World of Witches Museum Program Book

A “Different” Museum

Rev. Don Lewis, Curator

We asked for the perfect situation in Salem, and it turned out to be the museum we had long wanted, delivered to us out of a clear blue sky. Of course from that point on it has been a heck of a lot of work, with many long days and nights. But it is a joyful work. A work that allows us to share our world –the World of Witches– with the wider world. So join us for an intimate look at the World of Witches as seen from the inside. I think you will enjoy the trip.

Rev. Don Lewis

Curator

Prologue;

The World of Witches is a fasci-nating place. You never know quite what will happen when magic is part of your everyday life. When we came to Salem, we had no intentions of opening a mu-seum. Indeed, we expected to be teaching classes not building ex-hibits. But that is not what Spirit had in mind. The chance to open the museum came out of nowhere. We had always wanted to do a museum, but thought it would be years in the future. We were cer-tainly in no position to be opening a museum. But we had barely set foot in Salem when the opportu-nity came, and came in a form that we could actually do. That is how magic works. It’s not like what you see in the movies –all fire and pyrotechnics. Real magic comes softly and unexpectedly, like a ghost cat. Circumstances align themselves, situations come to pass in ways that seem perfectly natural except they are exactly what you asked for.

The Hall of Prehistory

We begin our tour of the World of Witches deep in prehistory. We have al-ways known that magic has been with us as long as we have had written history, because many of the first things we wrote about were magical. But archeol-ogy has shown us that magic goes much farther back than this. The Neanderthal, the kind of people who preceded modern humans, are well known for their magical practices, which archeology has revealed to us. They had ceremonial burial of their dead along with funereal magic to aid rebirth into the next world: they had shrines to their Deities, whom they seem to have pictured in ani-mal form, especially the Cave Bear.

But archeology has shown us that the people who precede the Neanderthal, the Homo Erectus, already had magical practices as well. The earliest incidence of magic that ar-cheology has revealed to us dates back 150,000 years before present. Ar-cheologists discovered the remains of a Homo Erectus village in the cave of Lazaret in France. The village con-sisted of simple huts, which are be-lieved to have been made of skins stretched over a wooden framework. They were built inside the cave to help protect them from the rigors of the Ice Age. At the entry of each of these primitive dwellings is the skull of a wolf. The wolf skulls are carefully positioned, so we know that they are not just the remains of somebody’s wolf dinner, and they are not part of the structure of the dwelling –so it is generally agreed that they are magical in character. From the point of view of modern Witches we would assume that the wolf skulls are House Guardians –magical guardians created to protect the people who lived in the dwellings. Modern Witches still use magical House Guardians to protect their homes and businesses today. In fact we have a House Guardian for the World of Witches Museum itself –his name is George and he is the knight who stands guard at the entrance to the Museum. Next come our cave paintings. These are reproductions of famous cave paintings from Lascaux, Altamira,

Crystal Ball at entrance to Hall of Prehistory

paint the successful hunt that they hoped to have, then would enact some sort of ceremony to empower the pic-ture and bring it into realty. We can only speculate about the kind of cere-mony that they may have used, but it was probably not too different from the kinds of ceremonies that modern Witches use today. There is however a second theory about these ancient cave paintings. The second theory is that rather than hunting magic the cave paintings may be a record of Shamanic visions. That is, the Shamans or Witches of the an-cient tribes would go deep inside the caves to have their visions, then paint the visions on the cave walls either to make a record of them or else to an-chor them into the physical world. No one knows which of these two theo-ries is true of course –because the people who made them are all dead. And though there are those in the World of Witches who do talk to the dead, these dead have been dead a long time.

Trois-Freres, and Los Manos caves in France and Spain. The cave paintings were reproduced for us by Rev. Don Lewis and Lisa Folger. The actual cave paintings of Europe were made by the Cro Magnon people, who were Early Modern Humans, and date between 10,000 and 32,000 years before present. Cave paintings are another early exam-ple of magic. The Cro Magnon cave paintings are deep inside the European caves in places that can be very difficult to get to, not in the front where the an-cient people lived –so we know that they were not just for decoration. Most people believe that the cave paintings were used for hunting magic. The ancient people would paint either the kind of animals that they hoped to see increase and that they hoped to eventually catch, or they would actually

George, the House Guardian for the World of Witches Museum

Lisa Folger works on one of the cave paintings in the Hall of Prehistory

Perhaps the most famous of all cave paintings, even today, is “Le Sorciere”, Le Sorciere is a painting from the Trois-Freres cave in France. Le Sorciere was painted 13,000 years before present, and shows a figure that combines ele-ments of a human male and a stag. Many people believe that this represents a God of Nature or of the hunt, and that Le Sorciere is the oldest painting of a Deity in human history: A similar Deity is worshipped by many modern Witches today.

There is a second theory about Le Sorci-ere however: some people believe that that Le Sorciere actually represents an ancient Witch or Shaman in the act of “shapeshifting” from a man into a stag. The practice of shapeshifting is the origin of story of the werewolf and other similar legends. Shapeshifting is not a physical transformation but rather revolves around the idea that the soul, or a part thereof, can be sent out of the body and can then take any form that it wishes.

Shapeshifting is a living practice among Witches and Shamans today, and is considered a form of Astral travel. Even older than Le Sorciere are the famous Venus figurines, such as the Venus of Willendorf, Venus of Laussel, and Venus of Gagarino. These figu-rines are believed to represent the great Mother Goddess, thought to have been the preeminent deity of the time. Dating between 10,000 and 40,000 years before present, the Venus figu-rines represent the earliest known sculptures of the human form. The Mother Goddess is very important in modern Witchcraft today. Most mod-ern Witches view God as being like a diamond, one stone with many facets. Each of the facets is a separate form in its own right, yet at the same time part of the single stone. For this reason we honor all of the historic faces of Deity. Modern Witches honor the Mother Goddess together with the Father God and regard these as representing the cosmic polarities, often described as Yin and Yang. The Mother Goddess is spirit, essence, love, the inner nature of being; the Father God is action, vitality, growth and movement. They are two ends of a single continuum and to-gether they form a whole. Of the ancient Venus figurines the Ve-nus of Willendorf in particular is impor-tant to modern Witches, as Her image is often used to depict Gaia, the Earth Mother, spirit of the Living World.

Le Sorciere

The Egyptian Room Our first big installation is the Egyptian Room. Here we see histories first great archetypal Witch, the Goddess of Isis of ancient Egypt. We are especially proud of our depiction of Isis, which is very lifelike. In fact people have occasionally insisted that they have seen her move or speak. In ancient Egypt Isis was the Great Witch, the Goddess of Magic. Isis was also the Goddess of motherhood and of life. To the Egyptians these three ideas were very closely linked, for they con-sidered giving birth to be the most magical thing a human being could do –since it brought new life into the world. For this reason the Egyptians consid-ered women to be inherently more magical than men –a point of view still nearly universal today, and the reason why the stereotype of the Witch is al-most always female, even though in real life there are many male Witches. If you look at ancient Egyptian tomb paintings you will see that in men’s tombs they are often shown with their

wives or their mothers or even their daughters –because they hoped that the inherent magic of the women would help them to be reborn. But when women have their own tombs they are not necessarily shown with their men –because the women carried the magic inside them. In Egyptian mythol-ogy Isis was the wife of Osiris. When Osiris was murdered by his brother Set, Isis gathered to-gether the pieces of his body and made the first mummy. Then using her great magic Isis brought Osiris back to life. Then Isis and Osiris had a child together named Horus, before Osiris ultimately went on to the Afterlife where he be-came the King of the Dead. All Egyp-tians hoped that when they died they too would go to the kingdom of Osiris for their afterlife.

Isis and Osiris

Anubis

Painted on the walls to either side of Isis are two more Egyptian Deities. First is the jackal-headed Anubis. Anubis is one of the sons of Osiris and is the Guardian of the Dead. Anubis oversaw the em-balming process and guarded the tomb, as well as helping guide souls into the afterworld. Second is the Ibis-headed Thoth. Thoth presided over the Weighing of the Soul. For the Egyptians believed that when their spirit reached the King-dom of Osiris their soul, in the form of their heart, would be weighed against a feather, the symbol of truth. If their heart was lighter than a feather, they would be admitted to the afterlife. If however their heart were weighed down by guilt over bad things they had done, they would not be admitted. So to the Egyptians magic was a good thing and Isis, Goddess of Life and Magic, was much loved. Not only was Isis the most popular Goddess in Egypt, but eventually she was popular all throughout the Roman Empire as well. Indeed, today Isis is probably the most popular Goddess in the western world.

The Fellowship of Isis is the world’s largest Goddess Spirituality organiza-tion today. And Isis is the Patron God-dess of many modern Witches. But from this very positive image of magic, the image of the Witch degener-ated over the millennia –which brings us to our Stereotype Room!

The Stereotype Room Among the most frustrating aspects of being a Witch is dealing with the mis-leading stereotypes current in society. People have all sorts of mistaken ideas of what Witchcraft is about based on these stereotypes. In our Stereotype room we try to address a few of these. The truth about Witchcraft is that it is a spiritual practice found in many of the world’s religions, especially the Pagan religions. Witchcraft uses magic, medi-tation, and divination to increase spiri-tual growth and connection to Deity. Some kinds of Witchcraft, such as Wicca, are a religion in their own right. In other cases Witchcraft is a practice within a religion such as Egyptian or Hellenic Paganism, Shamanism, etc… The most common stereotypes that modern Witches have to work against are the Green Faced Halloween Witch and the Three Witches from Macbeth huddled around their cauldron chanting nasty things in iambic pentameter. The Green Faced Halloween Witch is a very modern stereotype, and one that is particularly galling to some Witches. Real Witches never have green skin.

Thoth

Occasionally they may have green hair, but only if they have dyed it. Therefore many Witches really dislike the image of the Green faced Halloween Witch, al-though some find it amusing. Although they are everywhere today, Green Faced Halloween Witches only date back to the 1930’s and the classic film The Wizard of Oz. The filmmakers painted Margaret Hamilton, the actress who plays the Wicked Witch of the West, a vivid green color. It is thought that they chose green to emphasize the “Emerald City” theme. They did this for the same reason that they made Dorothy’s silver slippers into ruby slippers –because this was one of the first color films they really wanted to show off the power of Techni-color. The Three Witches from Macbeth how-ever are a very ancient stereotype. Shakespeare’s play itself is hundreds of years old, and the legend of Macbeth was already ancient before the play was ever written. However in the original Scottish legend Macbeth was considered a pretty good King, and the Three Witches who predicted his rise to power were three beautiful noblewomen. Unfor-

tunately neither Macbeth nor his Witches weathered the translation into English well. The Three Witches in the legend are thought to be a reflection of the ancient Celtic Mother Goddess, who was com-monly shown in the form of three identi-cal women at once. Several other parts of the Witch Stereotype also have a historical origin. The wizened old woman dressed in black originates in ancient Celtic Crone Goddesses such as Scathach and the Morrighan. These Goddesses were connected to winter, night, magic, and the Afterlife. Another part of the Witch Stereotype that has a historical origin is the Witches’ broom. Brooms are actually used in real magic to this day, espe-cially to sweep negative energy out and bring positive energy in. The cauldron too has very ancient ori-gins, having been an important symbol in several ancient religions, but espe-cially Celtic religion where it represents the Mother Goddess and the principle of Creation. Many modern Witches will keep a miniature cauldron or a chalice on their altar to represent the Mother Goddess even today. But the most recognizable stereotype of the Witch is of course the Pointy Black Witches’ Hat. Here in Salem Pointy Black Witches’ Hats are as mouse ears are in Disneyland. In Octo-ber you can see thousands of them in the streets, many of them beautifully decorated.

The Three Witches from Macbeth

People have looked for the origin of the Pointy Black Witches’ Hat in the last two thousand years of European history in vain. No one in the last two thousand years ever wore a hat quite like the Pointy Black Witches’ Hat. The Pilgrims’ Hat was similar, but it was never –ever- pointed. The Hennin was often pointed, but it never had a brim. People mostly came to the conclusion that the Pointy Black Witches’ Hat was invented espe-cially for the stereotype, perhaps in refer-ence to other cultural icons such as the Dunce Hat. That is, they came to this conclusion until archeology began find-ing Witches’ Hats in European prehistory –they just have to go back a few hundred years farther to find them.

Archeologists have found four Witches’ Hats made of thin sheet gold in central Europe, dating between 800 and 1400 BC. These golden Witches’ Hats are as-sociated with the proto-Celtic Urnfield Culture. They are very tall, exaggerated Witch Hats complete with pointed top and brim, and covered with elaborate

embossed designs. Some of them are so tall that the Priestess who wore them must have needed help to keep them balanced. Archeologists theorized that the golden hats were probably a very formal version of a leather or cloth headgear that would have been worn by the ancient Priesthood for normal occasions, but archeologist have never found examples of this more ordinary headgear in Europe –but they have been found elsewhere. Many people have heard of the Euro-pean mummies that have been discov-ered in Western China, in the Tarim Basin. These mummies have been naturally preserved by the arid condi-tions of the region. The mummies are believed to represent the farthest east-ern expansion of the ancient European tribes. As it happens, three of these mummies are wearing Pointy Black Witches’ Hats made of felt, similar to the golden Witch Hats of Europe and almost identical to modern stereotypi-cal Witch Hats. The mummies of these three Priestesses are known as the Witches of Subeshi. So it turns out that the Pointy Black Witches’ Hat is not made up at all, but is a memory from a very ancient Priesthood. Another stereotype of Witches is repre-sented by our installation of Bob the Necromancer. In the exhibit Bob the Necromancer will be seen raising the corpse Uncle Mortie from the dead, for reasons much less laudable than Isis raised Osiris –and Uncle Mortie is not happy about it at all! This installation represents the stereo-type that many people have of Witches doing nasty black magic and commit-

Golden Witch Hat

We don’t talk much about the Salem Witch Trials in the World of Witches. We recommend the Salem Witch Mu-seum to learn about the Witch hysteria of 1692. But we do talk about Tituba. For many modern Witches, Tituba has become a symbol of survival and over-coming oppression. Some view her as an Ancestor or Spirit Guardian. It is often said that Tituba was the only real Witch in Salem at the time of the Witch hysteria. Tituba practiced divina-tion, which she used to entertain the children she was set to watch over, and she practiced white magic. Tituba was a slave woman. She may have been either African or Native American (Most likely Arawak), or a mixture of both. Because she was a slave woman no one bothered to be especially clear about her ethnicity. The name Tituba is Yoruban and means “Atonement”.

ting unspeakable acts in cemeteries. Of course, real Witches would never do this. Most modern Witches believe in the Wic-can Rede –“Do As You Will, But Harm None”. We also believe in Karma –that what you do comes back to you. So we would never disturb poor Uncle Mortie this way, because we would not want someone doing it to us! So Uncle Mortie can rest safely in peace. There is however one little bit of truth in this stereotype however. Many modern Witches do speak to the Spirits of the dead, but that has nothing to do with dig-ging people up in cemeteries. The Spirits are everywhere and they like to talk –in fact, they can get very annoyed when no one listens to them. And our final stereotype is one that is somewhat closer to the reality that many Witches have faced throughout history. Many Witches have faced persecution, imprisonment, and even death because of their beliefs. In a jail cell at the corner of the Stereotype Room is Tituba, the Witch of Salem.

Bob the Necromancer raises Uncle Mortie from the dead

Tituba of Salem

Tituba and her husband, John Indian, were slaves of Rev. Samuel Parris, the Puritan Minister of Salem Village. Rev. Parris had brought them with him from his former home in Barbados. Being a slave woman Tituba was accus-tomed to telling people what they wanted to hear. So when she was accused of Witchcraft and subjected to a lengthy beating, she quickly confessed that yes, she was a Witch. Tituba told her interro-gators everything they wanted to hear, whereupon they threw her in jail but oth-erwise left her alone. Tituba’s witchcraft served her very well -even though she had confessed to a capitol crime Tituba was not executed as many others were, but was merely im-prisoned. While the Salem Witch hunt raged on, Tituba sat out the entire trag-edy in jail, as if everyone had completely forgotten about her. Eventually, when the Witch hysteria had passed, Tituba was set free after someone paid her fines. No one knows where she went after this or what ultimately happened to her, but legends abound. Some say that she re-turned to her native Barbados. Others say that she went to Virginia. Still others say that she became an immortal spirit who guards the Witches of Salem to this day, and protects the city itself so long as it does not return to its witch-hunting past.

The Historical Room In the Historical Room we talk a little bit about how the World of Witches took

shape. Modern Witchcraft does not have one point of origin; it comes down from many ancient traditions. Aspects or Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Euro-pean Tribal religion all contribute to the modern Witchcraft movement. The first installation we encounter in the Historical Room is Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is the world’s most famous metaphysical artifact, with the possible exception of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Everyone knows what Stonehenge is –or rather, everyone knows THAT Stonehenge is, no one really knows WHAT Stonehenge is. What we do know is that Stonehenge was built by the Megalith Builders of ancient Europe. The Megalith people built thousands of stone monuments throughout Western Europe, of which hundreds remain today. They built their stone monuments in one of three ways: simple standing stones (Megaliths) like those at Carnac in Brittany, or the Longstones in Wiltshire: mounds with underground chambers like Newgrange

Stonehenge

in Ireland or the Temples at Malta: and Circles like Stonehenge or Avebury. Stonehenge itself was begun about 10,000 years ago, or 8,000 BC, as a cir-cle of wooden columns, rather than stone. About 5,000 years ago, or 3,100 BC, the stone circle we know today was begun. The last work done on Stone-henge appears to have been around 1600 BC, when the Megalithic culture appears to have ended in Britain, over-whelmed and absorbed by incoming tribes. No one knows why Stonehenge was built. Some people believe that it was a Temple. Some people believe that it was an astronomical observatory. Some peo-ple believe that it was a landing pad for flying saucers. It could have been all these things. The latest theory about Stonehenge however, is that it was actually part of a much larger religious complex, including a second ritual circle at Durrington Walls, built around 2600 BC. The Durrington Walls ritual circle was made of wooden columns. The two great circles were linked by ceremonial causeways and the Avon River, and seem to have been used in seasonal ceremonies. It is thought that Durrington Walls was used in the summer for rituals dealing with life, fertility, and the harvests, while Stonehenge was used in the winter for rituals dealing with the Ancestors and the Spiritworld. If this is true it is very inter-esting because the modern Witch liturgi-cal year is still divided in this way today. A number of modern Temples have been built in forms inspired by Stonehenge.

The Circle is the primary form used for religious ceremonies by modern Witches and Pagans. The Circle is thought to represent spiritual perfec-tion, and to amplify spiritual energy.

Next we have the Oracle of Delphi. An Oracle is a Spirit Message or Proph-ecy. As a rule such messages are thought to originate from a specific De-ity, Ancestor, or Spirit Guide. The term Oracle is used both for the message and for the person who brings it through. The most famous of all Oracles is the Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle of Delphi was the Priestess at the Temple of Delphi, in ancient Greece. The actual title of the Oracle was “Pythia”. Today Delphi is a suburb

The Pythia, or Oracle of Delphi

of Athens; though at the time the Temple was founded Delphi was a separate city. Originally the Temple was sacred to the Earth Mother Gaia, but later it was held sacred to the God Apollo. The Temple was open for more than a thousand years, and during this time many hun-dreds of women served as Oracle. Most of these Priestesses are not recorded by name, so it is customary to speak of the Oracle as if she were just one woman throughout the Temple’s history. Our particular figure represents one Ora-cle whose name is recorded: Aristocleia. The Priestess Aristocleia was an early Greek philosopher and a teacher of Py-thagoras. One day a month, and only during the summer months, the Oracle gave prophecies, and people could come from all over Greece, and later from all over the Roman Empire, to ask her questions. The Oracle would go to a special cham-ber called the Adyton, which was located under the min body of the Temple. Sup-

posedly there was a gas, or Pneuma, which issued from the Earth at Delphi and today it is believed that this was Ethylene Gas. The Priestess would breathe in the gas, then she would stare into a bowl of water brought from the sacred Kossotis spring: then she would see visions, which would give answers to people’s questions. Among the Oracle’s most famous prophecies are these: She told the Athenians when the Per-sians were invading Greece that they should hide behind a wall of wood, be-cause their wall of stone would not pro-tect them. They correctly understood this to mean that they should use their wooden navy to fight an offensive bat-tle, rather than trying to fight a defen-sive battle behind their stone city wall. They followed this advice and won the encounter. She also told the Emperor Nero that the number seventy-three would mark his death. He foolishly thought this meant that he would live to be seventy-three and could do anything he wanted in the meantime. In fact he was over-thrown not long after by the seventy-three year old general Galba. The Oracle’s final prophecy was to the Emperor Theodosius I when he closed the Temple of Delphi in 393 AD: she predicted that the Roman Empire itself would be closing soon after, and in fact within twenty years the Western Em-pire had fallen. Finally we have our Tree of Life. The Tree of Life, or World Tree, is a very important symbol in most of the world’s

religions, especially Druidic and Ger-manic religion. It is certainly a very im-portant symbol in modern Witchcraft to-day. The Tree of Life represents the idea that God, the Universe, and Everything are connected: that we are One Tree with Many Branches. As the World of Witches Museum develops we will be adding all sorts of creatures to our Tree of Life, to represent the diversity of existence.

The Witch Maze We now come to the Witch Maze. The Witch Maze is just that; a maze featuring exhibits on famous Witches from history and especially from the modern commu-nity.

There have been many museums that have focused on the origins and history of Witchcraft, or on specific historical Witches, but so far as we know World of Witches is the only museum that has ever featured a section devoted to per-sonalities from the modern Witch com-munity. Here in our Maze is a chronological timeline of important Witches. Of course this is an ongoing project and will probably always be, because there will always be more to add. The first twist in the Maze is dedicated to Witches from the ancient world such as the Mesopotamian Priestess En-HeduAnna, the Egyptian Vizier ImHo-tep, the Greek Pythagoras, and the Ro-man Plutarch to name just a few. As we move forward we encounter figures such as the English prophetess Mother Shipton and Dr. John Dee. But very quickly we come to the founders of the modern Witch movement and the mod-ern metaphysical community in gen-eral: people like Charles Leland, Mar-garet Murray, Gerald Gardner, Alex Sanders, and Sybil Leek. We also have more controversial figures such as Dorothy Clutterbuck and Lydia Becket.

Tree of Life

Witch Maze

Moving forward we come to installations honoring famous contemporary Witches and Pagans such as the great Raymond Buckland, Silver RavenWolf, Ellen Dugan, Therese Pendragon, and Gerina Dunwich, to name a few. Among our most important exhibits in the Maze are those honoring Selena Fox, the foremost civil rights activist in the World of Witches, Scott Cunningham the World of Witches’ most beloved writer, and Abby Willowroot whose epochal Goddess 2000 Project brought the World of Witches into the twenty-first century.

Being in Salem we are especially proud to have a large installation honoring Lau-rie Cabot, the “Official Witch of Salem” who has done so much to advance the Witch community in her lifetime, and who has worked for many years to advance Witch civil rights and to dispel negative stereotypes. We are also pleased to have a large in-stallation honoring Oberon Zell Raven-heart, the foremost Wizard of the World of Witches and founder of the Church of All Worlds and the Grey School of Wiz-ardry. As time goes forward we will be adding many more personalities to the Witch Maze –not only famous leaders and au-thors but also ordinary Witches and Pa-gans who make up the World of Witches itself.

The Magic Room Now we enter our Magic Room. Here we discuss Magic; in particular the differ-ences between low magic and high magic. Our first installation in the Magic Room is our Kitchen Witch. A “Kitchen Witch” is a Witch who uses seemingly everyday items like herbs, oils, stones, candles, etc… to do practical magic in their daily life. This sort of magic is intended to make ones life better in tangible ways, and is called “Low Magic”. In a light hearted scene our Kitchen Witch works with herbs and oils and stones while surrounded by her many adoring feline familiars in whose honor

the kitchen is graced by a small altar to Bast. Next we have our Alchemist. Alchemy, Hermeticism, and Ceremonialism are movements similar to but different from modern Witchcraft. This kind of magic is intended to help one grow spiritually and to become closer to Deity. It is called “High Magic”. Alchemy, Hermeticism, and ceremonial-ism have their origin in late Greco-Roman Egypt where native Egyptian and Greek ideas merged to revolutionize the magical thinking of the time. However, Alchemy, Hermetcism, and Ceremonial-ism often overlap with modern Witch-craft, and all share the teaching “As Above, So Below.” “As Above, So Below” is the idea that everything in the created world reflects its creator, so if you want to learn about Spirit you can do so by studying Nature. Most people think that Alchemists were nothing but a bunch of idiots constantly trying to turn lead into gold. Alchemists did in fact work with many natural sub-stances such as gold and mercury and sulphur, but they believed that by doing

so they were learning about Spirit. And although some did try to turn lead into gold, in general what they were really talking about was “turning the lead of their ordinary life into the gold of spiri-tual enlightenment”. Just as the union of Egyptian and Greek metaphysical ideas revolution-ized the magical thinking of their day, so too the union of Low Magic and High Magic in the nineteenth century revolutionized modern metaphysical thinking and created the modern World of Witches.

The Witch Hunt Room Now we come to our Witch Hunt Room. This is arguably our scariest room. Not because there is anything scary in it, but because here we talk about some of the scary things in the world outside. Here in our Witch Hunt room we talk about Witch Hunts. Most of the people who have died in Witch Hunts around the world were not really Witches at all, just ordinary people accused of being Witches because of other peoples fan-tasies, greed, or prejudices. Real Witches usually manage to avoid Witch Hunts or, like Tituba of Salem, they manage to survive them. We do talk about the Witch Hunts in Europe. Everyone knows that there were Witch Hunts in Europe. Most peo-ple think that the European Witch Hunts happened in the Middle Ages. Although there was some sporadic per-secution of Witches during the Middle Ages, for the most part the Witch Hunts

The Alchemist

of Europe are actually a feature of the Reformation era, and were largely a by-product of the fight between the Catho-lics and Protestants, and the great social upheaval this caused. Many thousands of people did die during the European Witch Hunts, which raged for more than three hundred years. In most cases anyone who was accused was found guilty. The most conservative estimates of the death toll place it around 100,000, while the most extreme esti-mates are in the millions. An actually number will probably never be possible. We also talk a bit about the Salem Witch Hunts. Nineteen people were hanged in Salem, and one was pressed to death. Others died in prison. The Salem Witch Hunt ended when the supposedly be-witched girls at the center of the hysteria made the mistake of accusing the gover-nor’s wife, which led to the whole thing being shut down by the Governor. The Salem Witch Hunt was relatively short-lived and one reason it is so well remem-bered is that it came at the very end of the Witch hysteria as the age of skepti-cism was dawning and people were gen-erally embarrassed by it.

But what we mainly like to talk about in the Witch Hunt room are not the Witch Hunts of the past, but the Witch Hunts of the present. Most people do not real-ize that Witch Hunts are not just a part of history but are actually still going on today –indeed, they are increasing. At this very moment in Africa more people are being accused of “witchcraft”, persecuted or even killed than may ever have happened in Europe. Thousands of victims have been displaced. Worse, the Africans have a fixation on the idea of “child witches”, so a large number of the vic-tims of African Witch Hunts are chil-dren. Moreover this is not confined to Africa. In both the United States and the United Kingdom there have been sev-eral cases involving African immigrants who have severely abused or even murdered their own children because they thought that they were “witches”. The Witch Hunts in Africa are being spearheaded by Pentecostal ministers, like Helen Ukpadio and Thomas Muthi, who run American-style “revival minis-tries” and frequently make public ap-pearances in the United States. These ministries often receive considerable funding from conservative American Churches, who hopefully do not fully understand what they are funding. Be-cause of this the Witch Hunts are not only a social evil but also a highly lu-crative business in countries that for the most part suffer from endemic pov-erty. We mention this mainly in the hope that by raising people’s awareness of the

Curator Rev. Don poses in the Witch Hunt cell during a promotional video

Witch Hunts in Africa we may help bring about the end of Witch Hunts in Africa. Also in the Witch Hunt Room is a large installation relating to our own Witch Hunt, which we encountered when we moved our school, Witch School (WitchSchool.com), from metropolitan Chicago to rural central Illinois in 2003. Most of the people we met in central Illi-nois were very nice, open-minded people whose principle reaction to having Witches for neighbors was one of curios-ity. However some of the more conserva-tive local churches were not at all happy about having a Witch School move into town. One of the local churches held “pray-ins”, to try to pray the Witches out of town. Another local church put “holy oil” on the wheels of their cars and then drove three times around the town to create a magical barrier against the Witches –and totally missed the irony of what they were doing. And the Baptists

sent us a $1,000 check if we would not move in. But we did move in and the uncashed check is hanging in the dis-play. The good news is that we were in cen-tral Illinois for seven years and no ones cat ever went missing at Halloween be-cause of us, so hopefully those local churches learned that they didn’t really have anything to be afraid of after all!

The Artifact Room Our last exhibit room is the Artifact Room. Here we have a number of ex-hibits relating to modern Witchcraft. There is a large display of magical tools, a display of divinatory tools, and a display of altar figures. We also have our Prosperity Altar. The Prosperity Altar is a working altar dedicated to prosperity, abundance, and wellbeing. The altar features a Happy Buddha that was brought from Cambodia in 1973. The Happy Bud-dha, or Buddha Mi-Li-Fo, is the “Buddha of the Coming Age” in tradi-tional Buddhism, and people keep im-ages of him to attract happiness and prosperity into their lives. It is custom-ary to rub the Happy Buddha’s round belly to attract good fortune –make the Happy Buddha Happy and he will make you happy too! We also have a statue of the Roman Goddess Juno Monetas, Goddess of Prosperity, and the Ele-phant Bowl honoring the elephant as symbol of good fortune and abun-dance. The altar is open to everyone and people are welcome to place their names in the Elephant Bowl. There are a large number of bundles of movie

The Hoopeston Wall in the Witch Hunt Room

prop money on the altar that may be used for writing ones name. One may also leave a dollar to take a blessed stone from the Prosperity Altar. Magical tools are tools that are consid-ered sacred and are used directly in reli-gious ceremonies. These include Magic Wands, of which we display several types. Witches really do use Magic Wands, we just don’t use them for very much. Wands are used to direct energy and are often used in spiritual healing. Some Wands are very simple while oth-ers are intricate works of art. Certain specific kinds of Wand may used as symbols of rank or as “Talking Sticks” to keep order in meetings. We also display a number of Athames. An Athame is a Magical Tool made to look like a knife –however an Athame is not a weapon. Athames are used to open and close Witch religious ceremo-nies. As a rule most Athames do not have sharp edges and some are even

made of stone or wood to emphasize that the knife form is symbolic in na-ture. Our display of Athames includes one made from ebony, one made from jet, and one made from serpentine, as well as more usual metal Athames. The Athame is made in the form of a knife to symbolize the power of thought to cut through things. We also display several Chalices. Chalices are decorative cups that rep-resent the Mother Goddess and the principle of creation. The Chalice is commonly used to offer a communal toast during religious ceremonies. Our display of divinatory tools includes many decks of Tarot cards as well as other kinds of card decks also used for divination. Modern divinatory cards come in an endless variety, and though our collection looks large it is really vary small when compared with the thousands of different divinatory card decks in existence. Some of the decks in our display include the standard Rider-Waite-Smith deck that most readers use, Aleister Crowley’s classic Thoth Tarot, historic decks like the Tarot of Marseilles, as well as ground-breaking decks such as the round MotherPeace deck and the Daughters of the Moon.

The Prosperity Altar

Finally we have a range of altar figures. Most modern Witches have a Patron God or Goddess, or both, or several. These Deities may come from any part of the world or any point in history. This is because we believe that God is like a diamond –one stone with many facets: or like a tree having many branches. We also believe that God must come to every person in the way that is right for them. Because people are so very dif-ferent, we believe that God has many faces and that all of the faces of the Divine are legitimate.

We also have other divinatory tools such as Rune sets, a Tazomancer’s cup with special symbol’s to help guide the reader, and a Black Mirror used for “scrying” or vision seeking. The use of the Black Mirror developed from the practice of staring into water to seek vi-sions and is the forerunner of the Crystal Ball. There is also “Hedi” the Phrenology Head. Phrenology is the art of reading the bumps on a person’s head, and Phrenology Head’s are maps of the dif-ferent cranial regions and their mean-ings. Although the practice of Phrenology has become very rare the Phrenology Heads have entered pop culture as a kitschy decorating item.

Our display features Deity figures from many different backgrounds. There are several representations of Isis who is a very popular Patron Goddess. There are also statues of Hekate, Kwan Yin, Ye-maya, Brighid, and many others. Most of the figures currently on display come from the collection of Rev. Don Lewis, curator of the museum, and many of them were sculpted or painted by him. Also in the Artifact Room we are very proud to have a small display in honor of the Pentacle Quest. The Pentacle Quest was the ten-year legal battle to win for Pagan service people and veterans the right to have the pentacle as their em-blem of faith on their tombstone if they were buried in national cemeteries. This was a community-wide battle led by the Lady Liberty League and the Aquarian tabernacle Church, along with many other Pagan organizations including the Correllian Nativist Tradition. The fight took ten years but we finally won it. In our display we have one of the medals given by the Order of the Pentacle to those who were directly involved in the

campaign, the patch worn by support-ers, and a mojo bag filled with blessed herbs given out to supporters at rallies. We also have a statue of the Roman Goddess Libertas in the form of the Statue of Liberty, who was the Patron Deity of the Pentacle Quest.

The Salem Chapel Our last room is the Salem Chapel. This is an actual working Witch Temple that offers regular worship services as well as rites of passage and special events such as séances. The chapel features several large altars that allow people to see what an actual Witch’s altar looks like. Most Witches observe monthly cere-monies called Esbats that coincide with the New and Full Moon. There are also

The Pentacle Quest Display

eight Sabbats, or High Holidays, that form the “Wheel of the Year” and mark the seasons. Witch ceremonies do not commemorate human history but rather honor the cycles of Nature. In designing the Salem Chapel we tried to create a warm, cheerful feeling using shades of white and gold representing Mother Goddess and Father God. We hope that you have enjoyed your visit to the World of Witches Museum, and that it has given you an insight into the real World of Witches. We will be continually working on the museum and hope to add and change every year, so come back and visit us again and there will be more to see!

The Salem Chapel, North Altar

The Salem Chapel, South Altar

World of Witches Museum 57 Wharf St. Salem, Massachusetts

978-594-1569 worldofwitchesmuseum@gmail.com

A museum of Witchcraft owned and operated by Real Witches!