Latest news with #WitchTok
ITV News
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ITV News
Brooms & black cats? They're so last century! Meet the ‘Witch'Tokers' with billions of views
If you're asked to think of a witch, what comes to mind? Pointy hats, black cats and broomsticks? But what about TikTok?! Dubbed 'WitchTok', this growing online trend is bringing modern witchcraft into the mainstream, with posts using the hashtag increasing 50% over the past twelve months. Today, the internet's most popular witches Emma Griffin, her daughter Holly Kenyon, and Katy Whyte join us to share how they're casting a spell over the TikTok generation by bringing a new cohort of sorcerers out of the broom closet!
Daily Mail
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Why is Gen Z hiring witches on Etsy?
Gen Z: Double, double toil and trouble. Boomer: Auditioning for Macbeth? As if. Do you know how prejudicial Shakespeare is about witches? A famously persecuted minority. Well, they were in colonial Massachusetts. Despite there being more than 1.5 million of us witches globally, people still see us as a Halloween gag. You saw the snaps of me dressed up as Morticia Addams on Facebook? I don't use Facebook. And my culture is not your costume. So you turn people into toads and fly on a broomstick to avoid the rush-hour train? Don't you watch #WitchTok? It has more than 30 billion views describing our moon rituals, hexes and spells. I did a moon ritual once. It involved camping in Wales and trying to find a toilet at 3am. We only use our powers for good, as 'next-gen witches' explained to The Washington Post. Is that why I saw your friend using a 'justice candle' to curse her ex's hairline on Instagram? People 'assume straight away that witchcraft is devil worship', one witch told the Post, adding that society should be 'more accepting and less judgmental'. If I wanted to be 'accepted' by society, I'd probably stop dressing like the lovechild of Adam Ant and Mystic Meg. The Guardian actually called 'witchcore' the hottest fashion trend of 2025. Pointy hats and capes on the Prada catwalk? 'Black, loosely fitting clothing that can often be worn forward or backwards' is summer's must-wear, the paper added. That's 80 per cent of my wardrobe. And you've got the warts and the grey hair covered. I'm the Kate Moss of the coven. My customers would go nuts for your gothic aesthetic. Customers? Don't tell me you've set up some witch-fetish OnlyFans? I sell spells on Etsy. Couldn't they simply get those from the Harry Potter books? Don't get me started on JK Rowling. Her negative aura would stop magic working. Can only liberals write spells? I don't just write them, I cast them. It's £15 for a good luck one, £3.50 to repair a relationship and £12 to overcome hurdles at work. Who needs a salary when you've got a cauldron and a crystal ball? You laugh, but it's a £1.5 billion industry. One witch, Avatara, has made 11,000 sales since joining Etsy in 2022. Is she casting spells on shoppers to make them fall for this nonsense? They do work. Just ask Jaz Smith, a content creator whose wedding vlogs racked up more than 50 million views. I'm only interested if it involved a failsafe spell to ensure her mother-in-law's absence. 'I paid an Etsy witch for good weather for my wedding,' the 28-year-old revealed in a TikTok with 158,000 likes. And? The day turned out gloriously sunny, despite New York being forecasted rain. Etsy witches really must be busy if they're behind every Met Office balls-up. Well, it is a demanding job. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a spell to record for TikTok. Wand-erful. I have the perfect caption.
IOL News
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
I hired a witch on Etsy to fix my life
Wicked part 2 starring Cynthia Erivo, Image: Instagram/@wickedmovie Image: Image: Instagram/@wickedmovie ON Etsy, magic is big business, and it's possible to pay a witch to cast a spell for just about anything, on just about anyone. The online marketplace where people can buy and sell unique handmade or vintage goods, banned 'metaphysical services' in 2015, but there are thousands of spells for sale, most tagged as 'entertainment.' For $17(R300), you can place an order for good luck. Repairing a relationship costs $5. To make someone feel guilty, you'll need $9.99, and curses tend to start around $15. Recently, I've been feeling like there's something in my way. Maybe it's a symptom of trying to 'have it all.' So I paid a witch on Etsy to fix it with a spell. Obviously. My spell was performed by Avatara, of the Etsy shop NovaLunaTarot. Using the platform's messaging function, I provided my name and birthday, and I told her a bit about how I've been feeling. She sent me photos of an altar, adorned with stones and tarot cards, where three candles burned. It cost $15.99. Avatara joined Etsy in 2022 and has made close to 11,000 sales. It's the only platform where she sells spells, and it's her primary source of income. Business is up, she says, as interest in witchcraft grows. And witchcraft is certainly having a moment. Videos on 'WitchTok,' a corner of the social media platform TikTok, have been viewed more than 30 billion times. Some 30 million posts on Instagram are tagged with 'witch' or 'witchcraft.' Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Chris Miller, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, researches contemporary paganism, an umbrella term for spiritual practices and religions such as Wicca, druidry and others that revere nature. Despite a history marked by secrecy and persecution, witchcraft is now part of the mainstream consciousness, he says. That's in part because many millennials and Gen Xers grew up surrounded by pop culture references to witches. 'Think about all these things - 'The Craft,' 'Sabrina,' 'Buffy,' 'Charmed' - all being popular during adolescence,' he says.'Now those people are in their 30s and 40s.' They're fueling a retail industry worth more than $2 billion, both online and off; metaphysical shops and apothecaries are thriving across the United States. Daysi De Dios, 41, remembers being captivated by the witch-rich pop culture of the 1990s. More than a decade ago, the first-generation Mexican American began learning about the healing folk magic practice Curanderismo. 'I'm also a practicing shaman, drawing on my Mesoamerican roots and the tradition of Aztecs and Mayans,' she says. De Dios opened an online shop in 2017, then, in 2020, a brick-and-mortar in Montclair, New Jersey, called Houss Freya, after the Norse goddess of love and war. Customers often come in wanting their 'energy cleansed,' De Dios says. Witchcraft has in some ways lost its taboo, De Dios says. Lindsay Squire, a Britain-based practitioner known to her half-million Instagram followers as 'the Witch of the Forest,' says some family and friends 'thought it was weird' when she began practicing close to a decade ago. 'They assumed straightaway that witchcraft is devil worship. Now, people are much more accepting and less judgmental.' Melinda Nemecek, an Ohio-based content creator who has an audience of more than 300,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram, says she began dabbling in witchcraft 'at a time when I had just gone through a divorce and a custody battle, and I was living in government housing as a single mother.' Nemecek's followers are often looking for what's referred to as 'baneful magic; getting back at someone, making someone stop gossiping about you,' she says. Avatara won't perform spells to hurt other people. Most of her magic is of the self-help variety; her most popular seller used to be the cord cutter, a spell to help people sever unhealthy attachments. Squire says the bulk of her requests are for love spells. 'You know,' she says, ''can you make this person fall in love with me? Can you make this person come back?' The obvious question to outsiders, though, is less about ethics and more about efficacy: Is there any real power in these spells? The more open a client is, says Avatara, the better her spells work. 'It's an exchange of energy,' she says. 'It's not just about what I'm doing.' As I read the five-part incantation she sent, I tried to focus on making it come true. When I got to the end, nothing felt different. De Dios believes the growing community around witchcraft transcends religion. 'Using nature as a source of energy is an ancient practice. To me, it's just bringing in different energies, seen and unseen, to help you be more fulfilled and at peace. I think anyone could use a little magic in their life,'she says.
Metro
13-06-2025
- Business
- Metro
Online spells and WitchTok - welcome to the world of modern day witches
When Emma Carney gets up, she welcomes the dawn by lighting a candle and pulling a Tarot card from her much-loved deck. She makes an 'intention' for the day, and reflects on how she will achieve her goals. Then, the 37-year-old owner of a digital marketing agency will make herself a coffee and decide what she wants from her day. 'If I am trying to manifest money in abundance I will burn a bit of cinnamon and stir my coffee with it,' she explains. Throughout her work day, Emma will make time to light incense, cast spells and perform ceremonies. 'Everything's just got to have a little magic added to it,' she says with a smile. 'It's just how I live my life.' A successful businesswoman, Emma is also a witch. Her daily rituals and ceremonies help her to fulfil her potential and bring joy and meaning to her world, she says. She's not alone. From WitchTok (8.5million posts) to online Tarot subscriptions, witchcraft is big business, and Emma is just one of an ever-growing number in the UK who pair normal, professional lives with making potions, casting spells and meeting in covens. It was 71-year-old Cassandra Latham-Jones who became the UK's first official witch in 2022, when she was permitted to use the term 'village witch' on her tax return. That same year, former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon issued a posthumous apology to the thousands of people persecuted as witches in Scotland under the Witchcraft Act of 1563. With apps for moon work, Tarot and Astrology and subscription boxes where gems, oils and spell kits magically arrive by post, it's clear that the occult is more than adept at moving with the times. 'Witchcraft is basically owning your own power and comprehending how you can control the world around you based on understanding who you are and what you want,' explains Emma. 'A lot of people, when they hear about it, get confused by the language of magic and spells. 'But really, what it actually is, is just a way of taking your power and utilising your mind to achieve the things you want by performing certain actions. So this can be relatable in meditation and manifestation. 'Magic has now gone online and everybody's a lot more open talking about witchcraft.' Emma says she has been a witch since she was born. In 2020 she set up a digital coven with her friend Ashleigh-Jayne O'Connell, who describes it as an online 'witchy space' where people can hang out and share ideas. Ashleigh-Jayne lives in a flat in East Finchley crammed with herbs, crystals, books, candles and incense. The social media manager has been a witch since she was 15. She tells Metro: 'Witchcraft to me is bringing an element of balance. We all have crazy, busy jobs and crazy, busy lives. It gives me something to focus on for myself and to make myself grow as a better person. And also do as little harm to the world around me as possible. 'My neighbours know me as the girl who does the litter pick down the street, but also the one who will be sat in the front garden on a full moon burning stuff,' she adds. 'I've got my tiny little cauldron. And I burn things with corresponding herbs to complement that energy.' 'John' is also a witch, but is using a pseudonym as he is still in the broom cupboard. The 54-year-old from Exeter works in IT, but doesn't want his employers to know about his involvement in witchcraft and he hasn't revealed his passion to all of his family yet. Except his wife – who is also a witch. John explains that he got involved in the movement as a means to find balance in a busy life. 'I was absorbed into it last year,' he says. 'It just kind of happened after I went to a couple of sabbaths and esbats – witch gatherings – with my wife. I have aspirations of getting to know more about herbs from a medicinal point of view.' John adds that he is also 'attracted to the lore, the history and the mythology.' 'It is different and interesting,' he explains. 'I have issues with the control exercised by a lot of major religions. In witchcraft, certainly in our coven, there is no control. It is far more open and less judgemental.' Psychotherapist Cali White has trained in shamanic healing, trauma work, and ancestral healing. She is a witch, but admits to being reticent about using the term as it has been so misunderstood across the years. 'For many people, it's a word that continues to evoke fear, driven by centuries of cultural and religious conditioning of a witch being someone in league with the devil and doer of evil and black magic,' she tells Metro. 'However, this understanding is changing and witches are seen as people deeply connected to nature and natural approaches to healing with herbs and through positive intentions.' Cali says witchcraft offers people an important connection, which is important given the division and conflict we are all currently facing. 'Our modern lifestyles and growing dependence on technology disconnects us from the natural world which is vital for our health and wellbeing,' she explains. 'At a time in our history when there is so much destruction and imbalance in the world, the growing witchcraft revival offers us a pathway to more peacefulness in our lives.' Cali works with a group called the Silver Spoons Collective, an artistic sisterhood which aims to heal the intergenerational trauma caused from the burning times – when women were persecuted as witches, hanged and set alight between 1450 and 1750. 'Witchcraft is an ancient art, taken away from our ancestors by the spread of monotheistic religions. So we are having to relearn it,' she explains. 'Online platforms are great environments for this and increasing numbers of modern day witches are generously sharing their own experiences and teaching others.' One of these is Julie Aspinall, a self-confessed 'crone' – an experienced witch – who runs a large security company on the outskirts of Coventry. According to Julie, the lockdown five years ago was behind the surge in people joining covens, as the break in their hectic lives invited them to question their identity. 'A lot of people discovered that actually, we're all witches. We can all manifest what we want from the universe, if we just believe we can.' She now runs a coven on Facebook, with 2,500 members from around the world. More Trending 'There are hundreds of online witch groups on Tiktok and X, but on mine we have crones from all round the country; people who have been witches for years and years,' she explains. 'We'll put spells up, we'll post information about goddesses and gods and different aspects of witchcraft. 'And it is somewhere that is a safe place,' Julie adds. 'It means their neighbour and their friends don't know they're on there. It's a closed group. There used to be a stigma around witchcraft. There certainly was when I started 40 years ago. You would never have dared tell people back then. You'd think the men in white coats would come and take you away.' Not so anymore, says Emma, adding, 'a witch was originally just a wise person. It's become so popular. 'People are so much more receptive to it today. I love the fact that it has finally entered the mainstream.' Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. MORE: Six real witches share how they're spending Halloween MORE: Britain's first official witch claims expenses on spells and potions MORE: Nicola Sturgeon apologises to 'witches' on International Women's Day Your free newsletter guide to the best London has on offer, from drinks deals to restaurant reviews.
