For those immersed in bitterness and grief, mediumship was a sweet comfort. Necromancy seemed sacred in their eyes. Yet even in an era when many famous figures, such as Arthur Conan Doyle, supported spiritualism, holding séances still invited ridicule for stupidity. Mediums were practically synonymous with frauds, believed to be using stage magic and tricks to swindle people. The churches in Baltimore had explicitly forbidden the use of necromancy.
If they were not frauds, mediums were rejected for associating too closely with demons and ghosts. All in all, séances were regarded as a joke, entertainment for lunatics. As mediums made enormous profits from séances, people who exposed their tricks also appeared.
Their usual "weapons" were science. As photography developed, they equipped themselves with more and more cameras, film cameras, and similar devices. Some even had specialized low-temperature cameras, originally used only for polar expeditions.
People were obsessed with experiences of the supernatural, yet unwilling to believe in them. They thought it was all an artificially constructed scam, something only illogical and simple-minded people would fall for.
By around the seventies, psychic powers had become popular on television again. Some children could bend spoons with their minds.
Some of it was real, some fake. Children often acted according to their parents' instructions, and appearing on television could bring considerable income. Even without so-called "psychic powers," they would pretend. When they were exposed, people became excited. "Aha, another fraud."
Druids initially allowed only women to join, though male members came later. Mediums were much the same. There was no denying that some men were born with extraordinary mediumistic abilities, but women still made up the majority in this line of work.
People like Margarita were fortunate. Still, she brought misfortune upon her husband. He was rejected by society as a whole unless