Every fall, the girls who believe themselves witches come out of hiding and accept their true selves. These modern witches have increasingly become more trendy, resulting in an obsession with zodiac astrology, crystals, taro cards, spells and more.
Modern witches have become an aesthetic people could embrace; Vogue wrote that this aesthetic is called witchcore. The modern witch aesthetic is wearing monochrome smocking or tulle, natural chunky knit with a lace collar and flowy, feminine hair by day; by night witchcore becomes darker with black lace and boots.
Embarrassingly, I fell prey to the phenomenon of modern witches in high school; I was already strange, and this trend fueled that. I mean, I collected rocks I found on hikes until I discovered crystals.
Crystals started everything for me; I used to believe wholeheartedly they had supernatural powers.
For example, on the first date with my boyfriend, I asked him if he wanted to see my rock collection. God bless him because he listened to me rant about every crystal I owned and what they could do. Somehow, four years later, we’re still together despite my oh-so-endearing quirks.
This belief system was so bad that after dating for a few weeks, I put a rose quartz crystal under the driver’s seat in his truck. I was fully convinced this was why he fell in love with me. I did this because I learned in a TikTok that putting the “love” crystal underneath his seat would intensify any feelings he had for me.
Trust me, I know it’s insane, and I can promise that I’m no longer gullible to the compelling spiritual videos online.
I still have crystals in my home, but only because they are pretty to look at. They were also incredibly expensive. Eventually, I finally found some form of reason and decided I probably wasn’t a witch, and it was just a popular trend teenage me was susceptible to.
Surprisingly, I am not the worst example of this trend, some people are much worse.
This trend dates back thousands of years, and one infamous example of witches was during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692.
Historically, witches have a bad reputation. Nobody knows where witches came from, and early records of witch-hunting date back to 4,000 years ago.
It is mostly a Western ideology that witches are inherently a sign of the devil, but in other cultures, witches are not evil. In Japan, for example, witches usually have a familiar or magical pet that grants them power. While in Korea, witches rely on spells to influence others. In Russia, a witch is called a Baba Yaga or babka and is synonymous with an old wise woman.
The modern witch can also be an intersection of the occult — supernatural, mystical, magical beliefs, practices or phenomena — and the natural world. In this specific intersection, some witches will offer up plants and flowers to a spiritual altar for a goddess.
I never classified myself as a nature witch, but I do remember cleansing my crystals by placing them outside during a full moon, or worse, collecting rainwater and cleansing it under the moon. I cannot for the life of me figure out why I did that.
I found many different resources for the people who truly believe they are witches. There’s an online course via Zoom called “Ways into Witchcraft” by Rebecca Beattie to teach people how to accept their heritage and become witches. Beattie has an entire website with a myriad of classes aspiring witches can join.
I also listened to a podcast, “A Common Craft,” to learn the fascinating archetype of witches and witchcraft. This inspiring podcast was interesting, to say the least. It included storytelling, witch songs and the history of witches with evidence from “The Little Mermaid,” the Disney movie about the princess mermaid.
There really is something for everyone.
WikiHow also has a guide to becoming a witch, only 15 parts too, and very easy to digest. They said to be a successful witch, you need a wand (moon-charged stick), mortar and pestle, a book of shadows, herbs, mineral spirit and salt. This easy-to-read guide summarizes everything there is to know about witchcraft, making it simple and easy to understand so everyone can become a witch.
All jokes aside, this trend historically resurfaces every few years, and The Conversation claims this is because young people often search for spirituality and turn to witchcraft. This is because teens are inspired by TV shows and literature; TikTok’s witchcraft cottage-core aesthetic also reflects design trends.
To this day, I still don’t know where I somehow decided I was a witch. Maybe it was the books I was reading, or maybe it was TikTok that transfixed me.
The witch phenomenon has been fascinating to me ever since I went through my phase, which renders the question: where do we draw the line, and what’s the difference between someone being a full-fledged witch, and someone who may enjoy things that are similar to this pagan spirituality?
In a subreddit called “TrueUnpopularOpinion,” one redditor has some strong opinions about this. This person claims, “The worse thing is that this new internet-driven ‘witch’ trend is eroding our society’s ability to differentiate the truth from fiction at a massive scale.”
Despite this person’s joyful grammatical errors, they sparked a lively debate with at least 500 other people that defined the line between hobby and religion.
One person said, “We are just having fun, just like any other religion or group like big foot fans or UFO/alien believers. I love the aesthetic, nature and the things others come up with.”
If you see anyone who claims they’re a witch do these two things: one, send them to me so I can ask them literally everything they believe in; and two, ask them if it’s only something they embrace during the autumnal seasons.
The history of the witch is truly fascinating, and it proves that this isn’t a new trend. The modern witch may be a new aesthetic, but witches have been around for far longer than we could possibly know.
Maybe I’m being too judgmental about witches, and it is just something fun that brings people together. But there are absolutely people who may take this too far, and they have for thousands of years. I can’t discount this spirituality because the only true evidence I have of magic is in the books I read, and maybe there is magic out there that we’re just too blind to see.