Christine O’Donnell gazed earnestly into the camera for a campaign ad this month and proclaimed: “I’m not a witch.” It may have been a first in American politics, at least since the late 1600s, but the Delaware Republican was engaging in damage control to protect her quest for a seat in the United States Senate.

The brouhaha stemmed from a video clip from 1999 in which she admitted to having “dabbled into witchcraft.” And her qualification that “I never joined a coven” was taken about as seriously as Bill Clinton’s claim that he “didn’t inhale.” But while spells, magic potions and pagan rituals may be rare in the halls of power, they still hold sway with many people around the world. Symbols of the occult are easy to find, especially these days, with Halloween looming at the end of the month, and the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead just after.

An emporium in the New York borough of the Bronx with the innocuous name of Original Products Company is one of many establishments to offer herbs, amulets, jinx removers, spell breakers and voodoo dolls, based on occult practices used in Afro-Cuban religions and other traditions including Santeria, voodoo and Wicca.

Cecilia Oliver, who was having boyfriend problems, visited the store recently. “He’s being resistant,” she said, “I want where he’s submissive to me at all times.” Mario Allai, a Santeria priest who works at the store, offered her a magic charm to put under the insole of her shoe, The Times reported.

Adherents to such occult-based religions say that they are often misunderstood and mistaken for Satanists. Wiccans, for example, stress that their main emphasis is a worship of nature. “Wiccans have so many things stacked against them,” David Steinmetz, a professor of the history of Christianity at Duke University Divinity School in North Carolina, told The Times, “from what the Bible says about the practice of magic to the history in this country of witch trials.” In most countries, at least, witches are no longer drowned, burned at the stake or tortured. Most, but not all.

“Saving Africa’s Witch Children,” a documentary shown on HBO earlier this year, chronicled the persecution of suspected witches. As The Times reported, the film follows Gary Foxcroft, the founder of the charity Stepping Stones Nigeria, through the state of Akwa Ibom, where children face cruel “exorcisms.” Like Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1600s, all it takes is the word of one preacher accusing the children of being possessed. The “cure” can involve being splashed with acid, buried alive, dipped in fire or abandoned.

Elsewhere in Africa, ancient occult practices maintain a presence amid more mainstream religions. In Benin, Dah Aligbonon Akpochihala, a voodoo priest, has been preaching the old ways on the airwaves. “When Aligbonon comes on the radio, nobody sleeps,” he told The Times. “The people are hungry for my broadcasts.” In a pamphlet, he defends voodoo.

“Voodoo is not the devil, and still less Satan,” he writes. Rather, he says it is “based on natural law.” Ms. O’Donnell is trailing in her race badly, but she will find out on November 3 if her efforts on the airwaves have assuaged the fears of Delaware voters.

In the meantime she has been a boon to American comedians. On the satirical show “Saturday Night Live,” an actress playing Ms. O’Donnell innocently announced, “I’m not a witch.” Then as the camera panned back to reveal a Halloween motif with skeletons and skulls, the actress added with an evil, maniacal leer, “but if I am do you really want to cross me?”


KEVIN DELANEY