By OnMilwaukee Staff Writers   Published May 23, 2006 at 5:44 AM

Mary Ellen Pride says psychic abilities are like having perfect pitch -- or any other gift for that matter.

"It's just something you're born with, and when you're born that way, you think everyone is that way, too," says Pride, 52.

However, by the age of 12, Pride realized she was designed with deep intuition. She says she knew things about the future that awed others and prompted them to ask the question that would resurface throughout the rest of her life, "How did you know that?"

Today, Pride works as a psychic and astrologer from her office inside the Clock Tower Building, 2266 E. Prospect Ave. Although she says she considered doing over-the-phone psychic readings -- a la Miss Cleo -- she says face-to-face is more legitimate.

"Most of the people who call up are poor," she says.

Pride says local police have contacted her to help out in missing persons' cases, and that she had a premonition about the 9/11 tragedy the evening before it happened.

"I had visions of things blowing up," she says. "The moon was in Scorpio, the most powerful full moon of the year, and I knew something was going to happen. I went for a walk, looked right at the moon, and said 'tomorrow is going to be a bad day.'"

Pride sees between five and 20 clients a week, ranging in age, race and religion. She says most want to know about love or money, and -- with the help of a deck of tarot cards and the American Ephemeris (a table listing the spatial coordinates of celestial bodies), she claims to glean information about a person's present situation and the future. Whether or not you believe it is another story.

Curious about the psychic's world, OMC writers Molly Snyder Edler and Julie Lawrence went to Pride for a "reading." Here are their accounts of what happened.

Molly Snyder Edler's psychic experience

I started out slightly surprised by the space where she worked. The inside of the building is kind of drab with charcoal gray carpeting, buzzing hallway lights and no windows. I thought it was funny that the magic lady's office was next to a businessperson with the last name WANDschneider.

Pride's office was what you might imagine a psychic's space to look like, decked out with palmistry posters, plants, books, candles, a stuffed witch doll and a big round table in the middle of the room.

Prior to our meeting, she told me to bring my time of birth, which my mother reminded me was 2:07 p.m. We sat at the table and she got out a deck of tarot cards, which she later told me was "The Cosmic Tarot Deck," and her emphemeris. She threw down two cards, then dozens more. I am familiar with the tarot, but had never seen such a lay-out before, nor seen anyone read so many cards at once (25? 30?) and with, what seemed like, very little organization.

But she clearly had some idea of what she was doing. Pride spewed predictions for my future from the present until mid-2007, and I took notes like an over-zealous first-year college student in a Psych 101 class.

Overall, I found the majority of the reading vague, and a few things she said seemed off. "Are you thinking about moving?" she asked, for example, unaware that my family and I just moved to a new house two years ago and couldn't be happier with our spacious place, incredible yard and supportive, fun neighbor scene.

She also asked me, twice, if I was planning on having another baby and I laughed out loud both times, telling her that MY crystal ball showed my husband getting snipped.

However, she also told me many things that may or may not happen in the future. A few of her predictions included that the end of the summer will be study time for me, and that I'll become deeply interested in something new; Aug. 25 to Sept. 9 will be a period of good luck and that I might even consider gambling; the week of Nov. 2 will be good for travel; and that it's important throughout the rest of 2006 to make sure I am getting the respect I deserve, both professionally and personally.

Pride also warned of increased crime and a need for security. Of course it's probably coincidence that our neighbors lost a lawn mower two days before the reading, but afterward, conversations of crime kept cropping up everywhere I went.

But a few things she said were hauntingly accurate. She elaborated on a close family member's impending burnout and his need to change jobs. She also spoke of another family member's recent health problems and that I would be faced with "increased duty and responsibility" in the next few years. (In order to ensure the privacy of my loved ones, I cannot elaborate on these predictions any more than that, but what she said was dead-on.)

Although you won't find me flocking to psychic conventions or planning my life around what was said during my reading, I would return to a psychic again because I received enough information that was worth thinking about. Whether it "comes true" or not doesn't really matter because the reading unearthed some timely issues that were good for me to ponder.

Julie Lawrence's pyschic experience

I have no previous experience with psychics. I have never had my palm read, nor have I ever picked up a deck of tarot cards with interest. But I must admit that I've been as curious as anyone who's seen a few too many daytime television "miracles" as to the integrity of those with "the gift," so when the opportunity arose for me to check it out first hand, I went for it.

Arriving with my time of birth, 7:50 a.m., and an open mind, I listened intently as Mary Ellen Pride spent the next 20 minutes forecasting the details of my year and parts of next. With no specific questions in mind, I allowed her touch on all the basics -- love, money, success and family -- and, like I had predicted, I found most of what she said to be fairly general, as though it could apply to anyone.

But that's not to say she didn't have her frightenly accurate moments. What ended up surprising me most was her conviction. I concentrated on maintaining my poker face during her reading, determined not to give her any positive reinforcement to feed off of. Yet she continued on, apparently unfazed by my look of indifference, making confident statements about my life. She was not merely alluding to things, or questioning me about them; she was blatantly and unapologetically telling me things like, "You were pretty stressed out and crabby last month." (Very, very true). "This month's going to be much better." (So far, so good).

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't so impressed by the handful of things she was dead-on about that I seemed to let the remaining vagueness of her reading slide. Even more impressive is the fact something she "saw" regarding my living situation ended up manifesting itself a week later.

I consider my self to be a rational creature, so in the days following the reading, I tried to find justifications for her predictions. Was she saying things that I just wanted to believe and therefore ate it up? Was it her staunch confidence persuading me into viewing her as some sort of authority that I should be adhering to? Although my inherent skepticism towards these types of things still lingers and I don't envision myself being a regular client, there was definitely something insightful happening in that room, and, if anything, the experience served as an eye-opener for my life.

To make an appointment with Mary Ellen Pride, call (414) 224-6446.