World of Witches Gift Book Revised

8/22/2019 World of Witches Gift Book Revised

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World of Witches MuseumProgram Book

A Different Museum


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Rev. Don Lewis, Curator

We asked for the perfect situationin Salem, and it turned out to be themuseum we had long wanted,delivered to us out of a clear blue

sky.

Of course from that point on it hasbeen a heck of a lot of work, withmany long days and nights. But it isa joyful work. A work that allows usto share our world the World ofWitches with the wider world.

So join us for an intimate look at theWorld of Witches as seen from the

inside. I think you will enjoy the trip.

Rev. Don LewisCurator

PrologueThe World of Witches is afascinating place. You neverknow quite what will happen whenmagic is part of your everyday life.When we came to Salem, we hadno intentions of opening amuseum. Indeed, we expected tobe teaching classes not buildingexhibits. But that is not what Spirithad in mind.

The chance to open themuseum came out of nowhere.We had always wanted to do amuseum, but thought it would beyears in the future. We werecertainly in no position to be

opening a museum. But we hadbarely set foot in Salem when theopportunity came, and came in aform that we could actually do.

That is how magic works.Its not like what you seein the movies all fire andpyrotechnics. Real magic comessoftly and unexpectedly, like aghost cat. Circumstances align

themselves, situations come topass in ways that seem perfectlynatural except they areexactly what you asked for.


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The Hall of Prehistory

We begin our tour of the World ofWitches deep in prehistory. We havealways known that magic has been withus as long as we have had writtenhistory, because many of the first thingswe wrote about were magical. Butarcheology has shown us that magicgoes much farther back than this.

The Neanderthal, the kind of people whopreceded modern humans, are wellknown for their magical practices, whicharcheology has revealed to us. They hadceremonial burial of their dead along withfunereal magic to aid rebirth into the nextworld: they had shrines to their Deities,whom they seem to have pictured inanimal form, especially the Cave Bear.

But archeology has shown us that thepeople who precede the Neanderthal,the Homo Erectus, already had magicalpractices as well.

The earliest incidence of magic thatarcheology has revealed to us datesback 150,000 years before present.Archeologists discovered the remainsof a Homo Erectus village in the caveof Lazaret in France. The villageconsisted of simple huts, which arebelieved to have been made of skinsstretched over a wooden framework.They were built inside the cave tohelp protect them from the rigors of

the Ice Age.

At the entry of each of these primitivedwellings is the skull of a wolf. The wolfskulls are carefully positioned, so weknow that they are not just the remainsof somebodys wolf dinner, and theyare not part of the structure of thedwelling so it is generally agreed thatthey are magical in character.

From the point of view of modernWitches we would assume that the wolfskulls are House Guardians magicalguardians created to protect the peoplewho lived in the dwellings.

Modern Witches still use magicalHouse Guardians to protect theirhomes and businesses today. In factwe have a House Guardian for theWorld of Witches Museum itself his

name is George and he is the knightwho stands guard at the entrance tothe Museum.

Next come our cave paintings. Theseare reproductions of famous cavepaintings from Lascaux, Altamira,

Crystal Ball at entrance toHall of Prehistory


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paint the successful hunt that theyhoped to have, then would enactsome sort of ceremony to empower thepicture and bring it into realty. We canonly speculate about the kind ofceremony that they may have used,but it was probably not too differentfrom the kinds of ceremonies thatmodern Witches use today.

There is however a second theoryabout these ancient cave paintings.The second theory is that rather thanhunting magic the cave paintings maybe a record of Shamanic visions. Thatis, the Shamans or Witches of the

ancient tribes would go deep inside thecaves to have their visions, then paintthe visions on the cave walls either tomake a record of them or else toanchor them into the physical world.

No one knows which of these twotheories is true of course because thepeople who made them are all dead.And though there are those in theWorld of Witches who do talk to the

dead, these dead have been dead along time.

Trois-Freres, and Los Manos caves inFrance and Spain. The cave paintingswere reproduced for us by Rev. DonLewis and Lisa Folger. The actual cavepaintings of Europe were made by theCro Magnon people, who were Early

Modern Humans, and date between10,000 and 32,000 years before present.

Cave paintings are another earlyexample of magic. The Cro Magnoncave paintings are deep inside theEuropean caves in places that can bevery difficult to get to, not in the frontwhere the ancient people lived so weknow that they were not just fordecoration. Most people believe that the

cave paintings were used for huntingmagic.

The ancient people would paint eitherthe kind of animals that they hoped tosee increase and that they hoped toeventually catch, or they would actually

George, the House Guardian for theWorld of Witches Museum

Lisa Folger works on one of the cavepaintings in the Hall of Prehistory


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Perhaps the most famous of all cavepaintings, even today, is Le Sorciere,Le Sorciere is a painting from theTrois-Freres cave in France. Le Sorcierewas painted 13,000 years beforepresent, and shows a figure that com-bines elements of a human male and astag. Many people believe that thisrepresents a God of Nature or of thehunt, and that Le Sorciere is the oldestpainting of a Deity in human history: Asimilar Deity is worshipped by manymodern Witches today.

There is a second theory aboutLe Sorciere however: some peoplebelieve that that Le Sorciere actuallyrepresents an ancient Witch or Shamanin the act of shapeshifting from a man

into a stag. The practice of shapeshiftingis the origin of story of the werewolf andother similar legends. Shapeshifting isnot a physical transformation but ratherrevolves around the idea that the soul, ora part thereof, can be sent out of thebody and can then take any form that it

wishes. Shapeshifting is a livingpractice among Witches and Shamanstoday, and is considered a form ofAstral travel.

Even older than Le Sorciere are thefamous Venus figurines, such as theVenus of Willendorf, Venus of Laussel,and Venus of Gagarino. Thesefigurines are believed to represent thegreat Mother Goddess, thought to havebeen the preeminent deity of the time.Dating between 10,000 and 40,000years before present, the Venusfigurines represent the earliest knownsculptures of the human form.

The Mother Goddess is very importantin modern Witchcraft today. Mostmodern Witches view God as beinglike a diamond, one stone with manyfacets. Each of the facets is a separateform in its own right, yet at the sametime part of the single stone. For thisreason we honor all of the historicfaces of Deity.

Modern Witches honor the MotherGoddess together with the Father Godand regard these as representing thecosmic polarities, often described asYin and Yang. The Mother Goddess isspirit, essence, love, the inner nature ofbeing; the Father God is action, vitality,growth and movement. They are twoends of a single continuum andtogether they form a whole.

Of the ancient Venus figurines theVenus of Willendorf in particular isimportant to modern Witches, as Herimage is often used to depict Gaia, theEarth Mother, spirit of the Living World.

Le Sorciere


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The Egyptian RoomOur first big installation is the EgyptianRoom. Here we see histories first greatarchetypal Witch, the Goddess of Isis ofancient Egypt. We are especially proudof our depiction of Isis, which is verylifelike. In fact people have occasionallyinsisted that they have seen her moveor speak.

In ancient Egypt Isis was the Great

Witch, the Goddess of Magic. Isis wasalso the Goddess of motherhood and oflife. To the Egyptians these three ideaswere very closely linked, for theyconsidered giving birth to be the mostmagical thing a human being could dosince it brought new life into the world.For this reason the Egyptiansconsidered women to be inherentlymore magical than men a point ofview still nearly universal today, and the

reason why the stereotype of the Witchis almost always female, even thoughin real life there are many maleWitches.

If you look at ancient Egyptian tombpaintings you will see that in mens

tombs they are often shown with theirwives or their mothers or even theirdaughters because they hoped thatthe inherent magic of the women wouldhelp them to be reborn. But whenwomen have their own tombs they arenot necessarily shown with their menbecause the women carried the magicinside them.

In Egyptian mythologyIsis was the wife ofOsiris. When Osiriswas murdered by hisbrother Set, Isisgathered together the

pieces of his bodyand made the firstmummy. Then usingher great magic Isisbrought Osiris back tolife. Then Isis andOsiris had a childtogether named Horus,before Osiris ultimately went on to theAfterlife where he became the King ofthe Dead. All Egyptians hoped that

when they died they too would go tothe kingdom of Osiris for their afterlife.

Isis and Osiris

Anubis


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Painted on the walls to either side of Isisare two more Egyptian Deities. First isthe jackal-headed Anubis. Anubis is oneof the sons of Osiris and is the Guardianof the Dead. Anubis oversaw theembalming process and guarded thetomb, as well as helping guide souls intothe afterworld. Second is the Ibis-headedThoth. Thoth presided over the Weighingof the Soul. For the Egyptians believed

that when their spirit reached theKingdom of Osiris their soul, in the formof their heart, would be weighed againsta feather, the symbol of truth. If theirheart was lighter than a feather, theywould be admitted to the afterlife. Ifhowever their heart were weighed downby 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 andMagic, was much loved. Not only wasIsis the most popular Goddess in Egypt,but eventually she was popular allthroughout the Roman Empire as well.Indeed, today Isis is probably the mostpopular Goddess in the western world.

The Fellowship of Isis is the worldslargest Goddess Spiritualityorganization today. And Isis is thePatron Goddess of many modernWitches.

But from this very positive imageof magic, the image of the Witchdegenerated over the millennia whichbrings us to our Stereotype Room!

The Stereotype RoomAmong the most frustrating aspectsof being a Witch is dealing with themisleading stereotypes current insociety. People have all sorts ofmistaken ideas of what Witchcraft isabout based on these stereotypes. Inour Stereotype room we try to addressa few of these.

The truth about Witchcraft is that it isa spiritual practice found in many of theworlds religions, especially the Paganreligions. Witchcraft uses magic,meditation, and divination to increasespiritual growth and connection toDeity. Some kinds of Witchcraft, suchas Wicca, are a religion in their ownright. In other cases Witchcraft is apractice within a religion such asEgyptian or Hellenic Paganism,Shamanism, etc

The most common stereotypes thatmodern Witches have to work againstare the Green Faced Halloween Witchand the Three Witches from Macbethhuddled around their cauldron chantingnasty things in iambic pentameter.

Thoth


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The Green Faced Halloween Witch is avery modern stereotype, and one that isparticularly galling to some Witches.Real Witches never have green skin.Occasionally they may have green hair,but only if they have dyed it. Thereforemany Witches really dislike the image ofthe Green faced Halloween Witch,although some find it amusing.

Although they are everywhere today,Green Faced Halloween Witches onlydate back to the 1930s and the classicfilmThe Wizard of Oz. The filmmakers

painted Margaret Hamilton, the actresswho plays the Wicked Witch of the West,a vivid green color. It is thought that theychose green to emphasize the EmeraldCity theme. They did this for the samereason that they made Dorothys silverslippers into ruby slippers because thiswas one of the first color films they reallywanted to show off the power ofTechnicolor.

The Three Witches from Macbeth how-ever are a very ancient stereotype.Shakespeares play itself is hundreds ofyears old, and the legend of Macbethwas already ancient before the play wasever written. However in the originalScottish legend Macbeth was considered

a pretty good King, and the ThreeWitches who predicted his riseto power were three beautifulnoblewomen. Unfortunately neitherMacbeth nor his Witches weatheredthe translation into English well.

The Three Witches in the legend arethought to be a reflection of the ancientCeltic Mother Goddess, who wascommonly shown in the form of threeidentical women at once.

Several other parts of the WitchStereotype also have a historical origin.The wizened old woman dressed inblack originates in ancient Celtic Crone

Goddesses such as Scathach and theMorrighan. These Goddesses wereconnected to winter, night, magic, andthe Afterlife.

Another part of the Witch Stereotypethat has a historical origin is theWitches broom. Brooms are actuallyused in real magic to this day,especially to sweep negative energyout and bring positive energy in.

The cauldron too has very ancientorigins, having been an importantsymbol in several ancient religions,but especially Celtic religion where itrepresents the Mother Goddess andthe principle of Creation. Many modernWitches will keep a miniature cauldronor a chalice on their altar to representthe Mother Goddess even today.

But the most recognizable stereotypeof the Witch is of course the PointyBlack Witches Hat. Here in SalemPointy Black Witches Hats are asmouse ears are in Disneyland. InOctober you can see thousands ofthem in the streets, many of thembeautifully decorated.

The Three Witches from Macbeth


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People have looked for the origin of thePointy Black Witches Hat in the last twothousand years of European history invain. No one in the last two thousandyears ever wore a hat quite like thePointy Black Witches Hat. The PilgrimsHat was similar, but it was never ever-pointed. The Hennin was often pointed,but it never had a brim. People mostlycame to the conclusion that the PointyBlack Witches Hat was inventedespecially for the stereotype, perhaps inreference to other cultural icons such asthe Dunce Hat. That is, they came tothis conclusion until archeology beganfinding Witches Hats in European

prehistory they just have to go back afew hundred years farther to find them.

Archeologists have found four WitchesHats made of thin sheet gold in central

Europe, dating between 800 and 1400BC. These golden Witches Hats areassociated with the proto-Celtic UrnfieldCulture. They are very tall, exaggeratedWitch Hats complete with pointed topand brim, and covered with elaborateembossed designs. Some of them are so

tall that the Priestess who wore themmust have needed help to keep thembalanced. Archeologists theorized thatthe golden hats were probably a veryformal version of a leather or clothheadgear that would have been wornby the ancient Priesthood for normaloccasions, but archeologist have neverfound examples of this more ordinaryheadgear in Europe but they havebeen found elsewhere.

Many people have heard of theEuropean mummies that have beendiscovered in Western China, in theTarim Basin. These mummies have

been naturally preserved by the aridconditions of the region. The mummiesare believed to represent the farthesteastern expansion of the ancientEuropean tribes. As it happens, threeof these mummies are wearing PointyBlack Witches Hats made of felt,similar to the golden Witch Hats ofEurope and almost identical to modernstereotypical Witch Hats. Themummies of these three Priestesses

are known as the Witches of Subeshi.So it turns out that the Pointy BlackWitches Hat is not made up at all, butis a memory from a very ancientPriesthood.

Another stereotype of Witches isrepresented by our installation of Bobthe Necromancer. In the exhibit Bobthe Necromancer will be seen raisingthe corpse Uncle Mortie from the dead,

for reasons much less laudable thanIsis raised Osiris and Uncle Mortie isnot happy about it at all!

This installation represents thestereotype that many people have ofWitches doing nasty black magic and

Golden Witch Hat


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We dont talk much about the SalemWitch Trials in the World of Witches.We recommend the Salem WitchMuseum to learn about the Witchhysteria of 1692. But we do talk aboutTituba. For many modern Witches,Tituba has become a symbol ofsurvival and overcoming oppression.Some view her as an Ancestor orSpirit Guardian.

It is often said that Tituba was theonly real Witch in Salem at the time ofthe Witch hysteria. Tituba practiceddivination, which she used to entertainthe children she was set to watch over,

and she practiced white magic.

Tituba was a slave woman. She mayhave been either African or NativeAmerican (Most likely Arawak), or amixture of both. Because she was aslave woman no one bothered to beespecially clear about her ethnicity.The name Tituba is Yoruban andmeans Atonement.

committing unspeakable acts incemeteries. Of course, real Witcheswould never do this. Most modernWitches believe in the Wiccan RedeDo As You Will, But Harm None.We also believe in Karma that what youdo comes back to you. So we wouldnever disturb poor Uncle Mortie this way,because we would not want someonedoing it to us! So Uncle Mortie can restsafely in peace.

There is however one little bit of truth inthis stereotype however. Many modernWitches do speak to the Spirits of thedead, but that has nothing to do withdigging people up in cemeteries. TheSpirits are everywhere and they like totalk in fact, they can get very annoyedwhen no one listens to them.

And our final stereotype is one that is

somewhat closer to the reality that manyWitches have faced throughout history.Many Witches have faced persecution,imprisonment, and even death becauseof their beliefs. In a jail cell at the cornerof the Stereotype Room is Tituba, theWitch of Salem.

Bob the Necromancer raisesUncle Mortie from the dead

Tituba of Salem


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Tituba and her husband, J ohn Indian,were slaves of Rev. Samuel Parris,the Puritan Minister of Salem Village.Rev. Parris had brought them with himfrom his former home in Barbados.

Being a slave woman Tituba wasaccustomed to telling people whatthey wanted to hear. So when she wasaccused of Witchcraft and subjected toa lengthy beating, she quickly confessedthat yes, she was a Witch. Tituba toldher interrogators everything they wantedto hear, whereupon they threw her in jailbut otherwise left her alone.

Titubas witchcraft served her very well-even though she had confessed to acapitol crime Tituba was not executedas many others were, but was merelyimprisoned. While the Salem Witch huntraged on, Tituba sat out the entiretragedy in jail, as if everyone hadcompletely forgotten about her.Eventually, when the Witch hysteriahad passed, Tituba was set free aftersomeone paid her fines.

No one knows where she went after thisor what ultimately happened to her, butlegends abound. Some say that she re-turned to her native Barbados. Otherssay that she went to Virginia. Still otherssay that she became an immortal spiritwho guards the Witches of Salem to thisday, and protects the city itself so longas it does not return to its witch-huntingpast.

The Historical RoomIn the Historical Room we talk a little bitabout how the World of Witches took

shape. Modern Witchcraft does nothave one point of origin; it comes downfrom many ancient traditions. Aspectsor Egyptian, Greco-Roman, andEuropean Tribal religion all contribute

to the modern Witchcraft movement.

The first installation we encounter inthe Historical Room is Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is the worlds most famousmetaphysical artifact, with the possibleexception of the Great Pyramid at Giza.Everyone knows what Stonehenge isor rather, everyone knows THATStonehenge is, no one really knowsWHAT Stonehenge is.

What we do know is that Stonehengewas built by the Megalith Builders ofancient Europe. The Megalith people

built thousands of stone monumentsthroughout Western Europe, of whichhundreds remain today. They built theirstone monuments in one of three ways:simple standing stones (Megaliths) likethose at Carnac in Brittany, or theLongstones in Wiltshire: mounds withunderground chambers like Newgrange

Stonehenge


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in Ireland or the Temples at Malta: andCircles like Stonehenge or Avebury.

Stonehenge itself was begun about10,000 years ago, or 8,000 BC, as a

circle of wooden columns, rather thanstone. About 5,000 years ago, or 3,100BC, the stone circle we know todaywas begun. The last work done onStonehenge appears to have beenaround 1600 BC, when the Megalithicculture appears to have ended inBritain, overwhelmed and absorbedby incoming tribes.

No one knows why Stonehenge was

built. Some people believe that it wasa Temple. Some people believe that itwas an astronomical observatory. Somepeople believe that it was a landing padfor flying saucers. It could have been allthese things.

The latest theory about Stonehengehowever, is that it was actually part of amuch larger religious complex, includinga second ritual circle at Durrington Walls,

built around 2600 BC. The DurringtonWalls ritual circle was made of woodencolumns. The two great circles werelinked by ceremonial causeways and theAvon River, and seem to have beenused in seasonal ceremonies.

It is thought that Durrington Walls wasused in the summer for rituals dealingwith life, fertility, and the harvests, whileStonehenge was used in the winter for

rituals dealing with the Ancestors andthe Spiritworld. If this is true it is veryinteresting because the modern Witchliturgical year is still divided in this waytoday.

A number of modern Temples have beenbuilt in forms inspired by Stonehenge.

The Circle is the primary form usedfor religious ceremonies by modernWitches and Pagans. The Circleis thought to represent spiritualperfection, and to amplify spiritual

energy.

Next we have the Oracle of Delphi.An Oracle is a Spirit Message orProphecy. As a rule such messagesare thought to originate from a specificDeity, Ancestor, or Spirit Guide. Theterm Oracle is used both for themessage and for the person whobrings it through.

The most famous of all Oracles is theOracle of Delphi.

The Oracle of Delphi was the Priestessat the Temple of Delphi, in ancientGreece. The actual title of the Oraclewas Pythia. Today Delphi is a suburb

The Pythia, or Oracle of Delphi


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of Athens; though at the time theTemple was founded Delphi was aseparate city. Originally the Temple wassacred to the Earth Mother Gaia, butlater it was held sacred to the GodApollo. The Temple was open for morethan a thousand years, and during thistime many hundreds of women servedas Oracle. Most of these Priestesses are

not recorded by name, so it is customaryto speak of the Oracle as if she were justone woman throughout the Templeshistory.

Our particular figure represents oneOracle whose name is recorded:Aristocleia. The Priestess Aristocleiawas an early Greek philosopher anda teacher of Pythagoras.

One day a month, and only during thesummer months, the Oracle gaveprophecies, and people could come fromall over Greece, and later from all overthe Roman Empire, to ask her questions.The Oracle would go to a specialchamber called the Adyton, which was

located under the min body of theTemple. Supposedly there was a gas,or Pneuma, which issued from theEarth at Delphi and today it is believedthat this was Ethylene Gas. ThePriestess would breathe in the gas,

then she would stare into a bowl ofwater brought from the sacred Kossotisspring: then she would see visions,which would give answers to peoplesquestions.

Among the Oracles most famousprophecies are these:

She told the Athenians when thePersians were invading Greece that

they should hide behind a wall of wood,because their wall of stone would notprotect them. They correctlyunderstood this to mean that theyshould use their wooden navy to fightan offensive battle, rather than trying tofight a defensive battle behind theirstone city wall. They followed thisadvice and won the encounter.

She also told the Emperor Nero that

the number seventy-three would markhis death. He foolishly thought thismeant that he would live to beseventy-three and could do anythinghe wanted in the meantime. In fact hewas overthrown not long after by theseventy-three year old general Galba.

The Oracles final prophecy was to theEmperor Theodosius I when he closedthe Temple of Delphi in 393 AD: she

predicted that the Roman Empire itselfwould be closing soon after, and in factwithin twenty years the WesternEmpire had fallen.

Finally we have our Tree of Life. TheTree of Life, or World Tree, is a veryimportant symbol in most of the worlds


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religions, especially Druidic andGermanic religion. It is certainly a veryimportant symbol in modern Witchcrafttoday.

The Tree of Life represents the idea thatGod, the Universe, and Everything areconnected: that we are One Tree withMany Branches. As the World of WitchesMuseum develops we will be adding allsorts of creatures to our Tree of Life, torepresent the diversity of existence.

The Witch MazeWe now come to the Witch Maze. TheWitch Maze is just that; a mazefeaturing exhibits on famous Witchesfrom history and especially from themodern community.

There have been many museums thathave focused on the origins and historyof Witchcraft, or on specific historicalWitches, but so far as we know World

of Witches is the only museum that hasever featured a section devoted topersonalities from the modern Witchcommunity.

Here in our Maze is a chronologicaltimeline of important Witches. Ofcourse this is an ongoing project andwill probably always be, because therewill always be more to add. The firsttwist in the Maze is dedicated to

Witches from the ancient world suchas the Mesopotamian PriestessEnHeduAnna, the Egyptian VizierImHotep, the Greek Pythagoras, andthe Roman Plutarch to name just a few.As we move forward we encounterfigures such as the English prophetessMother Shipton and Dr. J ohn Dee. Butvery quickly we come to the foundersof the modern Witch movement and themodern metaphysical community in

general: people like Charles Leland,Margaret Murray, Gerald Gardner, AlexSanders, and Sybil Leek. We also havemore controversial figures such asDorothy Clutterbuck and Lydia Becket.

Tree of Life

Witch Maze


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Moving forward we come to installationshonoring famous contemporaryWitches and Pagans such as the greatRaymond Buckland, Silver RavenWolf,Ellen Dugan, Therese Pendragon, andGerina Dunwich, to name a few.

Among our most important exhibits in theMaze are those honoring Selena Fox,the foremost civil rights activist in theWorld of Witches, Scott Cunningham theWorld of Witches most beloved writer,and Abby Willowroot whose epochalGoddess 2000 Project brought the Worldof Witches into the twenty-first century.

Being in Salem we are especially proudto have a large installation honoringLaurie Cabot, the Official Witch ofSalem who has done so much toadvance the Witch community in her

lifetime, and who has worked for manyyears to advance Witch civil rights andto dispel negative stereotypes.

We are also pleased to have a largeinstallation honoring Oberon ZellRavenheart, the foremost Wizard ofthe World of Witches and founder ofthe Church of All Worlds and the GreySchool of Wizardry.

As time goes forward we will be addingmany more personalities to the WitchMaze not only famous leaders andauthors but also ordinary Witches andPagans who make up the World ofWitches itself.

The Magic RoomNow we enter our Magic Room. Herewe discuss Magic; in particular thedifferences between low magic andhigh magic.

Our first installation in the Magic Roomis our Kitchen Witch. A Kitchen Witchis a Witch who uses seemingly everydayitems like herbs, oils, stones, candles,etc to do practical magic in their daily

life. This sort of magic is intended tomake ones life better in tangible ways,and is called Low Magic.

In a light hearted scene our KitchenWitch works with herbs and oils andstones while surrounded by her manyadoring feline familiars in whose honor


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the kitchen is graced by a small altar toBast.

Next we have our Alchemist. Alchemy,Hermeticism, and Ceremonialism aremovements similar to but different frommodern Witchcraft. This kind of magic isintended to help one grow spiritually andto become closer to Deity. It is calledHigh Magic.

Alchemy, Hermeticism, andceremonialism have their origin in late

Greco-Roman Egypt where nativeEgyptian and Greek ideas merged torevolutionize the magical thinking of thetime. However, Alchemy, Hermetcism,and Ceremonialism often overlap withmodern Witchcraft, and all share theteaching As Above, So Below.

As Above, So Below is the idea thateverything in the created world reflectsits creator, so if you want to learn about

Spirit you can do so by studying Nature.

Most people think that Alchemists werenothing but a bunch of idiots constantlytrying to turn lead into gold. Alchemistsdid in fact work with many naturalsubstances such as gold and mercuryand sulphur, but they believed that by

doing so they were learning aboutSpirit. And although some did try toturn lead into gold, in general what theywere really talking about was turningthe lead of their ordinary life into the

gold of spiritual enlightenment.

J ust as the union of Egyptian andGreek metaphysical ideas revolution-ized the magical thinking of their day,so too the union of Low Magic andHigh Magic in the nineteenth centuryrevolutionized modern metaphysicalthinking and created the modern Worldof Witches.

The Witch Hunt RoomNow we come to our Witch Hunt Room.This is arguably our scariest room. Notbecause there is anything scary in it,but because here we talk about someof the scary things in the world outside.

Here in our Witch Hunt room we talkabout Witch Hunts. Most of the peoplewho have died in Witch Hunts aroundthe world were not really Witches at all,just ordinary people accused of beingWitches because of other peoplesfantasies, greed, or prejudices. RealWitches usually manage to avoid WitchHunts or, like Tituba of Salem, theymanage to survive them.

We do talk about the Witch Hunts inEurope. Everyone knows that therewere Witch Hunts in Europe. Mostpeople think that the European WitchHunts happened in the Middle Ages.Although there was some sporadicpersecution of Witches during theMiddle Ages, for the most part the

The Alchemist


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Witch Hunts of Europe are actually a

feature of the Reformation era, and werelargely a byproduct of the fight betweenthe Catholics and Protestants, and thegreat social upheaval this caused.

Many thousands of people did die duringthe European Witch Hunts, which ragedfor more than three hundred years. Inmost cases anyone who was accusedwas found guilty. The most conservativeestimates of the death toll place it around

100,000, while the most extremeestimates are in the millions. An actuallynumber will probably never be possible.

We also talk a bit about the Salem WitchHunts. Nineteen people were hanged inSalem, and one was pressed to death.Others died in prison. The Salem WitchHunt ended when the supposedlybewitched girls at the center of thehysteria made the mistake of accusing

the governors wife, which led to thewhole thing being shut down by theGovernor. The Salem Witch Hunt wasrelatively short-lived and one reason it isso well remembered is that it came at thevery end of the Witch hysteria as the ageof skepticism was dawning and peoplewere generally embarrassed by it.

But what we mainly like to talk about inthe Witch Hunt room are not the WitchHunts of the past, but the Witch Huntsof the present. Most people do not

realize that Witch Hunts are not just apart of history but are actually stillgoing on today indeed, they areincreasing.

At this very moment in Africa morepeople are being accused ofwitchcraft, persecuted or even killedthan may ever have happened inEurope. Thousands of victims havebeen displaced. Worse, the Africans

have a fixation on the idea of childwitches, so a large number of thevictims of African Witch Hunts arechildren.

Moreover this is not confined toAfrica. In both the United Statesand the United Kingdom there havebeen several cases involving Africanimmigrants who have severely abusedor even murdered their own children

because they thought that they werewitches.

The Witch Hunts in Africa are beingspearheaded by Pentecostal ministers,like Helen Ukpadio and Thomas Muthi,who run American-style revivalministries and frequently make publicappearances in the United States.These ministries often receiveconsiderable funding from conservative

American Churches, who hopefully donot fully understand what they arefunding. Because of this the WitchHunts are not only a social evil but alsoa highly lucrative business in countriesthat for the most part suffer fromendemic poverty.

Curator Rev. Don poses in the WitchHunt cell dur ing a promotional video


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We mention this mainly in the hope thatby raising peoples awareness of theWitch Hunts in Africa we may help bringabout the end of Witch Hunts in Africa.

Also in the Witch Hunt Room is a large

installation relating to our own WitchHunt, which we encountered when wemoved our school, Witch School(WitchSchool.com), from metropolitanChicago to rural central Illinois in 2003.

Most of the people we met in centralIllinois were very nice, open-mindedpeople whose principle reaction tohaving Witches for neighbors was oneof curiosity. However some of the more

conservative local churches were not atall happy about having a Witch Schoolmove into town. One of the localchurches held pray-ins, to try to praythe Witches out of town. Another localchurch put holy oil on the wheels oftheir cars and then drove three timesaround the town to create a magical

barrier against the Witches and totallymissed the irony of what they weredoing. 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 display.

The good news is that we were incentral Illinois for seven years andno ones cat ever went missing atHalloween because of us, so hopefullythose local churches learned that theydidnt really have anything to be afraidof after all!

The Artifact RoomOur last exhibit room is the ArtifactRoom. Here we have a number ofexhibits relating to modern Witchcraft.There is a large display of magicaltools, a display of divinatory tools, anda display of altar figures. We also haveour Prosperity Altar.

The Prosperity Altar is a working altardedicated to prosperity, abundance,and wellbeing. The altar features aHappy Buddha that was brought fromCambodia in 1973. The HappyBuddha, or Buddha Mi-Li-Fo, is theBuddha of the Coming Age intraditional Buddhism, and people keepimages of him to attract happinessand prosperity into their lives. It iscustomary to rub the Happy Buddhas

round belly to attract good fortunemake the Happy Buddha Happy andhe will make you happy too! We alsohave a statue of the Roman GoddessJ uno Monetas, Goddess of Prosperity,and the Elephant Bowl honoring theelephant as symbol of good fortuneand abundance. The altar is open to

The Hoopeston Wall inthe Witch Hunt Room


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everyone and people are welcome toplace their names in the Elephant Bowl.There are a large number of bundles ofmovie prop money on the altar that maybe used for writing ones name. One mayalso leave a dollar to take a blessedstone from the Prosperity Altar.

Magical tools are tools that areconsidered sacred and are used directlyin religious ceremonies. These includeMagic Wands, of which we displayseveral types. Witches really do useMagic Wands, we just dont use themfor very much. Wands are used to directenergy and are often used in spiritualhealing. Some Wands are very simplewhile others are intricate works of art.Certain specific kinds of Wand may used

as symbols of rank or as Talking Sticksto keep order in meetings.

We also display a number of Athames.An Athame is a Magical Tool made tolook like a knife however an Athame isnot a weapon. Athames are used toopen and close Witch religious

ceremonies. As a rule most Athamesdo not have sharp edges and someare even made of stone or wood toemphasize that the knife form issymbolic in nature. Our display ofAthames includes one made from

ebony, one made from jet, and onemade from serpentine, as well as moreusual metal Athames. The Athame ismade in the form of a knife tosymbolize the power of thought tocut through things.

We also display several Chalices.Chalices are decorative cups thatrepresent the Mother Goddess andthe principle of creation. The Chaliceis commonly used to offer a communaltoast during religious ceremonies.

Our display of divinatory tools includesmany decks of Tarot cards as well asother kinds of card decks also used fordivination. Modern divinatory cardscome in an endless variety, and thoughour collection looks large it is reallyvary small when compared with thethousands of different divinatory carddecks in existence. Some of the decksin our display include the standardRider-Waite-Smith deck that mostreaders use, Aleister Crowleys classicThoth Tarot, historic decks like theTarot of Marseilles, as well asground-breaking decks such as theround MotherPeace deck and theDaughters of the Moon.

The Prosperity Altar


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Finally we have a range of altar figures.Most modern Witches have a PatronGod or Goddess, or both, or several.These Deities may come from any partof the world or any point in history. This

is because we believe that God is like adiamond one stone with many facets:or like a tree having many branches.We also believe that God must cometo every person in the way that is rightfor them. Because people are so verydifferent, we believe that God hasmany faces and that all of the facesof the Divine are legitimate.

We also have other divinatory toolssuch as Rune sets, a Tazomancers

cup with special symbols to help guidethe reader, and a Black Mirror used forscrying or vision seeking. The use ofthe Black Mirror developed from thepractice of staring into water to seekvisions and is the forerunner of theCrystal Ball.

There is also Hedi the PhrenologyHead. Phrenology is the art of readingthe bumps on a persons head, and

Phrenology Heads are maps of thedifferent cranial regions and theirmeanings. Although the practice ofPhrenology has become very rare thePhrenology Heads have entered popculture as a kitschy decorating item.


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Our display features Deity figures frommany different backgrounds. There areseveral representations of Isis who is avery popular Patron Goddess. Thereare also statues of Hekate, Kwan Yin,Yemaya, Brighid, and many others. Mostof the figures currently on display comefrom 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 veryproud to have a small display in honor ofthe Pentacle Quest. The Pentacle Questwas the ten-year legal battle to win forPagan service people and veteransthe right to have the pentacle as theiremblem of faith on their tombstone ifthey were buried in national cemeteries.This was a community-wide battle led by

the Lady Liberty League and theAquarian tabernacle Church, alongwith many other Pagan organizationsincluding the Correllian Nativist Tradition.The fight took ten years but we finallywon it. In our display we have one ofthe medals given by the Order of thePentacle to those who were directly

involved in the campaign, the patchworn by supporters, and a mojo bagfilled with blessed herbs given out tosupporters at rallies. We also have astatue of the Roman Goddess Libertas

in the form of the Statue of Liberty, whowas the Patron Deity of the PentacleQuest.

The Salem ChapelOur last room is the Salem Chapel.This is an actual working Witch Templethat offers regular worship services aswell as rites of passage and special

events such as sances. The chapelfeatures several large altars that allowpeople to see what an actual Witchsaltar looks like.

Most Witches observe monthlyceremonies called Esbats that coincidewith the New and Full Moon. There are

The Pentacle Quest Display


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also eight Sabbats, or High Holidays,

that form the Wheel of the Year andmark the seasons. Witch ceremonies donot commemorate human history butrather honor the cycles of Nature.

In designing the Salem Chapel we triedto create a warm, cheerful feeling usingshades of white and gold representingMother 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 intothe real World of Witches. We will becontinually working on the museum andhope to add and change every year, socome back and visit us again and therewill be more to see!

The Salem Chapel, North Altar

The Salem Chapel, South Altar


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World of Witches Museum57 Wharf St. Salem, Massachusetts

978-594-1569 [email protected]

A museum of Witchcraft owned and operated

by Real Witches!

Documents

World of Witches Gift Book Revised