1933
Laurie Cabot, High Witch of Salem” is born
Born Mercedes Elizabeth Kearsey, Laurie Cabot is best known as the High Witch of Salem. She was a newcomer to the new england area during her teenage years, having been raised in California previously. She had two husbands and a daughter with each after her career as a dancer in Boston’s The Latin Quarter ended.
She founded a shop in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1970’s called Enchanted located by the docks. It was the town’s first witch shop and, much like her practice, it focused on the science and practice of witchcraft. She later opened a second shop called Crow Havens Corner, also in Salem, located on Essex street. She then owned a third shop called The Cat, The Crow, and The Crown which later closed. Her two remaining shops are still open but are no longer owned by members of the Cabot family.
Cabot raised her daughters in witchcraft but not as a Wiccan because she practiced the craft before the Wiccan movement in the 1950’s. She began to wear dark clothing and makeup in her everyday life as a sign of her position as the high witch.
Laurie Cabot still lives and practices the craft at 87 years old.
Learning Wicca and the Tradition of the Craft 