Witches unite in quest for better image

Press, 26 July 1986, Page 15

Witches unite in quest for better image

By

BARRY SHLACHTER,

Associated Press through NZPA Salem, Massachusetts Self-proclaimed witches have announced the formation of an antidefamation league to counter what they say is false and malicious propaganda about themselves and to “protect our religious rights.”

“We want an end to the stereotype,” said Laurie Cabot, aged 53, a founder of the new group, Witches League for Public Awareness.

The announcement came after what they called slanted television news coverage of their recent protest against plans to film “The Witches of Eastwick,” a novel by John Updike, in Massachusetts. Ms Cabot said witches had been wrongly portrayed as broom-flying

devil worshippers. They did not cast evil spells but rather used their powers for healing, she said. “While misleading images of blacks, Jews, and other minorities have ended in the news media, misrepresentation continues for witches.” Ms Cabot said her group was formed to protect the religious freedoms of a “guesstimated” six million American witches, 2000 of whom live in Salem, which also has a museum about the seventeenth-century witch trials that took place there.

Ms Cabot said she was pleased about publicity of a protest at the Massachusetts Film Bureau’s Boston office, about the Updike film.

A Film Bureau spokeswoman, Terry Morris, said Warner Bros was considering filming in

Hingham and Cohasset south of Boston. The filmmaker had been turned down by the Rhode Island town of Little Compton.

Ms Cabot’s newly formed group is demanding that the film company either not use the word “witch” or run a disclaimer saying that the film does not accurately portray witches and their beliefs.

“Updike’s book depicts women as being frivolous people who take up Satanic practices, conjure up devils, and kill people,” she said. "Satanism is not witchcraft The book is antiwomen, anti-Christian, and anti-witch."

Particularly hurtful were grotesque pictures of witches used on Halloween decorations and greeting cards, she said.