Laurie Cabot

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name = Laurie Cabot
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birth_date = 1933
birth_place = Wewoka, Oklahoma
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other_names = Mercedes Elizabeth Kearsey
education =
writings = "The Power of the Witch"
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children = Jody Cabot, Penny Cabot
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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 bona-fide 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 as she became a young woman haunting 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) ( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Walters] ). Cabot was asked by Mr. Walters to open his Las Vegas Latin Quarter which she declined.

By the mid 1960s, Britain's Sybil Leek was gaining much press and fame as being an outspoken public "Witch". She moved to America after a successful book tour in 1964. Leek became a highly desired talk show guest and hob-knobbed with celebrities of the day. Whether or not Cabot was influenced by Leek's fame and success is not known, but a connection seems possible.

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( [http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/salemsaga.htm] ). These Salem episodes were seen by millions of viewers (since there were only 3 network TV channels). 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'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" and was successful for a time. The store is still open, though no longer owned or managed by any member of the Cabot family (formerly, her eldest daughter Jody had operated this shop starting in 1981). Cabot still maintains a shop in Salem, on Pickering Wharf and it 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. [http://www.skepticfiles.org/mys4/oprah.htm]

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. ( [http://www.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view.bg?articleid=1079422&position=also] ).

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 ( [http://www.s-t.com/daily/07-97/07-07-97/a03sr015.htm] ). 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 ( [http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3435992/detail.html] ). 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 ( [http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3435992/detail.html] ). 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 ( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Three_(Wiccan] ). She has steadily maintained that Witchcraft is never meant to be employed to cause harm or destruction ( [http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3435992/detail.html] ).

External links

* [http://www.lauriecabot.com Laurie Cabot's official website]
* [http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3435992/detail.html Article: "Police: Witch Put Hex On Department, Cabot Says 'I Don't Do Curses"']
* [http://www.controverscial.com/Laurie%20Cabot.htm unofficial Laurie Cabot biography]
* [http://www.myspace.com/lauriecabot Laurie Cabot's official MySpace page]