I have been binge watching The Son on Hulu. Episode 10 of the first season has a young woman who tells the main character's fortune by placing rocks in a top hat and putting her face in the hat.
Could this have been a common way to tell fortunes in the 1800s?
Gave me quite the chuckle.

Hmmm...interesting. Maybe so?

Very interesting. Or did the script writer get the tidea from the Mormons?

But, where DID Joe get the idea? Makes sense if you were a fortune teller sing a rock to do that since you couldn't get your hands on a crystal ball.

You can't just stare at the rock and pretend it is telling you stuff if your dupe can see it is unchanging and doesn't glow and is just a rock. So you put it in a hat so no one can see it and claim it only works that way, cuz, uh the rock is . . . shy?

All you gotta do is make sure a few predictions come true and work gets around fast that you really are a seer and Voila!

Thought it was too good to be true. Saw the words hat tricks and thought it was about sport. Hattrick being the term for three in various sports since its origins in cricket.