North Shore Realtors Relying On Witchcraft To Help Home Sales
SALEM (CBS) - For sale: Historic Lynnfield single family house. Five beds, 1.5 baths, about 2500 square feet, and it's recently been blessed, room-to-room, by a local witch.
Lori Bruno, a Salem-based psychic and witch, says when she first stepped into the Salem Street house, she felt "sadness ... I says, 'it can't be.'"
So, she set about cleansing the circa-1840 property in a process involving holy water, kosher salt, a candle, incense, and much chanting.
The blessing cleanses the house and readies it for sale as well as prepares it for future occupants.
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong reports
Fifteen days later, the house, which had been under foreclosure, was sold.
That's no surprise to Janet Howcroft of Five Star Realty, who has used Bruno's skills about two dozen times in the last year. The Peabody realtor says Bruno has a perfect record.
According to Howcroft, having a house blessed "kind of lifts the negative energy out of it. If it has been on the market, sitting, for several months, it immediately sells."
In the case of this house, Bruno says the "sadness" she felt was from the previous owners.
"Their tears were here," she explains. "I had to clear it. But I also blessed them, so that their way would be filled with joy and another chance would be given to them."
Bruno is often told that she should get paid for the blessings, which are becoming increasingly in demand.
But she refuses to take any money. Instead, she asks people to donate to a local charity.
If they don't have one in mind, she suggests St. Jude's Children's Hospital, in part because the 71-year-old is herself a cancer survivor, but also because, "I want them to give back. The minute they give to a child - the owner, the recipient of the blessing - they are creating that energy force of giving."
