FORTUNE TELLER

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"Fortune teller" redirects here. For other uses, see Fortune teller (disambiguation).
This article is about the commercial activity in modern western culture. For a general discussion, see Divination.


Die Wahrsagerin, Germany, 18th century


Die Wahrsagerin
Michail Alexandrowitsch Wrubel (1895)
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life, often commercially. The person does this much the same way that a psychologist would. They look at particular factors that suggest what a person is likely to do in the future. They start by naming general characteristics that are specific to most people. Then they make determinations based on the person's answers. A 'psychic' is more aptly called a mentalist. Some fortune tellers may think that there is an anamistic quality (seeing connections where there are none) to what they are doing (and thus delude themselves into thinking that there is a "magical" process going on. But what the real purpose of a person who is doing this for money (is to make you believe that there is something magical about it).
The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination. The difference is that divination is the term used for predictions considered part of a religious ritual, invoking deities or spirits, while the term fortune-telling implies a less serious or formal setting, even one of popular culture, where belief in occult workings behind the prediction is less prominent than the concept of suggestion, spiritual or practical advisory or affirmation. Historically, fortune-telling grows out of folkloristic reception of Renaissance magic, specifically associated with gypsies.
During the 19th and 20th century, methods of divination from non-Western cultures, such as the I Ching, were also adopted as methods of fortune-telling in western popular culture. An example of divination or fortune-telling as purely an item of pop culture, with little or no vestiges of belief in the occult, would be the Magic 8-Ball sold as a toy by Mattel, or Paul II, a cephalopod of the Sea Life Aquarium at Oberhausen used to predict the outcome of matches played by the German national football team.[1]
There is opposition against fortune-telling, in Christianity and Judaism (though kabala has some 'mysticism to it - eventhough it is more like the process of quantum theory), based on biblical prohibitions against divination. This sometimes cause discord in the Jewish community due to their views on mysticism.[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Methods
2 Sociology
3 As a business in North America
3.1 Clientele
3.2 Typical clients
3.3 Services
3.4 Full-time careers
3.5 Legality
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
[edit]Methods


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Common methods used for fortune telling in Europe and the Americas include astromancy, horary astrology, pendulum reading, spirit board reading, tasseography (reading tea leaves in a cup), cartomancy (fortune telling with cards), tarot reading, crystallomancy (reading of a crystal sphere), and chiromancy (palmistry, reading of the palms). The last three have traditional associations in the popular mind with the Roma and Sinti people (often called "gypsies").
Another form of fortune-telling, sometimes called "reading" or "spiritual consultation", does not rely on specific devices or methods, but rather the practitioner gives the client advice and predictions which are said to have come from spirits or in visions.


Chart of the hand
Alectromancy: by observation of a rooster pecking at grain
Astrology: by the movements of celestial bodies.
Astromancy: by the stars.
Augury: by the flight of birds.
Bazi or four pillars: by hour, day, month, and year of birth.
Bibliomancy: by books; frequently, but not always, religious texts.
Cartomancy: by playing cards, tarot cards, or oracle cards.
Ceromancy: by patterns in melting or dripping wax.
Cheiromancy: by the shape of the hands and lines in the palms.
Chronomancy: by determination of lucky and unlucky days.
Clairvoyance: by spiritual vision or inner sight.
Cold reading: by using visual and aural clues.
Crystallomancy: by crystal ball also called scrying.
Extispicy: by the entrails of animals.
Face Reading: by means of variations in face and head shape.
Feng shui: by earthen harmony.
Gastromancy: by stomach-based ventriloquism (historically).
Geomancy: by markings in the ground, sand, earth, or soil.
Haruspicy: by the livers of sacrificed animals.
Horary astrology: the astrology of the time the question was asked.
Hydromancy: by water.
I Ching divination: by yarrow stalks or coins and the I Ching.
Kau cim by means of numbered bamboo sticks shaken from a tube.
Lithomancy: by stones or gems.
Necromancy: by the dead, or by spirits or souls of the dead.
Numerology: by numbers.
Oneiromancy: by dreams.
Onomancy: by names.
Palmistry: by lines and mounds on the hand.
Paper fortune teller: origami used in fortune-telling games
Pendulum reading: by the movements of a suspended object.
Pyromancy: by gazing into fire.
Rhabdomancy: divination by rods.
Runecasting or Runic divination: by runes.
Scrying: by looking at or into reflective objects.
Spirit board: by planchette or talking board.
Taromancy: by a form of cartomancy using tarot cards.
Tasseography or tasseomancy: by tea leaves or coffee grounds.
[edit]Sociology


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Gypsies fortune-telling. Facsimile of a woodcut in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Sebastian Münster: in folio, Basel, 1552
In Europe and America, fortune-telling has sometimes been considered a sin against religion, and both religious proscriptions and civil laws have, at certain times and places, forbidden the practice. Thus many mainstream urban Europeans and Americans are unaware of the popularity of fortune-telling with some people, and are surprised when they learn of a celebrity or politician who consults a fortune-teller to help make decisions.
Western fortune-tellers typically attempt predictions on matters such as future romantic, financial, and childbearing prospects. Their help may be sought in decision-making regarding job opportunities, the outcome of illnesses, and plans for marriage or divorce.
In addition to professing to divine the future, many fortune-tellers will also give "character readings": short analyses of someone's character without specific predictions of future events. These may use numerology, graphology, palmistry (if the subject is present), and astrology. The subject of a character reading may be the client, who seeks self-knowledge, but the fortune-teller may often perform a character reading on the client's prospective mate. If the latter is being assessed for marital compatibility with the client, there is an element of prediction, as the practitioner professes to explore the future of the relationship based on the two characters.
In contemporary Western culture, it appears that women consult fortune-tellers more than men: there are many advertisements for commercial fortune-telling services in magazines aimed at women, while such advertisements appear virtually unknown in magazines aimed specifically at men.
It is quite common for young women to seek out fortune-tellers as they embark on adulthood, and some women maintain decades-long relationships with their personal readers or fortune-tellers. Telephone consultations with psychics (charged to the caller's telephone account at very high rates) grew in popularity through the 1990s but they have not replaced - and may never replace - the traditional card readers, tea leaf readers, palmists, and spiritual readers who see their clients in small storefronts or occult shops.
[edit]As a business in North America



Storefront psychic fortune-teller in Boston
Discussing the role of fortune-telling in society, Ronald H. Isaacs, an American rabbi and author, opined, “Since time immemorial humans have longed to learn that which the future holds for them. Thus, in ancient civilization, and even today with fortune telling as a true profession, humankind continues to be curious about its future, both out of sheer curiosity as well as out of desire to better prepare for it." [3]
Popular media outlets like the New York Times have explained to their American readers that although 5000 years ago, soothsayers were prized advisers to the Assyrians, they lost respect and reverence during the rise of Reason in the 17th and 18th centuries.[4]
With the rise of commercialism, “the sale of occult practices [adapted to survive] in the larger society,” according to sociologists Danny L. and Lin Jorgensen.[5] Ken Feingold, writer of "Interactive Art as Divination as a Vending Machine," stated that with the invention of money, fortune-telling became “a private service, a commodity within the marketplace”.[6]
Print, televised and online advertisements for fortune-tellers are now almost as common as ads for orange juice and automobiles. As J. Peder Zane wrote in the New York Times in 1994, “Whether it’s 3 P.M. or 3 A.M., there’s Dionne Warwick and her psychic friends selling advice on love, money and success. In a nation where the power of crystals and the likelihood that angels hover nearby prompt more contemplation than ridicule, it may not be surprising that one million people a year call Ms. Warwick’s friends.” [4]
[edit]Clientele
In 1994, the psychic counsellor Rosanna Rogers of Cleveland, Ohio explained to J. Peder Zane that a wide variety of people consulted her: “Couch potatoes aren’t the only people seeking the counsel of psychics and astrologers. Clairvoyants have a booming business advising Philadelphia bankers, Hollywood lawyers and CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies... If people knew how many people, especially the very rich and powerful ones, went to psychics, their jaws would drop through the floor.”[4] Ms. Rogers “claims to have 4,000 names in her rolodex.”[4]
[edit]Typical clients
In 1982, Danny Jorgensen, a professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida offered a spiritual explanation for the popularity of fortune-telling. He said that that people visit psychics or fortune-tellers to gain self-understanding.[7] and knowledge which will lead to personal power or success in some aspect of life[8]
Thirteen years later, in 1995, Ken Feingold offered a different explanation for why people seek out fortune-tellers: “We desire to know other people’s actions and to resolve our own conflicts regarding decisions to be made and our participation in social groups and economies. … Divination seems to have emerged from our knowing the inevitability of death. The idea is clear—we know that our time is limited and that we want things in our lives to happen in accord with our wishes. Realizing that our wishes have little power, we have sought technologies for gaining knowledge of the future...gain power over our own [lives].”[6]
Ultimately, the reasons a person consults a diviner or fortune teller are mediated by cultural expectations and by personal desires, and until a statistically rigorous study of the phenomenon have been conducted, the question of why people consult fortune-tellers is wide open for opinion-making.
[edit]Services
Traditional fortune-tellers vary in methodology, generally using techniques long established in their cultures and thus meeting the cultural expectations of their clientele.
In the United States and Canada, among clients of European ancestry, palmistry is popular [9] and, as with astrology and tarot card reading, advice is generally given about specific problems besetting the client.
Non-religious spiritual guidance may also be offered. An American clairvoyant by the name of Catherine Adams has written, “My philosophy is to teach and practice spiritual freedom, which means you have your own spiritual guidance, which I can help you get in touch with."[10]
In the African American community, where many people practice a form of folk magic called hoodoo or rootworking, a fortune telling session or "reading" for a client may be followed by practical guidance in spell-casting and Christian prayer, through a process called "magical coaching".[citation needed]
In addition to sharing and explaining their visions, fortune-tellers can also act like counselors by discussing and offering advice about their clients’ problems.[9] They want their clients to exercise their own willpower.[11]


A fortune telling storefront on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey.
[edit]Full-time careers
Some support themselves entirely on their fortune-telling business; others hold down one or more jobs, and their second jobs may or may not relate to the occupation of divining. In 1982, Danny L., and Lin Jorgensen found that “while there is considerable variation among [these secondary] occupations, [part-time fortune-tellers] are over-represented in human service fields: counseling, social work, teaching, health care.”[12] The same authors, making a limited survey of North American diviners, found that the majority of fortune-tellers are married with children, and a few claim graduate degrees.[13] "They attend movies, watch television, work at regular jobs, shop at K-Mart, sometimes eat at McDonald’s, and go to the hospital when they are seriously ill.”[14]
[edit]Legality
In 1572 Augustus of Saxony imposed the penalty of burning for witchcraft of every kind, including simple fortune-telling.[15]
In 1982, the sociologists Danny L., and Lin Jorgensen found that, “when it is reasonable, [fortune -tellers] comply with local laws and purchase a business license.”[12] However, in the United States, a variety of local and state laws restrict fortune-telling, require the licensing or bonding of fortune-tellers, or make necessary the use of terminology that avoids the term "fortune-teller" in favour of terms such as "spiritual advisor" or "psychic consultant." There are also laws that forbid the practice outright in certain districts.
For instance, fortune telling is a class B misdemeanor in the state of New York. Under New York State law, S 165.35:
A person is guilty of fortune telling when, for a fee or compensation which he directly or indirectly solicits or receives, he claims or pretends to tell fortunes, or holds himself out as being able, by claimed or pretended use of occult powers, to answer questions or give advice on personal matters or to exercise, influence or affect evil spirits or curses; except that this section does not apply to a person who engages in the aforedescribed conduct as part of a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement.[16]
Law-makers who wrote this statute acknowledged that fortune-tellers do not restrict themselves to "a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement" and that people will continue to seek out fortune-tellers even though fortune-tellers operate in violation of the law.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also bans the practice outright, considering fortune-telling to be sorcery and thus contrary to Islamic teaching and jurisprudence. It has been punishable by death.[17]
[edit]See also

Divination in African traditional religion
Divination in Chinese culture
Forer effect
Fortune telling fraud
Prophecy
Tengenjutsu (fortune telling)
[edit]Notes

^ Associated Press6 July 2010
^ A review of Bible verses prohibiting fortune telling and divination
^ Isaacs, Ronald H. Divination, Magic, and Healing the Book of Jewish Folklore. Northvale N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1998. pg 55
^ a b c d (Zane 1994)
^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 376)
^ a b (Feingold 1995, p. 399)
^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 381)
^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 375)
^ a b “Clairvoyant or counsellor? Meet the woman who walks a fine line.” The Northern Echo. 27 Oct. 2000.
^ Adams, Catherine. “What is Clairvoyance and What Can I Expect in a Session With Catherine?”
^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 384)
^ a b (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 377)
^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 337)
^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 387)
^ Thurston, H. (1912). Witchcraft. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved December 12, 2010 from New Advent: Newadvent.org
^ Leginfo.state.ny.us
^ Fortune Teller Faces Execution in Saudi Arabia pattayadailynews.com 01 April 2010 retrieved 17 July 2010
[edit]References

Feingold, Ken (1995), "OU: Interactivity as Divination as Vending Machine", Leonardo, Third Annual New York Digital Salon 28 (5): 399–402, doi:10.2307/1576224[dead link].
Jorgensen, Danny L.; Jorgensen, Lin (1982), "Social Meanings of the Occult", The Sociological Quarterly 23 (3): 373–389, doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.1982.tb01019.x.
Zane, J. Peder (11 September 1994), "Soothsayers as Business Advisers; You Are Going to Go on a Long Trip…", The New York Times.
[edit]External links

Media related to Fortune-telling at Wikimedia Commons
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Categories: Divination