In honor of spooky season, Beck Lawrence talked up their new “eclectic, metaphysical shop” in a short, upbeat interview for the “Meet the Merchant” section of a local Hanover, Pa., newsletter. They said they would be selling candles, crystals, and other witchy objects, as well as reading tarot cards, and encouraged everyone to “come on in!”
A few days later, the police chief of Hanover, Chad Martin, paid Lawrence a uniformed visit at the Serpent’s Key Shoppe & Sanctuary. The shop features a community altar to Hekate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft, alongside artfully arranged candles, oils, herbs, jewelry, and incense.
He told Lawrence that fortune-telling in Pennsylvania is illegal — and that any complaints against them would have to result in a police investigation. Martin did not respond to The Inquirer’s requests for comment.
Lawrence immediately posted about the experience to their nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok (wearing “all black and all of my protective jewelry, to deal with the cop”).
“It was kind of intimidating,” Lawrence, 26, said in an interview with The Inquirer. Over the last week, the police visit rallied the pagan community in their support and led to a spike in business. A practicing witch for 13 years, Lawrence has started jokingly referring to themself as Goody Proctor, the accused witch in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
The incident also drew attention to the fact that despite its widespread popularity, fortune-telling and related arts are indeed illegal in Pennsylvania, punishable by 6 to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine. Pennsylvania statute forbids residents from “pretend[ing] for gain or lucre, to tell fortunes or predict future events, by cards, tokens, the inspection of the head or hands of any person,” and from promising “to stop bad luck, or to give good luck … or to win the affection of a person, or to make one person marry another.” Selling astrology readings and tarot readings are illegal, too.
Lawrence does tarot readings with an Ethereal Visions deck they purchased from a witchcraft shop in Salem, Mass.; prices on their website range from $10 to $100. Even before the police visit, they had posted disclaimers throughout their shop and online, informing customers that readings are “for entertainment purposes only.” Martin told them such disclaimers would not hold up in court, they said.
