YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — A Hanover shop owner who built a business around tarot readings and spiritual guidance is now in a legal fight over an old Pennsylvania law that dates back to the Civil War.
Beck Ravenswood, owner of The Serpent’s Key, said they have been interested in witchcraft since childhood.
“It started out as like a party trick,” Ravenswood said.
Ravenswood said that interest eventually became a business.
“I ended up opening my shop in Hanover in 2023,” Ravenswood added.
That same year, they said, they ran into legal trouble with the Hanover Borough Police Department after an officer came to the shop.
“He came in to cite me to tell me that tarot reading was illegal,” Ravenswood said.
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The issue centers on Pennsylvania’s “fortune telling statute,” first established in 1861.
The law says, in part, “A person is guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree if he pretends for gain or lucre, to tell fortunes or predict future events, by cards, tokens,” and so on.
Ravenswood said they initially did not believe the warning was serious.
“I thought it was a joke. At first, I thought it was like let’s prank the witch, you know. And then when I realized, like, it was serious, I immediately called a lawyer,” they said.
In 2024, Ravenswood filed a 17-page lawsuit against Hanover Borough and the police chief.
Ravenswood said the case is now in the discovery phase.
“We have until November 30th to finish discovery, which is basically where the attorneys will gather all sorts of evidence and then submit them to the court,” Ravenswood said. “And then we have a general kind of sense of the witch trial will happen in June of 2027.”
Until then, Ravenswood said they can continue to read tarot cards because of a court order.
“In 2025, I was given something called a temporary injunction, which allows me to continue reading tarot cards currently,” Ravenswood said. “And because of this, I am the only person in the state that can legally read tarot cards right now.”
Ravenswood said the lawsuit and the response to it have had a major impact.
“It’s been, like, life-changing. Like I’m very grateful again, that maybe not so much grateful that something bad happened, but that we have been able to turn something so like, potentially negative into something that is really, really positive,” they said.