1933 - Present

Salem, Massachusetts, site of the greatest witch tragedy in America in the years 1692 - 93, has finally come to comfortable terms with witchcraft, thanks in part to the efforts of Laurie Cabot, "the Official Witch of Salem." Cabot cuts a dramatic figure about town, dressed in flowing black garments, openly displaying her gold pentacle pendant. Her life revolved around being a public, city Witch, which enables her to spread her particular vision of the Craft and work against public misconceptions Laurie Cabot (her family name) ws born March 6th, 1933, in Wewoka, Oklahoma, during a family move from Boston to Anaheim, California. Her father, a businessman, was descended from a line of Cabots from the Isle of Jersey off the coast of England, a place renowned for witchcraft. From an early age, Cabot, an only child, felt an affinity with Witches. She says she is descended from a long line of Witches, including a mysterious woman who lived some 4,000 - 5,000 years ago, whose memory Cabot feels she possesses nearly intact. (In Cabot's view of reincarnation, the personality itself does not survive intact and reincarnate; rather, an individual possesses attributes and aspects that are drawn from the reincarnational genetic memory pool.)

By age six, her psychic gifts became apparent, and she constantly got herself into trouble for discussing information she picked up through extrasensory perception. From her father, a science-oriented man who did not believe in the Devil, Cabot developed a lifelong interest in science, which she dovetailed with her interest in Witchcraft, the occult and the paranormal.

From Anaheim, Cabot returned to Boston at age 14 with her mother in order to finish high school. She embarked on a comparative study of religions and spent much time in the library. There she met a woman on the staff who encouraged her to look beyond Christianity for information on paranormal phenomena. The woman eventually revealed that she was a Witch, and she introduced Cabot to two other female Witches, one of them elderly. The three women helped to school Cabot in the Craft. When she was 16, the Witches initiated her in a profoundly transformational experience. She was anointed with oil and dubbed with a sword. She took the sword, impaled it in the earth and said, "I return to earth my wisdom and I call myself Witch."

Cabot made a life's projection for herself, in which she asked the Goddess and God to enable her to teach Witchcraft as a science to the masses. At the time, she never dreamed she would do just that - in Salem, of all places.

After high school, Cabot did not follow through on the plan to attend Smith College, but instead became a dancer in Boston's Latin Quarter. She had two marriages, one to an Italian and one to a Greek, each of which produced a daughter: Jody in 1963 and Penny in 1965. AFter her second divorce, in the late 1960's, Cabot and her daughters moved to the North End of Boston. She made a vow that she would live her life "totally as a Witch": she would sear nothing but traditional Witch clothing (which she believes is long black robes), would wear her pentacle out and would emulate the Goddess by outlining her eyes in black makeup, according, she says, to an ancient tradition.

She admits she was naive in not realizing how such attire would provoke people and in thinking that as soon as she explained herself, others would understand and accept her. Over the years, she has had to deal with jokes, aversion and accusations that she dresses that way for commercial exploitation.

A friend whom she met in north Boston, Patty, also a divorcee and a mother, told Cabot that as a Witch, she belonged in Salem; Cabot demurred. They decided to pool their funds to rent a house together. Cabot cast a Magic Circle, and Jody saw a vision of their future house - which Patty found in Salem. The house was the first house built on Salem's historic Chestnut Street and had been home to Nathaniel Hawthorne for a year. Three years earlier, Cabot had gone through a past-life regression, to the life of a woman, Susan Sarah Prescott, who supposedly had lived in Salem during the 1700's. Cabot believes she picked up on traces of a genetic memory. She discovered that Prescott had indeed existed and that her father had been the builder of their house. (She stayed in the house one year, then moved two times, eventually settling in her present house.)

Cabot also discovered that Salem had little idea of what to think of modern Witches. Members of the public derided her for believing "in all that," and other Witches criticized her for her appearance. Through a new friend, she began teaching "Witchcraft As a Science" classes in the continuing education program at Wellesley High School, forming the beginnings of her tradition by the same name. She also taught classes for seven years in the Salem State College continuing-education program, gave Tarot reading, diagnosed illness by aura readings, consulted for an oil company and occasionally worked with police around the country in solving crimes.

She opened The Witch Shop in Salem, which did not do well and closed; a second venture, Crow Haven Corner, was much more successful and became one of the major tourist attractions of Salem. Cabot turned the shop over to her daughter, Jody, in the late 1970's.

In 1973 Cabot established the annual Witches' Ball, a costume party to celebrate Samhain (All Hallow's Eve) in Salem, which each year draws an international crowd of participants and media.

Since 1971 Cabot had sought to be named "the Official Witch of Salem," but was turned down by local government; then-Mayor Samuel Zoll was quoted as saying he thought it would be "improper" and that "the historical recognition of the city would be internationally demeaned by allowing a commercial capitalization by one individual." In 1977 Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, signed a citation granting Cabot the title. The "Paul Revere" citation, as it is called, is recognition given to various citizens courtesy of members of the legislature. Cabot received hers for her work with dyslexic children. The title has served both Cabot and Salem well.

On 1987, Cabot entered the Salem mayoral race, after incumbent Anthony V. Salvo made derogatory comments about Witchcraft in the press. One of Salvo's opponents, Robert E. Gautheir, a friend of Cabot's, was rumored to be a "warlock," an unfavorable term not used by Witches of either sex. Gautheir denied this and blamed the Salvo camp for spreading the rumors. Salvo denied the accusation, saying he discounted Witchcraft and that no one with "average intelligence" believed in it. Cabot jumped into the race "to prove that Witches have civil rights" and ran a spirited campaign that attracted much local support and national media attention. But on August 11, the deadline for returning nominating papers, she dropped out of the race, citing business commitments, including work on a book. Cabot continues to serve Salem as a member of the executive board of the Chamber of Commerce, which she joined in 1980.

In 1988 Cabot established the Temple of Isis, a chapter of the National Alliance of Pantheists. She no longer teaches in public-school programs. She established her own school with a broad, "New Age" curriculum, located above Crow Haven Corner in quarters also planned to house the Temple of Isis library. Through the National Alliance of Pantheists, she was ordained Reverend Cabot and may perform legal marriages. She continues to give psychic counseling and aura readings.

Cabot feels that Witches should take a stronger stand for their civil rights and public image. In 1986 she founded the Witches League of Public Awareness to protest filming in Massachusetts of John Updike's novel, The Witches of Eastwick, which she feels exploits negative stereotypes about Witches. The League expanded to take up other causes, including civil-rights issues and harassment of Witches by police and Fundamentalists.

The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft
Rosemary Ellen Guiley