A bid by two white witches to exorcise the curse of Macbeth from a Highland site were plagued by a series of strange happenings yesterday.

White witch high priest Kevin Carlyon and his colleague, Eileen Webster, a psychic medium from Selkirk, who claims she has powers to contact the spirit world, arrived at the site of the old Inverness Castle in Auld Castle Road, in the city's Crown area.

The witches hoped to reflect positive energy on the spirit of Macbeth, which has supposedly created havoc over the years, during productions of the Shakespearean play.

However, a number of other witches due to be at the event were forced to cancel their trip, after the death of a pet dog belonging to one of them – an apparent signal of bad luck.

Another witch stayed at home, after her cat brought in a black feather, signalling a bad omen.

The strange series of events carried on during the ritual itself, when a cameraman filming the event for TV was apparently rushed to hospital after complaining of feeling ill.

A radio journalist's equipment also mysteriously fell from his hands, smashing on to the pavement, soon after his arrival to the site.

Mr Carlyon began the ritual by summoning the four basic elements of earth, air, wind and water, while letting off a number of industrial smoke bombs for effect.

But when his colleague attempted to contact the spirit of Macbeth, she dramatically collapsed on the ground, murmuring incoherently.

Mrs Webster said afterwards: "I sensed a great power that just drained away all my energy. I remember feeling fear. I sensed a very, very evil spirit. I believe in this curse definitely now – if I did not before, I do now."

She added she had been stalked by a black crow that morning, at the hotel where she was staying.

Despite the setbacks, the witches were eventually able to perform the ceremony, and Mr Carlyon said he was confident that they had succeeded.

However, only time would tell if it had worked.

He said: "What happened here was totally out of the unexpected. There has been a strange series of mini disasters on our way here.

"We almost got run off the road coming back from a trip to Skye, and then the three witches who were destined to come up here from other parts of the country all had different individual problems."

He also warned the public of the dangers of trying to contact the spirit world.

Mr Carlyon added: "What we are doing here today is purely white magic and I don't advocate people trying to contact the spirit world.

"They should be left alone, but on this occasion, what we were doing here with the curse of Macbeth, which I now believe in, was a thing a lot of people wanted to be done."

Mr Carlyon said: "The outcome is that Macbeth will stay rested here.

"We have reflected the curse, but it will only be when people start saying "Macbeth", and putting on productions of the play, that we will know we have been successful. We won't know until people tell us."

Later in the day, Mr Carlyon made the journey to bless the web-cams which give 24-hour coverage of Loch Ness, run by company Nessie on the Net.

He blessed the cameras to protect them and their operators from all harm, and to ensure that the monster would be seen clearly on them, in the near future.

• Story originally published by:
Press & Journal, Aberdeen via This is N Scotland | Andrew Black - Sept 04.01

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