Witch Hazel / Divining Rods, etc.

Back to Mormon Quotes Index

“It may be admitted that some of [Smith's ancestors] believed in fortune telling, in warlocks and witches... Indeed it is scarcely conceivable how one could live in New England in those years and not have shared in such beliefs. To be credulous in such things was to be normal people.”

- LDS Historian B.H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church, 6 vols., 1930, v. 1, pp. 26-27

“In 1987 I also spoke to several Mormon women in Utah who give predictive and healing blessings, some employing mechanisms such as crystals...”

- Ian Barber, anthropologist, “Mormon Women as ‘Natural' Seers,” p. 179

Witch Hazel:

“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.”

- Christopher M. Stafford, March 23, 1885, in Naked Truths About Mormonism, 1, April 1888, p. 1, reprinted in Anderson, Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined, p. 166, also see Mormonism Unvailed, by E.D. Howe, p. 12

“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 hate and looked into. I have seen both.”

- Isaac Butts, Naked Truths About Mormonism, 1, January 1888, p. 2, reprinted in Anderson, Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined, p. 154

Divining Rods:

“He [Joseph] also believed that there was a vast amount of money buried somewhere in the country; that it would some day be found: that he himself had spent both time and money searching for it, with divining rods, but had not succeeded in finding any, though sure that he eventually would.”

- Patriarch Joseph Smith, Sr., see Fayette Lapham “Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet,” p. 306, also see Kirkham, A New Witness for Christ in America, v. 2, p. 384

“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...”

- Patriarch Joseph Smith, Sr., see Fayette Lampham, “Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet,” p. 307

“I have been told that Joe Smith's father resided in Poultney at the time of the Wood movement here, and that he was in it, and one of the leading rods-men. Of this I cannot speak positively, for the want of satisfactory evidence... I have before said that Oliver Cowdery's father was in the ‘Wood scrape.'”

- Barnes Frisbie, History of Middletown, 43 (for number of interviews) 62 (for next section of quotes)

“The ‘rod' was almost as much of an essential part of paraphernalia of early Mormonism as the seer-stone.”

- Charles A. Shook, The True Origin of The Book of Mormon, 1914, 16n1

“The prophet's [Joseph Smith] staff, which by the direction of its fall had hitherto pointed out the way, now stood still; and he declared that here was commanded to settle and build a church.”

- Isaac Bullard, “WONDERFUL INFATUATION: Modern Pilgrims,” Wayne Sentinel (Palmyra, N.Y.) May 26, 1826

“Many of the earliest Mormons, including [Oliver] Cowdery, Martin Harris, Orrin P. Rockwell, Joseph Knight and Josiah Stowel, were rodsmen or money diggers but became Mormons for religious reasons.”

- Marvin S. Hill, LDS historian, “Secular or Sectarian History: A Critique of No Man Knows My History,” Church History, v. 43, p. 86, March 1974

“He [Joseph Smith, Sr.] also believed that there was a vast amount of money buried somewhere in the country; that it would some day be found: that he himself had spent both time and money searching for it, with divining rods, but had not succeeded in finding any, though sure that he eventually would.”

- Fayette Lampham, “Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet,” p. 306, see Kirkham, A New Witness for Christ in America, v. 2, p. 384

“Last nite I clothed my self and offered up the Sines [signs] of the Holy Preasthood and called one [on] the name of the Lord. He hurd me fore my heart was mad[e] comfortable. I inquired by the rod. It was said my family was well, that my wife would come to me in the East, and that Congress would not do anything fore us.”

- Prophet Heber C. Kimball, Heber C. Kimball diary, June 6, 1844, in Kimball, On the Potter's Wheel, p. 65

“Many of us Mormonites today, whether pious believers or critically objective students of history, are closer in mental outlook to the position of [1834 anti-Mormon writer Eber D.] Howe than to that of the Prophet Joseph and his early followers... Would we rant and rave, walk penniless to Missouri, witch a trove with a hazel rod, or join a communistic society? Do we really want to know what was in and around that stone-box/hole on 22 September 1823?”

- Benson Whittle, Mormon scholar, Whittle untitled review, 1987, p. 119, see Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, by D. Michael Quinn, p. 319-320

“… in the revelation to Oliver Cowdery in May 1829, Bro. [B.H.] Roberts said that the gift which the Lord says he has in his hand meant a stick which was like Aaron's Rod. It is said Bro. Phineas Young got it from him [Cowdery] and gave it to President Young who had it with him when he arrived in this [Salt Lake] valley and that it was with that stick that he pointed out where the Temple should be built.”

- Anthon H. Lund, Anthon H. Lund Journal, under July 5, 1901; quoted in Quinn, BYU Studies, Fall 1978, v. 18, p. 82