I was beyond enthused when my editor proposed that I get my palm read at Milwaukee's new witchcraft hub, Bewitchingbee, 2456 N. Murray Ave. But it didn't last long. On the walk home I started to panic, visualizing myself sitting in a foggy room, palms spread, hearing that my lifeline ended at 22 or that children weren't in my future. I'd become an apartment hermit in fear of freak catastrophes.

Deborah Voith is a psychiatric nurse and practices witchcraft. She opened Bewitchingbee last July and said she has seen steady business since. Voith holds an advanced diploma in palm reading from Palmistry International.

"Most customers come in for career questions," she said. "But I also see couples come in together."

***

The small store smelled like incense has been burning around the clock. Voith offered me coffee and we sat at a table in the middle of the store surrounded by voodoo dolls, magical herbs and books about the afterlife, werewolves and witches. Clad in black with her blonde ponytail up high on her head, she was hardly similar to the image of witches mentally ingrained from all those childhood Halloween nights spent watching "Hocus Pocus."

Voith said she first became interested in witchcraft and spiritual communication as a child.

"Both of my grandmothers had spiritual flare, if you want to call it that," she said.

She has combined traditional, modern and medical palmistry into a trinity of sorts. Voith said that palm readings are more scientific than tarot cards or crystal balls, and medical background as a nurse has led her to observe illnesses like heart disease, alcoholism and cancer in people's palms.

"It's unprofessional to look at someone's hand and say, 'Oh, holy moly, it looks like you're going to die!' I just tell them to get to the doctor and take care of yourself," she said.

Her background in psychiatric nursing has also led her to work in prisons, where she has seen some of palmistry's truths manifest. Men may have violent tendencies when their ring fingers are extremely shorter than their index fingers. Voith commonly saw this among men in jail, she said.

Reading palms has often left Voith feeling sort of like a counselor, she said, particularly when she notices bothersome trends in a couple's palm reading. Voith, however, keeps her witchcraft and medical career separate. She doesn't want to "muddy the waters" for her patients by analyzing lines in their hands.

***

I lay my palms beside a pile of tarot cards and crystal ball (no joke) and I wonder if this makes me a sucker right now. I think about what Voith already knows. I'm a student. I write. I was a bit late for my appointment. But really, that's about it. How much can she really fabricate from those tidbits of personal information? That could describe nearly anyone.

First she classified my hand as one of air, rather than earth, fire or water, meaning I have abundant mental energy. Voith said the distance between my head line and lifeline from the very edge of my hand meant I've had a mind of my own since the start. My parents probably would've found comfort in that piece of knowledge when I would run around neighborhood garage sales wearing nothing but a Nancy Reagan mask when I was 2-years old.

According to Voith, my attention has been extremely divided lately, and that'd be correct. After all, I lost my wallet four times last semester. Luckily it was always returned – I think my karma is up in that department.

Voith said my fate line is deep — meaning I know what I want and where I want to go. What 21-year-old doesn't like to hear that? She saw two lines that intersected and called it a poet's cross — meaning I am passionate about words. Then again, she did know I was a reporter. I wasn't completely sold on that one. But maybe a palm reading isn't that out of the question if you're having an academic or life-future crisis. Bypass your academic advisors and visit the witch. Just don't tell her your major beforehand.

All in all, it wasn't scary. It was actually pretty entertaining — some revelations were rather generalized but others were right on the money. The jury may still be out on the credibility of palm reading. But as long as my lifeline's okay, it's all good.