Wizard ‘upset’ by rebuff

Press, 28 April 1989, Page 1

Wizard ‘upset’ by rebuff

PA Invercargill Stung by an Invercargill petition against him, the Christchurch Wizard has spoken out against the occult — and people who want to stop others having fun. He said yesterday he was “very upset” that 420 people had petitioned the Invercargill City Council to have nothing to do with him or anyone else engaged in occult practices. “I dpn’t myself practise the occult and I don’t recommend it to anybody. It’s dangerous stuff. People become obsessed bv it

and lose their common sense,” the Wizard said. If people regarded his own activities, such as his rain dance at the Waimate A. and P. show, as occult then it showed little knowledge of the subject. The Wizard said he had no time for tarot cards, astrology, I Ching, or ogy“Everyone seems to be doing it except me and I’m the one getting blamed for it all ” The occult appealed to people who had lost all faith in science, Government and Church — “but I have some hope still,” he

said. The Wizard said he was surprised that the petition had attracted so many signatories as he always regarded Southland as a rather sane area. He commended the council for its reaction to the petition — “making a few jokes, filing it somewhere and forgetting about it.” His recent visits to Southland, and those of the past, had not been at the invitation of the City Council, but he had been engaged by councils at Dunedin, Manukau, Hastings, Napier, Wellington, Nelson and Auckland festival organisers.