The Spadena House, also known as The Witch House, is a storybook house in Beverly Hills, California (Photo by Carol M. Highsmith\/Buyenlarge\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Witch Tara Maclay\u2019s specialized in defensive spells during her three seasons on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Actress, writer and director Amber Benson, who portrayed the character, has continued her interest in the occult, penning a novel series<\/a> about a coven in Los Angeles\u2019 Echo Park neighborhood.<\/p>\n Now, Benson has conjured new magic spells, far different from her Buffy days. The incantations have been used to enchant architecturally significant homes in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n Amber Benson says she\u2019s always been interested in the occult.<\/p>\n LINDSEY BYRNES \/ Photo courtesy of FORT:LA <\/p>\n \u201cLos Angeles has such a rich history of spooky and unsettling things that have happened here,\u201d says Benson, who created \u201cWitch House Trail,\u201d a self-guided tour of Los Angeles homes that have various associations with the occult. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty easy to find supernatural stories to inspire me for the Witch House Trail each year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Hearth Magic\u2019 Is Featured In Benson\u2019s New Series<\/p>\n Benson\u2019s \u201cWitch Houses 6: Spells and Magic<\/a>\u201d is the sixth in a free series published by Friends of Residential Treasures<\/a> (LA (FORT:LA). The online house tours have covered covens associated with properties, storybook architecture, buildings with towers and turrets, and classic homes that look exactly like what a witch would inhabit. Other FORT:LA Trails<\/a> cover various architectural styles, civil rights movements connect to homes and numerous other themes.<\/p>\n The Wiggins House in Tujunga, California, was built in 1941.<\/p>\n Russell Brown \/ Courtesy of FORT:LA<\/p>\n FORT:LA advises those who tour the properties and photograph the exteriors to respect homeowners and not ask to see inside the residences. The organization is a nonprofit architectural advocacy group in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n The spells associated with homes in Benson\u2019s \u201cWitch Houses 6: Spells and Magic\u201d center around what she terms \u201chearth magic,\u201d or magic for the home.<\/p>\n For example, the owners of Farnam House in Santa Monica cast a \u201cProsperitas Spell\u201d on their home to attract prosperity\u2014which Benson notes has apparently lasted nearly a century. What\u2019s required? In her tour guide, Benson writes: \u201cOn the seventh night of an odd-numbered month, bury a silver dollar beneath each entry point of the home while intoning at each burial site:<\/p>\n Through my door comes only riches<\/p>\n Through my window comes only wealth<\/p>\n Infuse my home with good health<\/p>\n And infinite wellness.\u201d<\/p>\n Benson\u2019s other tours have been equally inventive.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a previous year, we created an accompanying audio track of passages from Grimm\u2019s Fairy Tales that reference various abodes,\u201d Benson says. Users can download and listen to it while they follow the trail.<\/p>\n ‘Buffy” star Amber Benson has created six Witch House guided tours.<\/p>\n Courtesy of FORT:LA<\/p>\n Benson was asked to create the self-guided Trail tours by Russell Brown<\/a>, founder and board chair of FORT:LA. \u201cI was lucky enough to star in his first feature film, Race You to the Bottom, and not only did the movie turn out wonderfully, but I got an incredible friend in the bargain,\u201d Benson says. \u201cHe was a big fan of my Witches of Echo Park book series, and saw another chance for us to collaborate.\u201d<\/p>\n Witches Get A PR Makeover<\/p>\n Benson says she\u2019s always been interested in the occult and is encouraged that the view of witches has evolved. Once a classic villain trope\u2014portrayed with pointy hats casting curses on unsuspecting victims\u2014witches are increasingly pictured in a positive light, she notes.<\/p>\n But that freshened depiction, she says, was always the reality for witches who have suffered distortion through the centuries.<\/p>\n \u201cHistorically, witches were women who bucked the system and stood up for themselves,\u201d Benson says. They were figures who \u201cmade the powers that be angry. And what better way is there to put a powerful woman in her place than to demonize her.\u201d<\/p>\n The Egasse-Braasch House, from the first Trail Benson created, is where Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote the Academy Award-winning film Good Will Hunting.<\/p>\n Michael Locke \/ Courtesy of FORT:LA<\/p>\n