1902 Witchcraft Conviction for Reading Cards
April 7, 2008 in Playing Card Divination, Tarot History & Research | Tags: fortune-telling, Playing Card Divination, witchcraft | by Mary K. Greer
Mrs.Sarah McBride “only told fortunes by cards for pastime.”
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Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me
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7 comments
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April 7, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Starweaver
It occurs to me she may have been a con artist, not just a simple card reader. I’m imagining what it must have been like to ask someone for $500 in 1902 for divination.
April 7, 2008 at 5:25 pm
marygreer
Starweaver – You are probably right. There are some incredible stories of the large amounts of money con artists, both male and female, have been able to obtain from ordinary people. Still, it’s strange that she was convicted of witchcraft and not of running a scam.
It was also strange to hear her called “an old woman” when she was the same age as I am now.
Mary
April 7, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Starweaver
I agree the last is supremely strange. I’m tempted to see it in karmic terms: being a scam artist ages one hideously beyond one’s years, while being a bright-spirited tarot teacher ensures an ambiance of youth for decades. Or perhaps it’s something to do with the life expectancy for US women being 49 years in 1900 and 81 years today.
Blessings, Tom
April 8, 2008 at 4:08 pm
annie
Did anyone reduce the date? It equals Key V. I found that interesting. I also noted that the charges do not equal the crime, even if you assume the date the act was committed. Shouldn’t the crime had been fraud? Thus I would have to say that if she could make $500 reading cards, more power to her!
Unemployed and not making a nickel (and perhaps a tad jaded),
~adp~
April 8, 2008 at 4:39 pm
marygreer
Annie – Thanks for reminding me about figuring out the cards for the date, but you are right, they reduce to a 5 and before that to a 14 (when adding the month, day and year like a school math problem). I would see it, therefore, as Temperance and Hierophant (1+9+2+2=14; 1+4=5).
The suspended sentence suggests Temperance’s compassion. The Hierophant might be making a point that the secular authorities were unaccountably treating this as an issue of heresy (witchcraft) rather than as illegal fraud (as you noted). Strange, to be sure. I’d love to know more about the circumstances.
Mary
February 23, 2009 at 9:45 am
Paul Tantillo
What is most terribly interesting about this article is that Ms. McBride was apparently engaged in some protypical activities of the old British “cunning folk”. Finding treasure, breaking bewitchments, and divination were all in the cunning folks’ standard repetoire of services. The most glaring omission is the provision of folk cures for people and animals (though removing bewitchments is actually a related endeavor). Is this coincidence, or was Ms. McBride’s avocation an example of the survival of the cunning folk tradition on American soil?
September 9, 2010 at 6:00 am
Liza Schneider
This may be an older post but I have to note, this is where I live…. I noticed it said Cumberland County, and hey we have one of those…..low and behold, its the same one….Cumb County, PA, and wait there are two of those…..ah yes, I live in Mechanicsburg, the next town to Carlisle….you think these things don’t happen in “your” neighbohood…..I realize its a hundred years old, but still…….(shudders)