Of love, money and revenge spells

Solid magic comes at a price. For example, for some witches you have to pay 250 euros for a “separation ritual”. With the help of magical intervention, a partnership is separated. If the relationship is then destroyed, the next magical service is recommended: “partner repatriation”. This will steer the ex-partner back to his or her spurned partner – also for 250 euros. Other witches even offer an intensive relationship therapy intervention: the “possession spell” – in seven versions for 259 euros. The “dream partner” will then usually “think intensely about you and desire you strongly,” they promise. And if that doesn't help, some witchcraft experts activate a "love talisman", whereupon you often meet "some very interesting potential partners" (for 200 euros).

Digital witchcraft – a mass phenomenon

The witch world is full of promises, the Internet is full of witches - and the group of cult representatives is full of warnings to be vigilant. They now sound around the Halloween weekend with its witch costumes and witch sayings. However, experts are not suspicious of children's costumes, but of digital witchcraft, for which Halloween offers a more favorable cultural environment. On the Internet platform TikTok alone, there are millions of videos under the hashtag “Witchtok” in which witches offer “help in life” – using magic spells, tarot cards, pendulums and “clairvoyance”.

However, there are some errors associated with their growth. There is a widespread assumption that witches are a type of spiritual feminist. In fact, the witchcraft scene is predominantly female, as Andrew Schäfer, sect representative for the Protestant Church in the Rhineland, confirmed to WELT. However, today's witches have "more or less lost some of their feminist-political initial impulses from the 70s". At that time they often appeared as women's rights activists at the same time. However, they now make completely non-political offers to their customers that are aimed at private needs, as the authors, esoteric experts and Protestant theologians Fabian Maysenhölder and Philipp Kohler report - for example through love and money magic.

Dependent on a witch?

The assumption that they are always money cutters and swindlers is also a prejudice. He “met mostly people who saw themselves as witches, who did it out of conviction and who developed a business model from there,” says Schäfer. Psychologist Bianca Liebrand from Sekten-Info NRW also confirms this do-you-really-believe-it finding: "Different motives could play a role for witches. A personal spiritual conviction, the desire to offer people support, but also economic interests - these motives can exist at the same time."

Of course, this also comes with risks. "Potential threats arise primarily when personal crises, fears or insecurities are exploited. It can become problematic, for example, when people are warned about alleged dangers that require additional paid services to avert," reports Bianca Liebrand to WELT. In addition, according to the experts, dependency relationships often arise between witches and customers, which could also have devastating financial consequences.

“Dangerous to life and limb”

On top of that, there is a risk of massive health damage (not for every witch, but for some self-proclaimed magic experts): "Anyone who says that a candle spell works against a serious illness is not making a religious statement, but a medical one - and that is wrong. In the worst case, this leads to delay in therapy and even death," warns Maysenhölder. Corresponding cases have been documented. Schäfer emphasizes that "supposedly magical practices" are "free of evidence-based proof of effectiveness. Anyone who has serious medical or psychological problems needs a doctor or a reputable psychotherapist, otherwise it can be dangerous to life and limb."

Many forms of magical thinking pose a risk of severe psychological stress, for example when "people believe that their thoughts control reality. As a result, irrational feelings of guilt can arise," but obsessive-compulsive and personality disorders also occur, observes Andrew Schäfer. Specifically, this could be reflected in the belief “I got cancer because I didn't think positively enough” or “I have to clap three times so that nothing happens to my family.” In extreme cases, this maximum overload of one's own thoughts leads to “psychoses in which the boundary between the inner world and the outer world becomes pathologically blurred.”

A worrying effect of witchcraft is sometimes the potentiation of aggression. Kohler and Maysenhölder warn: "If a TikTok witch tells 69,000 followers that a spell 'pierces the man's chakra' and that her own children will have to pay for it with their karma," that is "a form of spiritual abuse." Revenge or damaging spells are “not a healthy way to deal with anger” because they increase aggression instead of reducing it. This applies entirely to “channels that deal with ‘dark’ magic”. This creates “a dynamic that harms us and that we don’t have under control.” Just this year, dozens of cases of child abuse committed by black magicians and witches became known in Great Britain.

Christians leave, witches come?

It is hardly surprising that anti-Christian sentiments are widespread among witches. What is original, however, is that these often appear in the guise of supposedly enlightened criticism of religion. Churches are often dismissed as useless relics whose dogmas a reasonable person can no longer take seriously - by self-proclaimed witches whose profession is money, love and revenge magic. What a swap: the Christians leave, the witches come.