What comes to mind when you think of a witch? Green skin? A warty nose? Women in black cackling over cauldrons as they cast an incantation? Or perhaps innocent, mostly female, victims burned at the stake or hanged from scaffolds by religious zealots of centuries past? Depending on your age, you might conjure up images of the Wizard of Oz – or more recently Wicked – Willow and Tara battling demons in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina and her talking cat, or the chaotic coven of teenagers in The Craft. What you may not associate with witches is the rapid, content-obsessed world of social media, its algorithmic structures, domination by influencers, and the consumerist desires they invoke. For many, witches and witchcraft have become synonymous with TikTok and the sub-identifier “WitchTok”. WitchTok is part subculture, part aesthetic category, part viral trend, and refers to a section of magical themed video-based material on TikTok that includes, but is not limited to: tarot reading, spellcasting, charm-making, astrology, astronomy, divination, and potion making. The WitchTok phenomenon has been around for several years, but its popularity increased sharply during the Covid-19 pandemic. Over a period punctuated with seemingly endless social lockdown measures, collective faith in scientific truths was eroded, allowing the fallibility of expert systems to become a catalyst for interest in holistic and dissident forms of self-care. Life during the pandemic gave way to curiosity about alternative forms of entertainment that fed directly into WitchTok. Although specialist witch websites and forums dedicated to the Occult have been accessible since the 1990s, TikTok’s shortform video format provided the impetus for mass revival and widespread participation in DIY magic. Consequently, a global audience of predominantly young women have created a platform to reboot witchcraft as a means for making sense of and militating against the anxieties of 21st century life. Though seemingly whimsical at first glance, WitchTok serves as an experimental space for seeking out and building alternative perspectives on a range of issues, not least existential threats including pandemics and global warming, but also questions of social justice, politics, and lifestyle. Interest in WitchTok has amassed considerable attention and, at the time of writing, has more than 40 billion views of all its content. WitchTok has established itself as more than a social media ‘trend’, with the witch aesthetic migrating offline and becoming a cradle to various lifestyles and interests. A KIND OF MAGIC My interest in WitchTok emerged from a larger investigation into the history of witches over the course of modernity, and how witchcraft has become marketised as part of global consumer culture. My investigation has brought me into conversation with self-identifying witches. For many I have spoken with, magic provides an important and compelling means of cultivating a more just and equitable relationship with nature, contrary to the more extractive and unsustainable relations modern consumer culture tends to rely upon. Magical thinking is often underpinned by a sense of ecological reflexivity and environmental obligation reflected in 22 |
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