Virginia woman fights 'fortune teller' label

In Chesterfield County, Va., it is apparently required to submit five references to the chief of police to ask for a business license if you are going into business as a fortune teller. When one woman, Patricia Moore-King wanted to open a business as a spiritual counselor, she was denied on the basis that she had to go the route of setting up as a fortune teller. This eventually led to her suing the county, claiming religious discrimination because of the fortune teller label.

This is an interesting case because to most people this would probably seem a trivial difference between titles, if they recognized any at all. Most Pagans would see the difference, I think. A fortune teller uses methods of divination to attempt to forecast future events. A spiritual counselor uses divination methods, perhaps even the same ones, to communicate with deities or spirits to attempt to find solutions to the client's problems. I wonder however, what would be said if charismatic and evangelical spiritual leaders of the Christian faith were made to file for a business license as fortune tellers for offering services where people claimed revelations from the Christian god and spoke in tongues, for instance. It will be interesting to see if Ms. Moore-King gets very far with this lawsuit.

The Washington Post
Full article