SALEM — Each Halloween at 5 p.m., practicing witches from around the world gather on Salem Common to from a “magic circle,’’ a ceremony to honor the dead that drew an estimated 1,500 witches last year.
But this year, all eyes will be on a single witch, who will be honored at the center of the circle because organizers believe she has been the victim of a modern-day witch hunt: Stormy Daniels, the pornographic film actress who alleges she had an affair with former president Donald Trump. In May, Trump was convicted of a felony for trying to conceal a hush-money deal with Daniels.
Daniels has been a practicing witch since her childhood in New Orleans, and said she “screamed like a little girl’’ when she heard she was being honored at this prestigious witch gathering.
“I can’t find the words to explain emotionally how big this is to me,’’ Daniels said in a phone interview from her RV, where she said she has been living “on the run’’ since Trump’s attorneys posted the address of her Florida home on screen during the trial, which the attorneys said was an accident.
“No one understands what the last six years have been like for me,’’ she said. “Everyone else gets to turn off the TV and forget about politics, which has reached this next-level, dark insanity. I don’t get that opportunity. I’m living in an RV because I can’t go home. The persecution those witches felt hundreds of years ago feels very familiar to me.’’
The decision to honor Daniels with the Salem Witches’ Woman of Power Award is the brainchild of Salem witches Christian Day, Brian Cain, and Lorelei Stathopoulos, who all own witch shops in the city and host the annual Halloween magic circle. The notation on the award reads: “In recognition of your strength, your intuition, and your magic. You are a true patriot.’’
Cain said the decision to recognize Daniels on the most sacred night of the year for witches fits with the witch message of empowering women. “So to be able to honor an icon like her, and the onslaught she’s been under, is a way to say she is a part of our family,’’ Cain said.
Daniels, 45, said she became curious about witchcraft as a child, when things happened to her that she struggled to understand.
“I’ve always seen spirits and communicated with the dead, and in middle school and high school I read voraciously about it,’’ she said. “But I’ve always been a solo practitioner, so this will be my first time being part of a circle. And what a prestigious and amazing way to do that.’’
In recent years, she said, she has studied under a voodoo priest in New Orleans (who gave her his personal wand) and trained to be a paranormal investigator — she’s working on a television show about that. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she made her living doing virtual readings for people.
She has also made several trips to Salem with her 13-year-old daughter, who is also a practicing witch. On a trip last November, they befriended Stathopoulos, who is known as “Lorelei the Love Witch.’’
“This honor is important because it gives her a voice,’’ Stathopoulos said. “When I came to Salem 25 years ago, they tried to shame me for being a former adult entertainer, a burlesque dancer, so this is our way to honor this woman who has been through so much and remains proud of who she is.’’
Last year, the magic circle was disrupted by Christian protesters who broke into the ceremony carrying a large wooden cross, according to Day. In hopes of avoiding a large incident this year, organizers delayed the announcement of Daniels’s appearance until the day before Halloween, “so people don’t get on planes and come and try and ruin it,’’ Day said.
Daniels’s history with magic and witchcraft is not a secret, but has not garnered nearly as much attention as her history in adult films. As far as her practice, Daniels says most of her magic is done intuitively.
She said she reads many books on the craft and will follow them for spells that require particular herbs, “but my most effective work is when I just go with what feels right,’’ she said. “I’ve learned to test myself and ask if something feels off. Because we all know that one time I didn’t, and look where it got me.’’
Her specialty is creating herb-filled “spell jars,’’ and said many people come to her wanting her to cast spells for their court cases.
“I try to be ethical and do ‘justice-served’ spells instead, because I don’t know what’s going on, who’s right and who’s being unfairly prosecuted,’’ she said.
So has she ever cast a spell against Donald Trump?
“I think every witch in the world has done magic against Donald Trump, but you cannot fight something if you don’t know what it is,’’ she said. “When I think of him, I think of that scene in ‘Men in Black’ where this robot human dies and they find a tiny alien inside controlling him.
“So I haven’t done anything specifically against Donald Trump because I don’t think it’s Donald Trump,’’ she added. “That’s like killing a person because there’s a worm inside them. We need to figure out the cause. He’s the symptom, not the cancer.’’
Daniels said that Trump’s lawyers always tried to persecute her for being a witch, for being a porn star, for being a paranormal investigator, “and I’m always like: ‘What does this have to do with wire fraud?’’’
“The best part is that Trump always says it’s a witch hunt against him. That’s funny,’’ she said. “People like to say Donald Trump is evil, but you need to be a genius to be evil, and he’s not that smart.’’
Billy Baker can be reached at billy.baker@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @billy_baker.
