Famous Fortune Tellers from Throughout History

Fortune telling is an art that goes back many centuries and there are many different types of fortune teller. While the image in popular culture may be a mysterious looking woman gazing into a crystal ball in a darkly lit room, historically and in modern times, fortune tellers come in many different forms.

While some fortune tellers may use a crystal ball, others make use of many other methods such as tarot cards, astrology, divination, palm reading, tea leaf reading, clairvoyance, and many more. There are some very famous historical and modern fortune tellers, each with his or her own unique gifts. Here we take a look at some of the most famous of them and their most famous predictions.

Jean Dixon

Jean Dixon was easily one of the most famous fortune tellers of the twentieth century. She first became known as an astrologist who would write in a syndicated column in American newspapers. Over the course of her life, she wrote a number of best-selling books, including some fairly unusual ones such as an astrological cookbook and she even wrote horoscopes for animals. Dixon is perhaps most famous for predicting the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. She also served as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Second World War, as well as providing advice about domestic terrorism to Richard Nixon when he was in office.

Other predictions of hers included that one pope would be injured and another assassinated, which may correspond to the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II and allegations of assassination of Pope John Paul I. Oprah has claimed that Dixon foretold her hugely successful career. Furthermore, Dixon predicted that the world would end in 2020 through a “war of Armageddon”; hopefully that is one prediction that will prove to be incorrect.

Nostradamus

Nostradamus, or Michel de Nostredame, is perhaps the most famous fortune teller of all time. He predicted a huge number events reaching far into the future in a book that was published in France in 1555. His writing is not without controversy. His predictions were made in the form of poems and there are those that claim that when translated accurately, they give the reader nothing more than very general predictions that can easily be interpreted to apply to many things.

However, many believe that he was truly gifted and incredibly accurate. Among his most famous predictions were the Great Fire of London in 1666, the French Revolution, Louis Pasteur creating vaccines, Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and the subsequent war, including the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the terror attacks on September 11th 2001.

Many people also believe that Nostradamus predicted the coronavirus pandemic. In one of his poems he warns of a plague striking many cities in Italy. Century 3:75 reads, “From distant swords lands wet with blood. Very great plague will come with the great shell, Relief near, and the remedies very far.” He also mentioned a plague in a number of other poems.

The Pythia

While Nostradamus was making predictions close to 500 years ago, he is by no means the earliest of fortune tellers. The Ancient Greeks also had a number of famous fortune tellers and the Pythia was the priestess whose duty it was to prophesise at the Pytho. This tradition began around the eighth century BC and the priestess was called the Oracle of Delphi. The prophecies were made in a sanctuary that was dedicated to the Greek god Apollo, god of truth and prophecy.

The Pythia was chosen from the group of priestesses who served at the temple. She had to dedicate herself exclusively to the Pythia and give up all connections with her family upon being chosen. People would come seek her advice and in return bring offerings of money and sacrificed animals. Often the prophetess was known to have a kind of fit while foreseeing events such as wars, political change and the solutions to great problems.

Baba Vanga

Baba Vanga was another extremely famous twentieth century fortune teller and psychic. She came from Bulgaria and possessed the gift of clairvoyance, which developed after she lost her eyesight. While Baba Vanga was born with working eyesight, she is said to have lost it after being thrown around by a tornado and sustaining injuries that damaged her eyes and caused her to gradually lose her sight.

While Baba Vanga did not produce any writings, she had members of staff who would often record her predictions. Among her many predictions were 9/11, the tsunami in Thailand in 2004, danger to the lives of Trump and Putin in 2020, various acts of terrorism, Brexit, and the invention of time travel in the year 2304.

Due to the lack of fixed writings from Baba Vanga it is not always easy to know which prophecies are actually hers. However, there are many who are convinced by her remarkable gifts.

Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce was a clairvoyant who was active at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Cayce would put himself into a self-induced sleep state when conducting readings. He claimed that his subconscious mind would leave his body and this way he could visit the land of the spirits. There he was able to gain information about the future and he could then bring it back to the land of the living and pass it on to his clients.

He was an incredibly prolific reader and is known to have given over 14,000 readings, which can be seen at the A.R.E Cayce headquarters in Virginia Beach. Among his many predictions were the 1929 stock market crash that caused the Great Depression, the Second World War, a change of the earth’s magnetic poles, the end of the Soviet Union, and an alliance forming between America and Russia. Prophesies of his that are yet to come true include a massive lengthening of the average human life span, the discovery of a self-fuelled perpetual motion machine, and a major conflict in the Persian Gulf.

Daniel Dunglas Home

Daniel Dunglas Home was a nineteenth century Scottish medium born in Scotland to a family of well-known psychics and seers. Early in his life, he moved to the United States where he became known for his ability to heal the sick and communicate with the spirit world.

He was famous along the east coast, in particular for his ability to allow spirits to speak directly through him. He was also known for his ability to levitate and levitate objects. There were many who claimed that Home was a fraud, but no one was ever able to prove it. In fact, academics and judges were allowed to attend his readings to look for tricks but all of them left convinced of his special gifts.