How Modern Witches Enchant TikTok: Intersections of Digital, Consumer, and Material Culture(s) on #WitchTok

Abstract

WitchTok describes a sub-section of the social media platform TikTok, which caters to Contemporary Pagans and other practitioners of modern Witchcraft. Through short micro-videos, users share snapshots of their lives, providing a window into their religious identities and practices. Through a qualitative analysis of videos and comments, this exploratory study examines how modern Witches engage with religion through this digital space. Although this platform is wholly virtual, WitchTok is also eminently material. Through sharing and commenting on videos of spells, potions, altars, and other practices, users engage with a range of material objects. By announcing the magical properties of materials, instructing how to use certain objects, and advising where items can be found, WitchTok reveals how Witches conceptualize materiality and magic. The promotion of products, businesses, and personal brands in this space also reveals how Witchcraft is shaped by consumerism. In contrast to scholars who distinguish between “traditional” Witchcraft and “consumerist” Witches, I argue that WitchTok highlights the complex entanglements of Witchcraft with consumer capitalism.

Platform Spiritualities: Entrepreneurial Selves and Post-Feminist Sensibilities of Russian Influencers

“…The tendencies that Carrette and King observed in 2004 bourgeoned as platforms became a significant part of today's global culture. Recent studies show that posts covering the topics of witchcraft and Wicca religion reach millions of followers globally (Jabłońska, 2022;Miller, 2022). Lionel Obadia points out that the Internet has become a "fertile ground for a redeployment of magic in culture and society" (2020: 537).…”

“…Lionel Obadia points out that the Internet has become a "fertile ground for a redeployment of magic in culture and society" (2020: 537). In his recent work, Chris Miller (2022) proposes a complex review of the #WitchTok sub-section on TikTok with a specific focus on how materiality and magic are conceptualized and how modern social media Witchcraft intersects with consumer capitalism. Moreover, these spiritually related topics are exploited not only by practitioners but also by companies with no relation to religion like Sephora, Cosmopolitan, or Walt Disney (Jabłońska, 2022: 274).…”

‘Spiritual’ witchcraft and magic 2.0 as weapons of resistance: The emergence of a new movement?

“…Literature and cinema integrated witches and magicians in twentieth century popular culture (Greene, 2018). In the 2000s, the lexicon of magic and witchcraft expanded dramatically in hypermodern, mediated, and digitalized societies (Stahl, 1995) and understandably permeated cultural trends and styles in the 2010s, giving birth to the fashion of so-called 'Tiktok witches' (or Witchtok movement) (Miller, 2022). This 'Return of magic' is actually assuming the forms of a new wave of 'magical' organizations but assuming the form of New Religious Movements religious ones (Introvigne, 1992), the reinvention of 'traditional' or 'ancient' systems of beliefs and practice (Collins, 2007), as well as the dispersion in Globalized societies and cultures of a galaxy of signs and practices, with the help of active promoters sponsoring the relevance of new 'laws of magic' for modern societies, and the psychological and social benefits they could bring about (see Hutson, 2012).…”

Visual rhetoric in the digital discourse of Peruvian trade unions on Facebook

“…Finalmente, de acuerdo con los procedimientos de investigación que siguen métodos similares, no se requirió obtener el consentimiento explícito de los sindicatos, ya que el estudio se enfocó en recopilar información disponible al público en general en los muros de los sindicatos en Facebook (Miller, 2022;Warren, 2020).…”