Joseph Smith Criticisms
(c) Copyright Michael R. Ash 1999. All rights reserved
Occultism, Seer stones, Divining, and Money-Digging
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The charge:
Both evidence and logic suggest [that] ...the strong desire on the part of Joseph Smith and his followers to believe his fantastic tales opened the early Mormons to demonic powers. We see a definite and reveling progression: First young Smith uses the ‘seer stone’ to ‘divine’ the location of buried treasure, and then to ‘translate’ unknown languages.... These occult practices are specifically forbidden in the Bible. (Decker and Hunt, 106-7.)
The critics claim that Joseph Smith used a “seer stone” for “divining” for buried treasure as well as translating the Book of Mormon, and that such acts were occultic and forbidden by the Bible. It is therefore necessary that we deal with these issues separately. First, did Joseph Smith use a “seer stone” for divining for buried treasure? Did you use this “seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon? And lastly, are such practices occultic and forbidden by the Bible?
Did Joseph use a “seer stone” to find buried treasure and to translate the Book of Mormon?
Joseph had more than one “seer stone” in his life. In approximately 1819 Joseph borrowed a seer stone from a friend to find a “whitish” seer stone in an iron kettle 25 feet underground. The seer stone with which most students are familiar is the brown stone Joseph Smith found in 1822 while digging a well for Willard Chase (Quinn [1987], 39-41). Joseph, his father, and some of the other men in the area, occasionally sought for buried treasure with Joseph using his seer stone in an attempt to locate the treasure. When Joseph received the Book of Mormon plates and the Urim & Thummim, evidence suggests that Joseph initially used the Urim and Thummim to translate but later would often use the seer stone because it was more compact. Admittedly, many members of the LDS Church aren’t as aware as they should be concerning Smith’s early use of a “seer stone” but part of the problem stems from the fact that in Joseph’s own day contemporaries often referred to both the seer stone and the Book of Mormon interpreters individually as “Urim and Thummim.” The critics, however, act like the LDS Church has attempted to cover up this information, but a study of early Mormon sources reveals that the LDS Church has discussed this issue for years.
George Q. Cannon, for example, who was a contemporary of Joseph Smith’s and later a counselor in the First Presidency under Brigham, mentioned Joseph’s seer stone more than once in his 1888, Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet (Cannon, 54.) Likewise, B.H. Roberts, of the Quorum of the Seventy, published his classic series A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wherein he wrote:
“...the Prophet possessed a Seer Stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as with the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he sometimes used the Seer Stone. Martin said further that the Seer Stone differed in appearance entirely from the Urim and Thummim that was obtained with the plates, which were two clear stones set in two rims, very much resembling spectacles, only they were larger.
“The Seer Stone referred to here was a chocolate-colored, somewhat egg-shaped stone which the Prophet found while digging a well in company with his brother Hyrum, for a Mr. Clark Chase, near Palmyra, N. Y. It possessed the qualities of Urim and Thummim, since by means of it—as described above—as well as by means of the Interpreters found with the Nephite record, Joseph was able to translate the characters engraven on the plates.” (Roberts1:129.)
Considering the fact that Roberts’ series is often quoted by students of LDS history, it seems unreasonable, that any serious student of early LDS history would not have known about Joseph’s seer stone. Joseph’s use of a seer stone in translating was mentioned many times in official church publications including the Improvement Era in 1904 (again B.H. Roberts in “The Probability of Joseph Smith’s Story,” March), again in the Improvement Era in 1906 (April), 1920 (September), and 1939 (October). Jumping ahead to 1977 (and I haven’t done an exhaustive search between those thirty-nine years), we find an Ensign article by LDS historian Richard Lloyd Anderson entitled, “‘By the Gift and Power of God’”. In this article Anderson quotes Edward Stevenson who learned about the Book of Mormon translation from Martin Harris.
“‘He [Harris] said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone.’” (Anderson [1977], 80).
Here we see that every Latter-day Saint with access to the official Church Ensign magazine (which I would guess may be over 60%) would have had an opportunity to read about Joseph’s use of a “seer stone.” The seer stone was mentioned in Ensign articles again in 1979, 1986 (Dallin Oaks), 1987, 1993, 1994, and 1997 (Neal Maxwell) and perhaps since then (my search index ends in 1997). In an 1988 article in Ensign entitled, “A New Prophet and a New Scripture,”, Kenneth Godfrey wrote,
“Once Martin found a rock closely resembling the seerstone Joseph sometimes used in place of the interpreters and substituted it without the Prophet's knowledge. When the translation resumed, Joseph paused for a long time and then exclaimed, ‘Martin, what is the matter, all is as dark as Egypt.’ Martin then confessed that he wished to ‘stop the mouths of fools’ who told him that the Prophet memorized sentences and merely repeated them” (Godfrey, 11).
Joseph definitely had a “seer stone” and all evidence suggests that for a time he used it in attempt to find buried treasure.
Does the use of a “seer stone” represent an “occultic” practice?
It is important to understand that Joseph Smith wasn’t raised in a cultural vacuum. In the early 1800s, especially in frontier America, many people believed firmly, and sincerely, in superstition, divination, magic, astrology, treasure digging, etc. We cannot judge these people by our standards. “It is often difficult for us in the twentieth century to appreciate the world from the perspective of earlier generations.... All of us have a tendency to assume that our progenitors saw the world much as we see it today.” (Quinn [1987], x-xi.)
We have to remember that the world, and culture, of frontier America was not our world. In frontier America, without the advances of science and learning that we have today, many superstitions were as natural and believable as many of our cherished truths and traditions. “Not surprisingly, many of New England's practicing alchemists [a chemist who attempts to turn baser metals into gold] were Yale and Harvard graduates (including Massachusetts's chief justice), and the last of these men continued their experiments into the 1820s....” (Ibid., 9.) No doubt in two hundred years from now the people of the future will look, with amusement, upon our follies and superstitious beliefs.
Many people of the 1800s did not see any differences between their sincere magic practices and those recorded in the Bible-- such as Joseph’s silver cup (see Gen. 44:2, 5) in which “he divineth” (which was also practiced by the surrounding pagans [Ibid., 3] and referred to as hydromancy), or the magical rod of Aaron (Exodus 7:9-12). The casting of lots, or sortilege (see Acts 1:26), to choose a new Apostle was also a pagan practice (Ibid.). The Bible records that Jacob used rods to cause Laban's cattle to produce spotted, and speckled offspring (see Gen. 30:37-39)-- I can only imagine what the critics would say should Joseph have attempted such a thing. In Numbers 5:11-31, 21 we read about a magical test for adultery in which the priest would give the suspect a potion to drink. If the woman was guilty, her thigh would swell. Even some of Christ’s miracles had familiar tones to the surrounding pagans. Jesus’ healing of the deaf man by putting his fingers in his ears (Mark 7:33-35) and Jesus’ healing of the blind man by touching his eyes with spittle and clay were also common practices of the surrounding pagans (Ibid., 4.)
In Joseph Smith’s own day other Christian leaders were involved in practices which today’s critics would call “occultic.” Quinn, for instance, observes that in “1825, a Massachusetts magazine noted with approval that a local clergyman used a forked divining rod.... Similarly, a Methodist minister wrote twenty-three years later that a fellow clergymen in New Jersey had used a divining rod up to the 1830s to locate buried treasure and the ‘spirits [that] keep guard over buried coin’....” (Ibid., 25).
One of Joseph’s early treasure-digging companions was Willard Chase, Methodist leader. When Chase learned of Joseph’s golden plates he clubbed together with about a dozen men then “sent sixty or seventy miles for a certain conjurer to come and divine the place where the plates were secreted” (Mack Smith, 105). Not only was Chase a Methodist minister, but their “conjurer” was a Baptist deacon (Quinn [1987], 35). Chase was furious when he heard that Joseph had acquired some golden plates and “laid claim to Joseph Smith as a former partner.” He and his comrades “‘claimed that they had as much right to the plates as Joseph had, as they were in company together’” (Bushman, 83). Later, after Joseph moved the plates to his father’s barrel-making shop across the road from the house, Chase and company brought Chase’s sister, who divined with a green glass, to search for the plates (and they found the box made for the plates but Joseph had removed the plates from this box and hidden them elsewhere).
Many devout Christians believed in what has been termed the “magic world view.” This view included the prospect of finding water, lost objects, or buried treasure through the means of divination, either with rods, sticks, or seer-stones. R. Walker notes:
Benjamin Franklin reported that not only were such ideas [as buried treasure] “mighty prevalent,” but money digging itself was widespread: “You can hardly walk half a Mile out of Town on any Side,” he wrote, “without observing several Pits dug with that Design, and perhaps some lately opened. Men, otherwise of very good Sense, have been drawn into this Practice....”(Walker, 437-438.)
Franklin was a skeptic of such practices, himself being “enlightened.” For many people in frontier America, however, digging for treasure was a popular venture.
...money digging, with its fascination with ancient races, mysterious Spaniards and pirates, seers, magical rods and stones, and of course enchanted treasure, was clearly more than a passing or isolated phenomenon. In some areas the practice especially prospered. Philadelphia, for instance, earned the reputation as a money-digging center early in the eighteenth century. (Ibid., 445.)
The practice of treasure seeking, and divination, was common in the world of Joseph Smith, in fact in some parts of our country, divination is still a much practiced craft. The owner of the camera store I worked for in Colorado hired someone to “dowse” his cabin property for a well. More than one documentary has been devoted to the practice of divination. Not that many years ago Richard Wolkomir, writing for Omni magazine, noted:
[Christopher] Bird has chronicled the success of dozens of dowsers. ...Bird-- who holds a Harvard biology degree...-- ...cited the pharmaceutical firm, Hoffmann-La Roche, which in the Sixties and Seventies [1960s - 1970s] sent one of its executives, Peter Treadwell, Ph.D., around the world to dowse for water at proposed factory sites. “Roche uses methods that are profitable, whether or not they are scientifically explainable,” Treadwell remarked in 1972, “The dowsing methods pays off. It's one hundred percent reliable.”
Other companies, including oil and utility companies, have occasionally resorted to dowsing, though most are loath to admit it. But in 1980 Pacific Bell revealed that one of its Monterey, California repairmen, Tom Harmon, had used two lengths of cable to find buried conduits. Harmon who learned the art from “an old rancher” continues to dowse when looking for hidden phone lines.
Even U.S. marines in Vietnam dowsed for Vietcong tunnels and traps. In the mid-Sixties, soldiers at a simulated Vietnamese jungle at Camp Pendleton, California, were taught to dowse for land mines, communication wires, and concealed chambers before being sent into combat. (Wolkomir, 42.)
For centuries dowsers, or diviners, have searched for various lost, or hidden articles. One noted dowser even located the body of a drowning victim, which police had been unable to find. I note the prevalence of divining not to support the practice, but rather to demonstrate that many other sincere and honest people do believe in it. Most scientists are skeptical of the practice, while other scientists, however, have reasonably sound explanations why divining does work.
The point I’m trying to make here is that even today many people, including scientists, major firms, ministers, and former skeptics, believe in the powers of divining. For our purposes it matters less if divining works or not, as the fact that it is still accepted by sensible, honest, and often deeply religious people. In pre-modern, early nineteenth-century America, the practice of treasure digging and the belief in divining had many followers. There is ample evidence that the Smith family was no different in cultural beliefs than the rest of their contemporaries. Why should they have been? Superstition and magic were cultural traits of frontier America, believed by various peoples, on various social, economic, and educational levels. Likewise, many religious people today believe in “magic” or superstitions, or cling to traditions. Pick up any major newspaper and you will find a section promoting astrology via horoscopes. Christmas and Easter holidays, not to mention Halloween, all have ties with ancient pagan and “occult” practices. Does this mean that those who celebrate these holidays are not Christian? The tradition of June weddings, which is still the most popular month for marriages, dates to Rome where the month June was named after the Roman goddess Juno, the goddess of love and marriage.
The fact that these frontier Americans believed in “magic” as manifestations of God show just how devout and sincere these people were. “Fundamental to the magic world view was the concept that successful use of the divining rod was a godly gift, whether exercised to locate underground water or buried treasure, to identify criminals, or to reveal answers to specific questions” (Quinn, 30.)
Was Joseph involved in treasure digging? Sure he was. Evidence suggests that Joseph quit the money-digging business as he began his work on the Book of Mormon. According to Martin Harris the angel Moroni once told Joseph that “‘...he must quit the company of the money-diggers. That there were wicked men among them. He must have no more to do with them’” (Bushman, 74.) “As with any other people,” wrote Ronald Walker– who studied Joseph’s earlier treasure-digging days-- “at any moment in time, the first Latter-day Saints (including Joseph Smith) required some time and effort to separate religious truth from their own sincerely, culture-derived ideas, some of which today appear unfounded or irrational.” (Walker, 468.)
Joseph would not have given up every tradition and superstition all at once. He was human and undoubtedly certain superstitions which did not apparently clash with the revealed gospel, as he understood it, lasted throughout his lifetime. The learning of Joseph Smith, like that of all the prophets, and like the unfolding of the gospel through the history of both the Primitive and the Restored Church, came little by little, line upon line, and precept upon precept. Joseph Smith was a man, like other men, subject to weakness, sickness, superstition and error.
Joseph’s early cultural beliefs, however, probably gave him an edge (over twenty-first century Americans) in receiving the Restored Gospel. Joseph believed in visions and revelation-- he had not yet been indoctrinated by the narrower view of secularism and skepticism. He was in a perfect position to receive a revelation from on high-- he had the faith to receive such a manifestation. The early Mormons, including Joseph Smith “could have incorporated the pre-existing [magic] views into their particular understanding of [revealed] Mormonism” (Quinn, xviii). Joseph was more open-minded to miracles, visions, speaking with tongues etc. and was a perfect candidate for receiving the restoration of the gospel and eventually the obtaining and translating of the Book of Mormon.
Michael R. Ash
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