Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a couple of questions for the Sunday Stew.

I am delighted and honored to have you with us. You are one of my most amazing and influential teachers.

I don’t think anyone can travel to Salem and not think of your contribution to putting that town on the map, making it today as the magical place that it is, especially in the Fall and Halloween season.

Did you ever think when you first came to Salem that it would ever become what it is today?

A-I started as a child with very strong psychic awareness then started to look for answers.

It was my dedication to live openly and in service to the Goddess, the God, the All. There was no other way. I opened the first witch shop in the country and at that time there was nothing like it. You could hardly find an herb shop; you couldn’t find anything. We created everything from our knowledge.

Through those stores, I was able to share the beauty, reality and power of Witchcraft. In opening any store, the intent was always to help people understand that Witchcraft was real and to teach and share that passion. All the products, including incenses, spells, potions and oils, were handmade. I know the ingredients. I know how to make them real. I wanted everyone to know that magic is real. As children, we all know in our hearts that magic exists but we are told by adults that it is just imaginary. But it does exist.

I love your new Book of Spells and Enchantment. In it you said “Follow your bliss…. In the end, what you are doing matters less than your sense of purpose and connection to it.” I love that and really connected with it. What was your defining moment as a witch?

A-I had been trained as a witch from the age of 11 & 12, became a teenager and it still wasn’t legal at that time. By the age of 30 I had my second divorce. I sat down at the kitchen table, saying, “I am someone’s mother, what else am I” and “what am I going to do with my life because obviously I’m not very good at marriage”. And right across the screen of my mind I saw the word witch. And I thought “I am a witch”! I’ve secretively been practicing off and on all my life. But when it came to my mind at that point in my life, it became a goal, and I started thinking about witchcraft, and how people do not know anything about it, us, our anthropology, where it came from, and that they only have propaganda and this misunderstanding. I decided, and made a vow to put on the robes and never take them off. So people can see a witch and know what a witch is. I got very upset over the Catholic church when they stopped having their nuns wear their habits. How do you find a nun when the nun is wearing dungarees and a sweat shirt? I thought, this is a mistake and really believe we really need to be identified. Not every witch can don their robes and be in public. They don’t have the opportunity. It was the perfect opportunity for me to start classes to try to help people and start classes in witchcarft and how it truly is. All of a sudden a situation came up and I ended up moving to Salem, and I didn’t want to move to Salem. You shouldn’t say never. I had an opportunity to move here with my 2 little girls and another woman with her children and we decided to share a nice home. So, I ended up in Salem and already had in my mind a witch shop. I thought I would do it in Boston, but that didn’t happen. When I got to Salem all these things started to fall into place. I started teaching and was the first witch to teach in a state college, and I ended up teaching in many schools. Then I ended up opening the first witch shop. It was quite an awakening.

You walk in such knowledge and navigate with grace more than anyone I’ve met knowing who you are. Seriously. What advice would you give a witch for enduring and getting through a troubling time?

A-We have to expect the unexpected. We are psychic and we train ourselves to be psychic, and sometimes we pick up things ahead of time as forewarned is forearmed . But there is the unexpected because we’re living a path that in some ways is karmic and in a sense we have to have lessons and we have to learn , and we don’t always know what our lessons are until they come about. I think that’s when you have to reflect on what you know and what you believe. Belief is not anything that we need, we need to know our magic, and how to protect ourselves. How to grow, how to learn with our magic. How can I face this situation with grace and knowledge and get through this troubling time?

Studying with you has definitely widened my sphere of awareness and power that I never knew I held. I love how you talk about self esteem saying “it is the key to all magick not just love magick” Can you expand on that ?

A-There is a psychiatrist who wrote a book about Primal Scream, although it was extreme, his knowledge about the effect of esteem and low self esteem was apparent. You understand that if you are not touched, if you are not talked to, that child will die because they are not sending their own self esteem. Hate kills. Love heals . When you love yourself and understand the gifts that you have , and have that esteem, you stay healthier, happier and then you can help other people. You can’t help anyone if you’re completely damaged and have no self esteem. Building self esteem is not easy, especially if your parents told you “no” all the time or told you that you were stupid or you shouldn’t do this or you shouldn’t do that. A lot of us were raised in a family like that. So we are starting out trying to build the power of our self esteem by saying “wait a minute’ I can do that”, and “yes. I am good at this”, and recognizing our own qualities are very very important. All magic you know, comes from that power, and self love, and the love of others is the biggest power on earth .

I love the story you told of having tea with your daughter in July and the two of you doing the spell together that made it snow. Have you a spell for affecting the weather like that you can share?

A-I don’t share any weather spells because changing the weather here would change the weather around the globe and it can make a horrendous effect. So it’s very seldom that I would even think of changing the weather. However, at that time my daughter was only 9 years old , and when we walked in I was in my robe and people gave us all kinds of dirty looks and inquisitive looks and they looked at Penny as well. So when we sat down, I noticed that she was very sad and embarassed and she had put her little head down and she wouldn’t look up and she wouldn’t look at people and I said, “you know what Penny, it’s a wonderful thing what we are and what we do and why don’t we do some magic right now so we can understand what it is we do and that we love ourselves, let’s try it”. So we went into Alpha “if it is correct and for the good of all we shall have snow in July instead of the hot sun”. Penny started laughing, she thought that was very funny, and we had our sandwich and later walked home. We hadn’t noticed but another woman who lived with us was downton and when later, she came home, she was brushing snow off her shoulder and said “did you do this”? We both chimed in together saying “yes we did”. It helped her to understand that what we do is real, it’s not harmful. We never do harm, we always ask if it is correct and for the good of all. We never send bad energy to anyone since it only comes back to us so we’re not going to do that. She learned a great lesson and the snow helped.

Is there anything you have not already done that you would like to do ?

A-I would, like everyone else who is spritual , whether it’s witchcraft, buddhism, christianity, I would make the world peaceful. I would have clean air , clean water. I would have all the animals protected. Of course that would be beyond any one person. We don’t understand all the mayhem that is in the world , we don’t understand if there is a god and goddess. Then, why is there all this turmoil? People pitting against each other , and mostly the wars are based on religion, which is shocking when you speak of it, but if I had that kind of , of course, that would be the first thing I would do.

Do you have a favorite spell?

A-I really don’t. I have favorite ways of doing spells. I do use planetary colors and energy, so that I know beforehand where the planets are and the energy and that seems to make them work better. I have so many ways of doing so many spells that I really don’t have a favorite.

What is your favorite Sabbat and your favorite time of year?

A-Oh it’s Samhain and Yule. Those are my favorites . Father winter. The minute Samhain is over I put my trees up and light them because we celebrate winter and that is the beginning of winter. In the old ways there used to be only two seasons, summer nd winter and we still honor that at our house. So when winter comes on Nov. 1 to us, it’s the perfect snow, not December We start then, merging the winter to be comfortable and beautiful. We have three trees at our house, huge crystals in the windows and hanging over the door and paintings, and everything is ready for winter to come.

Laurie Cabot- Where The Majick Begins

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a couple of questions for the Sunday Stew.

I am delighted and honored to have you with us. You are one of my most amazing and influential teachers.

I don’t think anyone can travel to Salem and not think of your contribution to putting that town on the map, making it today as the magical place that it is, especially in the Fall and Halloween season.

Did you ever think when you first came to Salem that it would ever become what it is today?

A-I started as a child with very strong psychic awareness then started to look for answers.

It was my dedication to live openly and in service to the Goddess, the God, the All. There was no other way. I opened the first witch shop in the country and at that time there was nothing like it. You could hardly find an herb shop; you couldn’t find anything. We created everything from our knowledge.

Through those stores, I was able to share the beauty, reality and power of Witchcraft. In opening any store, the intent was always to help people understand that Witchcraft was real and to teach and share that passion. All the products, including incenses, spells, potions and oils, were handmade. I know the ingredients. I know how to make them real. I wanted everyone to know that magic is real. As children, we all know in our hearts that magic exists but we are told by adults that it is just imaginary. But it does exist.

I love your new Book of Spells and Enchantment. In it you said “Follow your bliss…. In the end, what you are doing matters less than your sense of purpose and connection to it.” I love that and really connected with it. What was your defining moment as a witch?

A-I had been trained as a witch from the age of 11 & 12, became a teenager and it still wasn’t legal at that time. By the age of 30 I had my second divorce. I sat down at the kitchen table, saying, “I am someone’s mother, what else am I” and “what am I going to do with my life because obviously I’m not very good at marriage”. And right across the screen of my mind I saw the word witch. And I thought “I am a witch”! I’ve secretively been practicing off and on all my life. But when it came to my mind at that point in my life, it became a goal, and I started thinking about witchcraft, and how people do not know anything about it, us, our anthropology, where it came from, and that they only have propaganda and this misunderstanding. I decided, and made a vow to put on the robes and never take them off. So people can see a witch and know what a witch is. I got very upset over the Catholic church when they stopped having their nuns wear their habits. How do you find a nun when the nun is wearing dungarees and a sweat shirt? I thought, this is a mistake and really believe we really need to be identified. Not every witch can don their robes and be in public. They don’t have the opportunity. It was the perfect opportunity for me to start classes to try to help people and start classes in witchcarft and how it truly is. All of a sudden a situation came up and I ended up moving to Salem, and I didn’t want to move to Salem. You shouldn’t say never. I had an opportunity to move here with my 2 little girls and another woman with her children and we decided to share a nice home. So, I ended up in Salem and already had in my mind a witch shop. I thought I would do it in Boston, but that didn’t happen. When I got to Salem all these things started to fall into place. I started teaching and was the first witch to teach in a state college, and I ended up teaching in many schools. Then I ended up opening the first witch shop. It was quite an awakening.

You walk in such knowledge and navigate with grace more than anyone I’ve met knowing who you are. Seriously. What advice would you give a witch for enduring and getting through a troubling time?

A-We have to expect the unexpected. We are psychic and we train ourselves to be psychic, and sometimes we pick up things ahead of time as forewarned is forearmed . But there is the unexpected because we’re living a path that in some ways is karmic and in a sense we have to have lessons and we have to learn , and we don’t always know what our lessons are until they come about. I think that’s when you have to reflect on what you know and what you believe. Belief is not anything that we need, we need to know our magic, and how to protect ourselves. How to grow, how to learn with our magic. How can I face this situation with grace and knowledge and get through this troubling time?

Studying with you has definitely widened my sphere of awareness and power that I never knew I held. I love how you talk about self esteem saying “it is the key to all magick not just love magick” Can you expand on that ?

A-There is a psychiatrist who wrote a book about Primal Scream, although it was extreme, his knowledge about the effect of esteem and low self esteem was apparent. You understand that if you are not touched, if you are not talked to, that child will die because they are not sending their own self esteem. Hate kills. Love heals . When you love yourself and understand the gifts that you have , and have that esteem, you stay healthier, happier and then you can help other people. You can’t help anyone if you’re completely damaged and have no self esteem. Building self esteem is not easy, especially if your parents told you “no” all the time or told you that you were stupid or you shouldn’t do this or you shouldn’t do that. A lot of us were raised in a family like that. So we are starting out trying to build the power of our self esteem by saying “wait a minute’ I can do that”, and “yes. I am good at this”, and recognizing our own qualities are very very important. All magic you know, comes from that power, and self love, and the love of others is the biggest power on earth .

I love the story you told of having tea with your daughter in July and the two of you doing the spell together that made it snow. Have you a spell for affecting the weather like that you can share?

A-I don’t share any weather spells because changing the weather here would change the weather around the globe and it can make a horrendous effect. So it’s very seldom that I would even think of changing the weather. However, at that time my daughter was only 9 years old , and when we walked in I was in my robe and people gave us all kinds of dirty looks and inquisitive looks and they looked at Penny as well. So when we sat down, I noticed that she was very sad and embarassed and she had put her little head down and she wouldn’t look up and she wouldn’t look at people and I said, “you know what Penny, it’s a wonderful thing what we are and what we do and why don’t we do some magic right now so we can understand what it is we do and that we love ourselves, let’s try it”. So we went into Alpha “if it is correct and for the good of all we shall have snow in July instead of the hot sun”. Penny started laughing, she thought that was very funny, and we had our sandwich and later walked home. We hadn’t noticed but another woman who lived with us was downton and when later, she came home, she was brushing snow off her shoulder and said “did you do this”? We both chimed in together saying “yes we did”. It helped her to understand that what we do is real, it’s not harmful. We never do harm, we always ask if it is correct and for the good of all. We never send bad energy to anyone since it only comes back to us so we’re not going to do that. She learned a great lesson and the snow helped.

Is there anything you have not already done that you would like to do ?

A-I would, like everyone else who is spritual , whether it’s witchcraft, buddhism, christianity, I would make the world peaceful. I would have clean air , clean water. I would have all the animals protected. Of course that would be beyond any one person. We don’t understand all the mayhem that is in the world , we don’t understand if there is a god and goddess. Then, why is there all this turmoil? People pitting against each other , and mostly the wars are based on religion, which is shocking when you speak of it, but if I had that kind of , of course, that would be the first thing I would do.

Do you have a favorite spell?

A-I really don’t. I have favorite ways of doing spells. I do use planetary colors and energy, so that I know beforehand where the planets are and the energy and that seems to make them work better. I have so many ways of doing so many spells that I really don’t have a favorite.

What is your favorite Sabbat and your favorite time of year?

A-Oh it’s Samhain and Yule. Those are my favorites . Father winter. The minute Samhain is over I put my trees up and light them because we celebrate winter and that is the beginning of winter. In the old ways there used to be only two seasons, summer nd winter and we still honor that at our house. So when winter comes on Nov. 1 to us, it’s the perfect snow, not December, we start then, merging the winter to be comfortable and beautiful. We have three trees at our house, huge crystals in the windows and hanging over the door and paintings, and everything is ready for winter to come.

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