When tarot readings turn into lawsuits

A couple years ago, a young woman named Gabby Petito had gone missing in the U.S.

It was a big news story here. People were obsessively following it online.

At the time, I was mentoring a few tarot students who were following the story, too.

They were particularly interested in seeing other tarot readers, psychics, and astrologers trying to crack the case through readings and divination on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

“I find these videos really interesting to watch,” one student admitted. “But is it ethical to do readings like this?”

There is a history of psychics helping to solve crimes, but this practice has a controversial past and uneven results.

Psychic medium Kristy Robinett famously helped police in the cold case of Ashley Howley of Ohio, who was murdered in 2004. The story of Robinett’s assistance later became the subject of a documentary called Restless Souls, produced by the Discovery Channel.

This is one example of how helpful this type of work can be.

But not all attempts to divine on missing persons and crimes have worked out so well.

In 2004, Sylvia Browne, who was arguably one of America’s most recognized psychics at the time, appeared on the Montel Williams show where she was asked about a missing woman named Amanda Berry, who had disappeared in 2003.

Browne told Amanda’s mother, Louwanna Miller, that she felt her daughter was “not alive.” Unfortunately, Louwanna died a year later, believing that her daughter was deceased.

But that was not true: Amanda Berry was alive. She escaped from her kidnapper in 2013.

Sylvia Browne also commented on another missing person, 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, again on the Montel Williams show. She gave details about where she felt his body would be found, admitting to his parents that she felt he had passed.

Again, this was false and misleading information: Shawn was found alive four years later when he was rescued by police.

Sylvia Browne was later criticized by Shawn Hornbeck’s father, Craig Akers, for interfering with the investigation by providing bad information – not to mention the pain of hearing the false assumption, implied as truth, that his son was dead.

There’s a big audience for true crime stories, and it’s easy to see how people can find it fascinating to listen to a psychic weigh in on something like a missing persons case, murder, or other unsolved mystery.

There’s also a community of web sleuths who take it upon themselves to try to solve high profile crimes themselves. Tarot readers, psychics, and astrologers are some of the many people who participate in web sleuthing, and who broadcast their speculations about suspects, motives, and more online.

But just because it’s easy to hop on YouTube or TikTok and offer your two cents about something doesn’t always mean you should – even if you think you’re right.

There is always a degree of responsibility that diviners and psychics take on whenever they offer readings, whether publicly or privately, even on general, everyday topics. (I’ve talked about this previously in regards to offering collective readings.)

But once you cross the line into criminal matters and police investigations, those responsibilities ramp up – and so should a diviner’s legal and ethical protocol.

I’ve been following the recent story of web sleuth Ashley Guillard, who uses tools such as tarot readings and psychic ability to solve crimes on TikTok.

Guillard is being sued for defamation in regards to a series of posts she made about the murders of four University of Idaho students who died in November, 2022.

The suit was filed after Guillard, via TikTok, accused a University of Idaho professor of the murders.

Local police in Ohio have released a statement stating the professor named by Guillard is not a suspect.

Accusing someone of a crime of any kind is a very serious statement to make. Especially when you take it public and your content goes viral.

But even if your posts or social media profiles only get a few views, whenever you hit “publish” on these platforms, you are bound by the same laws as everyone else.

And if you end up doing or saying something that damages another person’s reputation, you have to accept that there may be consequences.

Slander, defamation, and libel are all things tarot readers and spiritual content creators have to be mindful of when they take it upon themselves to read into murder cases and other crimes.

Not only that, but seeing strangers speculating and spying into sensitive, traumatic situations can be painful to a victim’s family and friends.

News outlets, reporters, and journalists are bound by laws around crime reporting – and these laws extend to individuals, too.

Media law differs country by country. Anyone thinking of becoming a tarot reading web sleuth should have an understanding of local and international media laws before getting started.

Laws around slander, defamation, and libel are nuanced, and it can take time to learn the appropriate ways to present and discuss a crime in a public space.

It’s not always easy to dissect these laws from the outside looking in, which is why it’s important not to assume you have carte blanche to say whatever you want to say online.

When you are dealing with something like a crime, you are dealing with facts: The who, what, when, where, and why of an unfortunate event.

But tarot and other types of readings don’t always get things right, which means they don’t always hit on the facts.

Readers can be wrong, interpretations can be misread, and facts can become fantasy without evidence to back up a claim.

When I was studying to be a journalist, media law was a huge part of my college training. It was the one class you were not allowed to miss. I’ve always thought that media law should be taught to everyone these days, since so many of us are writers and broadcasters by default now thanks to social media.

Guillard’s story illustrates how tarot readers can get themselves into legal trouble when they publish unfounded accusations derived through divination.

How this specific lawsuit will unfold remains to be seen, but it serves as a reminder that tarot readers are not above the law. Sound judgment and real-world knowledge will always serve you well on this path.

Divining on current events can be an interesting practice and exercise. But when I think back to the student who asked me, “Is this ethical?” I realize how smart she was to ask that question.

Is this ethical? Is this legal? Is this responsible? Is this potentially hurtful to someone?

These are all questions we meet as tarot readers again and again, and are questions that we should always sit with whenever we are hesitant to engage in a certain practice – even if it seems like everyone else is doing it.

Until next time,

Liz

p.s. Do you love having conversations like this about tarot? 

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A list of sources used for this article: 

Discovery Channel, Kristy Robinett: https://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-newsroom/investigation-discoverys-haunting-new-crime-specia/

Readers Digest, Kristy Robinett: https://www.readersdigest.ca/culture/true-crime-mysteries-solved-by-psychics/

ABC News, Sylvia Browne: https://abcnews.go.com/US/amanda-berrys-mom-told-pyschic-sylvia-browne-berry/story?id=19126853

Crime Museum, Shawn Hornbeck: https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/kidnappings/shawn-hornbeck/

The Guardian, Ashley Guillard: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/25/tiktok-sleuth-ashley-guillard-rebecca-scofield-defamation-idaho-murders

New York Post, Ashley Guillard: https://nypost.com/2022/12/28/sued-tiktok-tarot-reader-doubles-down-on-idaho-murder-theory/

TikTok, Ashley Guillard: https://www.tiktok.com/@ashleyisinthebookoflife/video/7178346618909887787?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7187790586618217989

Crime reporting standards, Australia: https://www.smh.com.au/national/alleged-crimes-and-obscured-identities-how-does-crime-reporting-work-20210302-p5772w.html