How Witches Harnessed the Internet
You need to find a witch? Check Facebook.
BY: ALOKA MAHADURAGE
Photo courtesy of Wired
Last year, I was taking a class about African colonial history. I checked the syllabus and saw under week seven, African society and witchcraft. I was surprised, to say the least, but forgot about it until the professor walked in with a slide show full of spells and witches.
That week was the only thing I remember from that course, and I was hooked. I wrote my final paper about Zambian witchcraft, and since then I haven’t been able to shake my curiosity about witches and their spiritual lifestyle. People are hung up on the occult, and I am none the better, but the more research I do—it seems that witchcraft is still greatly misunderstood.
The supernatural, the dark arts, and anything even remotely witchy has caught the otherworldly fascination of the public for years. Our curiosity in witchcraft comes in the form of pop culture, old wives’ tales, and a stern warning to not mess around in the woods.
Witchcraft has been on the rise as a path of pagan spirituality. Arguably, society is finally starting to accept and explore spirituality outside of the beaten path. Bring in the internet and globalization to sustain and build a community, and ta-da, we’ve got covens and witches galore.
Witchcraft falls under the umbrella of paganism, which describes faith practices that are older than and not of the main world religions. In Christianity, “pagan” was once a derogatory term for those who didn’t worship the common God, but now it’s more of a buzzword for unconventional forms of spirituality.
With one in five Americans identifying as spiritual rather than religious, it seems that holistic pagan practices are gaining popularity. People are still looking to the universe for answers—less at churches, temples, and mosques, but more through less conventional paths. Witchcraft can seem more unconventional as compared to most practiced religions, but the capacity to communicate with people overseas and the usage of digital platforms for notoriety has allowed witches to gain more exposure.
The witch community has been pushed to the fringes of society since the Middle Ages, with fear of the supernatural causing their way of life to be persecuted. There is no longer the same danger in practicing witchcraft, because the internet acts as a reliable and relatively safe platform for meeting others in the community and sharing knowledge.
A group of witches who gather to support each other’s witchcraft is known as a coven. There are lots of covens, gathering in houses and cafes, mostly created through the internet. The previously working witxhvox.com and meetup.com are great sites to learn about the craft from other witches as well as finding welcoming covens to join.
Contrary to traditional perceptions, the witches of the internet era don’t ride broomsticks or wear pointy hats; most are accountants, moms, and writers—not the most occultish careers, but it shows that witchcraft acts as a spiritual presence for those who practice it.
One of the internet's greatest characteristics is that it allows people to be faceless. It gives a sense of anonymity and safety, which can inspire people to connect with others across screens. Aside from connecting ideas, the internet can also act as a place to connect through practices.
Knowledge sharing between experienced witches and new witches, referred to as “baby” witches, supports their spiritual community and maintains the flow of ideas, allowing new audiences to relate to witchcraft and supporting its growth. The new exposure has increased public interest in witchcraft, pushing new age practitioners to the internet for answers on alters, spells, and anything witchy. Subreddits such as r/witchcraft are great tools for community education in traditions that have been passed down between families and covens.
Besides spreading awareness and connection across cultures, the internet has also helped witch communities that have been practicing their craft for centuries reach wider audiences of clients and expand their business opportunities. Platforms such as Etsy and Facebook allow witches to offer their services to clients and create entrepreneurship networks for remote witch communities.
The vrăjitoare, (meaning witch in Romanian), are a witch community known to inherit their powers through the maternal bloodline. Their power needs to come from within, and these witches take their craft very seriously. They are both respected, feared, and criticized due to their intersectional identities as witches, gypsies, and Roma women.
Photo Courtesy of Lucia Serková Bláhová via Lens Culture
The vrăjitoare are avidly partaking in the internet’s globalization of the supernatural and using Facebook to access clients and stream rituals on their pages. The witches act as spiritual guides and businesswomen who are offering a service to their clients.
Need a love potion or a spell for health, wealth, or prosperity? Ask the vrăjitoare for help. And don’t go looking for dark magic, most witches will take that as an insult to their craft.
To find your nearest vrăjitoare, just head to Facebook and search for a variety of Roma witches who will send their prices after an initial appointment. Some witches say that meeting online puts their clients at ease because meeting in person can sometimes be nerve-wracking for people who are new to witchcraft. This is especially true for services like seances or tarot card readings.
Clients come seeking the help of a witch usually during very hard and vulnerable times in their lives, so having the barrier of a screen makes it a more comfortable experience. On the other hand, some witches comment that the lack of physical interaction can make their job in divining or casting spells harder, and they often ask their clients to mail in small personal possessions to make their spells hold stronger.
Would you meet a witch for a reading in person or online?
Even though internet access still remains limited, it makes witchcraft accessible to a greater public and gives communities who have practiced their craft for centuries a platform to grow and sustain their way of life. The vrăjitoare and other witch communities have faced discrimination and persecution for centuries. They have spent years trying to legitimize their beliefs and leave the spooky stereotypes behind.
Despite the new era of internet witchcraft booming, some older witches who have been practicing their craft for years, don’t approve. They are worried that the baby witches, their internet savvy rituals, and online marketing techniques are taking them back centuries by delegitimizing their craft. Internet connectivity allows for more people to be exposed to the concept of witchcraft, but is it being taken seriously?
A debatable question, but I think more than ever society is opening up to the idea of different avenues to life and spirituality. Astrology, tarot card readings, horoscopes, and witchcraft are being practiced by a new crowd that is curious, respectful, and open-minded enough to consider this alternative path of spirituality.
Witchcraft focuses on the importance of being in tune with oneself and how to line one’s energies up with those of the universe—so that people can put good energy out in order to receive good energy back.
To me, appreciating the values of witchcraft could add benefit to our lives, as it encourages a greater sense of awareness about our position in the world.
I’m not saying that we should all drop our beliefs to practice witchcraft, but that we should open our minds to ways of understanding the world that are unconventional and different from our own, recognizing that as individuals we only know so much.
Learning another way to make sense of the universe seems pretty beneficial to me.
