Chapter Two -

(i)

Religion and magic would appear to be indistinguishable, one from the other.  During the sixteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries religion and magic drew upon the same human need for security and offered to help offset the misfortunes of life.  It would seem that there can be no clear line drawn between the two, as religion can be viewed as a resort to supernatural powers or supernatural beings to determine the course of human events (Butler 1979: 317).

The editor of the Palmyra Reflector, Abner Cole, under the pseudonym of Obediah Dogberry, was the first person to discredit the religious claims of Mormonism by charging that the movement began as a money digging speculation with no religious aspects.  This is an argument commonly used by anti-Mormons against the Latter-day Saint claims of unique authority and Christian restoration. If the first prophet and founder of the Mormon Church had believed in, and subsequently practiced, magic to find buried treasure, then the Mormon story of an inspired discovery of the plates of the Book of Mormon could be suspect.  

It is only in more recent years that our modern perspective of what magic meant to the common man, and how it affected him, has extensively been revealed, particularly during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  The Reformation involved a deliberate attempt to take magical elements found in the medieval church, such as church relics and sacramental wafers, out of religion.  To some extent the Reformation was able to abandon the need to endow physical objects with supernatural qualities.  But there were many magical elements still to be endured in Protestantism.  For the Protestant, religious rituals such as fasting, prayer and anointing the sick with oil, brought control over men and nature through divine intervention.

Jon Butler (1979: 318) expressed the belief that magic was carried to America and flourished well in the colonies until at least 1720, if not beyond.  The reason he gives for occult practices waning after this time is because colonial governments tended to enforce laws against it and also occult publications, generally imported from England, were terminated.  But if later evidence is to be credible, it would seem that magic, although it may have slightly decreased, should still be thought of as something indistinguishable from religion at the time the Mormon Church emerged.  Seer stones and rodsmanship are two occult practices of which the general public, including those with faith in God, were particularly fond.

There were probably hundreds of thousands of "money diggers" from colonial times until at least the age of Jackson, all seeking valued prizes of fabled coins, jewels and mines.  Money diggers existed from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi hinterlands, yet reports of "finds" are rare so why did they persist?  Treasure seeking is a now forgotten world view, a view which many in the modern age will have difficulty in grasping.  The diggers lived in a completely different world, one of treasure seeking, intense religious feeling and a psychological devotion to an old, but even then fading, way of life (Walker 1984: 431).

Many themes to be found in American digging folklore appear much earlier in mankind's primal myths.  One example hails from Egypt which is where "most of the magic ... of the [subsequent] world may be found" (quoted in Walker: 431).  One story is that of Setnau Khaem-Uast who found an invaluable book deposited within a cavern.  The prize had originally been buried in a box, which in turn contained a series of smaller receptacles.  The last of these was a golden box guarded by a swarm of serpents and scorpions.  The Greek's are another nation with their own treasure stories, for example a winged griffin protecting treasure.  It is the Semites who speak of hidden golden plates and other valuable texts to be found in places such as caves and mountains.

Thus treasure hunting can be seen to be an ancient bequest.  There is the idea of a hidden, yet guarded, treasure, with secondary and accompanying motifs of ancient texts, boxes, mountains, and even the ratifying number three.  It is these beliefs that were eventually to become a part of the central beliefs of Indo-European folklore.  Europeans came to believe that treasure might be found in treasure chambers within mountains, deposited by a wayside cross, or found under the ruins of a fallen castle.  Recovering the treasure was a harrowing process.  The digger would have to outwit the man-like elemental spirits guarding the treasure, which the most common tales believed to be the devil.  He would maliciously move treasure around to prevent its discovery and was able to create distracting spectres to impede digging, such as frightening toads, dogs, bears or dragons.  He may even imaginatively dress himself in a bizarre red and green costume.  If such things could not scare the digger, they invariably led him to break the taboo of silence which ended any chance of success.

It was inevitable that treasure digging should arrive in the New World, what with the European tales of money-pots at the end of rainbows, Snow White's troubles with the wicked queens magic mirror and the friendly treasure mountain gnomes who rescued her, and the deeply ingrained traditional folk ideas of buried treasure, underground spirits and divination.  But in the New World they were bereft of the old European treasure landmarks and needed new places so they borrowed on the old lore and turned to mounds, caves, or even geological chasms which many thought had been created by the convulsions at the time of Christ's crucifixion.  Glacial drumlins, rising barrow-like from the upstate New York landscape, were also big attractions.  "Cumorah", as the Mormons called it, was one of these, a starkly dramatic, one-hundred-and-fifty foot high hill.  This was a major site of treasure digging both before and after Joseph received the gold plates.

There were varied identities of the people who allegedly buried treasure in such places.  Some posited the existence of an ancient American race like Pygmy miners, or Celtic Indians.  But the most popular images were those of the Spaniard and the pirate. 

(ii)

The young Joseph is known to have been ambitious and gifted with a fertile imagination.  He possibly dreamt of escaping his life of poverty and entering into an illustrious and affluent future. Josephs money digging began in earnest when he discovered a "seer stone" whilst digging a well.  Joseph Capron later testified that Joseph could see wondrous sights within it such as mountains of gold and silver, and infernal spirits.  In a letter to a Mrs Pilgrim from Navou, Illinois on March 27, 1871, Emma Hale, Josephs wife, described the stone as "not exactly black, but rather dark in colour", although she was never to admit to the early uses to which it was put (Brodie 1971: 21).

There are many of the magical elements so far described which suggest that Joseph knew his cultural folklore well.  What is not publicized in too great a detail by the Mormon Church is the court trial of March 1826, held at Bainbridge, New York.  Here Joseph admitted to an indulgence in magical arts and organized hunts for buried gold (Butler 1971: 16).

E D Howe published a collection of Mormon money digging stories in 1834.  With this he presented evidence that Joseph did believe in a magical world (Hill 1984: 477).  One testimonial account in the collection was that of Willard Chase, a neighbour of the Smith family.  This recollection of a story related to Chase by Joseph, Sr., bears remarkable similarity to an account written by Joseph Knight.  Knight was a close friend of Josephs, and also an early convert.  Whilst the former is very much anti-Mormon, and the latter very much pro-Mormon, they both have the same folklore tone to them and are very similar.  Both relate that Joseph must secure the plates on a certain day, 22 September; that he must take the book and "go directly away"; that for disobeying the orders he was prevented from obtaining the book; that the same book appeared, disappeared and reappeared after he had violated orders by laying it down; that he subsequently had to bring the right person with him to secure the record, first his brother and then his wife; and that a stone or glass was effective in helping him secure the record at last.

The very fact that the Chase account appears in a collection of testimonials published by an anti-Mormon, and the Knight narrative comes from a faithful Latter-day Saint whose statement was not published until much later, suggests that the anti-Mormon material should not be lightly dismissed.  If this was truly the case could we not say that the Chase account is more believable?  This account is very much a product of its time with something very much like a toad assuming the appearance of a man; a spirit rather than an angel; and a seer stone without which he would not have been able to secure the gold plates.  Of course, Chase may have been lying, but it is relevant to remember that by the time the Knight narrative was written the story of the finding of the gold plates could have achieved a more mature, constructive, less-magical and more-religious outlook.

Another report, an independent one, published by Fayette Lapham in 1870 has even more of a money digging format than either the Chase or Knight narratives.  Joseph, Sr., speaks of a spirit appearing to his son in an ancient suit of bloody clothes who stated that he had been murdered to protect the plates.  This is not unlike the way in which pirates were known to have killed men so that their spirits would guard the treasure.  The number three also plays a part as Joseph is struck three times with some considerable force.  What is remarkable is the story told by Lucy Mack Smith, Josephs mother.  Hers is so much more religious than any of the others.  For Lucy the messenger was most definitely divine, and when Joseph subsequently loses the plates for disobeying orders he actually kneels down to pray to God.

How can all these accounts be so different, especially the Mormon ones?  Excuses may be made.  Perhaps the lapse in time made them forget certain facts.  Maybe the whole Smith family was involved in one large hoax and Lucy got carried away with her small role.  Evidence seems to suggest that Joseph used his knowledge of necromancy to his advantage.

The elements of all the above accounts are very similar to the money digging folklore outline previously in this chapter.  The use of a stone or glass is prominent; there is the jealous guardian of the treasure who will not allow the digger to obtain his prize without following explicit instructions and uses physical force to impose his will.  There is the disappearing and reappearing treasure; the necessity of bringing a suitable person before the treasure can be claimed; and the necessity of a pure motive, devoid of greed.  Whilst evaluating the significance of these parallels it would be wise to remember that the Saints themselves did not deny any involvement with treasure digging, nor their faith in the powers behind the money digging arts.  If they believed that it came from a divine being then there was no reason to assume that the magical arts were a "sin".  Joseph, Sr., even boasted of his knowledge of the magical arts to a small group in Kirtland in the 1830s, while Lucy admitted to the entire family's participation in treasure hunting by magical means in the unpublished manuscript of her history:

Let not my readers presume that because I shall pursue another topic for a season that we stopt our labour and went at trying to win the faculty of Abrac drawing magic circles or soothsaying to the neglect of all kinds of business ... (taken from Hill: 483)

(iii) 

Here I would like to bring into question the method used by Joseph, as mentioned in the accounts of his finding the Book of Mormon, the seer stone.  Is this not a magical instrument used by people who can allegedly "see" into the past, present and future?  It was this stone that Joseph found in a well which he used in his early money digging days, and there are narratives that allude to this.  One such example is that of a neighbour, William Stafford, who swore that Joseph told him there was buried treasure on his property.  This could apparently not be secured until a black sheep was taken to the spot and led around a circle with its throat cut, bleeding.  This ritual was necessary to appease the evil spirit guarding the treasure.  Stafford allowed them to indulge in the act, but somewhere there must have been a mistake in the process for the desired effect did not take place (Brodie: 20).  There are numerous other stories relating to the way in which Joseph, his family and friends, effectively used the seer stone as a way of gaining money.  For the purpose of this dissertation I do not feel it necessary to include any others because they are basically the same.

It is ordinary folk belief that the seer stone and the peep stone are one and the same, having much the same effect as the gypsy's crystal ball.  Mormon doctrine does not condemn the seer stone, especially in the context of the Urim and Thummim which were used to translate the Book of Mormon, but also the seer stone used by Joseph to allegedly find the Book.  But a peep stone is officially thought of by the Mormon Church to belong to the devil, who issues revelations to his "followers" through it.  It is remarkable that the Mormon Church has made little of it, especially within Mormon literature, which generally skirts the issue of the Smith family's involvement with magic.  It is understood that Joseph ordered that all Saints should be in possession of a seer stone so that they too could receive their own revelations from God, which would evidently reveal that they were considered faithful. But how did he actually feel when any of his followers professed to have had revelations?  Hiram Page had such a stone and claimed to have had revelations for the upbuilding of Zion and the governing of the Church.  Oliver Cowdery, and other early converts were "wrongly" influenced, whereby Oliver himself received a commanding revelation:

Thou shalt take thy brother Hiram Page, between him and thee alone, and tell him that those things which he hath written from that stone are not of me, and that Satan deceiveth him (D&C 28:11).

If Joseph was able to receive revelations why shouldn't Hiram?  It seems that as soon as Joseph saw his position as prophet and revelator of the Church being propositioned he was eager to state that such revelations, if they existed at all, came from the devil.

Priddy Meeks, writing in Parowan, Utah, in 1879, explained what money digging and magic stones meant to the early Latter-day Saints.  He said, "A seer's stone appears to me to be the connecting link between the visible and invisible worlds". (Journal of Priddy Meeks, Utah Historical Quarterly 10 (1942): 180).  For them it was a means whereby the miraculous power of God, which was missing among other sects, could be discerned.  Therefore it would appear evident that the powers of the stone bolstered the faith of Joseph during his time of alienation toward the churches, for stones and hazel rods sometimes worked in a marvellous fashion.  And when they did not, as was often the case, there was a ready made answer for failure.  It was considered to be unsafe to depend on the stone when evil spirits had the power to put false appearances before the people looking into it.  Yet if these evil spirits were not to interfere the verdict would be as true as preaching.  Surely the question here would be to the effect of how the user knows the revelation or vision derived from the stone to be of God, or the devil, or even some figment of a fertile imagination.  If the alleged visions and revelations that Joseph received from the stone were true, then could it not be assumed that they came from some evil force making a mockery of him?  More to the point, why did Joseph stop using the stone as a means of receiving revelations once the Church was truly established?  Perhaps once he had a large gathering of dependent followers he knew that his false Church, his mission, was accomplished and he could claim that he was now God's divine instrument and thus needed no means of communication through which to receive his revelations.  

So for the early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the seer stone, or peep stone, could become an instrument of divine favour if its user had sufficient faith.  In their minds, revealed religion and magic served similar purposes; they were reassuring evidence of the power of God.

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©E J Durrant 1996

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