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Revision as of 04:15, 15 February 2024
In this installment of "Your Wate and Fate," we take a look at the fascinating subject of how psychic readers and rootworkers of the past advertised their services to the public. My Patreon supporters funded my research and the scanning of paper ephemera for this web page and had access to it one full year before the public did.
- Patreon Release Date: August 7th, 2021.
- Public Release Date: August 7th, 2022.
- Patreon Release Date: August 28th, 2021.
- Public Release Date: August 28th, 2022.
- Patreon Release Date: February 14th, 2023.
- Public Release Date: February 14th, 2024.
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All of the material you have access to here -- the instructive booklets, the nostalgic postcards, the boldly graphic ephemera, and all of the historical information researched and shared from the mind of the woman who is making it all happen -- can easily fit into one 8 x 10 foot room in an old Victorian farmhouse, but you would never see it without the investment of the time it takes to produce such a site and the caloric input such a site requires in the form of food for the writer, graphic designer, and database manager, as well as the US currency needed to pay for the computers, software applications, scanners, electricity, and internet connectivity that bring it out of that little room and into the world.
So, as you can see, this site is the darling of many, and it is growing at a rapid rate ... but although it is "free," there also is a cost. The financial support of my Patreon subscribers -- my Patrons -- underwrites this cost.
Enter the Realm of the Readers
Throughout this site you will encounter many mechanical devices, tools, and symbol-systems used to tell fortunes and predict a client's fate. In a sense, "Your Wate and Fate" is a tribute to the mechanical genius of those who have sought to create self-working forms of divination, such as wheels and spinners, penny scales, and coin-operated character reading machines.
But who are the operators of the devices of fate? Who spins the wheels, rolls the dice, pulls the cards, searches the stars, reads the palms, calls up the ghosts, writes the texts on the arcade papers, throws the bones, casts the coins, gazes into the crystals, shuffles the sortilege, or interprets the tea leaves? Why, the fortune tellers, of course.
Fortune tellers, also known as psychic readers, spiritual mediums, seers, or soothsayers, are people who earn part, most, or all of their living by divining the futures of seekers who come to them for information and assistance. Some fortune tellers specialize in character readings, some in short- or long-term predictions, and some prefer to give answers to specific questions only.
It is one thing to study divination by its methods, but it is another to study it by researching its practitioners. Often subjected to the abuse of skeptics, often working under assumed names where their trade is illegal, fortune tellers generally serve a clientele in need of carefully nuanced advice, both spiritual and pragmatic. The fact that they have chosen this unconventional career makes them worthy of interest. Certainly some have been con artists and frauds, but more are helpful advisors with spiritual gifts, retired stage performers, or occult and metaphysical authors, and most of them by far toil at the work of reading futures day after day for decades, developing small but dedicated followings in rural villages or downtown city offices. Who they are, and why they do this, is as important a question as how they do it.
It's All Emphemera
In taking up and considering my own career in divination, i have found it meaningful to look into the lives of those who lived before me and did the same. Of course i have read the biographies of the famed, and sometimes scandalous, seers of history, from Cassandra and the Witch of Endor to Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce -- but i am frankly more interested in the lives and methods of the lesser-known readers -- the fortune tellers, not the prophets. One way to get to know them, and to see where my methods accord with theirs and how i can learn from them, is to research them as if they were beloved ancestors or long-lost cousins.
The easiest way to access the minds of people who have died is to view the written or artistic remnants of their lives. Did they publish books or pamphlets on fortune telling methods, write newspaper or magazine columns, sign their names to texts or illustrations?
The next best way to research the lives of fortune tellers is to seek out secondary sources. Were they interviewed or photographed, did they leave a record of arrest and imprisonment, did someone write a first-hand reminiscence about them? Such documentation, because it is not created by the readers themselves, is subject to the varied opinions of the observers. I always take a cautious approach to the literality of such sources. When a hard-working fortune teller becomes some journalist's example of slothful depravity or fumbling foolery i am not looking into the mind of the reader -- rather, i am reading the journalist's mind.
Of course, finding out about famous Roman seers or Renaissance prognosticators is not difficult. In addition to their own works, mentions of the best-known soothsayers of history appear in the journals, diaries, and biographical notes of their time. In such cases i can achieve both a primary and a secondary glimpse into their lives.
But what about the common, everyday fortune tellers? How may they be known?
For me, as with most everything, the answer is, "It's all ephemera." Beginning in the 19th century, with the rise of cheap printing, fortune tellers everywhere advertised their services in newspapers, magazines, and via business cards and publicity photos.
I collect such business cards and photographs, and when i have free time, i amuse myself by using newspaper archives, genealogical sites, and old books to see if i can learn more about these long-dead colleagues of mine.
This page is the opening of a door to an obscure dimension wherein dwell the shades of the seers who have gone before us. I call it "The Realm of the Readers."
Evidentiary Sightings
In the religion of Spiritualism, an evidentiary medium is one who not only contacts the dead and delivers their messages to the living, but also provides physical evidence of having done so. The evidence may consist of visible images of ghosts or spirits, apports or small items that have materialized, or phenomena such as cold winds in a closed room, or the unexplained whiff of a departed one's favourite perfume. In the case of our dear departed psychic colleagues, the evidences that remain are often business cards or newspaper clippings.
During the years from 1850 to 2000, thousands of psychic readers hung out their shingles, presented clients with cartes de visite, passed along their business cards, paid for newspaper ads, or scaled throw-out cards into their lecture audiences, but i can only report on those who have left a trace, a link to their passage through the world. I actively collect such cards and photographs, and if you have any for sale, i would love to hear from you.
I shall begin by listing the names of some of the psychic readers with whom i have been in contact from beyond the grave through the paper goods and signage they have left for me to find. In times to come, i will link each these names to primary and secondary sources of evidence of their work among us. A few tempting images and links are scattered here on this page as teasers for much more to come. My intention is to create a web page honouring each reader for whom i have found ephemera. The result will be an encyclopedia or directory of 150 years of psychic readers in private practice.
The names are in alphabetical order by surname. If the reader only went by a first name and an honorific title, the first name is what is used. I have listed their own self-stated descriptions of their occupations or methodologies insofar as possible.
The dates given here are not birth and death dates; rather they are the dates of the business cards, newspaper clippings, and signage i have accumulated. Some of these dates are exact and some are approximate, with my estimates of date-ranges based both on biographical research and by identification of type fonts and illustration styles popular during certain eras.
Likewise, the locations given here refer only to the places indicated on the business cards or advertisements of services. When birth and death dates and other locations are known, they will also be given.
Because i have placed a special focus on African-American hoodoo in my historical research, i have noted which readers i know for certain were black. Some definitely were white, some Romani, and at least one was Indian. Those for whom no specific ethnic or cultural information is given can be presumed to be of unknown background.
Some of the linked pages to which this list points are to be found on other web sites -- but all of these off-site pages are the results of my own research and were written by me.
Check them out, and watch as more names and more links appear here over time.
A
- Mrs. Ann: Card Reader and Palmist; Boardwalk, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1960-1970s.
B
- Lee Baine: Palmist; Sanford, North Carolina, 1960s-1990s. Lee Baine lived and worked at 1612 Hawkins Avenue, Sanford, North Carolina. This business card is from the 1960s, but Baine lived at least into the 1990s, long enough to have an email address. (lbaine@earthlink.net). Google Street View caught his house in the process of being remodelled in 2018, so he had probably died by then.
- Stanley Barrett (Gail C. Blakey): Astrologer and Author; location unknown (possibly Ohio), 1930s.
- Bernice Barton: Tea Leaf Reader and Tea Room Proprietor; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1950s-1960s. Read more about her at The Mystic Tea Room web pages on "Having Your Fortune Told At a Tea Room". She was European-American.
- Prof. Belmont: Gifted Medium And Palmist, one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- Lady Berdell: Reader; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- Mrs. Booth: Blind Phrenologist; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
C
- Madame Careta: Palmist; location unknown, 1910s.
- Carita: Card Reader and Palmist; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- Charlotta: Reader And Adviser; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- Clifford William Cheasly: Numerologist and Author; New York City, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts, 1913-1975. He was European-American.
- Mystic Clayton: Crystal Gazer and Psychic Reader; Travelling Entertainer, 1920s-1930s. He was European-American.
- Mrs. Myrtle Collins: Spiritual Doctor, Psychic Reader, and Rootworker; Memphis, Tennessee, 1930s. She was an African-American practitioner of conjure, interviewed by the folklorist Rev. Harry M. Hyatt twice, and was doubly numbered as Informant #926 on cylinders 1503-1509, and Informant #1538 on cylinders 2779-2793. ; a transcription of her interviews can be found in his 5-volume book "Hoodoo - Conjuration - Witchcraft - Rootwork." For more details on Myrtle Collins, and her membership in the White Brotherhood of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis or AMORC, see my "Notes on the Memphis Hoodoo Root Doctor Madam Myrtle Collins" page, which is part of "Hoodoo in Theory and Practice."
- Claude Alexander Conlin: Crystal Gazer and Author; Travelling Entertainer between Seattle, Washington, and Los Angeles, California, 1910s-1950s.
- Madame Corrie: Life Reader; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
D
- Frederick Davies: Astrologer and Tarot Reader; London, Rome, Athens, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris. He was English.
- Josephine De Elgar and the Diviners of Dayton: Card Reader and Palmist; Dayton, Ohio, 1920s - 1930s. She was European-American.
- Mrs. Donaldson: Palmist, Card Reader, and Crystal Gazer; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
E
- Dr. E. D. England, M.A.: Mystic Advisor (M.A.), Astronomer, Astrologer, Psychic Reader, and Rootworker; 847 Monticello Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia. This business card was collected in 1937 by the folklorist Rev. Harry M. Hyatt, who interviewed Dr. England as Informant #456, recorded on cylinders 432:2-445:2. England, who was African-American, said he had been born in Chicago, Illinois, and had travelled extensively. Hyatt described him as "old." England told Hyatt that he had been a professional psychic for 35 year, that is, since around 1900. For more details, see my Harry M. Hyatt's Informants page, which is part of "Hoodoo in Theory and Practice."
- Madame Evelyn: Tea Leaf Reader and Numerologist; Spanish Court Tea Room, location unknown, 1920s-1930s.
F
- Floye: Psychic Reader; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- H. Jerome Fosselli: Scientific Palmist; San Francisco, California, 1900-1915.
G
- Madame Gaylor: Psychic Reader, Palmist, and Numerologist; 12 1/2 South Perry, Upstairs, Montgomery, Alabama, 1930s-1940s. By her giving out of lucky numbers, the possibility arises that Madame Gaylor worked as a policy writer, numbers runner, or bookie as well as a numerologist.
H
- Prof. Hermann: Reader; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- Mrs. Hise: Natural Clairvoyant; Kansas City, Kansas, 1880-1890. An ad for Mrs. Hise in the April 20th 1886 issue of the Kansas City Star Newspaper states that "Mrs. Hise is the Most Wonderful fortune teller of the age and gives the best counsel on all business and love affairs." The ad also states that, Mrs. Hise was located at 148 James St. in Kansas City, Kansas, as shown on this card.
I
J
- Madam Jeanette: Medium And Adviser; one of the Diviners of Dayton
K
- Margaret King: Tea Leaf Reader; Detroit, Michigan, 1920s -1930s; according to a September 24, 1930 article in the Ludington Daily News of Ludington, Michigan, Margaret King, age 31 (born circa 1899) and Mrs. Erma Libson, age 48 (born circa 1882) were arrested for telling fortunes in a tea room in Detroit. See the newspaper clipping at The Mystic Tea Room's article on Having Your Fortune Told At a Tea Room.
L
- Madam La Venus: Adviser; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- Madam Leone: Gifted Reader And Advisor; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- Rev. Hattie V. Lewis: Spiritual Medium; Washington, D. C., 1930s. In July 1939 this African-American minister and conjure doctor was interviewed by the folklorist Rev. Harry M. Hyatt. She told him that she had been born in Washington, D.C. and had lived in New York City for a while. She worked for clients and conducted spiritual meetings in her home thrice weekly, and, as her card indicates, she was a devout Christian and a member of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order Elks of the World, an African-American fraternal order modeled on the formerly segregationist and all-white Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Rev. Lewis shared several Bible-based spells with Hyatt, who called her Informant #627 and recorded her on cylinders 802:5 - 803:2; a transcription of her interview can be found at entry 2743 in his 5-volume book "Hoodoo - Conjuration - Witchcraft - Rootwork." For more details on Rev. Lewis, see my Harry M. Hyatt's Informants page, which is part of "Hoodoo in Theory and Practice."
- Mrs. Erma Libson: Tea Leaf Reader; Detroit, Michigan, 1920s -1930s; according to a September 24, 1930 article in the Ludington Daily News of Ludington, Michigan, Mrs. Libson, age 48 (born circa 1882) and Margaret King, age 31 (born circa 1899) were arrested for telling fortunes in a tea room in Detroit. See the newspaper clipping at The Mystic Tea Room's article on Having Your Fortune Told At a Tea Room.
Two women were arrested for reading tea leaves in a restaurant. There were Mrs. Erma Libson, age 48 (born circa 1882) and Miss Margaret King, age 31 (born circa 1899).
- Mme Lorraine: Psychic, Crystal Gazer; USA, Location Ambiguous, 1910s - 1920s.
- Don Luis: Tea Leaf Reader and Clairvoyant; Kansas City, Missouri, 1930s.
M
- Madame Marie: Palmist; Fort Benning, Georgia, 1940s.
- Madam Mary Martin: Palmist, Spirit Medium, Advisor; in a private home on the Nashville Pike, US 31-W, opposite Potter Orphans Home, Bowing Green, Kentucky, 1930s. Her portrait within a hand depicts her with the striped head scarf and gold hoop earrings of a Romani woman, but she may have been of another ethnicity. Like Lee Baine of North Carolina, above, she worked out of her home and advertised her services with a large hand sign, visible from the road. She also followed in the pattern of many of the liberal-minded psychic readers during the era when legally enforced segregation based on skin colour, by making a point of stating that she served "both white and colored," although in her case, probably due to the local laws in Kentucky, she had to maintain "special" -- that is, separate -- "waiting and reading rooms" for each race.
- Prof. W. M. Martin: Clairvoyant Mind Reader, Root Doctor; Evansville, Indiana, circa 1915. As a conjure doctor, he advertised that he could "remove spells that have been caused by any evil influence [and] cure any lingering disease [...] which has been caused by Hoodoo, Witchcraft and Conjuration" as well as "remove all bad spells that have been planted in your bed or any place that you may be." His race, whether black or white, is unknown to me, but he certainly served the African-American hoodoo community, to judge by the wording of his flyer,
- Evangeline Morgan: Advisor Supreme; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- Muriel: Tea Leaf Reader and Author; Detroit, Michigan, 1930s. I covered what i know about Muriel and her book, "The Muriel Method of Tea-Leaf Reading" at The Mystic Tea Room site, in the "Bibliography of Books about Tasseomancy" and on the page called "Having Your Fortune Told At a Tea Room," where i theorized that she may have been a reader at Flora's Tea Room, 15 East Grand River in Detroit ("Detroit's Best Readers at Your Service") or at the Bohemian Cave Tea Room at 1234 Library Avenue.
N
- Nedra: Tea Leaf Reader at the Gypsy Tea Kettle restaurant chain; New York City, circa 1930s-1940s. A photo of Nedra reading for a client is at The Mystic Tea Room, on the page called "Viewing the Cup." She was European-American.
- Madame Neergaard (Grace Neergaard): Scientific Palmist; San Francisco, California, 1900-1815. She was European-American.
O
- Bert F. Ober: Professional Hypnotist; Stahlstown, Pennsylvania, late 19th century.
- Ohaspe: Psychic Adviser; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- Madame Olga: Psychic Reader and wife of Mysterious Smith; Travelling Entertainer, 1920s-1930s. She was European-American.
P
- Prof. Punditjee: Scientific Palmist and Tea Leaf Reader at the Gypsy Tea Kettle restaurant chain; New York City, 1930s-1940s.
- Paschal Beverly Randolph:Crystal Gazer, Clairvoyant, Spiritualist Medium, Rootworker, and Author; Memphis, Tennessee; San Francisco, California; and Toledo, Ohio, 1850-1875. He was African-American.
Q
R
- Dr. E. P. Read: Psychic Reader, Astrologer, Herbalist, Rootworker, and Author,; brother-in-law of Spiritual Medium Lillian A, Wilson; Lawnside, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1890s-1940s. He was African-American.
- Madam Reada Crystal Gazer, Palmist, and Psychic; location unknown, 1910s-1940s. Her name is an obvious play on the word "reader." Her mention of the term "crossed in love" indicates that she works for African-American clients, although it does not prove that she herself was black.
- Madame / Madam Robert: Psychic, Palmist, Advisor; Rootworker; Federalsburg, Maryland, 1920s-1940s. Like several other readers during the era of legislated racial segregation, she made a point of advertising the fact that she read "for white and colored."
- Ross: Tea Leaf and Card Reader; Gypsy Tea Shop and Wishing Cup Tea Room, Boston, Massachusetts, 1930s.
- Sister Ruby: Psychic Reader; Pageland, South Carolina, 1990s.
S
- Ann Sauer: Tea Leaf Reader at the 1933 Century of Progress (World's Fair) in Chicago; she told fortunes at the German-American Building, which was operated by an organization dedicated to fostering an alliance between America and Nazi Germany. She was German-American.
- Prof. A. F. Seward: Astrologer, Palmist, Author, and Card Reader; Travelling Entertainer, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, Florida, 1900s-1960s. He was Anglo-American.
- Herbert Arthur Sloane (Kala the Cardopractor): Card Reader and Evidentiary Spirit Medium; Mansfield, Ohio; South Bend, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio, 1932-1975.
- Madame Snehega: Palmist; location unknown, 1930s.
- Madame Starr: Tea Leaf Reader, Numerologist; Kelway's Black Horse Cafe, Victorian British Columbia, Canada.
- Madam Stonar: Psychic Reader; Faiirfield, Alabama, 1930s.
T
- Madame Taylor: Psychic Reader; Peripatetic, but located in Albany, Missouri, in the 1920s-1930s.
- Madam Terry: Psychic Reader; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
U
- Professor Usher: Psychic Reader, Geomancer, and Tea Leaf Reader; Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
V
- Madame Vaughn: Spiritualist; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
- Valdo and Princess Pat: Musical Clairvoyants, 1940s, New York and New Jersey.
- Iris Vorel (Margaret Bridgman)': Astrologer and Author, New York City, New York, 1920s-1940s.
W
- Lillian A. Wilson (Lillian Smith Wilson Sheldon): Spiritual Medium; Psychic, Palm Reader. She was the sister-in-law of Dr. E. P. Read and one of the three African-American readers at his establishments in Lawnside, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the 1900s-1920s. The other two readers were Dr. Read and his wife, Mrs. Allie Smith Read. Read owned and operated his own printing plant and no double printed both the advertisement and the business card, which was run off on gloriously violet index stock.
X
Y
Z
- Zulukee the Hindoo: Palmistry and Life Reading; Peripatetic. Temporarily at the Brunswick Hotel, location unknown, and also in Rock Island, Illinois, circa 1890-1910. (There were at least a dozen Brunswick hotels in the United States and Canada during this era, so finding the one she read at is not possible unless further advertisements are found.) The classified ad for Zulukee the Hindoo ran in the Rock Island Argus newspaper in Rock Island, Illinois, from 1900 through 1901. The name Zulukee is mysterious, but there is a village in Assam, India, called Niz-Zuluki, and Zulukee's photo certainly indicates that she was Indian, as does her chosen divining method of palmistry. The nature of the "true Hindoo charm" is unguessable, but it may have been an Indian kavacha protection amulet, as these were easily obtained then, being imported and sold by mail order by the L. W. DeLaurence Company of Chicago, Illinois, about 150 miles East of Rock Island by train on the Rock Island Line.
See Also
- Divination Methods
- In the Realm of the Readers
- Palmistry and Palm Readers
- Palmistry Cigarette Cards by Major Drapkin and Company
- Fortune Telling Cigarette Cards by Edwards, Ringer and Bigg
- Numerologists who are also Authors; annotated Numerology Bibliography with minimal biographical information
- Crystal Gazers who are also Authors; annotated Crystal Gazing Bibliography with minimal biographical information
- Rod and Pendulum Dowsers who are also Authors; annotated Dowsing Bibliography with minimal biographical information
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
Your Wate and Fate
Special thanks to my dear husband and creative partner nagasiva yronwode for illustrations, scans, and clean-ups.