By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

As we indicated in the last newsletter, we are preparing a book entitled, Mormonism, Magic and Masonry. Because of the amount of material that has become available on this subject and because of typesetting problems and the time we have spent forming our non-profit corporation, we have not yet finished it. If things work out as we hope, we should have it completed in about a month.

Among the many things we will be discussing in this book, we intend to deal with Joseph Smith’s use of magic practices in his money digging activities. Mormon apologists used to try to discredit testimony that Joseph Smith used a “seer stone” which he placed in his hat to try to discover buried treasures. In 1971, however, Wesley P. Walters discovered an original document which proves that Joseph Smith was a “glass looker” and that he was arrested, tried and found guilty by a justice of the peace in Bainbridge, N.Y., in 1826. This document is Justice Albert Neely’s bill showing the costs involved in several trials held in 1826. The fifth item from the top mentions the trial of “Joseph Smith The Glass Looker.” Below is a photograph of this portion of the document (see Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? page 33 for a photograph of the complete document).

The importance of this discovery cannot be overstated, for it establishes the historicity of the account of the trial which was first published in 1873. We quote the following from the court record:

STATE OF NEW YORK v. JOSEPH SMITH. . . . . .

Prisoner brought before Court March 20, 1826. Prisoner examined: says that he came from the town of Palmyra, and had been at the house of Josiah Stowel in Bainbridge . . . That he had a certain stone which he had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth were; that he professed to tell in this manner where gold mines were a distance under ground, and had looked for Mr. Stowel several times, . . . at Palmyra he pretended to tell by looking at this stone where coined money was buried in Pennsylvania, and . . . had occasionally been in the habit of looking through this stone to find lost property for three years, . . . (Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? page 32)

Joseph Smith’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, seems to have been willing to concede that magic was an ‘important interest” of her family. Wesley P. Walters quotes her admission in an article entitled, “From Occult to Cult With Joseph Smith, Jr.”:

. . . it is quite clear that Joseph Smith surrounded his money digging activities with a religious atmosphere that flavored of the occult. . . . One such feature was the use of a circle marked off on the ground, a practice inherited from medieval magic and considered to aid the magician in his dealing with dangerous spirits. Joseph’s use of such magic devices in his early years gave his mother concern in later life that the family not be thought of as having devoted their entire time to such occult matters. In the preliminary draft of her history of that early period (but omitted from the printed version) she wrote:

. . . let not the reader suppose that . . . we stopt our labor and went at trying to win the faculty of Abrac, drawing magic circles, or sooth saying, to the neglect of all kinds of business. We never during our lives suffered one important interest to swallow up every other obligation.

Thus it is quite clear from all sides that Joseph wove occult religious material into his money digging practices, and this led the communities where he dug for treasure to associate him with divination, necromancy, and wizardry. (Joseph Smith’s Bainbridge, N.Y. Court Trials, Part 2, pages 126-127)

One of the most important parts of magic ritual is the drawing of circles to gain control over evil spirits. In magic books it is claimed that a circle drawn within a circle has great power. In The Ancients Book of Magic, page 10, we learn that a person who wants to contact the spirits must draw a circle, and once

he enters into the circle with his books, wands, incense and all things he needs, he draws the outer circle about 3 inches away from the circle he has already drawn . . . The operator must remember not to leave this circle during the whole invocation until the closing words have been said, for as long as he remains in the circle, no matter how fierce the demons may be they cannot break through the walls of the circle, . . .

Joseph Capron tells how Joseph Smith used stakes to form a circle around the treasure:

The sapient Joseph discovered, north west of my house, a chest of gold watches; but, as they were in possession of the evil spirit, it required skill and stratagem to obtain them. Accordingly, orders were given to stick a parcel of large stakes in the ground, several rods around, in a circular form. This was to be done directly over the spot where the treasures were deposited. A messenger was then sent to Palmyra to procure a polished sword: after which, Samuel F. Lawrence, with a drawn sword in his hand, marched around to guard any assault which his Satanic majesty might be disposed to make. . . . But, in spite of their brave defender, Lawrence, and their bulwark of stakes, the devil came off victorious, and carried away the watches. (Mormonism Unvailed, pages 259-60)

William Stafford gave the following information in his affidavit:

Joseph Smith, Sen., came to me one night, and told me, that Joseph Jr. had been looking in his glass, and had seen, not many rods from his house, two or three keys of gold and silver, some feet under the surface of the earth; and that none others but the elder Joseph and myself could get them. I accordingly consented to go, . . . Joseph Sen. first made a circle, twelve or fourteen feet in diameter. This circle, said he, contains the treasure. He then stuck in the ground a row of witch hazel sticks, around the said circle, for the purpose of keeping off the evil spirits. Within this circle he made another, of about eight or ten feet in diameter. He walked around three times on the periphery of this last circle, muttering to himself something which I could not understand. He next stuck a steel rod in the centre of the circles, and then enjoined profound silence upon us, lest we should arouse the evil spirit who had the charge of these treasures. After we had dug a trench about five feet in depth around the rod, the old man by signs and motions, asked leave of absence, and went to the house to inquire of young Joseph the cause of our disappointment. He soon returned and said, that Joseph had remained all this time in the house, looking in his stone and watching the motion of the evil spirit—that he saw the spirit come up to the ring and as soon as it beheld the cone which we had formed around the rod, it caused the money to sink. (Ibid., pages 238-239)

Animal sacrifices sometimes play an important role in magic ritual. In The Greater Key of Solomon, page 122, we find the following:

In many operations it is necessary to make some sort of sacrifice unto the Demons, and in various ways. . . . Such sacrifices consist of the blood and sometimes of the flesh.

There seems to be evidence that Joseph Smith participated in blood sacrifices in his money-digging operations. For instance, in his affidavit William Stafford related: . . .

Old Joseph and one of the boys came to me one day, and said that Joseph Jr. had discovered some very remarkable and valuable treasures, which could be procured only in one way. That way, was as follows:— That a black sheep should be taken on to the ground where the treasures were concealed—that after cutting its throat, it should be led around a circle while bleeding. This being done, the wrath of the evil spirit would be appeased: the treasures could then be obtained, . . . To gratify my curiosity, I let them have a large fat sheep. They afterwards informed me, that the sheep was killed pursuant to commandment; but as there was some mistake in the process, it did not have the desired effect. (Ibid., page 239)

The reader will notice that it was a “black” sheep that was supposed to have been sacrificed. This is interesting because The Greater Key of Solomon, page 122, says that “Sometimes white animals are sacrificed to the good Spirits and black to the evil.” In any case, W. D. Purple, who attended Joseph Smith’s 1826 trial, related the following concerning another blood sacrifice:

Mr. Thompson, an employee of Mr. Stowell, was the next witness. . . . The following scene was described by this witness, and carefully noted: Smith had told the Deacon that very many years before a band of robbers had buried on his flat a box of treasure, and as it was very valuable they had by a sacrifice placed a charm over it to protect it, so that it could not be obtained except by faith, accompanied by certain talismanic influences. . . . the fruitful mind of Smith was called on to devise a way to obtain the prize. Mr. Stowell went to his flock and selected a fine vigorous lamb, and resolved to sacrifice it to the demon spirit who guarded the coveted treasure. Shortly after the venerable Deacon might be seen on his knees at prayer near the pit, while Smith, with a lantern in one hand to dispel the midnight darkness might be seen making a circuit around the spot, sprinkling the flowing blood from the lamb upon the ground, as a propitiation to the spirit that thwarted them. They then descended the excavation, but the treasure still receded from their grasp, and it was never obtained. . . .

What a picture for the pencil of a Hogarth! . . . it was declared under oath, in a Court of Justice by one of the actors in the scene, and not disputed by his co-laborers . . . (A New Witness For Christ In America, by Francis W. Kirkham, 1959, vol. 2, pages 366-67)

Wesley P. Walters has discovered a letter written in 1842 by Joel King Noble, a justice of the peace who tried Joseph Smith in a trial held in Colesville, N.Y., in 1830. Justice Noble relates that when Joseph Smith and others were digging “for a chest of money,” they procured a black dog and offered it as “a sacrafise [blo]od Sprinkled prayer made at the time (no money obtained) the above Sworn to on trial . . .” (Letter by Justice Noble, dated March 8, 1842, photographically reproduced in Joseph Smith’s Bainbridge, N.Y. Court Trials, Part 2, page 134).

In the Book of Mormon Joseph Smith condemned the practice of animal sacrifices after the death of Christ (3 Nephi 9:19), but he later wrote that “These sacrifices, . . . will, when the Temple of the Lord shall be built, and the sons of Levi be purified, be fully restored and attended to in all their powers, ramifications, and blessings (History of the Church, vol. 4, page 211). Wandle Mace, a devout Mormon, recorded this statement in his journal:

Joseph told them to go to Kirtland, and cleanse and purify a certain room in the Temple, that they must kill a lamb and offer sacrifice unto the Lord which should prepare them to ordain Willard Richards a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. (“Journal of Wandle Mace,” page 32, microfilmed copy at Brigham Young University)

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