Future looks good for fortunetellers in Vt. town

ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt.—Suddenly, the future looks bright for fortunetellers, clairvoyants and tarot card readers in these parts.

After banning such activity for over 40 years, the town has repealed an ordinance on the books since 1966.

"When the ordinance was lifted, I actually felt a large weight lifting from my shoulders," said Maria Pawlowski, a tarot card reader. "It was very oppressive to have to refrain from something that was as natural to me as breathing."

Fear of fraud has prompted other communities around the country to ban soothsaying. But critics say it's not government's place to decide whether the beliefs or practices are fraudulent.

Last year in Philadelphia, city inspectors shut down more than a dozen psychics, astrologers and tarot-card readers after learning about a decades-old state law that bans fortunetelling for profit.

Also last year, Livingston Parish, La., made soothsaying, fortunetelling, palm reading, and crystal ball gazing illegal, a move that was being challenged in federal court by a Wiccan minister.

Other laws or legal fights exist in Nebraska, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina and Oklahoma, said Charles Haynes, a senior scholar with the First Amendment Center in Washington.

In 1998, a federal appeals court struck down such a ban in Lincoln, Neb., as unconstitutional.

"People have the right to believe in these things and to predict the future, to say what they think and even to charge money for it," Haynes said. "The government has no power to determine whether or not these people are committing fraud."

St. Johnsbury lifted its ban in July, at the urging of psychotherapist Jean O'Neal, who said the ordinance outlawed something she practices: feng shui, the ancient Chinese practice of harmonizing one's environment for health and financial benefits.

"I said something needs to be done about this. This is ridiculous," O'Neal recalled. "The way I lay out my office ... it wasn't legal," she said of the ordinance, which banned the use of "oriental mysteries," which she says includes feng shui, although some disagree.

Town Manager Mike Welch says that was O'Neal's interpretation of the ordinance, which he said was never enforced anyway.

Officials say they don't know why the ordinance was passed in the first place. Perhaps, at that time, there were concerns about "clairvoyants and the like," said Town Attorney Ed Zuccaro.

"There's a reason why the law came into place," O'Neal said. "Someone was afraid."

Critics charge that other activities could be called into question if the government has the power to decide if fortunetelling is fraudulent or illegal.

"We have people who predict what the stock market is going to do. We have people who predict the weather and get paid for it," said Haynes.

Since the ban was lifted, O'Neal can now feel comfortable practicing feng shui. She also has opened her space to Pawlowski to offer readings. She hopes to hold a holistic health exposition in town that could draw other practitioners.

She says she's open to all kinds of practices that help people heal.

"I'm very pleased," she said of the repeal. "I think it means that people are be open minded to other ways of being healthy."