'Occult Goes Modern With Charms, Churches, TV', Joann Harris, The Baltimore Sun, 26 April 1970

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), Sunday 26 April 1970, page 73. Joann Harris's long feature on the occult revival in Baltimore: the Aquarian Age Bookstore of Melvin Hess and Bernard Hoffmann, the artist Robert Hieronimus and his house of meditation, candle shops, card readers, the Free University at Johns Hopkins, and a second piece on astrology. Alex Sanders appears once, through his biography. Writing a fortnight after Apollo 13, Harris quotes King of the Witches on the story that more than 400 witches met in the New Forest during the war to turn back the German invasion. It shows how far the book had travelled within weeks of its American publication. Sybil Leek is also mentioned. The small crop is the paragraph that quotes the book; the two photographs and the full page follow. How to cite: Joann Harris, 'Occult Goes Modern With Charms, Churches, TV', The Baltimore Sun, 26 April 1970, p. 73. Alexandrian Witchcraft Timeline & Archive.

[ photo of a Quija board ] Interest in mysticism and the occult, symbolized by ouija board, above, has grown in recent years. Left, Melvin Hess leads discussion on mystic power at the Aquarian Age Bookstore, specializing in occult literature. [ photo of Melvin Hess with group ] Sunpapers photos- Paul Hutchins and Carl D. Harris Occult Goes Modern With Charms, Churches, TV A Soap Opera Vampire Even Has A Fan Club By JOANN HARRIS The occult has always moved people’s imaginations, resulting in legends about ghosts, vampires, magicians, clairvoyants and psychic phenomena. The mysticism which the occult embraces is experiencing a revival, but without the feeling of fear of the supernatural. Women TV viewers write fan letters to a vampire, named Jonathan Frid, on a TV spook-soap opera called “Dark Shadows.” Evidence of the mystic appeared when actress Sharon Tate and her friends were murdered by hippies in a trance. Some teen-agers gave their tacit approval by starting Charles Manson fan clubs. He was the alleged leader of the hippies. Even Count Dracula of Bram Stoker’s novel has achieved social acceptance; Professor Raymond McCally is writing a book that portrays Dracula as a man with a personality problem. The interest in the occult is intense, regardless of whether it’s directed toward black magic’s self-interest or white magic’s efforts for good. Business is capitalizing on the interest. Baltimorean William Fuld’s invention, the ouija board, is among the mystic-oriented games that are profiting by the occult interest. Dennis Wheatley’s satanic book series (“The Satanist,” “The Devil Rides Out”) mixes tales of witch hunting with remedies against evil. Wear a necklace of garlic; carry the herb belladonna to repel vampires; draw a pentacle - an eight-sided star - on the floor and fill each point with consecrated water; add horseshoes for greater protection, and sit inside the pentacle until danger is past. Gathering Forces Nonbelievers may say that such danger and protection is only in the mind. But people are gathering supernatural, or inexplicable, forces to themselves in many fields. Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Rhine experiment in extrasensory perception and precognition at Duke University. An astral doctor in Toccoa, Ga., claims to practice surgery using light beams. Mystics gathered at an April “occult festival” in New York’s Filmore East. The concert hall was filled with white magicians, necromancers and astrologers. Belief in mysticism was tested during a Vietnam war protest several years ago, when protesters attempted to levitate the White House. The building failed to respond. Mystics believe in the spiritual power of numbers. A common superstition is that the number 13 is unlucky. Apollo 13 is a case in point. The capsule went up at 13 minutes after the hour, and developed problems on April 13. Even though the astronauts named the ship Aquarius, the good vibrations of the astrological name didn't seem to offset the number, according to mystics. Whether the 13 was responsible for Aquarius’s problems, some witches believe that their occult circles’ mental powers do influence national events. In “King of the Witches” Alex Sanders’s biography, he says “ . . . when it was thought that the Germans would invade England in the Second World War, another grand sabbat was called. In the New Forest over 400 witches met . . . they sent out their vital life-force . . . That week dense mists and fogs obscured the English Channel; the invasion was called off.” Ladies’ Home Astrologist English witch Sybil Leek encountered skeptics when she came to America six years ago. Her powers are now respected enough for her to write a monthly astrology column for Ladies’ Home Journal. Many national magazines are acquiring their own astrologer or seer. McCall’s has Maurice Woodruff. Santha Rama Rau writes for a variety of magazines. Harper’s Bazaar offers “Eye on the Sky” by Zaora Pove. Esquire devoted an issue to the West Coast’s absorption with the occult. The “Satanic Bible” explores the “new religion,” originated on the West Coast. The book claims that man’s destiny isn’t necessarily his own if spirits intervene. Periodically a rumor circulates that Washington seeress Jeane Dixon has predicted a national crisis, and anxious people call newspapers to verify it. Instead of causing alarm, magic can boost business. At the Palmer House on Eutaw street, lunch and dinner are served, with a side-order of fortunes. Seeress Alma is deluged with requests. After an hour-and-a-half wait, she has the client shuffle the cards and cut them three times. Alma says she receives messages by ESP, not through the cards that she uses instead of tarot. She correctly predicted to Joan Hackett that the Center Stage production “Park” would go on Broadway. She also consults romantic couples and an occasional legislator. “I’ve read 50 fortunes since I came in today,” Alma says, wearily looking at the cards. “I see you’re in the arts. I get writing. You have a psychic gift that helps in your work. I see a sandy-haired man with blue eyes . . .” Guesswork or true psychic sense? Only Alma knows for sure. The answer may lie in the believers’ acceptance of what he’s told, as in voodoo. In local black neighborhoods, vestiges of belief in voodoo remain. A man in a Dracula-like black cape found that blacks crossed the street, rather than cross his path. Voodoo beliefs are even stronger in the South, where the people aren’t as far removed from their racial heritage and language. In voodoo rituals, a cock is usually slaughtered by the high-priest to work individual magic, but it’s said to be possible to cast a spell by writing symbols on a victim’s door with a slaughtered chicken (bought from the butcher shop by those who are squeamish). Potions are sold by voodoo priests to acquire power, love or money. At the Clover-Horn on Gay street, magic candles are sold. The overpowering smell of paraffin fills the musty shop, where women line up to pay for money-attracting candles, power-drawing candies, zodiac oil, fire of love brand oil, confusion candies and protective candles. Green Attracts Money Candles shaped in the images of a woman’s body, of a cross and of a skull all are reputedly endowed with magical properties when used in the proper candle-burning rituals. A salesman says, green and purple candles are the best-sellers. It is said that green attracts money; purple helps achieve worldly ambitions, overcome business obstacles and high tension. “The Master Book of Candle-Burning" warns that purple “should be taken in small doses.” Diagrams in the book explain placement of candles to achieve different goals. The Clover-Horn stocks “dressing” materials too, to increase the candles’ power - doves’ blood oil, black art brand oil, fire of love brand oil, beneficial dream brand oil. Like every other business, progress has affected magic. Among the vials and containers of herbs stand aerosol spray cans of jinx-removing incense, fortune-telling spray, fast-luck spray, money-drawing spray and black art power. Local black magic practitioners, if there are any, shy away from publicity. No one will admit to dabbling in the wrong side of the astral plane. A more beneficial form of mysticism is the white magician's. A Little Deva Artist Robert Hieronimus describes an encounter with good spirits, which he calls angels or by the Hindu term devas, as “not verbal, but emotional. Your vision becomes extremely acute.” Angels, or devas, he says, are attracted by incense, mantrums (Hindu verbal sayings) and prayers. “A little deva might be vibrating at a 60th octave, another at a 90th octave, so they may not even be visible to each other,” he says in explaining the cosmic vibration chart. The rating chart lists average vision at the lowest vibration rate, developed psychic sight on a higher scale. “We all know that dogs can hear things we can't hear, bats sense things that we can't. It's because their adaptors are attuned to higher vibrations. Everything that exists is a vibration.
“The reason I'm visible is that I'm vibrating at a low rate.” The Southern Educational Network is now taping a show about Hieronimus’s career in art, mysticism and astrology. He shares a house of meditation with 10 other young people. The white mansion in Mount Washington has the earmarks of an ordinary suburban home - a cat wandering across the yard, immaculate grounds. But the lavender shutters and door and a symbolically-painted VW indicate that this is no typical home. Construction of a church progresses on the next plot. “We rent the house and own the property where we’re building the church,” he says. Hieronimus is studying to be a priest, as are others in the group, in the liberal catholic faith. “That doesn't refer to the Catholic Church, but it means liberal, as in freedom and catholic, as in universal.” Groups Around City Meditation groups and lectures, now scattered around the city, will have an established meeting place when the church is completed. The house of meditation residents refuse to use mystic powers against a neighbor who objects to the church being built. “It’s against the law to use mysticism to interfere with someone’s will," he says. “That would be black magic. The punishment would mean possible loss of our own souls. We’d become debased people. We’ll be given more power to help people if we do this the right way.” That's Karma, one of the keystones of mystic beliefs: the Sanskrit word means action and implies the entire cycle of cause-effect. Bernard Hoffmann of the Aquarian Age Bookstore explains it in contemporary terms: “If I ran a red light and wasn’t caught by a policeman, in a sense I’d be getting away with it. But not really. Everything we do has a certain action and reaction. That's Karma.” Reincarnation is a necessary adjunct to Karma, to continue into subsequent lives the cause and effect principle, believers say. Hoffmann’s bookstore, in partnership with Melvin Hess, is a clearinghouse for literature about the occult. It is also a gathering place at 8 P.M., Wednesdays, for interested people. At one night’s session, around 40 people sat cross-legged on the floor. Hess talked to them about freedom and control. The people are predominantly young, with a few middle-aged women among them. They dressed with individuality - a few as suburban matrons, some as students, some as hippies and others in trying-hard-to-be-hippies costume. In Indian Monastery They talked about control, defining it in individual terms: “Control is a sort of detachment.” “Control is your drive.” “I’m mixed up about control.” Hess introduces a visitor from India, who starts to sit down in the speaker’s chair, which almost collapses, “That chair has no control,” the Indian says. The crowd laughs, breaking the introspective mood. Hess spent a year in an Indian monastery, before returning to Baltimore and going into the bookstore business. Conversations with him and Hoffmann circle around the reality of words. Were you studying to be a monk? “I can't answer that,” Hess says. “Labels are misleading.” Do you go to a church?” “Do you want me to plug a church?” Hess asks. “I sometimes go to a Catholic Church.” Church In His Head Bennett interjects, “He has a nice church in his apartment - and a nicer one in his head.” Hess believes in the duality of the human spirit: the higher spirit (the better) and the lower (baser) spirit. They agree the essence of religion is dying down. “There is still a shell, the form of religion. When people build a ritualistic form, they block themselves off. Much of the essential teachings of religion are universal. What’s not universal is eating fish, pork or vegetarianism.” Many young people seem to be turning to more esoteric spiritual teachings, rather than to the church. Books written by Idries Shah, a disciple of Sufism (Persian spiritual beliefs) surprised themselves on the best-seller list with “Tales of the Dervishes” and “The Way of the Sufi.” The latter book quotes classical Sufi writers, such as Omar Khayyam: “Do you know what a man of earth may be, Khayyam? A lantern of imaginings, and inside a lamp.” The Theosophical Society on Charles street explores similar ancient - but new to Americans - spiritual beliefs on Sunday afternoons. Using the book, “The Secret Doctrine,” the audience of 36 follows the text as a speaker discusses life forces (or the Hindu prana). Taught At Free University Over 200 young people followed up their interests in Far Eastern precepts and the occult by attending the Free University in February at Johns Hopkins University. (A “Free University” literally is one at which anything can be taught; it doesn’t refer to cost but curriculum.) The university will be repeated during the summer and again in the fall; during one of the segments ABC will tape materials for a broadcast on the occult. Hieronimus delivered 16 lectures during the university sessions. They were divided between the symbolism of his room-sized mural, “The Apocalypse” in Levering Hall, and his second mural, “The Lord’s Prayer,” in McCoy Hall, both at the Hopkins. Baltimorean John Robertson also led 16 lectures, described as an introduction to the esoteric sciences. “A lot of people are frightened when they discover they have to know tarot cards, Sanskrit, etc. They don’t know what books to go to on their own,” an occult devotee says. Recommended as an introduction is “The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception” by Max Heindl; it covers symbols, clairvoyance and Atlantis (considered by some to be the origin of their mystic beliefs). In a Wheatley book, a black magician speaks of Atlantis as the classic example of a black magic civilization that overstepped its powers and was deluged by water as a result. Some mystics believe that Atlantis is now surfacing. White magicians are concerned about the appeal of black magic for young people. “You'd be surprised how many young people are drawn to the black side of mysticism. They won't gain too much power, though, because they can use only the lower vibes," Hieronimus says. He is propagating his message of the benefits of white magic through a nationally-syndicated newspaper column. Which proves that white magic pays off. 2nd article on the same page: Astrology and the Aquarians By JOANN HARRIS The off-Broadway musical “Hair” plunged into the Age of Aquarius with a song by the same title: “When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will rule the planets and love will steer the stars. It is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.” The song’s message of peace has been endorsed by the “love generation,” but its astrological implications are affecting everyone. Astrology has become a common topic of conversation. Before asking someone’s name, strangers often guess his astrological sign - and consider it more important. Many astrology buffs believe that someone born under a certain sign can be recognized by biological characteristics: for instance, a Virgo remains perpetually young-looking and retains a shy manner with strangers. Libras are usually diplomatic and have magnetic personalities; they're liked by men and women. Geminis have two personalities, to match their twin signs. Astrologists point out that generalizations about horoscope characteristics may be true, but to get an accurate picture of an individual it’s necessary to know the time of birth, the date and the position the moon was in. Babies in India are generally taken at birth to have their horoscopes cast for their entire lives. Many Americans are having it done at a later date in life. The Aquarian Age Bookstore uses an ancient method of astrology to cast horoscopes for the curious. Scientific progress has affected the horoscope, too - Hutzler’s offers a computerized horoscope. Information is fed into a computer, which reports on the individual’s characteristics and dominant traits. In a variety of stores, consumers can buy their astrological signs printed, embossed, embroidered or whatever on vinyl pillows, towels, posters, pennants, ashtrays, paperweights, paintings, ad infinitum. Why the intense interest in astrology? Astrology fans, such as artist Robert Hieronimus, believe the interest is generated by the conjunction of the stars. “The Piscean Age (one of emotionality and conventionality) preceded this one, the Aquarian Age,” he says. “The Aquarian Age first began in 1776, when America was born. But it really got a send-off in 1962 when five slow-moving planets all moved into the influence of the planet of Aquarius. “All the children born since are predominantly Aquarian. The age has been reeking havoc, changing the world.” Bernard Hoffmann of the Aquarian Age bookstore believes the age has brought “a need to re-educate the public. People don’t know what laws they’re functioning under. There are legal and social laws, but planetary laws too. You should look at everything as a fine matrix setting all these forces in motion by every action.” Astrology’s message is disseminated locally through the music of a group appropriately named “Light.” Prefer Artistic Freedom The group recently recorded “Every Day,” a song about meditation by member Bob Grimm, and “One Better,” with reincarnation lyrics written by their drummer. “We finally hired a 16-track studio and produced our own record,” Grimm says. “Everyone wanted to buy us. We kept trying to tell them we’d prefer to have some artistic freedom in our records rather than money.” The group travels in a VW bus, painted with astrological symbols, to dates in local nightclubs. “We try to do as much original work as possible,” the 24- year-old musician says, “but it makes it difficult to work in nightclubs. “They (nightclub patrons) can't identify something they haven't heard. “We're trying to be an art form, not a record player. People come out, drink a lot of booze, play little status games and the music group’s over in a corner with the other machines. “Lots of people write sensual garbage aimed at the teeny-bop set. Our message essentially is to humanity as a whole. We're trying to bridge the generation gap -in quotes.” Astrology experts, absorbed in the symbology of the stars, interpret the Beatles’ movie, “The Yellow Submarine,” as a story told in symbols of the rising of Atlantis and the return of spiritualism. Hieronimus believes the country’s early leaders - Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson - were spiritualists too. He’s working on translating the symbology of the country's Great Seal. The planetary sign Aquarius, which is ruling this period, symbolizes the invisible ethers, electricity, magnetism, control of gravitational forces, nuclear physics, vision expansion and increased consciousness. Some believe that in the early days of Christianity, the reason for halos surrounding Christian leaders’ heads in paintings is that people actually saw the light of these forces surrounding their heads.