It’s facile to claim that only the state, or even only elites, were responsible for executing witches – there is a potential witch-hunter in all of us.
WitchTok is the subculture of pagans who use TikTok to share spells, learn about mythology and connect with co-religionists.
(northeasternherb, showthe8thhouse, greenwitchmystics/TikTok)
What’s behind Gen Z’s appetite for tarot and spells? 16th century debates about witchcraft help explain why the occult has become viral on TikTok.
The ‘Malleus Maleficarum,’ a medieval handbook, was used to try and execute supposed witches. Its influence lasted for centuries – including at the Salem Witch Trials.
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Samhain will be particularly poignant this year for Wiccans who are members or veterans of the US military as they process the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
Perfumes, potions and witches have been entwined for centuries.
Frederick Stuart Church/Smithsonian American Art Museum/Wikimedia Commons
Scent and magic have been entwined in our imaginations for centuries – right up to today’s witch-inspired perfumes.
Most Wiccans in the U.S. practice alone, though they congregate in large gatherings to conduct rituals and learn from one another.
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A historian reviews Pablo Agüere’s award-winning Netflix film Akelarre and explains why it is one of the best films around on the early modern witch-hunt.
Three women dressed in Middle-Age period garb as alewives.
Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images
The role of witches in society relates directly to the role of women in society. And during times of social upheaval and changes, witches represent access to women’s power.
Witch-identified folks are sharing spells online in an act of magical resistance in advance of the U.S. election.
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As the U.S. election approaches, various groups have mobilized to vote. But witches have taken it a little further, organizing online spellcasting meet-ups to engage in magical resistance.
A home in New York decorated for 2020 Halloween.
Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images
For members of the minority religion of Wicca and witchcraft – part of contemporary paganism – Halloween is not just a children’s holiday: It is both a celebration and acceptance of death.
With President Donald Trump’s frequent use of the term “witch hunt” he paints himself as a victim. The women persecuted in one of history’s darkest chapters should not be forgotten so easily.
After the main plotters of the Gundpowder plot were tortured and executed, accusations of treason, heresy, and witchcraft were used to persecute other enemies of the Crown.
Crispijn van de Passe the Elder/ Wikimedia
Bonfire Night keeps the flames of division burning.
Seventy-eight percent of the people executed for witchcraft in New England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries were women.
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Laura Sumrall, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Reports of demonic possession are once again on the rise. But during the devil’s last apogee in early modern Europe, demonic afflictions were taken seriously by both priests and physicians.
Associate Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, the University of Queensland; International Distinguished Fellow, the Burton Blatt Institute, Syracuse University., The University of Queensland