About
Click HERE to subscribe to Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog by Email
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 HERE.
≈◊≈◊≈◊≈◊≈
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 HERE.
© 2007-2018, Mary K. Greer All material on this site is copyrighted. If you use anything, be sure to include my name and a link back to this site. Thank you.
Donate any amount to keep this ad-free blog growing.
Top Posts
- What Every Newbie Tarot Reader Should Know
- Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story
- What every newbie tarot reader should know about the history and myths of tarot
- Simplified "Game of Tarot"
- What does he think about me?
- Origins of Cartomancy (Playing Card Divination)
- Cold Reading and Tarot, Part 1
- Carl Jung and Tarot
- Yes-No Advice Oracle
- Egypt, Tarot and Mystery School Initiations
ALL POSTS
- Arthur Edward Waite (2)
- Book/Story/Poetry Reports (58)
- Classes & Webinars (13)
- Court Cards (3)
- For Beginners (14)
- Golden Dawn Tarot (10)
- Interviews & Conversations (21)
- Knitted Tarot Bags (5)
- Lenormand (17)
- Magic and Witchcraft (2)
- Major Arcana (20)
- Minor Arcana (10)
- Pamela Colman Smith (25)
- Playing Card Divination (23)
- Professional Tarot (18)
- RWS Tarot (34)
- Secrets of the Occult Tarot (7)
- Story in a Picture (14)
- Tarot & Psychology (17)
- Tarot Card Meanings (14)
- Tarot de Marseille (1)
- Tarot Deck Reports (26)
- Tarot Games (8)
- Tarot History & Research (77)
- Tarot Music Videos (12)
- Tarot News & Events (56)
- Tarot Readings (14)
- Tarot Spreads (22)
- Tarot Tips & Techniques (34)
- Thoth Tarot Deck (8)
- Uncategorized (12)
- Video & Audio Tarot (65)
- World Events (8)
- zContests (2)
- zPictures of Cartomancers (13)
- zPolls (2)
- zQuotables (7)
Recent Comments
- mkg on Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story
- owlsdaughter on Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story
- mkg on Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story
- Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story — Mary K. Greer’s Tarot Blog | ravenhawks' magazine on Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story
- Joan Marie on Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story
- prakash mackay on TarotNav: A GPS for Life
Archives
Links
- A. E. Waite at Adepti
- Adam McLean’s Art Tarot Weblog
- AeclecticTarot & Forum
- American Tarot Assoc.-ATA
- Amy's Tarot Journal
- Andy’s Playing Cards/Tarot
- Anima Tarot
- Arcanalogue
- Arnell Ando’s Art Site
- Ask the Wild Bee
- Assoc. for Tarot Studies- ATS
- Barbara Moore/Tarot Pathways
- Beth Owl's Daugther
- Builders of the Adytum
- buildyourmetaphysicalbusiness
- Catherine – Tarot Elements
- Cathy McClelland-Star Tarot Deck
- Corrine Kenner/Shuffle
- Cultural Association "Le Tarot"
- Daughters of Divination
- Donnaleigh's Tarot
- Douglas Gibb's Tarot Eon
- Dream Gates-Robert Moss
- Ed Buryn, Vagabond
- Enrique Enriquez/taro-logy(beta)
- Ferol Humphrey
- Fool Stop Tarot-US Games
- Gaian Tarot Artist’s Journal
- Geraldine Amaral/TheSpiritualTarot
- Ginny Hunt/78 Notes to Self
- Holly’s Rider-Waite Site
- ironsidestarot
- James Ricklef's Tarot Blog
- James Wells/Evolutionary Tarot
- Jan's Tarot Guide-Angel Paths
- Janine Renées' Tarot Magic Adventures
- Jase On Cards
- Joan Bunning's Learning the Tarot
- Julie Cuccia-Watts
- Karen Mahony/baba-studio
- Law and Magic
- Lenormandcards
- Llewellyn – tarot
- Ludus Triumphorum
- Marcia McCord Tarot Reader
- Mark Filipas/Masquerade
- Mike Hernandez' Tarot Blog
- Museo dei Tarocchi
- My Sacred Journey-Katrina Wynne
- Myth As Metaphor
- Occult of Personality
- Omega Institute Tarot Workshops
- Playing Cards in Art
- Practical Tarot Blog
- Pre-Gébelin Tarot History
- Pythagorean Tarot
- Quirkeries-Sharyn Woerz
- Rachel Pollack/Shining Tribe
- Raleigh-Durham Tarot Meetup
- Roppo’s PCS Works
- Roswila’s Tarot Gallery
- Seaqueen’s Ask My Cards
- Sherryl E. Smith – Tarot Heritage
- Soul-Guidance
- Stir the Cauldron
- Students-of-Tarot
- Supertarot
- Tarot Art-Ra Horakhty Tarot
- Tarot Assoc. of the British Isles-TABI
- Tarot by Paris/Paris Finley
- Tarot Dude
- Tarot Elements
- Tarot for Life/site&forum
- Tarot Guild of Aotearoa (NZ)
- Tarot Guild of Australia
- Tarot Heritage – Sherryl Smith
- Tarot India
- Tarot Passages
- Tarot Pathways/Podcasts
- Tarot Professionals
- Tarot Speakeasy-Tali Goodwin
- Tarot Totes (bag sales)
- Tarot University Arkletters
- Tarot-to-Go
- Tarot.com/Library
- TarotbyArwen
- Tarotecards App
- TarotGals-Janet Boyer
- TarotGarden (deck sales)
- Tarotgirl's Weblog
- Tarotpedia
- TarotTeachings-Avia Venefica
- Tero/Tarotpuu
- The Tarot Channel
- The Tarot Connection
- The Tarot Guild
- The Tarot School
- The Wild Hunt
- Trionfi—Origins & History
- Villa Revak
- William Blake Tarot Readings
7 comments
Comments feed for this article
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)