Kate Freuler

Witchcraft & Social Media: Should You Share Your Personal Practice?

Kate Freuler

Have you ever shared pictures or videos of your personal spells on social media? If so, do you feel it had an effect on the outcome of the working? Do you suspect that some of the perfect altar photos in your feed are staged just to get views and likes?

These are questions many of us are asking ourselves as we traverse a world in which the relationship between a person’s real life and their online persona has become complicated. Balancing sacred spirituality with the ever-changing, competitive world of social media can be a daunting task, and when the two worlds collide, things can get a little weird.

Back when I began learning about witchcraft, my biggest challenge was finding informative books. This task sounds ridiculously simple compared to the present. Nowadays there are young witches attempting to curse the moon, experienced witches behaving badly in the comments section, cancel culture, the witch aesthetic, influencer witches, and the monetization of spiritual services. There are innumerable online magick courses promising adept supreme status for a fee, and video tutorials showing how to hex your enemies. There’s more information than one person can possibly sift through, never mind finding an informative book. (And after you do finally find a book you like, you’re apt to discover a bunch of videos of witches explaining why it’s the wrong one.)

For those of us who’ve made it past this onslaught of conflicting information and developed a daily practice, our spirituality is usually inextricably entwined with our daily life. Therefore, to be our- Our spirituality is selves online can mean expos- usually inextricably ing our deeply held beliefs in entwined with our a way that can be either wonderful or terrible, depending daily life. Therefore, on how others react to it. This to be ourselves makes using social media a online can mean little different for magickal exposing our deeply people. After all, there’s a big held beliefs in a way difference between posting a cute picture of your cat verthat can be either sus an intimate, emotionally wonderful or terrible, charged love spell. depending on how

Everybody’s different. Some others react to it. practitioners choose to keep their work completely private and never snap a single photo. Other witches are comfortable occasionally sharing their altar setup. Some

witches film and broadcast every single working they do. There are even influencer witches who have completely integrated magick and media into a single formidable personality.

Despite the fact that spells and rituals are a normal, everyday part of our lives, they’re still considered strange by many outsiders, so the decision to expose them to public scrutiny needs to be considered carefully. The level of social media that people allow in their craft ranges across a broad spectrum, and so do the opinions about it. There is no way to tell another person the correct approach, because what works for one witch doesn’t necessarily work for another.

The Power of Thought

Sharing a photo of your beautiful crystal grid or a well-made spell candle can be empowering, especially when people engage through likes and positive comments. However, something that has crossed my mind, and probably yours, is to wonder if overtly broadcasting a magickal working to anyone and everyone could possibly lessen its authenticity or even weaken its power—not to mention the logistical problem of having to halt mid-spell, break your focus, and take a bunch of pictures.

Thoughts and feelings are energy. Energy impacts everything it touches. A person’s thoughts could possibly, then, impact your working, even if that person is on the other side of the world. If someone, somewhere, looks at your spell picture and feels a negative emotion toward you and it, will this interfere with your results? Every person who scrolls through your feed will see your spell and experience an emotion, sometimes good, sometimes bad. The problem is that you can’t control which way it goes, and this leaves you vulnerable in a way.

For this reason, I’m careful about what I post and I share spells only long after they are completed. I’m of the opinion that thoughts sent toward me and my workings, even if only through a picture, can

interfere with them. Not everyone agrees with this opinion, and that’s okay.

Even if you don’t believe that remote thoughts will affect your magick, there’s always a chance that comments from strangers, especially negative remarks, will put a dent in your confidence. This can make you doubt yourself, which will affect the manifestation of your working.

Collective Belief

Some people choose to share every spell and ritual they partake in across all forms of social media. They feel that the more people that see the image, the more power it will gain. This is an interesting take and can be useful for groups who want to create large-scale change through magick that reaches many people. It can also be applied to empowering symbols and sigils.

The most powerful symbols are the ones that impact people immediately upon sight by invoking emotion. Popular symbols that have been around for a long time, such as a crucifix, the star of Baphomet, a pentacle, or even a skull and crossbones, have collected energy and power simply by being seen and understood for a long time. The meaning of the symbol and the emotion it triggers are imprinted on our minds. Imagine, then, what a sigil could do when passed from witch to witch, each person empowering it with the same meaning. As it’s viewed and shared repeatedly all over the world, it accumulates energetic clout, gaining power with every repost. Think about all the things we could do with that power!

In recent years, magickal practitioners have used social media to organize worldwide rituals where everyone agrees to perform a spell simultaneously at a specified time from wherever they happen to live. The idea is that when so many people communally partake in raising energy, it will have a huge impact on a global scale. This kind of large group working would have been impossible to arrange twenty-five

years ago, and it’s interesting to follow along and see the results. It’s definitely one of the perks of social media for witches.

Some Positive Points

It’s tempting to approach social media with a dubious attitude, because it can be toxic and damaging. It encourages unrealistic beauty standards, triggers unhealthy comparisons between ourselves and others, and is often fake. But it also has a positive side.

For many witches, their whole community is online. They simply don’t have anyone nearby who shares their interests, so social media brings an important sense of connection. It also provides many teachers and mentors. You can learn so many things about different traditions just by following along with various social media accounts. Many witches share facts, experiences, and instructions, making learning quicker than ever (and free). If witches never went public with their practice, then none of this knowledge would be readily available.

Having online friends has become the new normal. You might find that you really click with certain people, and the next thing you know, you have a whole witchy support system. Your online witch friends will get it when you say things like, “I saw a cat shape in a candle flame this morning—something big is coming my way!” or “I set off all the smoke alarms while cleansing my house again.” That kind of friendship is priceless.

How Much Is Too Much?

If you choose to share your workings on social media, you may become well known and gain a lot of followers. This can be exciting and empowering. After all, if likes and hearts didn’t give us a boost of serotonin, none of us would be doing it. But thanks to the algorithms at play, it also creates pressure to produce content in order to build and maintain

your following. When you have lots of followers or are trying to get more, you’re expected to deliver a constant stream of interesting, aesthetically pleasing, informative material that others can relate to. Over time, the demand to create for other people’s consumption rather than your own spiritual reasons may take away from the authenticity of your content and lead you to burn out. Worse, it might cause you to compromise your own beliefs in order to please others and follow trending opinions you don’t actually resonate with. If you find yourself scrambling to stage witchy-looking setups, creating altars and spell pics with the thought of followers in mind instead of your own practice, it might be time to step away from it. However, if you love staging photos and it’s making your life better, then by all means keep going!

Being an influencer is one of the most sought-after occupations today. It sounds great in theory. Imagine having so many people who adore you complimenting you If you become constantly and sending you gifts really well known, and free products, and earning sometimes people tons of money just by living your forget that you’re life and taking selfies. an actual person However, there’s a downside to all of that attention. If you with feelings become really well known, someand boundaries. times people forget that you’re an Influencer witches actual person with feelings and and mystical boundaries. Influencer witches people often end and mystical people often end up doing a lot of emotional work up doing a lot of on behalf of their followers, feelemotional work ing obligated to respond to every on behalf of their question, message, like, and comfollowers. ment. When people look up to

you as wise, they will come to you with their problems, seeking counseling and advice. Some will even think they’re entitled to your time and energy. You might find yourself spending hours answering messages and getting nothing in return but exhaustion. This is exactly why some well-known witches charge a fee for their time, advice, and counsel in the form of readings or seer services.

Protect Yourself

Here are some ideas for protecting your online life from interference:

• Consider sharing really personal workings only with a list of friends you know you can trust. These are people who will send positive, supportive energy your way. Many apps allow you to create groups with whom you can directly share your posts, so only chosen people can view them. • If you’re worried that your spell will be harmed by the thoughts of others, don’t share it until after it has manifested or is totally complete. You can post about it after the fact, if you want, knowing it’s already done and safe from interference. • If you find you’re being inundated with messages requesting your help and insight, consider turning off your inbox for a while. Make an announcement and then stick to your allotted time to be unavailable. This is setting a healthy boundary for your own self-care, and those who truly value you will respect it. • Create a protective symbol and discreetly place it on the device you most commonly use for social media. Draw the symbol on a bit of paper and conceal it inside your phone case where no one can see it.

• Avoid stopping mid-spell to snap a photo. This interrupts the entire working. If you must record it, set your phone on a tripod nearby and let it record. After the spell has manifested, you can share the video or a still photo from it.

• Be mindful of what you forward from other people’s feeds. It can be tempting to jump in on popular issues and share memes and other content without actually researching the source or background. Do a quick fact-check before jumping on any bandwagons, because sometimes these trends do more harm than good. • Avoid contacting big-name witches unless it’s for something really important. Their inbox is guaranteed to be full, and they might not see your message. When they don’t respond, it can feel like a slap in the face, leading to a sense of disconnection from community. Feeling unseen sucks, so don’t set yourself up for it. Focus on learning and growing your own practice.

• Be careful whom you listen to. No matter how cool and popular someone seems on social media, everyone is fallible and makes mistakes. No single individual is all-knowing or has all the

“right” answers. Before putting all of your energy into backing them, think about researching topics on your own as well, so you can build your own beliefs.

• The oldest advice still stands: Don’t feed the trolls!

Kate Freuler lives in Ontario, Canada, and is the author of Of Blood and Bones: Working with Shadow Magick & the Dark Moon. She owns and operates White Moon Witchcraft (www.whitemoonwitchcraft.com), an online witchcraft boutique. When she isn’t crafting spells and amulets for clients or herself, she loves to write, paint, read, draw, and create. Illustrator: M. Kathryn Thompson