1. Joseph Smith and his family practiced folk magic

“Angels exist as guardians of treasure in Mormon thought as well. In 1837, Joseph Smith Sr. blessed Wilford Woodruff: “Thou shalt have access to the treasures hid in the sand to assist thy necessities. An angel of God shall show thee the treasures of the earth that thou mayest have riches to assist thee in gathering many orphan Children to Zion.”52 In 1877, President Brigham Young taught, “These treasures that are in the earth are carefully watched, they can be removed from place to place according to the good pleasure of Him who made them and owns them. He has his messengers at his service, and it is just as easy for an angel to remove the minerals from any part of one of these mountains to another, as it is for you and me to walk up and down this hall.”

- Moroni as Angel and as Treasure Guardian, Mark Ashurst-McGee, BYU

“According to Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris, Joseph also used his seer stone to try to find treasures near his home in Manchester, New York. A number of former neighbors and other acquaintances from New York and Pennsylvania later recounted the Smith family’s involvement with treasure seeking. In fact, the people who tried to steal the plates from Joseph Smith in 1827 had hunted for treasure with him in earlier years. They viewed the ancient record as a treasure—as plates of gold rather than as inscribed tablets. Now that precious metal had finally been unearthed, they wanted their share.”

- Moroni as Angel and as Treasure Guardian, Mark Ashurst-McGee, BYU

D. Michael Quinn, Mormonism and the Magical World View:

NOTE: D. Michael Quinn’s book goes into depth about the magical worldview. There are way too many accounts and quotes to paste here. These notes only came from the first couple chapters of the book. Each paragraph is a different quote from the book, taken from different sections.

By the early 1820s the Smith family had already participated in a wide range of magic practices, and Smith’s first vision occurred within the context of his family’s treasure-quest.

A resident of adjacent Monroe County, Fayette Lapham traveled to Manchester in 1830 to learn about Mormon claims directly from the Smiths. He spoke at length with the prophet’s father and later wrote: “This Joseph Smith, Senior, we soon learned, from his own lips, was a firm believer in witchcraft and other supernatural things; and had brought up his family in the same belief.”

In three separate interviews, Orlando’s brother Lorenzo Saunders said he observed a folk magic activity of Joseph Smith, Sr. At “turky shoots” [sic], Joseph Sr. “pretend[ed] to enchant their guns so that they could not kill a turky.” Asked “How would he do that?” Lorenzo replied: “He would blow in the gun and feel around the lock [and] then tell them it was charmed and they could not kill the turky.”

Four eye-witnesses reported that the Smiths used divining rods in the Palmyra area, and BYU’s Anderson described one of these neighbors as “most favorable to the Smith reputation.” According to Orlando Saunders, both Joseph Sr. and Jr. “frequently ‘divined’ the presence of water by a forked stick or hazel rod.”

Although neighbors did not indicate the younger Joseph’s age when he began using a divining rod, they indicated that this occurred during the first stages of his father’s treasure-digging in the Palmyra area. They stated that “his father emigrated to this country (Ontario county, N.Y.) about the year 1815, and ... soon after his arrival here he evinced a firm belief in the existence of hidden treasures, and that this section of the country abounded in them.”

Therefore, sometime between age eleven and thirteen (1817-19), Joseph Jr. began following his father’s example in using a divining rod.

Without exaggeration, Charles A. Shook wrote: “The ‘rod’ was almost as much of an essential part of paraphernalia of early Mormonism as the seer-stone.”

In the manuscript and first published versions of what is now Doctrine and Covenants 8:8, the identity of Cowdery’s first gift (D&C 6) is clarified: “Now this is not all, for you have another gift, which is the gift of working with the rod: behold it has told you things: behold there is no other power save God, that can cause this rod of nature, to work in your hands, for it is the work of God; and therefore whatsoever you shall ask me to tell you by that means, that will I grant unto you, that you shall know.” The 1835 Doctrine and Covenants substituted the phrase “the gift of Aaron” in place of “working with the rod” and “rod of nature” in the 1833 Book of Commandments.

By the early 1820s the Smith family had already participated in a wide range of magic practices, and Smith’s first vision occurred within the context of his family’s treasure-quest.

resident of adjacent Monroe County, Fayette Lapham traveled to Manchester in 1830 to learn about Mormon claims directly from the Smiths. He spoke at length with the prophet’s father and later wrote: “This Joseph Smith, Senior, we soon learned, from his own lips, was a firm believer in witchcraft and other supernatural things; and had brought up his family in the same belief.”11 In fact, Joseph Jr. continued to express his belief in witches as LDS church president (see ch. 7).

Asked “How would he do that?” Lorenzo replied: “He would blow in the gun and feel around the lock [and] then tell them it was charmed and they could not kill the turky.”12 This was a widespread belief in Joseph Sr.’s generation

Jesse Smith’s letter provides independent support for the neighborhood claims that Joseph Sr. in the 1820s used “a mineral rod” made from “witch hazel” for treasure-hunting.26 These Palmyra reports in turn verify Jesse’s condemnation of his brother for using a divining rod.

Christopher M. Stafford (b. 1808) attended school with the Smith children and had “meals at the Smith’s.” He said: “Joe claimed he could tell where money was buried, with a witch hazel consisting of a forked stick of hazel. He held it [—] one fork in each hand [—] and claimed the upper end was attracted by the money.”

Isaac Butts said: “Young Jo had a forked witch-hazel rod with which he claimed he could locate buried money or hidden things. Later he had a peep stone which he put into his hat and looked into it. I have seen both.”

According to neighbors in various towns of Vermont, a revelatory stone, the divining rod, and the treasure-quest were all part of Joseph Sr.’s beliefs and practices for more than a decade before he moved to Palmyra, New York.

His wife Lucy Mack Smith also used seer stones.

From a combination of friendly and unfriendly sources, it is clear that Joseph Smith as a teenager acquired three different seer stones.

His father said Joseph Jr. acquired his first seer stone at “about fourteen years of age,” in other words, about 1819-20.

Martin Harris also verified the above descriptions by Isaac Butts and William D. Purple of the manner in which Joseph Jr. used his seer stone. “He took it [the stone] and placed it in his hat—the old white hat—and placed his face in his hat.”

E. W. Vanderhoof remembered that his Dutch grandfather once paid young Smith 75 cents to look into his “whitish, glossy, and opaque” stone to locate a stolen mare.

To put young Joseph’s scrying fee into perspective, in 1822 Palmyra’s residents could buy a regular-bound, new book for 44 cents, and four years later a New York Bible society noted that a Bible “can be had of any of the booksellers for seventy-five cents” (emphasis in original).

Willard Chase, a staunch Methodist at Palmyra, left out the same kind of information in his otherwise detailed reminiscence. He stated: “I became acquainted with the Smith family, known as the authors of the Mormon Bible, in the year 1820. At that time, they were engaged in the money digging business, which they followed until the latter part of the season of 1827. In the year 1822, I was engaged in digging a well. I employed Alvin [Smith, Joseph’s brother] and Joseph Smith to assist me.”

According to other Palmyra neighbors, the Smith family first organized their neighbors to hunt for treasure in early 1820.

After Joseph Sr. spoke of “one chest of gold and another of silver” buried nearby, Peter Ingersoll witnessed Alvin and his father take turns putting a stone in a hat and claiming to see a remarkable vision in the stone.

A decade after the conversations and events, some Palmyra neighbors reported first-hand accounts of the Smith family’s treasure-digging. Peter Ingersoll said that the Smiths frequently tried to persuade him to join their activities, and that Joseph Sr. explained some of the techniques.143 Despite Ingersoll’s professed aloofness, fellow non-Mormon and Palmyra resident Pomeroy Tucker listed him among those who “made a profession of belief either in the money-digging or gold bible-finding pretensions of Joseph Smith, Jr.”144 Joshua Stafford also reported a conversation when Joseph Jr. discussed one of his treasure-digging experiences.145 Joseph Capron referred to one of the younger Joseph’s treasure-digs “north west of my house.”

Under judicial oath in December 1833 William Stafford’s affidavit acknowledged that he joined the Smiths “in their nocturnal excursions” in search of hidden treasure from 1820 onward

One night in Palmyra, “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, muttering to himself something which I could not understand. He then 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.”

Mormons traditionally have rejected outright the nearly contemporary accounts from hostile non-Mormons in favor of LDS accounts written long after the event.

For example, Mormons readily accept the accuracy of Joseph Smith’s sermons which were massively reconstructed more than a decade after he spoke. In one instance, the official History of the Church published a 128-word section of his sermon twelve years earlier. This was someone else’s expansion of five words in the original manuscript report of Smith’s sermon.152 Apologists extend the broadest possible latitude to sources they agree with, yet impose the most stringent demands on sources of information the apologists dislike. Both scholars and casual readers should give greater attention to the reports by Palmyra neighbors of statements and actions the neighbors witnessed.

it is useful to remember a standard guideline in historical research: “Not all discrepancies signalize a myth or a fraud. In autobiographies, for instance, one must be prepared to find errors in dates and names without necessarily inferring that the account is false.”

Milo Bell, who also moved from Delaware County to Broome County at this time. He said that young Joseph Smith “had a peep-stone through which he claimed to see hidden or buried treasures.”

Bell was apparently one of the young men who dug the holes, and said “they would make a circle, and Jo Smith claimed if they threw any dirt over the circle the money chest would leave. They never found any money.”

Henry A. Sayer testified: “When a young man I spent much of the summers along the Susquehanna River. I became acquainted with Jo, Hyrum, and Bill Smith [age twelve in the summer of 1823], whom I often saw hunting and digging for buried money, treasure, or lost and hidden things. Jo claimed to receive revelations from the Lord where to dig. ... He had a peep-stone which he claimed had an attraction, and he could see hidden things through it.”

Joseph Knight’s personal history tells of his acquaintance with Smith. Housed in LDS church archives, this manuscript is “missing at least one beginning page.”203 This missing portion would cover the period when treasure-digging was allegedly the primary association of Knight with teenage Joseph, as previously stated by Collington and also by other sources.204 LDS historian Richard L.

Joseph Knight’s personal history tells of his acquaintance with Smith. Housed in LDS church archives, this manuscript is “missing at least one beginning page.”203 This missing portion would cover the period when treasure-digging was allegedly the primary association of Knight with teenage Joseph, as previously stated by Collington and also by other sources.204 LDS historian Richard L. Bushman observes: “Although a believer from the start, Knight’s ‘Recollection’ has bothered some Mormon readers because of its rough-cut style and its unembarrassed reports of familiar relations with neighborhood money diggers.”205 That discomfort explains the missing pages in Knight’s history of his first association with young Joseph Smith. In describing how Smith “practised with his peek-stone” in the Susquehanna County area, Sally McKune said that Joseph acted as treasure-seer for Harper’s digging operations and Harper’s “diggers” boarded at this time with Isaac Hale.

Bushman observes: “Although a believer from the start, Knight’s ‘Recollection’ has bothered some Mormon readers because of its rough-cut style and its unembarrassed reports of familiar relations with neighborhood money diggers.” -Article available at: https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/recovery-book-mormon

In his interview with Fayette Lapham, Joseph Sr. said his son “Joseph went to the town of Harmony, in the State of Pennsylvania, at the request of some one who wanted the assistance of his divining rod and stone in finding hidden treasure ...”

This indicates that Joseph Jr. still used a divining rod as late as the fall of 1825.

Convinced that his uncle was the victim of fraud, Stowell’s nephew Peter Bridgeman filed a legal complaint against young Joseph as a “disorderly person.”217 For many years Mormon writers denied that such a court case even occurred, despite its evidence.

A newspaper article in 1831 claimed that about 1826 or 1827 a court tried Smith “as a disorderly person” because “he was about the country in the character of a glass-looker: pretending to discover lost goods, hidden treasures, mines of gold and silver, etc.”

Oliver Cowdery’s officially published history in 1835 also referred to Smith’s being brought to trial prior to 1827 “as a disorderly person” due to his treasure-hunting activities with Josiah Stowell.

Moreover, about fifteen years later a local resident wrote that Smith came to Bainbridge “in the capacity of Glass Looker” when he was seventeen or eighteen years old and that Smith was tried for that activity twice.222 This corresponds to Doud’s statement thirty years later regarding Smith’s work for Harper about 1822. This account is also supported by Smith’s appearance in court during 1826 and 1830.

Kirkham went so far as to deny the authenticity of the published 1826 court record because “if such a court record confession could be identified and proved, then it follows that his believers must deny his claimed divine guidance which led them to follow him.” Smith would then be “a superstitious fraud” who used a seer stone “to deceive superstitious persons [into believing] that he had the ability to look into the depths of the earth for hidden treasures.”

LDS researcher Francis W. Kirkham went so far as to deny the authenticity of the published 1826 court record because “if such a court record confession could be identified and proved, then it follows that his believers must deny his claimed divine guidance which led them to follow him.” Smith would then be “a superstitious fraud” who used a seer stone “to deceive superstitious persons [into believing] that he had the ability to look into the depths of the earth for hidden treasures.”

Therefore, Kirkham concluded “that no court record ever was made that contained a confession by Joseph Smith that he had used a seer stone to find hidden treasures.”

Hugh Nibley also wrote that if genuine, the court record “is the most devastating blow to Smith ever delivered.”

LDS apologists now accept the transcripts of this 1826 testimony as legitimate.

Samantha Payne was only three years younger than Smith. She testified that “for a period of about seven years [he] was more or less of the time engaged in digging for money—that he so dug upon many of the farms in the neighborhood, as well as upon the farm on which she now resides, and that some of the holes where he dug can now be seen.”

As historian Richard L. Bushman has written: “There had always been evidence of it [“money-digging in the Smith family”] in the hostile affidavits from the Smiths’ neighbors, evidence which Mormons dismissed as hopelessly biased. But when I got into the sources, I found evidence from friendly contemporaries as well, Martin Harris, Joseph Knight, Oliver Cowdery, and Lucy Mack Smith. All of these witnesses persuaded me treasure-seeking and vernacular magic were part of the Smith family tradition, and that the hostile witnesses, including the 1826 trial record, had to be taken seriously.”

BYU historian Marvin S. Hill has likewise observed: “Now, most historians, Mormon or not, who work with the sources, accept as fact Joseph Smith’s career as village magician. Too many of his closest friends and family admitted as much, and some of Joseph’s own revelations support the contention.”

Fellow treasure-digger Joshua Stafford said: “Joseph once showed me a piece of wood which he said he took from a box of money, and the reason he gave for not obtaining the box, was, that it moved” (emphasis in original).

Martin Harris made his first-known reference to this moving treasure-chest when he described Joseph Smith’s recent activities to Palmyra’s Episcopal minister. Harris said this treasure-dig occurred because Joseph Sr. “insisted upon it.”256 In an 1859 interview, this Book of Mormon witness said: “Mr. [Josiah] Stowel was at this time at old Mr. Smith’s [Joseph Smith Sr.’s] digging for money. It was reported by these money-diggers that they had found boxes, but before they could secure them, they would sink into the earth.”257 Decades later Harris told Utah Mormons: “I will tell you a wonderful thing that happened after Joseph had found the plates. Three of us took some tools to go to the hill [Cumorah] and hunt for some more boxes, or gold or something, and indeed we found a stone box. We got quite excited about it and dug quite carefully around it, and we were ready to take it up, but behold, by some unseen power it slipped back into the hill. We stood there and looked at it, and one of us took a crow bar and tried to drive it through the lid to hold it, but it glanced and broke one corner off the box.”

Brigham Young told a Salt Lake City congregation about Rockwell’s own testimony that he and “certain parties” actually experienced what Stafford and Harris remembered. “He [Rockwell] said that on this night, when they were engaged in hunting for this old treasure, they dug around the end of a chest for some twenty inches. The chest was about three feet square. One man who was determined to have the contents of that chest took his pick and struck into the lid of it, and split through into the chest. The blow took off a piece of the lid, which a certain lady kept in her possession until she died. That chest of money went into the bank [of the hill]. Porter describes it so (making a rumbling sound); he says this is just as true as the heavens are. I have heard others tell the same story.”

Young’s sermon identified it as “a piece of the lid which a certain lady kept in her possession until she died.” Young said privately that the woman was Joseph Smith’s mother.

As a dream-diviner, Joseph Smith’s mother was as active in their neighborhood’s treasure-quest as her son was with his seer stone.

Turner also wrote that “in digging for money” the Smith family claimed “they came across a chest three by two feet in size ... The chest vanished and all was utter darkness.”271 This gave more precise dimensions of the chest than Stafford, but did not repeat details from Stafford’s earlier narrative. Turner was apparently giving an independent account of what he learned from the Smiths about this incident. In view of the evidence from Mormon and non-Mormon sources, it is necessary to acknowledge that in the 1820s Joseph Sr. and Joseph Jr. both participated extensively and enthusiastically in treasure-digging.

In view of the evidence from Mormon and non-Mormon sources, it is necessary to acknowledge that in the 1820s Joseph Sr. and Joseph Jr. both participated extensively and enthusiastically in treasure-digging.

In 1838 the church’s periodical published an interview with the Mormon prophet: “Question 10. Was not Jo Smith a money digger. Answer. Yes, but it was never a very profitable job to him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it.”273 However, his mother said Stowell “offered high wages.”274 In fact, Joseph’s income as Stowell’s treasure-seer was significantly higher than the monthly wage of workers on the nearby Erie Canal.

Brigham Young told a Salt Lake City congregation: “Ten years ago, it was called heresy for Joseph Smith to be a money digger, and receive revelations; it actually became treason; and the people killed him for it: and now I see hundreds of reverend gentlemen going to dig money. I despise a man who wont [sic] dig for gold, he is a lazy man, and intends to spunge on others. Do not think that I blame you; all I have to say is, that you have to follow in the wake of ‘Old Joe Smith,’ and paddle away to dig gold.” (Prophet Brigham Young, June 23, 1850, Deseret News, June 29, 1850, p. 20 )

Emma Smith’s cousin Joseph Lewis (b. 1807) wrote: “Alva Hale [Emma’s brother] says: ‘Joe Smith never handled one shovel full of earth in those diggings. All that Smith did was to peep with stone and hat, and give directions where and how to dig, and when and where the enchantment moved the treasure.’”

In addition, Smith family members themselves provided evidence of their involvement in more esoteric manifestations of Christian occultism. In fact, Lucy Mack Smith specifically commented on “drawing Magic circles or sooth saying.” Unlike later apologists, she did not attempt to disassociate Joseph Sr. and Jr. from those occult practices. She simply acknowledged them as part of her family’s spectrum of activities, which included Bible-reading, hard work on the farm, and religious dreams and visions (also ch.

there are two kinds of direct evidences concerning the Smith family’s early involvement with ritual magic and astrology, both of which were extensions of their involvement with treasure-digging.

Emma Hale Smith Bidamon, also gave to members of the Bidamon family various items she affirmed were sacred possessions of her martyred husband, Joseph Jr. In addition to original manuscripts of Mormon scripture, these artifacts included an intricately engraved “silver piece.” This object has been identified, without question, as a magic talisman fashioned according to instructions of an 1801 occult handbook.

In addition certain statements by family members and early associates either implied or affirmed that during the 1820s the Smith family believed in and used ritual magic, astrology, talismans, and parchments inscribed with magic words and occult symbols (see ch. 4 for the latter).

In the first draft of her dictated manuscript history in 1845 she stated: “let not my reader suppose that because I shall pursue another topic for a season 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 [—] [W]e never during our lives suffered one important interest to swallow up every other obligation but whilst we worked with our hands we endeavored to remember the service of & the welfare of our souls.”

Mormon historian Richard L. Bushman observed that thereby Lucy “revealed a knowledge of magic formulas and rituals.”22 One Palmyra resident reported that the prophet’s mother also performed various forms of magic divination, including palmistry. Without dissent, the LDS church’s official newspaper reprinted this statement.

However, the inscriptions on the Smith family dagger have nothing to do with Freemasonry and everything to do with ceremonial magic. One side of the Smith family dagger is inscribed with the astrological symbol of Mars and the magic “sigil” (or “seal”) for the “Intelligence” of Mars. Next to these is the Hebrew word “Adonay.” The other side of the dagger is inscribed with the magic seal of Mars (figs. 43-45).

On the blade of the Smith dagger (between the astrological sign of Mars and the magic seal of the Intelligence of Mars) is the symbol for the zodiacal sign of Scorpio (figs. 16c, 43). In astrology, Mars is the “ruling planet” over Scorpio. Thus, the Smith dagger followed the tradition of inscribing at least one zodiacal sign of Mars—Aries or Scorpio—on magic implements dedicated to Mars.

Both friendly and unfriendly sources show that astrology was important to members of the Smith family.

Joseph Smith as church president gave himself the code name “Baurak Ale,” which had traditional use as an incantation for magic ceremonies emphasizing Jupiter, the ruling planet of his birth (see ch.

Books of astrology were easily available to the Smith family. Two of their magic parchments (see ch. 4) depended directly on one of the thirteen editions of Ebenezer Sibly’s New and Complete Illustration of the Occult Sciences. It was sometimes published under the alternate title Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology due to its emphasis on astrology, but all editions had identical content.

According to the Smith family’s artifacts, statements of their neighbors, and reports by some of Joseph’s followers, his family was interested in folk magic and in astrology.

Smith family descendants eventually donated and displayed folk magic items, including amulets, talismans, parchments, daggers, and even magical canes and handkerchiefs. The Smith family created various parchments, likely used to channel mystical energies. The symbols appear to have been copied from occult handbooks, including Francis Barrett’s The Magus, published in 1801. In depth analysis, sources, and discussions are available in D. Michael Quinn’s book “Early Mormonism and the Magic World View”

Interesting tidbit: These magical items seemed to persist for some time after Joseph Smith, including some thought that Brigham Young selected Salt Lake temple site using Cowdery’s divining rod.