Misplaced Pages

Laurie Cabot
Born	Mercedes Elizabeth Keirsey (1933-03-06) March 6, 1933 (age 91) Wewoka, Oklahoma, U.S.
Occupation	Witchery priestess
Years active	1949–present
Children	2

Laurie Cabot (born March 6, 1933) is an American Witchcraft high priestess, and the author of several books. She founded the Cabot Tradition of the Science of Witchcraft and the Witches' League for Public Awareness to defend the civil rights of witches everywhere. She lives in Salem, where she owned a shop. Cabot claims to be related to the prominent Boston Brahmin Cabot family.

Life and career and possible inspirations

Laurie Cabot was born Mercedes Elizabeth Kiersey. She grew up in California and came east to New England as a teenager. She maintains that her interest in the occult began in childhood. She developed this interest in Boston through time she spent as a young woman in the halls of the Boston Public Library.

Cabot married and divorced twice, with each marriage producing a daughter. Cabot chose to raise her daughters as Witches, and she began appearing in black robes and black eye-makeup in her everyday life. She identifies herself as a Witch. The kind of Witchcraft that Cabot practices focuses on the Religion, Art and Science of Witchcraft. 1970 TV's sitcom Bewitched visited Salem for a series of episodes with location filming. Laurie Cabot opened the town's first "Witch Shoppe" in Salem in 1971, which became a tourist destination thanks to the national TV exposure.

In 1986, after the release of the film version of The Witches of Eastwick, John Updike's novel about single suburban women venturing into the occult, Cabot established the Witches' League for Public Awareness to counter negative images of her religion in popular culture and the media. "Here are three women who have nothing better to do, because they are so frustrated sexually, than to get involved with witchcraft," Cabot said of the movie. "They are not witches. If they are anything, they are weekend Satanists. They don't do one witchy thing in the whole film."

Cabot's shop sold herbs, jewelry, Tarot decks, and other items used in witchcraft. She later moved her shop to an old gambrel-roofed house on Essex Street. This new shop was named Crow Haven Corner. The physical store is still open, but is no longer owned or managed by any member of the Cabot family (formerly, her eldest daughter Jody owned and ran it). Cabot's final shop in Salem, The Cat, the Crow and the Crown on Pickering Wharf, later renamed The Official Witch Shoppe, closed its doors in February 2012. Cabot still maintains an online business and sells her hand-crafted magic products at Enchanted, a witch shoppe on Pickering Wharf in Salem .

In March 2008, Cabot celebrated her 75th birthday at a surprise birthday party that was attended by hundreds of witches, including Sully Erna of the band Godsmack, for whom Cabot had appeared in the band's "Voodoo" music video, shot at Hammond Castle.

Publications

• The Power of the Witch: The Earth, the Moon, and the Magical Path to Enlightenment (1990)
• Love Magic (with Tim Cowan) (1992)
• Celebrate the Earth: A Year of Holidays in the Pagan Tradition (1994).
• The Witch in Every Woman: Reawakening the Magical Nature of the Feminine to Heal, Protect, Create, and Empower (1997)
• Laurie Cabot's Book of Shadows by Laurie Cabot (Author), Penny Cabot (Author), Christopher Penczak (Author) (October 29, 2015)
• Laurie Cabot's Book of Spells & Enchantments by Laurie Cabot (Author), Penny Cabot (Author), Christopher Penczak (Author)

References

1. "The Salem Saga, 1970 - Bewitched @ Harpies Bizarre". www.harpiesbizarre.com.
2. A Cauldron OF Controversy, Washington Post (Archives), September 13, 1992
3. Salem's Official Witch, Laurie Cabot, Finds Grave Errors in Eastwick, People Magazine (Archives) June 29, 1987
4. "Laurie Cabot, Salem's official witch, closes up shop after 40 years - The Boston Globe". Archived from the original on 2012-02-12.
5. "Best Spell Casters for Love & Money | Spell Magick". www.spellmagick.com. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
6. "Laurie Cabot". IMDb.
7. "Godsmack: Voodoo" – via IMDb.

External links

• Official website

v t e Neopagan witchcraft
History	History of Wicca Etymology of Wicca Wicca and LGBT people Dettmer v. Landon
Traditions	British Traditional Alexandrian Wicca Algard Wicca Blue Star Wicca Central Valley Wicca Chthonioi Alexandrian Wicca Gardnerian Wicca Other 1734 Tradition Celtic Wicca Church and School of Wicca Cochrane's Craft Coven of Atho Dianic Wicca Faery Wicca Feri Georgian Wicca Odyssean Wicca Reclaiming Seax-Wica Stregheria Universal Eclectic Wicca
Notable figures	Gerald Gardner Doreen Valiente Alex Sanders Maxine Sanders Sybil Leek Dafo Margot Adler Victor Anderson Artemis Gavin Bone Lois Bourne Jack Bracelin Raymond Buckland Eddie Buczynski Zsuzsanna Budapest Charles Cardell Ipsita Roy Chakraverti Patricia Crowther Vivianne Crowley Robert Cochrane Scott Cunningham Phyllis Curott Cerridwen Fallingstar Janet Farrar Stewart Farrar Raven Grimassi Gavin Frost Yvonne Frost Philip Heselton Frederic Lamond Rosaleen Norton Silver RavenWolf Starhawk Joseph Wilson
Deities	Triple Goddess Horned God Green Man Spirit of nature Holly King / Oak King Mother goddess
Key concepts	Wicca Wiccan morality Wiccan Rede Rule of Three Wiccan views of divinity Coven Craft name Magic Witchcraft White magic Otherworld The Summerland Reincarnation Karma Skyclad Summoner Watchtower Familiar Animism
Rites and ritual	Drawing down the Moon Great rite Handfasting Wiccaning Fivefold kiss Magic circle Cone of power Herbal medicine Scrying Spellwork / Incantation Banishing Divination Invocation Initiation Rite of passage Eko Eko Azarak Solitary practitioner Spiral dance
Holidays	Wheel of the Year Solstice Equinox Imbolc Ostara Beltane Midsummer Lughnasadh Mabon Samhain Yule Esbat Wild Hunt
Paraphernalia	Magical tools in Wicca Altar Amulet Athame Bell Besom Boline Book of Shadows Candles Cauldron Censer Chalice/Goblet Horn Incense Parchment Pentacle Runes Scourge Statue Talisman Tarot deck Wand Witch's ladder
Literature	Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches The Meaning of Witchcraft The Spiral Dance What Witches Do Witchcraft Today Charge of the Goddess Enchanted Feminism
Related	List of Wiccan organisations Bricket Wood coven New Forest coven Neopagan witchcraft Witch-cult hypothesis Left-hand path and right-hand path Cunning folk in Britain European witchcraft Malleus Maleficarum Granny woman Cunning folk Magical alphabets Runes Theban Hebrew Witching hour Witch hunt Witches' Sabbath Flying ointment Museum of Witchcraft and Magic Witchcraft Research Association

• 1933 births
• Living people
• Activists from Massachusetts
• Activists from Oklahoma
• American founders
• American religious writers
• American Wiccans
• American women non-fiction writers
• Neopagan witchcraft
• New Age spiritual leaders
• People from Salem, Massachusetts
• People from Wewoka, Oklahoma
• Wiccan priestesses
• Women founders