Murphysboro, IL - By the end of class, Denise Livingston of Carterville knew exactly what kind of house her instructor lived in simply by touching his pen.

Livingston and about seven others met with “Coyote” Chris Sutton of Godrey last week at New Ages Other Worlds bookstore to enhance their psychic abilities. (more…)

Britain’s image as the home of sensible and practical types takes a knock today, with the publication of data showing just how many of us think we are wizards, time-travellers or able to divine water. Norse and Celtic influences moving down the centuries have led almost 10% of people in some areas to believe they can teleport their neighbours as well as read minds, crystal balls and tarot cards.

The scale of a return to an island of ley lines and Merlin comes to light in a survey of psychic organisations backed by polling and research into cases of supposed witches, enchanters and close encounters of the third kind that have made the media, scientific and alternative journals in the past 100 years. Published by the SciFi TV channel to mark a drama series on the subject, the project was supervised by the Rev Lionel Fanthorpe, an Anglican priest who chairs numerous bodies concerned with unidentified flying objects and “anomalous phenomena”. (more…)

Iowa - The cramped used bookstore off Main Street in Cedar Falls is not just home to shelves of old novels and magazines (and probably a mass gathering of rats behind the walls), but also to Ishtar’s Tarot Reading.

The man who runs the store is not actually called Ishtar, but I guess Bob just doesn’t sound as otherworldly and mythical. (more…)

Clearwater, FL - Fortune-tellers, psychics and palm readers, listen up: Pinellas County will soon ease regulations that you’ve toiled under for years.

But you probably already knew that, didn’t you? (more…)

Two Havana groups of Santería priests issued their predictions for 2007, eagerly awaited by the many Cubans who practice the mixture of African and Catholic religions.

In separate and virtually competing new-year predictions, two groups of Cuban Santería priests are predicting a ‘’funereal'’ future but also an ‘’ideal'’ moment for an economic recovery.

The island’s babalawos have long been split into several groups, with one group relatively loyal to the government. But their annual predictions nevertheless are anxiously awaited by the many Cubans who practice the mixture of African and Catholic religions.

This year, the predictions were awaited with special interest because of Fidel Castro’s still-unknown ailment, which has kept him out of the public eye since July 26 and sparked speculation that he’s seriously ill.

On Monday, the Yoruba priests who make up the relatively independent Commission for the Year’s Letter announced that 2007 would be marked by wars and ‘’military interventions'’ although the island will see an economic improvement based on the discovery of oil and mineral deposits.

While they refused to speak specifically about Castro’s health, babalawo Lázaro Cuesta, who read the year’s prediction, made comments that seemed to be directed at the Cuban leader’s ailment.

‘’The panorama that presents itself to us is a little funereal,'’ he said. “When one doesn’t leave his place at its proper time, one runs the risk that unpredictable things happen.'’

Castro surrendered power for the first time in 47 years after undergoing intestinal surgery in late July. A Spanish surgeon who visited him two weeks ago said Castro was recovering from ‘’complications'’ following “very grave surgery.'’

The 80-year-old Castro turned over most of his power temporarily to his younger brother Raúl, who is believed by many Cuba-watchers to be more willing than his brother to open the island’s economy to more market forces.

‘’I was powerfully impressed that they [the babalawos] were so categoric on this,'’ said María I. Faguaga Iglesias, a Havana anthropologist who took part in the process of developing the commission’s predictions.

Although the Cuban babalawos usually avoid making statements with political implications, this year they raised eyebrows when they called for more care and attention to the island’s youth “because today’s youth will be called to rule from a house to a country in the not-too-distant future.'’

The babalawos’ comments coincided with recent statements by Raúl Castro that the generation that fought in and led the Castro revolution is reaching the end of its time “and we must give way to new generations.'’

Meanwhile, the Cuban Council of Senior Ifá Priests, considered to be more loyal to the government, said its predictions “speak of legal problems and their repercussions, which could bring as a concequence an increase in corruption and crime.'’

A third group of babalawos in Miami, which will make its own predictions public today, said the true forecast falls somewhere between the two Havana groups. ‘’If we take a piece of each letter to make up one real letter, if out of all this mess we take a little bit of each, this year, simply put, the letter is predicting something bad,'’ said Miami babalawo José Montoya.

Source: Miami Herald

City Weekly’s copy editor tries his hand at divination—but are his predictions accurate? Only time will tell.

The cards never lie. Well, that is, unless you lose control of the deck while shuffling and they end up all over the floor. Then the cards lie—not lay—on the carpet.

It’s the job of a copy editor to make such piddling distinctions—and to bear the wrath of militant grammarians who write angry letters every time small errors of syntax or punctuation go to press. This week, however, I’ve been allowed to slip the surly bonds of The Associated Press Stylebook and turn my attention to more spooky and ethereal matters: The I Ching, Runes and other divinatory tomes.

Through these, mystics throughout history have earnestly sought to foretell events yet to come—and charlatans have cynically endeavored to bilk many a gullible victim. During this exercise, I’ve tried to stay more on the “earnest mystic” side of the fence so as not to anger the spirits and suffer the fate in Hollywood ghost stories of all who dabble in the occult—they end up possessed, struck by lightning or burnt to a crisp. Still, if any readers care to slip me a $50, I’ll be happy to consult the oracle on their behalf.

City Weekly asked some real psychics if they’d answer some questions of local import about the year to come. Can I do any worse than they? Undoubtedly. But, who knows? Maybe I’ll strike psychic gold. Here are Swami Brandonanda’s predictions for 2007:

What sort of bumps in the road does Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential bid face? Any new scandals?

Method: I Ching.

Result: Hexagram 16 (Yu), with no changing lines: “In this state, feudal princes and other delegates may be set up, and the hosts put in motion, with advantage.”

Prediction: “Feudal princes?” “Delegates?” Looks like Romney’s ambitions to be No. 1 Big Cheese aren’t written in The Book of Changes this time around! Still, after he bows out of the race, he could curry favor with the real Republican candidate by donating his war chest to the presidential campaign, setting him up for a cabinet appointment should a Republican—spirits forefend!—win in 2008.

Interestingly, though, another symbol for this hexagram is the elephant. Once the GOP realizes how far to the right of mainstream American thought it’s placed itself, it’ll want to shake things up and put a slippery little bugger in charge—one who can manage to be both for and against just about anything. So I predict Romney will get the nod for RNC chairman. Not bad, Mitt!

Will LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley receive a revelation in 2007 that would allow full church membership to gays and lesbians?

Method: Runes

Result: Raido: “To ride; motion, a journey; transport or communication.”

Prediction: “Journey” could, of course, denote a spiritual journey—which in this case makes sense. The entire church seems to be journeying from a place where it tortured its gay and lesbian members with electrical devices to its present state: torturing its gay and lesbian members with ill-founded psychological treatments. This is progress.

Still, I don’t recommend that any gay man or lesbian should belong—and contribute money—to an organization that strenuously opposes equal rights for gay men and lesbians. There may be hope, however: If this rune also denotes communication, we can expect more from LDS Church leadership on this topic come spring General Conference. My prediction: After discovering a trusted assistant is gay—sort of a Mr. Burns and Smithers situation—President Hinckley will have a change of heart on the whole subject of homosexuality. He will announce in April that members should accept monogamous gay and lesbian couples in full fellowship.

What will Rocky’s new job be?

Method: Stichomancy using George Orwell’s 1984.

Result: “The route she gave him was quite different from the one by which he had come, and brought him out at a different railway station. ‘Never go home the same way as you went out,’ she said, as though enunciating an important general principle. She would leave first, and Winston was to wait half an hour before following her.”

Prediction: The reference in this passage to the London Underground, and to public transportation in general, is unmistakable: The Democrats will win the White House in 2008 and Rocky will be appointed Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. He’ll develop the country’s antiquated rail systems, providing incentives for light-rail construction in cities nationwide, and thus reduce the country’s dependence on oil and the need for unsightly and environmentally catastrophic freeway-and-road expansion.

Speaking of not going out the way he came in, a 2010 midterm reappointment to Secretary of the Interior means water bottles will be banned not only from public meetings but also in national parks and on all forms of public transportation.

Brandon Burt lives in the present. He may be your friend, but he is not your Psychic Friend, and he is possessed only by the love of a well-placed apostrophe.

Source: Salt Lake City Weekly