Going to the Devil

Press, 19 August 1983, Page 15

Going to the Devil

A huge boom in the sales of Devil-worship goods is perturbing both churches and the police. In Britain, every diocese will have a priest trained to cope with the dangers of black magic — but, in many cases, the law is powerless to act.

Going to the Devil has suddenly become one of the world’s major growth industries. An unprecedented number of people are dabbling in black magic—and a recent British survey shows that one in three adults now believes in the Devil.

Which is why at least six major churches, including the Church of England, are organising instruction in exorcism for priests. For instance, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie, has recently ordered that every diocese in Britain should have an expert clergyman capable of dealing with witchcraft problems.

A secret report commissioned by the church has just revealed that there are now an estimated 109,000 witches in Britain, compared with 10,000 only a year ago. For example, the London borough of Merton discovered that the subject was so popular, that it launched an adult education course on witchcraft and pagan religiononly to scrap it after receiving scores of protesting letters. A representative of Britain’s largest mail-order occult shop, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, of Leeds, reported: “Business is booming. We’ve got 20,000 customers on our books.

“We sell everything you need for your black mass—from a $7 voodoo doll to a portable magic circle for $240.”

Francis King, one of the coauthors of “The Rebirth of Magic,” says: “London is full of witches. There are dozens of different orders and societies in the city.

“The reason is that normal religion has lost all its mystery and glamour. Many people seem to find witchcraft a very satisfactory religion.”

That the occult is alive and flourishing, particularly in the Welsh area of mid-Glamorgan, is confirmed by the 35-year-old Rev. Steve Morgan, vicar of Christchurch, Cyfarthfa.

He was recently asked by hospital doctors to perform an exorcism when a man, believed to be the victim of a black magic ceremony, turned up at hospital in a trance.

Mr Morgan spent three hours talking to the man, and later reported: “There’s no doubt that he had been involved in some occult practice or other.

“Occult and black magic practices are reaching disturbing proportions. I have had many people come to see me seeking help to escape from witches’ covens.”

Another vicar who claimed to have come up against the potent appeal of witchcraft is the Rev. Lucas Alsod, who recently startled parishioners during a sermon at Charmouth, Dorset, when he claimed that covens were meeting on local beaches.

He alleged that witches had put his fellow clergymen under a marriage-breaking spell: “These people would like to destroy ministers and their families.”

Recently, Nottinghamshire police claimed to be dealing with a gang of devil worshippers, after an attack in which Edwinstone Parish Church, near Worksop, was daubed with black magic slogans.

Symbols and slogans were painted on the church, many written in perfect Latin. The police said that, when translated, the slogans contained a black magic message.

A self-styled witch, Elizabeth St George, who runs an occult firm called Spook Enterprises in Lon-

don, believes that there need not necessarily be anything sinister in the new interest in witchcraft.

“People mostly want luck, and they are turning more and more to witchcraft to get it,” she says. Witchcraft was still a capital offence until 1735, when the law was changed by the introduction of the Witchcraft Act. In 1951, it was replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act, which still protects the public from people claiming to have supernatural powers. Loopholes in the law still allow mail-order businesses to offer black magic rituals designed to help the unemployed find work. The “getting a job ritual” consists of a set of spells, incense, and a mini-alter with which to magic your way out of the dole queue. The cost: just under $65. Another black magic mail-order firm stocks more than 3000 occult

book titles, and says: “Our customers come from all walks of life—postmen to pop stars. “Our best lines are spells, ritual daggers, goat-skulls, and cloaks. There are flourishing covens in hundreds of cities and towns, all run by deadly-serious devotees of black magic.”

Churches everywhere are deeply disturbed by the growth of occult practices. In Britain, there have been three closed conferences in the last six months to discuss ways of combating the trend.

Scotland Yard says it is watching the situation closely, but can act only if the law is broken—either in cases involving fraud, indecent practices, or a breach of the peace.

Meanwhile, while God and the Devil are battling it out. Mammon is doing a roaring trade throughout Europe in High Street shops and mail-order firms.

RUPERT BUTLER,

Features