HARRISBURG, Penn. — Nearly two years after a Pennsylvania police chief warned a Pagan shop owner that offering paid tarot readings could result in criminal prosecution, the legal and legislative battle over the Commonwealth’s nineteenth-century fortune-telling statute continues on two fronts.
Beck Ravenswood, owner of The Serpent’s Key Shoppe and Sanctuary in Hanover, is pursuing a federal constitutional challenge to the law while Pennsylvania lawmakers consider legislation that would repeal it altogether. Together, the efforts have drawn renewed attention to a little-known body of antiquated laws regulating divination, fortune telling, and other spiritual practices that remain on the books in several states and municipalities across the United States.
In October 2023, The Wild Hunt reported that Pennsylvania’s fortune-telling statute became the center of controversy after Hanover Police Chief Chad Martin visited The Serpent’s Key following a local newspaper feature highlighting the shop’s tarot services. According to Ravenswood, Martin warned that accepting payment for tarot readings could violate Pennsylvania law, which makes it a misdemeanor to “pretend for gain or lucre” to tell fortunes or predict future events. Violations carry penalties of up to one year in jail and fines of up to $2,500.
Ravenswood said the encounter had an immediate chilling effect on both the business and their spiritual practice, arguing that the law singled out divination while other forms of predictive speech, from weather forecasts to entertainment, remained lawful.
The controversy has since evolved into a broader constitutional challenge. In August 2024, Ravenswood filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Hanover Borough and Chief Martin, alleging that Pennsylvania’s fortune-telling statute violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The complaint asks the court to declare the statute unconstitutional, both facially and as applied, and to permanently prohibit its enforcement.
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The lawsuit argues that paid tarot readings constitute protected speech and that the statute unlawfully discriminates against a particular form of expression. It further contends that the law is unconstitutionally vague, lacks a rational governmental basis, and interferes with an individual’s ability to earn a living through constitutionally protected activity. The complaint also notes that tarot reading is an important component of Ravenswood’s spiritual practice, placing the dispute at the intersection of free speech, economic liberty, and religious freedom.
Ravenswood told The Wild Hunt that while the litigation carries significant implications for religious liberty, the legal strategy focuses primarily on constitutional protections for speech and due process.
“We did sue under First Amendment guarantees, and this absolutely is an issue of religious freedom,” Ravenswood said. “However, in terms of argument in a court setting, the claims we have presented are more likely to overturn this law and officially legalize the practice of fortune telling.”
Ravenswood also pointed to House Bill 1562, introduced in the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2025, which would repeal the state’s fortune-telling statute entirely. According to Ravenswood, the proposed legislation argues that the existing law violates First Amendment protections by criminalizing divination performed “for gain or lucre,” language that critics say is both antiquated and overly broad.
Pennsylvania’s law is not unique. Similar statutes and ordinances remain in force elsewhere, although many have faced constitutional challenges in recent decades.
Oklahoma maintains a statewide statute prohibiting anyone from charging, directly or indirectly, for “pretending or professing to tell fortunes.” Wisconsin continues to include fortune tellers within language historically associated with vagrancy statutes, reflecting an earlier era in which divination was frequently equated with fraud or itinerancy. New York likewise retains a misdemeanor statute prohibiting individuals from charging for claiming or pretending to tell fortunes while exempting performances conducted solely for entertainment or exhibition.
State laws, however, represent only part of the legal landscape. Across the country, many of the most significant disputes have arisen from municipal ordinances regulating fortune telling, psychic services, and divination.
Some municipalities continue to prohibit compensated fortune telling outright, while others rely on restrictive licensing requirements, extensive background investigations, or costly permitting systems that critics argue function as de facto bans.
Municipal ordinances have generated some of the nation’s most significant legal battles over divination. While some communities continue to prohibit compensated fortune telling outright, others have adopted restrictive licensing requirements, extensive background investigations, or costly permitting systems that critics argue function as de facto bans. Municipalities in Maryland, Louisiana, Ohio, and Michigan have all faced legal or political challenges over such regulations in recent decades.
San Francisco illustrates a different regulatory approach. After California courts barred outright prohibitions on fortune telling, the city retained oversight through its Police Code. Applicants must obtain a permit from the San Francisco Police Department, undergo fingerprinting and a background investigation, and comply with licensing requirements intended to prevent fraud and protect consumers rather than prohibit divination outright.
At the same time, a growing number of local governments have repealed similar ordinances after concluding they would likely not survive constitutional scrutiny. Cities including Norfolk, Virginia; Petoskey, Michigan; and Dickson, Tennessee have eliminated or substantially revised longstanding restrictions following litigation, legal challenges, or concerns over First Amendment protections.
For many contemporary religious and spiritual communities, the issue extends beyond commercial activity. Many practitioners regard tarot, astrology, rune casting, and other forms of divination as integral components of their religious or spiritual lives. As a result, laws enacted more than a century ago to combat fraud now raise broader questions about free expression, religious liberty, and whether governments may continue to single out particular spiritual practices for criminal regulation.
Whether Pennsylvania’s statute ultimately falls through the courts, the legislature, or both, the Commonwealth’s challenge may become one of the most significant modern tests of whether nineteenth-century fortune-telling laws can withstand twenty-first-century constitutional scrutiny.
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