Laurie Cabot
| Laurie Cabot | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Mercedes Elizabeth Keersey March 6, 1933 Wewoka, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Occupation | Occultist (Witchery priestess), former exotic dancer |
| Years active | 1949-present |
| Children | 2 |
Laurie Cabot (born March 6, 1933) is an American Witchcraft high priestess, one of the most high-profile witches in the world, one of the first people to popularize Witchcraft in the United States, and the author of several books.
She founded 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 she was declared the "Official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts" by Governor Michael Dukakis to honor her work with special needs children.
She continues to reside in Salem, where she owned a shop called The Cat, the Crow, and the Crown, which closed in early 2012 after 40 years. Cabot claims to be related to the prominent Boston Brahmin Cabot family. She is a part of Salem lore, and a local celebrity in that city and throughout the Massachusetts North Shore.
Laurie Cabot was born Mercedes Elizabeth Kearsey. She grew up in California and came east to New England as a teenager. She maintains that her interest in the occult began in childhood. She developed this interest in Boston through time she spent as a young woman in 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, the father of TV journalist Barbara Walters. Cabot was asked by Mr. Walters to open his Las Vegas Latin Quarter, but she declined.
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. She identifies herself as a Witch, but not as a follower of the modern Wiccan religion, because she practiced Witchcraft before Wicca became a popular movement. The kind of Witchcraft that she practices focuses on the Art and Science of Witchcraft. Many of Laurie Cabot's lectures focus on energy, rather than on religious particulars, thus making her brand of the Craft Traditional Witchcraft.
...
Wikipedia