Witches In South Florida

Nov 18 2006

(CBS4) MIAMI Is there such a thing as a real witch? Witchcraft is actually a religion called Wicca and just how many believers are present in South Florida may surprise many.

CBS4's Laurie Stein took an in-depth look into the world of witches and found that many search area cemeteries in search of ghosts.

On one particularly cloudy and dark night, Stein followed some of these witches to a cemetery one evening and what she found may be shocking yet intriguing to some.

"There was one mausoleum area that was all lit up at one point, I came with my son, we both saw it, we walked back with the group later and found out it was dark and there was no electricity in the mausoleum whatsoever, and we both saw the light in there," one woman told CBS4.

She was referring to a presence not of this world and more than a dozen people at that cemetery on that same night were all searching for a similar experience; a brush with the netherworld.

"I'm hoping to catch some orbs," said another participant.

Another partaker hoped to speak to loved ones who have since passed, "I have some people I know that died here, and I'm hoping I can talk to them."

"I came for the experience of it, who knows what can happen."

They went off into the dark of night on a cemetery adventure in search of the paranormal.

"As we got closer to here, it was very, very cold, I mean we were shivering, another participant told Stein.

One woman asked, "Do you guys want to come up and touch it and see if you feel anything at this point?"

"It's right here, very little but it's there, another believer responded.

Stein reported there were dozens of hovering hands that reached out to touch the sacred obelisk where many in the group noticed a significant temperature drop there and elsewhere throughout the cemetery, a tell tale sign or paranormal activity.

The group not only felt them, but felt as though they saw orbs, light filled circles spirits sometimes take the shape of.

The orbs are the balls of white light. Many believe they're spirits.

"It was like they were having a party. We didn't get a feeling of desolation or sadness, they seems they were at peace, didn't feel any bad vibes from it," says a participant who saw the orbs in the cemetery during the tour.

The Coven Master, Sandra Richardson, performed cleansing rituals on all the participants to make sure the spirits they may have come into contact with did not go home with them. She used candles, flowers and kisses to cleanse the group before they departed.

How do believers explain what happened beyond the graves?

"You don't always need an explanation, Richardson said. It's always good to have something unexplained. You always need to have dreams, fantasies, something out of the ordinary. It keeps alive the imagination."

When Richardson is not touring cemeteries, she's writing. She's the author of "Magicka Formularia". Her book is filled with rituals, spells and hexes. Do you want to attract love? What about money? Or are you having trouble selling your home? All of these questions are tackled in her book which she says has an impressive measure of success.

"These are tried and true spells and rituals that have actually been successful," says Richardson.

Richardson says she also has psychic powers, but believes everyone has psychic abilities.

"I believe that we all have psychic abilities, we're just developed to different levels, Richardson told Stein. "I think it's 90% of our brain that we don't use and I do believe that those areas of the brain are where telekinesis, telepathy, past live memories and all of those things even more are possible."

Richardson's husband, Joe Richardson, is not Wiccan believer. Even though he follows a different path, the two have been married for 16 years now.

"Once I established the fact that she didn't worship the devil I was okay with her religion," he told CBS4. "A lot of people seem to be very fearful of witches, but one of witches main beliefs is whatever they put out in life comes back to them three times."

This is basically Karma, but in the Wiccan religion, it's 3 fold. If Wiccans do some thing bad against a person or nature, they get that negative energy back times three.

Richardson has this piece of wisdom for non-believers:

"Freedom of religion is freedom of religion for all, who is anyone to say what is a legitimate religion or not."