The Northern Territory Government is repealing old legislation which makes tarot card reading and witchcraft illegal.

A recent review of the Territory's Summary Offences Act found a centuries-old law citing anyone caught conjuring spells or predicting the future could face one year in prison.

The Witchcraft Act of 1735 has been inherited from Britain and has since been repealed in most other parts of the Western world.

But Northern Territory Attorney-General John Elferink says a legal quirk meant it stayed on the Territory's statute books.

He says a year in prison is a pretty stiff punishment for a tarot card reader and has promised to finally repeal the legislation.

"This legislation was enacted because it was there essentially as a form of consumer protection," he said.

"A person who purported through sorcery or the occult who offered to find lost property or to tell a fortune was considered a person who was essentially a charlatan and a conman.

"If you were convicted of this offence, you were given a mandatory one-year imprisonment and every quarter, you were brought to the market and pilloried for the purpose of people throwing vegetables and such things at you.

"That doesn't accord with modern sentencing practices and frankly I don't really want to see our tarot readers in the markets here in Darwin being pilloried and incarcerated for a year."

Mr Elferink says he is not aware of anyone being prosecuted under this outdated law.

Tammy Hatherill, a tarot card reader and teacher based in Darwin, says readings are popular in the Top End.

But she says the practice has a deeper purpose than providing a source of amusement.

"Tarot is a healing, because all sorts of information come up in a tarot reading. It's information that people need to know, not necessarily what they want to know," she said.

"It allows them then to look back on their lives and start to heal areas in their lives that need the healing."

She says many people do not know the Witchcraft Act exists, so getting rid of it will not make much difference.

Those in witchcraft and pagan circles say they are glad the law is being thrown out.