POLICE SEE A WITCH FOR COURSE, NOT CURSE
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER (PI) - SUNDAY September 30, 1990
By: Michelle Rizzo, Special to The Inquirer


First  it  seemed  funny: They joked about being turned into frogs. Then it
turned serious: They talked about psychic vampires (people who drain others
of energy) and magical energy forces.

   On  Wednesday, about 30 Bucks and Montgomery County police officers left
their gritty street routine and journeyed into an esoteric realm.

   For two hours, the officers put aside their skepticism and asked Michael
Slaughter,  a  self-described  witch,  to  teach  them about witchcraft and
occult philosophies.

   Slaughter, 24, said he was a member of Wicca, the religion of witches.

   Wicca is an Old English word meaning "wise one," he said. The word witch
is derived from wicca.

   "We  view  nature  as  a  form of divinity," similar to the way American
Indians do, Slaughter told the officers.

   One  of 12 members of a coven in Delaware, Slaughter traveled from Dover
with  occult  expert  Edward Maxwell, a sergeant with the New Castle County
Police,  to  help  teach  a  two-day  class on Satanism at the Bucks County
Police Training Center in Doylestown.

   Maxwell,  who  has received awards from his department for investigating
and  prosecuting  occult-related crimes, addresses law enforcement agencies
in  many  Northeastern  states. Although he is not a witch, Maxwell said he
frequently attended their rituals and had studied the occult.

   He  said  45  to  50  covens were in the Philadelphia area. No one knows
exactly  how  many  Wicca  members  there  are,  he  said,  because  of the
religion's   rules   of  secrecy,  which  date  to  the  medieval  days  of
witch-burning.

   Maxwell   instructs  officers  how  to  determine  whether  a  crime  is
occult-inspired.  He told the group to look for skulls, robes, animal parts
or vandalized Christian artifacts around the crime scene.

   The number of occult-related crimes is vastly exaggerated, Maxwell said.
Most,  he  said, are simply the work of "clever criminals" who use Satan as
an excuse for their outrages.

   "They  tell a jury things like 'I'm a Satanic high priest, and therefore
I'm  allowed  to  rape  an  11-year-old  girl.' Or they say, 'I worship the
devil; therefore, I must be insane' " to support an insanity plea.

   Intelligent,   white,   upper-middle-class  teenage  boys  who  consider
themselves  loners  are  most apt to join satanic cults, Maxwell said. Such
boys  often  feel  alienated  and  "do not feel, after 52 Sundays a year of
church, like they've touched God" or found the "power" they seek, he said.

   "They  have  just a little bit of dangerous knowledge. They pick up bits
and  pieces  of  things they read in the library and create their own stuff
and add their own spice of life."

   A  hair  stylist  by  profession, Slaughter is about 5-foot-9 and stocky
with  a  Vandyke beard. Except for the pentagram ring, necklace and crystal
bracelet, he looks like any other man in his 20s.

   True  believers  of  Wicca,  Slaughter  said,  use the energies in magic
rituals  only  for  good. The Wicca version of the Golden Rule, he told the
officers, is: "Do as thou wilt, but harm none."

   "There is no such thing as white or black magic," he said. "Magic is the
ability  to  move  energy around. The energy I heal with is the same energy
that a Satanist uses to kill with. . . . Instead of healing, I could take a
wound and make it worse, but I wouldn't."

   Witches,  he  said, believe in reincarnation and think people can choose
the time and place of their reincarnation.

   "You  might want to be born in the African jungle or downtown Chicago or
in  some  cow  town  in Iowa," Slaughter said. It all depends on what one's
"life essence is trying to learn."

   He  said  witches, like the rest of society, struggled with such ethical
questions as whether abortion is right or wrong.

   "I  personally  am  pro-choice,  but  I  have  a  pagan  friend  that is
pro-life,"  he  said. "I'm not sure why. Maybe she tried to be reincarnated
recently and was aborted, so she feels trauma when it comes to that topic."
CAPTION:

PHOTO  (2),  1. Michael Slaughter, a member of the Wicca religion, lectures
to  officers  in Doylestown. (Special to The Inquirer / HINDA SCHUMAN),  2.
His necklace combines pentagram, symbol for Mercury.