Laurie Cabot

Laurie Cabot is an American Witchcraft high priestess, and was one of the first people to popularize Witchcraft in the United States. She is the author of such books as The Power of the Witch, The Witch in Every Woman, Celebrate the Earth, while also founding the Cabot Tradition of the Science of Witchcraft and the Witches' League for Public Awareness to defend the civil rights of Witches everywhere. In the 1970s, Cabot was declared the "official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts", by then-Governor Michael Dukakis, to honor her work with special needs children.

She continues to reside in Salem, where she owns a shop called The Cat, the Crow, and the Crown. Cabot claims to be related to the prominent Boston Brahmin Cabot family. She is perhaps one the most high-profile Witches in the world. She is a part of Salem lore, and a local celebrity in that city and throughout Massachusetts's North Shore.

Life and career and possible inspirations

Laurie Cabot was born Mercedes Elizabeth Kearsey in 1933 in Wewoka, Oklahoma. She grew up in California and came back 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.

During the 1950s Cabot worked as a dancer in a Boston nightclub called "The Latin Quarter" owned by Lou Walters (Barbara Walters' father). Cabot was asked by Mr. Walters to open his Las Vegas Latin Quarter which she declined.

Cabot married and divorced twice, with each marriage producing a daughter, Jody Cabot (b. 1963) and Penny Cabot (b. 1965), respectively. Cabot chose to raise her daughters as Witches, and she began appearing in black robes and black eye-makeup in her everyday life.

In 1970, television's sitcom witch "Samantha Stephens" of Bewitched visited Salem for a series of episodes, with location filming in the town by the cast and crew. Laurie Cabot opened the town's first "Witch shop" in Salem in 1971, as it started to become a tourist destination (thanks in part to the national "Bewitched in Salem" TV exposure). At present time, there are numerous such shops throughout downtown Salem, but it was Cabot who was the trailblazer so far as these businesses are concerned.

Cabot was featured prominently in Season 5 of In Search of..., hosted by Leonard Nimoy, in Episode 13: Salem Witches, originally aired 13 December 1980 . The episode spent much time on Cabot's activities as a leader in the local community of witches in Salem.

Cabot's shop sold herbs, jewelry, Tarot decks, and other items used in Witchcraft. She later relocated her shop to an old gambrel-roofed house on Essex Street. This new shop was named "Crow Haven Corner". The store is still open, though no longer owned or managed by any member of the Cabot family (formerly, her eldest daughter Jody owned and ran it). Cabot still maintains a shop in Salem, The Cat, The Crow and the Crown, on Pickering Wharf which is a popular tourist destination as well as an important resource for all Witches. She is as well-known for her businesses, lectures and books. Cabot was a guest on both "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and on Phil Donahue's talk shows in the late 1980s.

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

Incidents and controversies

Laurie Cabot is also known for her sometimes controversial behavior. There was a legal situation in the mid 1990s in which Cabot allegedly threatened local real estate agent, Janet Andrews, with her gun. Cabot denied she had ever acted in such a manner and upon further investigation all charges against Cabot were dismissed and she still retains a gun permit.

She garnered more notoriety in 2004 when Salem Police came to her home in order to remove her adolescent grandson over a custody issue between Jody Cabot and her former husband. Both incidents were covered by local and national press and even featured on CNN. A policeman claimed that during the incident Cabot ordered him to look into her eyes, telling him he was cursed once he did. Cabot denies she ever cursed the policeman, stating "I say it is a curse when you do bad things." This is a reference to the threefold law that whatever you do, good or bad, shall be returned to you threefold (Rule of three). She has steadily maintained that Witchcraft is never meant to be employed to cause harm or destruction.

Laurie Cabot is also known for what some people call "playing off" witchcraft too much to gain wealth, especially in terms of her store The Cat The Crow and The Crown. Many have claimed Cabot's store to lack credibility, saying it is merely a tourist attraction designed for tourists to spend their money and not filled with legitimate products for actual Witch or Wiccan purpose. An example of this being the fancy wands sold with unnecessary gems and stones that look more dazzled than they actually need to be if used. Or the pre-packaged spells that Cabot sells, in which some Witches and Wiccans claim would never work due to them being pre-packaged. Cabot has been alleged of overpricing her products and psychic readings in comparison to the other local psychics and Witch shops.

External links

• Laurie Cabot's official website
• Article: Police: Witch Put Hex On Department, Cabot Says 'I Don't Do Curses'
• unofficial Laurie Cabot biography
• Laurie Cabot's official MySpace page
• Crow Haven Corner