulations for psychic reading businesses.

The new proposal recommends they be rezoned to the industrial part of town presently populated by small factories, gas stations, and a gym.

This zone not only serves industry, it’s also the location designated for businesses described by the village code as having ‘objectionable characteristics’.

If anyone in Babylon Village decides to open a peep show, massage parlour, adult bookstore, or porn house, this is where they’d have to set up shop.

In addition to rezoning to the sketchy part of town, the proposal would require psychic readers to obtain a license, be fingerprinted, and buy liability insurance to run their business.

Mayor Ralph Scordino insists there’s no intent to disparage clairvoyants, only a desire to protect the public.

The one psychic storefront presently in the downtown core would be allowed to remain where it is.

Trustees are scheduled to vote on the new regulations September 27th.

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