The year is 1692. In Salem Village, on the coast of New England, two young girls are behaving bizarrely. Witchcraft? Under pressure, the girls blame others, who are interrogated, too: they are also found to be “witches.” This was the beginning of what was later known as the Salem Witch Trials. The Puritan townspeople believed that the Devil had come to Salem. Nobody was safe from the finger of accusation. When this collective delusion finally ended, over 20 people had been burnt at the stake, hung, or, in the case of a male “witch,” pressed to death.
THE CRUCIBLE
Nearly 300 years later, a new witch hunt was on in America. During the Cold War, Senator Joseph McCarthy thought there were Communists at work everywhere. Suspected Communists had to testify at the House of Representatives’ Committee of Un-American Activities. One of them was dramatist Arthur Miller (1915-2005), who wanted to get his passport renewed to accompany his wife, Marilyn Monroe, to England. He set his 1953 play The Crucible in 17th-century Salem and it was an allegory of the anti-Communist “witch hunt” of his own time.
As for Salem, over the past decades, modern-day witches have moved into the city, attracted by its rich heritage and Gothic ambience – and the commercial opportunities. Shops sell books on witchcraft, crystals, incense, candles and costumes. Ghostwalks take visitors around the haunted houses and sinister places downtown.
Television
The cast of the 1960s sitcom Bewitched, where a witch marries a mortal, filmed several episodes here. You can even have a spell cast for you by real witches, although success isn’t necessarily guaranteed!
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Interview: The Witch of Salem
The town of Salem, Massachusetts is famous for the witchcraft trials of the late 17th century. Some 20 people were put to death, but 300 years later witchcraft provides the basis for the town’s tourism industry.
Speak Up went to Salem and met with a local witch, Leanne Marrama, who is also the co-owner of a store called The Hex. She admits that she used to be a “soccer mom” and that becoming a witch has been a liberating experience. We asked her to define witchcraft:
Leanne Marrama (Standard American accent): I truly believe that a witch does answer to no-one. We do not worship, we practise. I feel that witchcraft in itself is something we do: it’s not something you think about, or hope, it’s something... it’s an action, it’s a verb, and that’s what I do, I do it to help people, I do it to better my own life, and to strengthen the things around me and I feel that we can really raise some amazing energy to bring good things to you.
the inner child
Leanne Marrama also does a number of witchcraft events for children and she feels that this is appropriate:
Leanne Marrama: You know, the little minds are very apt, very open to magic and witchcraft. I think spirit so easily talks to small minds, they’re just available, you know, it’s right there. You know, it’s like when you say, yeah, people say, “the children see the fairies and after you reach a certain age you can’t see them any more,” and I think that happens and I think what a witch, one of the things – ‘cause witches are many things – but one of the things witches are, we’re still children, we can still see fairies and the dead and ghosts and angels, we don’t let go, we don’t actually cross completely into adulthood, so we stand in a balance... we stand balance with adulthood and childhood, like Peter Pan still.
For more information: www.salem.org