Time Magazine has a story up looking at the recent battles over the licensing of psychics in Salem, Massachusetts. The article, written by David Van Biema, implicitly ties the growth of religious Witchcraft with these struggles over money and licensing.

“…the new regulatory changes are an indication of growth in the witchcraft industry. In 1998, the last time the town addressed the issue, it had legislated a quota allowing only one professional fortune-teller per 10,000 Salem residents. That amounted to roughly three psychics, although another nine or so were grandfathered in. The city council also licensed some psychic stores, which were allowed to subcontract to five fortune-telling workers apiece.”

Now Witches are a sizable minority within the city, Van Biema repeats the assertion that 10% of Salem’s residents self-identify as Witches*, and the tourist money brought in by Pagans on pilgrimage and curious Halloween onlookers is a big business.

“Salem may have been where witches were once tried and executed by puritans, but – thanks to the magic of branding – it has since become a mecca for witches and others involved in the occult arts, as well as for tourists. Around a hundred thousand tourists descend on the town every Halloween season.”

For those who have been reading my ongoing coverage of this issue, the Time piece won’t be anything you haven’t heard before, but the fact that this story has gone national (and it isn’t even the Halloween season yet) seems to point to the growing cultural relevance of Pagan faiths (especially when big money is involved) in America. Certainly you can see the marked shift in tone and approach from their 1972 “flashback” story “The Occult: A Substitute Faith” (in which Aidan Kelly and Sybil Leek were interviewed) where the condescension and sensationalism are barely disguised.

* That would be over four thousand Witches in the Salem area.

Tags: law, Paganism, psychics, Salem, Time Magazine, Wicca, Witchcraft