Salem's spookiest tourist traps

By GREG COOK  |  October 21, 2011

wwitches

WORLD OF WITCHES MUSEUM
After their Witch School caused friction with Christians in small-town Illinois (co-owner Ed Hubbard: "We battled all sorts of fundamentalists . . . they tried to chase us out of town"), this Wiccan group moved to Salem in July. "Internationally known psychic" Don Lewis offers readings in the handsome front parlor/gift shop. The museum is a Wiccan guided tour though the history of witchcraft, as modeled by mannequins, from cave paintings to the Oracle at Delphi to celebrated contemporary wizards and witches like Oberon Zell-Ravenheart (who bred unicorns used in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus). The mannequins are particularly pitiful and the pagan temple at the end — where you're invited to join them for rituals every evening in October — is sadly shabby.

57 Wharf Street, Pickering Wharf | $8 | 978.594.1569 | facebook.com/worldofwitches

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