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Folklorevol. 97:ii, 1986

William LauronDeLaurenceandJamaicanFolk ReligionW F. ELKINSAN unusual obeah case came to trial in Kingston,Jamaica, n November of 1915. Ina raidon a man'shomepoliceseizedas evidencenot onlycustomary beahparaphernaliasuch as feathers,gravedirt, and human bones, but also magic books including TheSixth and SeventhBooksof Moses.A local newspaperdescribed the centralfigure inthe case as a '20th-centuryobeahman.'William LauronDeLaurence, he Americanpublisherof TheSixth and SeventhBooksof Moses'and other occult treatises,significantly influenced the developmentof thenew type of obeahin Jamaica.Methods of magic gleanedfrom his publicationswereto supplanttraditionalprocedures, specially n urbanareas,wheretheybecameknownas 'Science'This kindof magicutilizescrystalballs, fortune-telling ardsandsyntheticsubstanceswith suggestivenames such as 'oilof turn-back,'compellingpowder,'sweetessence of seven spirits, 'Saturnblood,''destructionpowder'and so on. In ruralpartsofJamaicaheoldertypeof obeah,whichemploysmainly ndigenousmaterials, emaineddominant.2Beings fromDeLaurence'spublicationscameto be important piritsin the religiouscults known as Pocomania,Revival Zion, Cumina and Convince. Many Jamaicans,according o the anthropologistDonaldHogg, considerDeLaurence he world'sgreatestmagician.In TheSunandtheDrum,AfricanRoots nJamaicanFolkTradition,LeonardBarrettsays Jamaicans ook upon DeLaurenceas a 'super-guru.'Localauthoritiesduringthe colonialperiodcharacterisedDeLaurence'smagicbooksas 'instruments of Obeah' Possessionof any sort of obeah equipmentcould subjecta personto a flogging and up to a year'simprisonment.Afterindependencethe newgovernmentcontinued offical hostility, proscribingDeLaurence'swritings as well asa largenumber of Communist and Black Powerpublications.When Prime MinisterMichael Manley in 1972 removedall but five of the politicalworks from the banned-publicationslist, the books of the DeLaurenceCompanyremainedon it.3 Althoughthe governmentgave no reasonfor retainingthe ban, it may have been because thebooks seemedto exploit superstitionfor profitand to encourageanti-socialbehaviour.TheSixth and SeventhBooksof Moses s a grimoire(a manual of magic). Claimingaffinitywith the Cabala,the workteaches how to invokespirits in order to avert eviland to heal diseases.A few formulasfor conjuringharmfulspells are included. Thebook enjoinsthe adept to takewithin himself the powersof God. Hans Sebaldgivesevidence that the writing may have first been producedin Germanyin the MiddleAges.4However,JeffreyRussell believes it originatedno earlierthan the eighteenthcentury.5RichardDorson remarks hat it is 'constantly lludedto in Europeanpopulartradition sdiabolicalwriting,'andquotesstoriesabout t amongthe PennsylvaniaDutchin the 1940s and Illinois farmers n the 1930s;it is not clear, however,whetherthesewhite Americans had actually seen copies of the work.6Its currencyamongthe blackpopulationsof the Caribbean ndof America s striking.Hogg says TheSixth andSeventhBooksof Moses s one of the most prizedbooks usedby practitionersof 'Science'in Jamaica.7 impsonrefers o its use in Trinidad.8n theUnited States,most hoodoo believersconsideredit a part of the Bible, accordingtoHyatt.9Discussing North Americanfolklore,Barrett states that the SeventhBook ofMosesbecame the 'Black bible.'10Severalresearchershave commentedon the influence of this workin Africa.In hisstudy of Bantu prophets, Sundkler does not referto it, but he indicatesthat Moses

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W. L. DELAURENCE AND JAMAICAGod in you,God in me,You God,I God,Everybodybe God.

Hickersoncalledhimself an Ethiopianand identifiedwith Hebrewtradition.In oneinterview he statesthat he taughtHebrew to RabbiFord, who was the leaderof oneof the two majorgroupsof 'BlackJews'which originated n Harlemimmediatelyafterthe First WorldWar.I have also found a connectionbetween Hickerson'schurchandthe other main groupof BlackJews, which was led by Rabbi Matthews. In addition,Hickersontaughthis ideas to GeorgeBaker,who assumed the name 'FatherDivine,'and whose followers lookedupon him as a 'living God.'18The notion of the indwellingGod, of course,goesback to the MiddleAgesandevenearlier.Therecertainlyseems to be a resemblancebetweenHickersonandthe prophetsdescribedby NormanCohn in ThePursuitof theMillenium.An extremeemphasisuponimmanencehas often been regardedwith suspicion by orthodox Christianchurches,and a studyof DeLaurence'sworksuggeststhat one of its effects canbe to breakdownthe customarybarriersbetweenreligionand magic.Normally,the religiousdevoteeisexpectedto prayto God to attainhis wishes, whereas the sorcereror magicianusesoccult powerto commandspirits.But if a believerholds that God is within him, thenhe too, like a sorcerer,can exert spiritualpower in his own right.In his essayon 'Sorcery,Demons, andthe Rise of Christianity,'PeterBrowntells us:Above all, the sorcerer s a man who enjoys poweroverthe demons, even over the gods. He can threatenthe gods;he worksvery largelyby what the psychoanalystwould call 'introjectivedentification,' hat is, hebecomes he god-for Thou art I and I am Thou: whatevermust come to pass.'19

The adeptsof the Free Spirit, Norman Cohn indicates,were 'gnosticsintentupontheir own individualsalvation.'DeLaurence's hought can be categorised n the samemanner;n fact,he fits into the American eligiousmovementknownas 'New Thought.'At first this movementfocusedupon healing, but later it emphasizedthe tappingofinternal God) powers n order o be successful-in business, n lifeand so forth.MarcusGarvey,the Jamaican-borneaderof the BlackLiberationmovementwhich emergedin the United States at the end of the First WorldWar,practiceda form of 'NewThought.'20I suggestthatDeLaurence's hought(featuringboth magicalproceduresand a stresson the immanenceof God)becamepopularandis popularbecauseof similaritieswithtraditional olk religionin Jamaica.It fulfilled some of the samepurposesas the olderobeah, but carriedgreaterprestigebecause of its moresophisticatedpresentationandreligiousendorsement.As Bengt Sundklerwrote of the Bantu Zionist Churches,it is'like new wine in old wineskins'LondonSocietyof Sceptics,12 BelsizeSquare,LondonNW3.

NOTES1. First edition, 1910.2. Donald W. Hogg, 'Magic and "Science" in Jamaica,'Caribbean tudies,vol. I, 1961, p. 1.3. 'Academic reedom:Manley's heritage,'Kingston, Jamaica,SundayGleaner,February18, 1973.4. Hans Sebald, Witchcraft,TheHeritageof a Heresy, 1978, p. 90.

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218 W. F. ELKINS5. JeffreyB. Russell, A Historyof Witchcraft:orcerers,Heretics,and Pagans, 1980, p. 143.6. R. M. Dorson, Buying the Wind, 1964, pp. 111-12and 315-16.7. Hogg, op. cit. p. 2.8. George Eaton Simpson, TheShangoCult in Trindad, nstitute of CaribbeanStudies, 1965.9. HarryMiddeton Hyatt, Hoodoo-Conjuration-Witchcraft-Rootwork,970, p. 1, 755.10. LeonardE. Barrett,TheSun and theDrum,AfricanRootsin JamaicanFolk Tradition,1976, p. 49.11. Bengt G. M Sundkler,Bantu Prophets n SouthAfrica, 2nd ed., 1961, p. 278.12. H. W. Turner,African IndependentChurch,vol. I, 1967, p. 29.13. J. D. Y. Peel, Aladura:A ReligiousMovementAmongthe Yoruba,1968, p. 142.14. H. Debrunner, Witchcraftn Ghana, 1961, p. 97.15. M. J. Field, Search or Security,An Ethno-Psychiatrictudy of Rural Ghana, 1960, p. 350.16. Sebald,op.cit.;JohannKruse, Hexen unteruns?,2nd ed., Leer 1978 (summarizedby Russell, op.cit. pp. 142-3);also Kurt E. Koch, ChristianCounselling nd Occultism,1972, for manyreferences elatingto Bavariaand Switzerland.17. ChicagoDefender,June 3, 1914, p. 3.18. See RobertAllertonParker,TheIncredibleMessiah, TheDeificationof FatherDivine, 1937.19. Peter Brown, 'Sorcery,Demons, and the Rise of Christianity,' n Mary Douglas (ed.), WitchcraftConfessions nd Accusations,1970.20. Robert A. Hill (ed.), TheMarcusGarveyand UniversalNegroImprovement ssociationPapers,vol.I, 1983, p. xlix.