Mixed forecast for fortunetelling rules
SALEM -- While the question of who is a true psychic may never be answered, a new bylaw regulating fortune tellers in Salem is winning praise from some people on both sides of the licensing issue.
The June 14 ordinance was designed to provide equal opportunity for psychic readers operating in the Witch City, rather than try to identify those who might have the ability to forecast the future.
"It's complicated and tough to quantify," said City Councilor Joan Lovely. "Some psychics claim it's an innate ability with no real schooling requirement. Who's to decide?"
The purpose of the new law is to level the playing field and try to eliminate fraud, Lovely said. It requires all applicants to submit a resume detailing education background and job history. Applicants must either live in the city or have operated a Salem business in a related field for at least a year, and must submit to a criminal-history check. All psychic readers must now wear an identification badge while working.
After receiving complaints that some psychics were giving readings without a license, Salem officials turned to other cities to see how they regulate fortune tellers. The City Council unanimously adopted a law similar to the one in San Francisco, after finding the language of that ordinance to be "tight," Lovely said. The Salem law replaced one passed in 1998 that was vague and lacked a mechanism for fining violators, who are now subject to fines up to $100 per offense.
Although the ordinance puts a cap on the number of readers who participate in the psychic fairs held at Halloween, it lifts the ceiling on how many shop licenses the city issues, which has angered a group of longtime shop owners. Still, others in the psychic community embrace the ordinance, saying it legitimizes the practice.
"There's a pervasive fear that fortunetellers take advantage of people," said John Flaherty, owner of the Fool's Mansion boutique and organizer of one of the psychic fairs. "That's why the city is trying to put a control on it."
Salem draws more than 100,000 people every October to participate in Halloween festivities, said Peter LaChapelle, chief of visitor services for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site and Saugus Iron Works. One of the city's popular attractions, the Witch House, sees double or sometimes triple revenue in October, said Richard Viscay, the city's finance director. Viscay said he suspects that shop owners see the same increase in their incomes during the Halloween season.
Some shop owners, however, question the fairness of psychic fairs. A group of about 10 have a joint appeal before the City Council asking for even tighter restrictions on the fairs. The board will take up the appeal sometime in the fall, said Councilor Joseph A. O'Keefe Sr., chairman of its licensing committee.
"They're taking the cream of the crop," said Laurie Cabot, referring to the psychic fairs that divert Halloween tourists from the year-round shops. Cabot, Salem's official witch, opened the first witch shop in the country in 1978, and now runs The Cat, the Crow, and the Crown on Pickering Wharf. She said she and other shop owners have their lives invested in their stores.
Salem witch Christian Day, known as "the Liberace of the Dark World," has run his psychic fair since 1995. Day favors the new ordinance even though it will cost him more in licensing fees and limits the number of readers he can have operating at once.
"They created a balance for governmental interest and entrepreneurial spirit," Day said. "I am very happy."
But he and others who perform readings scoffed at submitting a resume for a psychic's license.
"Who's to say what a psychic is?" said Day. "You could have trained at the feet of your grandmother's bed and be the best psychic."
Fortunetellers come in many forms. Some are witches, some are spiritualists or herbalists. Others are mere mortals.
"I'm just a regular guy," said Flaherty, whose Essex Street clothing and accessory boutique caters to fans of gothic and wiccan fashions. Flaherty has also run a psychic fair for 14 years at the Hawthorne Hotel, and has a unique perspective as both shop owner and fair coordinator.
"It's a good idea to have the residency or business ownership requirement, since it keeps management of the fairs local," Flaherty said. "The City Council did a fair job. It was democracy in action."
Teri Kalgren, owner of Artemisia Botanicals and the Broom Closet, also favors the new ordinance. Calling herself "an old country witch," Kalgren said she has psychic abilities but does not perform readings. Instead, she employs a longtime psychic, Lady June, at the Broom Closet. In October, Kalgren employs a psychic who flies in from England for the month to give readings in historic Salem.
Barbara Szafranski, owner of Angelica of the Angels, opposes the new ordinance, since it took the cap off the number of shops that could get licenses.
"I predict that in five years the ordinance will destroy the city because the quality of readers will be taken down," said Szafranski, who said she is a psychic but not a witch.
Szafranski has joined forces with Cabot and other shop owners against Day's psychic fair in particular, since it operates in Museum Place Mall, directly across the street from many shops.
"The fair is too close to the shops, which are smaller and can't compete," Szafranski said. "The city tried but it did not help the stores at all."
In the end, officials and most psychics said they believe the new licensing process will benefit the city with a more uniform law, and the success of the readers will speak for itself.
"This is an enterprise," Lovely said. "And like any other business, it will be the survival of the fittest."
Bella Travaglini can be reached at bellatrav@gmail.com.
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