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These WITCHES Changed The GAME · CelinaSpookyBoo

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to my spooky yet juicy top 10s.
0:03
Speaker 1: And before we get into this, I need you to
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Speaker 1: hear me when I say this. Witches are real. They
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Speaker 1: are alive and they are among us. They have TikTok,
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Speaker 1: they have Etsy shops, and they have hex presidences. President, presidents.
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Speaker 1: They have beef with the moon and some of them,
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Speaker 1: some of them have made the actual news in ways
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Speaker 1: that will make your jaw hit the absolute floor. So
0:24
Speaker 1: here's top 10 of modern day witches in Maybe a
0:26
Speaker 1: little cult activity in there. Welcome back to the channel.
0:29
Speaker 1: I'm Selena. And today we are doing the top 10
0:31
Speaker 1: modern day witches. And I mean modern like alive in
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Speaker 1: your lifetime modern. Like some of these people might be
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Speaker 1: your neighbor, Modern. Now, quick content note before we dive in.
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Speaker 1: Some of what we're covering today gets into cults, manipulation,
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Speaker 1: real crimes, and genuinely dark territory. I am not here
0:48
Speaker 1: to sensationalize it, but I am here to talk about
0:50
Speaker 1: it like adults because this stuff deserves to be taken seriously.
0:53
Speaker 1: And if that's not your vibe today, totally valid. Go
0:55
Speaker 1: watch something cozy. But if you're saying, make sure you
0:58
Speaker 1: buckle up because we are going from TikTok covens all
1:01
Speaker 1: the way to women who were burned alive in the
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Speaker 1: 21st century. Yes, I said what I said. Now, let's
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Speaker 1: get into it. We are starting in a faraway land.
1:09
Speaker 1: I'm kidding, it's England, which is still kind of far away.
1:11
Speaker 1: Because of course we are. The British do everything with
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Speaker 1: more drama and Sibyl Leake is no expectation. Sibyl Leake
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Speaker 1: was born in 1917 and she didn't just practice witchcraft.
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Speaker 1: She wore it like a costume everywhere she went. Black robes,
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Speaker 1: a jackdaw named Mr. Hotfoot Jackson perched on her shoulder,
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Speaker 1: walking through villages in the English countryside like she was
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Speaker 1: auditioning for a fairy tale. The BBC literally dubbed her
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Speaker 1: Britain's most famous witch. Not because she won a contest,
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Speaker 1: because she was just... undeniable sybil came from a family
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Speaker 1: which she claimed had practiced witchcraft for centuries she said
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Speaker 1: that she was connected to the new forest coven the
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Speaker 1: same group of witches who according to legend performed a
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Speaker 1: massive ritual during world war ii to stop hitler from
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Speaker 1: invading britain that's right there are people who genuinely believed
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Speaker 1: a coven of english witches helped win the world war
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Speaker 1: ii and honestly the audacity of that claim alone earned
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Speaker 1: sybil a spot on this juicy spooky list She eventually
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Speaker 1: moved to America and she became a media personality, of course.
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Speaker 1: But she wrote over 60 books on astrology, numerology, the occult,
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Speaker 1: and witchcraft. She was on television. She gave interviews. She
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Speaker 1: predicted futures. She was the Sybil Leake Show. Everywhere she went.
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Speaker 1: I love that. I really love that. I love her.
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Speaker 1: I love the vibe. When she died in 1982, she
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Speaker 1: was living in Florida, which, you know, tracks. Honestly, a
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Speaker 1: British witch retiring to Florida is the most logical ending
2:30
Speaker 1: to that story. Sybil Leake matters because she was one
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Speaker 1: of the first people. to publicly and proudly, unashamedly, call
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Speaker 1: herself a witch in the modern era. At a time
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Speaker 1: when it was genuinely scandalous to do so, she opened
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Speaker 1: a door that millions of people have walked through since.
2:47
Speaker 1: Now we have number nine, and if Sybil Leake opened
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Speaker 1: the door, Laurie Cabot built a whole house inside it.
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Speaker 1: Laurie Cabot has been the official witch of Salem, Massachusetts,
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Speaker 1: since the 1970s. And I want you to really sit
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Speaker 1: with that title. Official Witch of Salem. The city where
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Speaker 1: they literally killed women for witchcraft in 1692. And now
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Speaker 1: they have an official one on the payroll with a title.
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Speaker 1: Now that is the glow up of the millennia. Lori
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Speaker 1: moved to Salem in the 1970s, and she made a vow,
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Speaker 1: an actual spiritual vow, that she would wear her black
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Speaker 1: robes every single day so that people would always find
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Speaker 1: a witch when they needed one. She has kept that
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Speaker 1: vow for over 50 years. I can't even commit to
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Speaker 1: a skincare routine for 50 days. And that woman... has
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Speaker 1: been in her robes since the Nixon administration. She opened
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Speaker 1: Salem's first witch shop. She founded her own tradition of witchcraft. Witchcraft,
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Speaker 1: that wasn't right. She founded her own tradition of witchcraft,
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Speaker 1: the Cabot tradition of science of witchcraft. She taught college
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Speaker 1: classes on the occult. She has consulted with police on
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Speaker 1: murder cases using her psychic abilities. She appeared in a
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Speaker 1: Godsmack music video. She has written multiple books and she
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Speaker 1: is in every sense of the word. A force of nature.
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Speaker 1: She also founded the Witches League for public awareness to
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Speaker 1: fight discrimination against witches and defend their civil rights because yes,
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Speaker 1: witches do face discrimination. People lose custody of their kids,
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Speaker 1: they lose jobs, lose housing for practicing a religion that
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Speaker 1: is legally recognized and has millions of people who follow it. Oh, pause, cool. Yeah,
4:18
Speaker 1: you should probably check this out. Quick moment, I want
4:20
Speaker 1: to talk to you about something. I want to know
4:22
Speaker 1: if you've ever looked at an old photo or video
4:24
Speaker 1: and just felt safe, like before everything got complicated. before
4:27
Speaker 1: your brain got loud, before you overthought everything. I was
4:31
Speaker 1: looking at old videos the other night and I realized
4:34
Speaker 1: how much I miss how simple my life used to
4:36
Speaker 1: feel when I was a kid, you know? Not my life, maybe,
4:38
Speaker 1: just my mind. Because now, even when things are good,
4:42
Speaker 1: my brain can still spiral. And I think a lot
4:45
Speaker 1: of us just live like that, thinking that that's normal.
4:48
Speaker 1: That's actually what pushed me to start therapy. Not because
4:51
Speaker 1: everything was falling apart, but because I was tired of
4:53
Speaker 1: feeling stuck in my own head. And something I learned
4:56
Speaker 1: recently really quickly is that you don't have to wait
4:59
Speaker 1: until things are really bad to want to feel better.
5:01
Speaker 1: I want you to know that this video is a
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Speaker 1: paid partnership with BetterHelp. BetterHelp makes starting therapy feel way
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Speaker 1: less overwhelming. You take a quick quiz, you get matched
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Speaker 1: however you feel comfortable. Phone, video, or even text. And
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Speaker 1: if that's not the right fit, you can switch anytime.
5:18
Speaker 1: For me, it's been about having a space where I
5:20
Speaker 1: can actually slow my thoughts down and understand them instead
5:23
Speaker 1: of just reacting. It's not about becoming a different person,
5:27
Speaker 1: it's about becoming more like yourself again. If you've been
5:30
Speaker 1: feeling stuck or overwhelmed or just not like yourself lately,
5:34
Speaker 1: you can head to my link in the description or
5:36
Speaker 1: go to betterhelp.com slash selenaspookyboo to get 10% off your
5:40
Speaker 1: first month. Now, thank you and back to the video.
5:43
Speaker 1: Welcome back! Lori Cabot is in her 90s now and
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Speaker 1: she is still going. She is still in Salem, still
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Speaker 1: in her robes, still a witch. And she remains one
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Speaker 1: of the most important figures in modern day American witchcraft.
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Speaker 1: The woman who turned Salem from a place of shame
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Speaker 1: into a place of power. Now, number eight, we're going
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Speaker 1: to slide into witch talk. Now, this is a 7.9
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Speaker 1: million post digital coven. All right. We have to talk
6:08
Speaker 1: about witch. Why is it witchcraft? We have to talk
6:11
Speaker 1: about witch talk because it is not a trend. It
6:13
Speaker 1: is a movement and it is enormous. The hashtag witch
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Speaker 1: talk has accumulated nearly 8 million posts on TikTok. 8 million.
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Speaker 1: That is not a subculture. That is a city. And
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Speaker 1: that has people inside it who are practicing witches. Real
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Speaker 1: ones sharing spells, rituals, tarot readings, herb magic, moon phases,
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Speaker 1: protection sigils, and full-on spiritual guidance to millions of followers
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Speaker 1: every single day. Now, here's what I find genuinely fascinating
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Speaker 1: about witch talk. You know, not only that, I'm just,
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Speaker 1: you know, part of it these are not just people
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Speaker 1: in halloween costumes doing it for aesthetic well some of
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Speaker 1: them are doing it for the aesthetic but there are
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Speaker 1: full-time professional witches on this platform making their entire living
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Speaker 1: from readings spell kits patreon covens and spiritual consulting witchcraft
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Speaker 1: is a career now and tick tock made that happen
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Speaker 1: here is a creator named andrea samoya who went viral
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Speaker 1: for teaching her followers how to make a protection sigil
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Speaker 1: to protect her home from Hurricane Milton. With a pen
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Speaker 1: and paper, she also wrote a spellbook called Lazy Witchcraft
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Speaker 1: for Lazy Shitty Days, which I genuinely respect because same, honestly.
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Speaker 1: And then there is the drama. The drama. There's drama everywhere.
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Speaker 1: TikTok is a birthplace of absolute magic and absolute bullshit.
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Speaker 1: and Witch Talk has had internal politics that rival the
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Speaker 1: Real Housewives in 2020. A group of so-called baby witches, newer,
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Speaker 1: less experienced practitioners, announced online that they were going to
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Speaker 1: hex the Fae. The Fae, the earth spirits, the magical
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Speaker 1: beings that most witches consider extremely powerful and extremely petty.
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Speaker 1: The response from the wider witch community was, And I'm
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Speaker 1: paraphrasing here. Absolute whore. Okay, we're just talking about it.
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Speaker 1: This isn't my opinion. We're just talking about it. Senior
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Speaker 1: witches were losing their minds. You cannot hex the fae.
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Speaker 1: The faeries, right? The faeries? Yeah. They will hex you
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Speaker 1: back and they are stronger than you. And when the
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Speaker 1: baby witches escalated, they said that they were going to
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Speaker 1: hex the moon. And at that point, even Marianne Williamson,
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Speaker 1: a former presidential candidate, a noted spiritual figure, weighed on
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Speaker 1: Twitter to say essentially... Why are you hexing the moon?
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Speaker 1: There are actual problems to address, which tells you everything
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Speaker 1: you need to know about what happened back in the
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Speaker 1: year 2020. Witch talk, honestly, is chaotic, powerful, and community-driven,
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Speaker 1: and absolutely unhinged in the absolute best way ever. It
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Speaker 1: is witchcraft for the algorithm age. That's the weirdest thing
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Speaker 1: I've ever said in my life. And it has brought
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Speaker 1: millions of people into a spiritual practice that might otherwise
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Speaker 1: have remained kind of hidden and faded out in time.
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Speaker 1: I have complicated feelings about it, but I am absolutely
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Speaker 1: on it. Bring it to me. Let's do some spells.
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Speaker 1: Number seven, now we have the magical resistance. Witches who
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Speaker 1: hexed a president. In 2017, something happened that I genuinely
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Speaker 1: could not have predicted. If I had honestly tried. Thousands
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Speaker 1: of witches around the world coordinated to cast a binding
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Speaker 1: spell on the president of the United States. On a schedule,
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Speaker 1: every new moon... for years. It was called the Magical Resistance,
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Speaker 1: and it was organized by a man named Michael M. Hughes,
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Speaker 1: who had published a binding spell online that had absolutely
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Speaker 1: no idea that it was going to go absolutely, globally,
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Speaker 1: insanely viral. The spell involved an orange candle, obviously, and
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Speaker 1: an unflattering photo of President Trump, a tower tarot card,
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Speaker 1: and a written incantation, and the ritual ended every time
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Speaker 1: with the words, You're fired! I am not kidding, and
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Speaker 1: that is what the spell said. You are fired into
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Speaker 1: the universe, every waning crescent moon for years. The magical
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Speaker 1: resistance grew into an actual organized movement with tens of
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Speaker 1: thousands of participants. They coordinated in real time. They held
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Speaker 1: rituals at Trump Tower in New York City. They cast
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Speaker 1: spells from South Africa, from Portugal, from living rooms in
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Speaker 1: the American Midwest. The mailing list for one of the
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Speaker 1: lead organizations had 25,000 subscribers. Now here's where it gets
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Speaker 1: very interesting. By 2024, some witches in the community started
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Speaker 1: posting that the spells weren't working anymore, and they had
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Speaker 1: a theory about why. They believed that Trump had developed
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Speaker 1: a magical shield, powered, they said, by the sheer volume
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Speaker 1: of prayer from his supporters. One witch posted, and I
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Speaker 1: quote from the general idea here,' I hate to say this,
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Speaker 1: but I don't do magic against him. He has a
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Speaker 1: form of protection surrounding him that feeds off the magic
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Speaker 1: done against him.' Another suggested, unforgettably, that his protection might be,
10:20
Speaker 1: and this is a real quote, shit-filled diaper. You know,
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Speaker 1: I get it and I see it. And I find
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Speaker 1: this to be one of the most deeply American things
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Speaker 1: that I have honestly ever encountered as a sweet little
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Speaker 1: Canadian bean. The magical resistance is real and it is documented.
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Speaker 1: Researchers have written academic papers about it and it represents
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Speaker 1: something genuinely significant. The merging of political activism with spiritual
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Speaker 1: practice in a way that has never been done at
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Speaker 1: this scale before. Now for number six, we have Doreen Vertu,
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Speaker 1: the witch who burned her own cards. Now this one
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Speaker 1: is a story about betrayal, and I need that word specifically.
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Speaker 1: Doreen Vertu was for decades one of the most famous
10:55
Speaker 1: names in New Age spirituality. She wrote over 50 books.
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Speaker 1: She created oracle card decks that sold millions of copies worldwide.
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Speaker 1: The angel oracle cards. The ascended master's deck, Fairy Tarot.
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Speaker 1: She built an empire. She had devoted followers all over
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Speaker 1: the world who trusted her guidance. Built their practices around
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Speaker 1: her work. Spent hundreds of dollars on her materials. And then...
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Speaker 1: In 2017, she announced that she had become a born-again Christian. Now,
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Speaker 1: people are allowed to change their beliefs. It is a
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Speaker 1: human right. But what happened next is where it gets complicated.
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Speaker 1: Doreen didn't just quietly step away. She began actively denouncing
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Speaker 1: her own work and the work of everyone in the
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Speaker 1: spiritual community that she had been a part of for
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Speaker 1: 30 entire years. She called her oracle cards demonic. She
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Speaker 1: told her followers, that these practices she had taught them
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Speaker 1: were dangerous and satanic. She destroyed her own products on camera.
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Speaker 1: She encouraged her audience, the audience that she had built
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Speaker 1: by selling them witchcraft and angel magic, to abandon all
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Speaker 1: of it. The community was devastated. People who had found
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Speaker 1: genuine healing and meaning through her work felt manipulated, used,
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Speaker 1: like they had been lied to, either before or after.
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Speaker 1: And the debate that broke out online... was fierce. And
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Speaker 1: the old Doreen, the fake one, was the new one?
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Speaker 1: Had she been authentic for 30 years? Had she genuinely changed?
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Speaker 1: Or had she cynically built a platform on beliefs that
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Speaker 1: she honestly didn't hold? And now she was cycling, building
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Speaker 1: a new one from the other side? She then went
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Speaker 1: on to suggest that some of her former followers, people
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Speaker 1: who she had personally trained and certified as angel card readers,
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Speaker 1: were now in spiritual danger. She wrote books about how
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Speaker 1: to leave the New Age movement. She positioned herself as
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Speaker 1: a warning. The witch community has not forgotten the lesson,
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Speaker 1: and the one that they've taken is painful. One about
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Speaker 1: what happens when someone with a massive influence decides that
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Speaker 1: the community they built and profited from is actually evil.
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Speaker 1: The damage she caused to individuals who recultured their lives
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Speaker 1: around her teachings is real and documented. Dorian Virtue makes
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Speaker 1: this list because her story forces a question that the
13:01
Speaker 1: modern witchcraft community is still reckoning with. What do you
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Speaker 1: do when the teacher turns on its students? Number five,
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Speaker 1: the Etsy Witch Economy spells hexes and $ 20 curses for sale.
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna, I might, should I try? I won't do that.
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Speaker 1: That's the rule. If I do a curse, this is
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Speaker 1: how it works. This is what I believe in, okay?
13:17
Speaker 1: When you point at someone, you have this finger. That's
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Speaker 1: what you're doing to them. Whatever you do to them,
13:21
Speaker 1: you're gonna get back threefold. So, not cool. I need
13:23
Speaker 1: to tell you about the Etsy Witch Economy because the
13:25
Speaker 1: whole thing has become news. Right now on Etsy, you
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Speaker 1: can purchase a hex, a curse, a binding spell, a
13:32
Speaker 1: love potion, a freezer spell to stop an enemy in
13:34
Speaker 1: their tracks. A revenge ritual, a protection package, you can
13:38
Speaker 1: buy these things the way you buy candles or throw pillows.
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Speaker 1: You can literally add to cart, proceed to checkout, and
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Speaker 1: your enemies will be destroyed in five to seven business days.
13:47
Speaker 1: I love that commitment. The witch talk community has turned
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Speaker 1: witchcraft into a legitimate cottage industry, and Etsy is the marketplace.
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Speaker 1: We are talking millions of dollars, changing hands for spell work,
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Speaker 1: ritual kits, custom readings, and yes, personalize hexes. You provide
14:01
Speaker 1: the name and the photo, and they provide the dark arts.
14:03
Speaker 1: It's a service economy. Wait, if I don't do the
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Speaker 1: curse myself, does it count, Adam? No. Sorry. And this
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Speaker 1: became genuinely controversial in the news in 2025 when a
14:13
Speaker 1: writer for the publication Jezebel wrote an article about hiring
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Speaker 1: witches on Etsy to cast spells on a political figure
14:20
Speaker 1: she disagreed with. She paid several different Etsy witches for
14:23
Speaker 1: various hex packages. One of them sent her, and I
14:26
Speaker 1: love this detail, A photograph of the target's face engulfed
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Speaker 1: in flames as proof of the cast. Proof of the cast,
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Speaker 1: like a tracking number. But for curses. The article had
14:35
Speaker 1: to be removed after the circumstances unrelated to the witches
14:39
Speaker 1: made it complicated. But before it came down, it had
14:42
Speaker 1: exposed something fascinating. That there is a fully operational, commerce-ready, consumer-friendly,
14:47
Speaker 1: dark magic marketplace available for anyone with a credit card
14:50
Speaker 1: and a grudge. I'm just thinking Diagon Alley. I'm in
14:52
Speaker 1: Diagon Alley right now. Anyways, is any of this real?
14:55
Speaker 1: That depends entirely on what you believe. For the practitioners
14:58
Speaker 1: selling these themselves, absolutely. For the buyers, clearly enough to
15:01
Speaker 1: pay for it. For the skeptics, it is a theatrical placebo.
15:04
Speaker 1: But here is what is undeniable. The fact that it exists,
15:07
Speaker 1: and that people are paying for it, that Etsy hasn't
15:09
Speaker 1: shut it down, and that journalists are writing about it.
15:12
Speaker 1: That tells us something real about where the modern witchcraft
15:14
Speaker 1: has gone. It has gone mainstream, enough to have a
15:17
Speaker 1: shopping cart. And somehow that is more mundane, and more unsettling,
15:21
Speaker 1: and exciting than I had expected. Now we have number four,
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Speaker 1: Santa Morete. When witch cults cross into crime, you true
15:27
Speaker 1: crime junkies, I know that you love this. Anyways, we're
15:29
Speaker 1: going to turn a corner here, and this is where
15:31
Speaker 1: it's going to start to get genuinely dark. And I
15:32
Speaker 1: want to be careful, because this subject matter is serious,
15:35
Speaker 1: and real people were involved. Santa Marete, which translates to
15:39
Speaker 1: Holy Death, is a folk saint worshipped in Mexico, and
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Speaker 1: increasingly across the United States. She is depicted as a
15:45
Speaker 1: skeletal female figure, often in robes, holding a scythe. She
15:49
Speaker 1: is associated with healing, protection, and the afterlife, and justice.
15:53
Speaker 1: She is deeply loved by millions of people, particularly marginalized communities,
15:57
Speaker 1: the LGBTQ +, Mexican people, and people in poverty, people
16:01
Speaker 1: in the Catholic Church, have been historically excluded. She was
16:04
Speaker 1: not inherently sinister. She was not a witch. She was
16:08
Speaker 1: not a witch goddess. She's a spiritual figure with a
16:10
Speaker 1: massive devoted following. But like all powerful spiritual forces, she
16:15
Speaker 1: has been co-opted by people with very different agendas. There
16:19
Speaker 1: have been multiple documented cases, investigated and prosecuted, in which
16:23
Speaker 1: individuals and groups operating under the banner of Saint Mo-
16:28
Speaker 1: I don't want to piss this saint off. In which
16:30
Speaker 1: individuals and groups operating under the banner of this saint
16:34
Speaker 1: worship committed serious crimes, including murder. As part of their
16:37
Speaker 1: so-called ritual offerings, Mexican authorities have investigated this saint's shrines
16:43
Speaker 1: connected to cartel activity. Bodies have been found. I want
16:46
Speaker 1: to be extremely clear, this does not represent the vast
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Speaker 1: majority of the saint's devotees, who practice a peaceful, meaningful,
16:53
Speaker 1: deeply personal faith. The exploitation of a spiritual symbol for
16:57
Speaker 1: criminal purposes is a pattern that exists in many traditions.
17:00
Speaker 1: It does not define those traditions. But the use of
17:03
Speaker 1: spiritual or occult framing to legitimize violence or control is
17:07
Speaker 1: a pattern we need to name, because it shows up everywhere.
17:09
Speaker 1: It shows up in cults, it shows up in manipulation,
17:12
Speaker 1: it shows up in the story of people who weaponize
17:15
Speaker 1: sacred practices to gain power over vulnerable people. Now, this
17:18
Speaker 1: saint herself is not on trial here. The humans who
17:21
Speaker 1: twist any spiritual path into a mechanism for harm, those
17:25
Speaker 1: are the ones who belong on a list like this. Now,
17:28
Speaker 1: we have number three, the NXIVM slash Keith Renier connection,
17:32
Speaker 1: when cults wear spiritual clothing. NXIVM, you've probably heard of this,
17:36
Speaker 1: and if you haven't, prepare yourself. Get comfy, get cozy,
17:39
Speaker 1: and get ready to forget. Keith Renier founded NXIVM as
17:42
Speaker 1: a self-help organization in the late 1960s. He called it
17:46
Speaker 1: Executive Success Programs. It attracted thousands of members, including wealthy celebrities.
17:51
Speaker 1: It presented itself as a personal development company. Courses, workshops, coaching. Inside,
17:57
Speaker 1: it was something hella different, my dudes. Rainier, who gave
18:01
Speaker 1: himself the title of Vanguard, because, of course he did,
18:05
Speaker 1: built a system of increasingly intimate and controlling relationships with
18:09
Speaker 1: female members, where there were rituals, there were rankings, and
18:12
Speaker 1: there were secret inner groups, and eventually there was a
18:15
Speaker 1: secret sorority called DOS, which stood for a Latin phrase
18:19
Speaker 1: meaning Essential Master over Slave, in which women were branded
18:23
Speaker 1: with Ramirez initials using a cauterizing device and coerced into
18:28
Speaker 1: providing so-called collateral, compromising photos, information about themselves and their
18:33
Speaker 1: families that could be used to silence them if they
18:36
Speaker 1: ever tried to leave. Now, why is this on a
18:39
Speaker 1: witch's list? Because of how Rainier used his spiritual and
18:43
Speaker 1: mystical language to maintain control. He spoke about energy, about karma,
18:47
Speaker 1: about the metaphysical significance of his teachings. He positioned himself
18:51
Speaker 1: as an enlightened being with special access to truth. He
18:54
Speaker 1: used the language of spiritual awakening to convince women that
18:58
Speaker 1: surrendering their autonomy was an act of growth, and that
19:01
Speaker 1: the branding was a privilege, and that the servitude was liberation.
19:06
Speaker 1: This was the darkest version of what happens when an
19:09
Speaker 1: occult or spiritual framing is weaponized. Not candles and tarot
19:12
Speaker 1: cards and moon rituals, but the deliberate, calculated use of
19:16
Speaker 1: spiritual authority to control, exploit, and harm people who came
19:20
Speaker 1: looking for some meaning, some love, and some family. Rainier
19:23
Speaker 1: was convicted in 2019 of sex trafficking, racketeering, and other charges.
19:28
Speaker 1: He is currently serving a 120-year sentence. year prison sentence.
19:32
Speaker 1: Several of his co-conspirators, including Smallville actress Allison Mack, were
19:37
Speaker 1: also convicted. That is insane. NXIVM is not a witchcraft cult,
19:42
Speaker 1: but it belongs on this list because it is the
19:44
Speaker 1: most high-profile modern example of how spiritual language and mystical
19:49
Speaker 1: framing can be used as tools of abuse, and because
19:53
Speaker 1: understanding that pattern matters for anyone who engages with any
19:57
Speaker 1: kind of spiritual community. Now we have number two, Killers
20:00
Speaker 1: in Robes, real witch trials happening right now. freaking now.
20:05
Speaker 1: Now I told you at the beginning that women were
20:07
Speaker 1: burned alive for witchcraft in the 21st century and I
20:11
Speaker 1: meant it. We talk about witch trials like they're history,
20:14
Speaker 1: like they're Salem 1692, like they're in Europe in the 1500s,
20:16
Speaker 1: that they're behind us. They're not behind us. And right
20:21
Speaker 1: now in sub-Sahara Africa, in Papua New Guinea, in India,
20:25
Speaker 1: in Nepal, they are ongoing, documented in active witch hunts.
20:28
Speaker 1: Women and sometimes children are accused of witchcraft by their
20:32
Speaker 1: communities and they are beaten and burned and killed, driven
20:35
Speaker 1: from their homes. These are not metaphorical witch hunts. These
20:38
Speaker 1: are real ones. The United Nations has documented them. Human
20:42
Speaker 1: rights organizations have filed reports. Advocacy groups are actively working
20:46
Speaker 1: to protect people In Tanzania, elderly women with red eyes,
20:50
Speaker 1: because of course red eyes must mean you're a witch,
20:53
Speaker 1: not like you have a medical condition, are killed. In
20:56
Speaker 1: the Democratic Republican of Congo, children are accused of being
21:00
Speaker 1: witch children and are subjected to violent exorcisms. In Papua
21:03
Speaker 1: New Guinea, a woman was burned alive in 2013. while
21:07
Speaker 1: authorities literally stood by. In Gambia, the government itself sponsored
21:13
Speaker 1: witch hunts. In the United States and Europe, we have
21:15
Speaker 1: had the luxury of treating witchcraft as a lifestyle, a subculture,
21:19
Speaker 1: an aesthetic, a TikTok community. And I am not criticizing that,
21:22
Speaker 1: but I think it matters. It really matters to hold
21:25
Speaker 1: both things at once. That while we are all buying
21:28
Speaker 1: crystals and watching witch talk and casting spells to hex presidents,
21:31
Speaker 1: that there are women on the other side of this
21:33
Speaker 1: world being murdered for the same label. The witch has
21:36
Speaker 1: always been the person that society decided to blame. The outsider.
21:40
Speaker 1: The woman who didn't conform. The elderly woman without family protection.
21:43
Speaker 1: The disabled person whose difference scared people. Historically, and in
21:47
Speaker 1: too many places today, this can still be a death sentence.
21:51
Speaker 1: I don't say this to be dark for darkness sake.
21:53
Speaker 1: I say it because I think it's important to know.
21:56
Speaker 1: And because the people being killed deserve to be a
21:58
Speaker 1: part of this conversation. And that takes us to number one,
22:01
Speaker 1: the rise of the modern witch, 1.5 million and counting.
22:05
Speaker 1: And here we are, number one, and I am going
22:07
Speaker 1: to do something a little different here because number one
22:10
Speaker 1: isn't just one person, it is a movement and it
22:12
Speaker 1: might be the most dramatic and significant thing on this
22:15
Speaker 1: entire list. According to multiple surveys conducted in the United States,
22:18
Speaker 1: there are over 1.5 million people who now identify as
22:22
Speaker 1: Wiccan or Pagan in America alone. That number has doubled
22:26
Speaker 1: or tripled since the 1990s. By some estimates, witchcraft is
22:29
Speaker 1: one of the fastest-growing spiritual practices in the United States,
22:33
Speaker 1: particularly among millennials and Gen Z. Think about what that means.
22:36
Speaker 1: For centuries, witchcraft was something you could be killed for,
22:39
Speaker 1: something that could put you on the outside of every institution, church, state, family, community,
22:44
Speaker 1: and now? Now it's a New York Times trend piece.
22:47
Speaker 1: Now it is a billion-dollar wellness industry. It is a podcast.
22:50
Speaker 1: It's a book deal. It's a storefront in every major city.
22:53
Speaker 1: What happened? Why now? Scholars and researchers have been asking
22:57
Speaker 1: this question, and the answers are fascinating. The decline of
23:00
Speaker 1: traditional organized religion left a spiritual gap. Economic anxiety, climate fear,
23:05
Speaker 1: political helplessness, all of these things drive people towards something
23:09
Speaker 1: that feels like agency. A spell is control when control
23:12
Speaker 1: feels impossible. A ritual is structure when everything feels chaotic.
23:16
Speaker 1: A coven is a community where community has really collapsed.
23:20
Speaker 1: And for women specifically, for women who have watched their
23:23
Speaker 1: bodies legislated, their voices dismissed, their power taken, the figure
23:28
Speaker 1: of the witch is profoundly radical. She was the woman
23:30
Speaker 1: who refused. She was the woman who knew things. She
23:33
Speaker 1: was the woman they tried to destroy. And she survived.
23:37
Speaker 1: The modern witch movement is not uniform. It contains everything.
23:41
Speaker 1: It contains gentle hedge witches, trending herb gardens, and ceremonial
23:45
Speaker 1: high priestesses running formal covens. Gen Z girls on TikToks
23:49
Speaker 1: cleansing their crystals under a full moon for aesthetic. It
23:52
Speaker 1: contains sincere faith, and it contains... cultural fashion, and it
23:55
Speaker 1: contains everything in between. But what it represents as a
23:58
Speaker 1: whole is something genuinely unprecedented in human history. The open, unashamed,
24:03
Speaker 1: unapologetic reclamation of a practice that was used to destroy
24:07
Speaker 1: women for centuries turned into a source of power, identity,
24:10
Speaker 1: and a community on a literal global scale. They burned
24:13
Speaker 1: us for 500 years. They did not finish the job.
24:17
Speaker 1: Love your fellow witch and love your neighbor. Love me, okay?
24:21
Speaker 1: Now guys, that is the top 10 list of modern
24:23
Speaker 1: day witches from Sybil Leak's jackdaw to Tic Tac Coven,
24:27
Speaker 1: Tic Tac to Tic Tac Coven, to actual witch trials
24:30
Speaker 1: happening right now. We covered a lot of the ground
24:32
Speaker 1: today and I hope some of it stuck. Here's my takeaway,
24:35
Speaker 1: for real. The witch has always been a symbol of
24:38
Speaker 1: the woman or the person that society has tried to silence.
24:41
Speaker 1: And every single time she came back louder, more organized,
24:44
Speaker 1: with an Etsy shop and a ring light. And if
24:47
Speaker 1: you're new here, hi, I'm Selena. I'm a little spooky
24:49
Speaker 1: and I take this stuff super seriously. And I'm really
24:52
Speaker 1: glad you're here. Make sure to hit subscribe so you
24:54
Speaker 1: don't miss the next one. Drop a comment and tell me,
24:56
Speaker 1: do you consider yourself a witch? Are you a witch
24:59
Speaker 1: talk lurker? Have you ever bought a spell on Etsy?
25:01
Speaker 1: I genuinely need to know. Maybe we'll make a video
25:04
Speaker 1: about it. No judgment. Well, maybe a little bit of judgment.
25:06
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. And if you want more content like this,
25:09
Speaker 1: top 10 deep dives, true paranormal stories, the links are
25:11
Speaker 1: below and there's always another video waiting for you. I'll
25:14
Speaker 1: see you in the next one. Stay spooky, stay weird,
25:16
Speaker 1: and for the love of everything, don't hex the moon!