Feeling hopeless in love, at work, in life? Hire a witch!
Nowadays, finding a witch doesn’t have to involve a swimming test or a trek into a dark forest—it’s as easy as logging on to Etsy. Yes, the online, small-shop marketplace known for quirky handmade items and unique vintage pieces has become a breeding ground for witchcraft.
On the site, prices range from $1.37 (75 percent off!) to $50,000 (a pact that, apparently, involves selling your soul), with witches and warlocks offering various services and at differing levels of experience. Want to know when and where you’ll meet your soulmate? There’s a tarot-reading witch for that. What about bringing back your stubborn ex? Several witches offer spells for that, too. How about divine justice that will make them suffer? Fenris Lambkins is the witch for you.
It was only a matter of time for Etsy witchcraft, with its tendency to focus on love and relationships, to find a home on TikTok, an app users often turn to for dating advice. Lovesick TikTokers post videos about everything from ordering a love spell with Fleetwood Mac’s “Silver Springs” to commissioning an Etsy witch to hex their ex (and then seeing him balding months later). These videos tend to get thousands of comments from people asking for witch recommendations and recounting their own successful experiences, and have helped to further popularize the use of Etsy witches.
While less talked about on TikTok, Etsy witches offer services well beyond romance, with spells listed on the site promising wealth, good health, career success, and overall luck.
Ahead of Game 5 of the New York Knicks–Indiana Pacers face-off, on May 29, Knicks fan Rohit Thawani posted on X that he had commissioned an Etsy witch to help his team win. The influencer Eli Rallo posted on TikTok that her mom did the same. Sure enough, the Knicks won. (The luck didn’t last—they lost Game 6.)
After the 2024 election, Etsy witches worked overtime to curse Donald Trump and Elon Musk. “ELON MOTHERFUCKING MUSK! I just paid an Etsy witch $7.99 to make your life a living hell. Brace yourself,” screamed Riley Wenckus (@rileylovesriverdale) in a TikTok video that has garnered more than nine million views. Wenckus would argue her hex worked. (The results have me eyeing AstralFoxWitchery’s “Powerful CURSE on Donald Trump, JD Vance, Elon Musk | Curses Hexes Witchcraft Black Magick”—only $3.74!)
Rachael Davidson, a 28-year-old living in New York who suffers from several chronic illnesses, tells me she recently spent $15 to commission a wellness spell from an Etsy witch to work in tandem with her ongoing medical treatments. “Although I am not religious, I believe there are other powers that do exist. That’s what drew me to witchery,” she says, adding that her chosen witch “has been proven to be successful by the thousands of reviews for spells she has cast.”
The way Davidson sees it, hiring an Etsy witch is low risk and promises a high reward. No direct contact had to be made—it all goes through Etsy—and if the spell doesn’t work, it’s just the cost of two iced coffees, while if it does, it could be life-changing. “I thought I could use the help of a witch to move my life along in the right direction,” she says. (The witch says her manifestations take three to four weeks, so, for now, Davidson is anxiously awaiting the results.)
On TikTok, too, witchy moments have lately gone beyond love spells. When the New York City influencer Jaz Smith (@justjazzzyidk) saw that the weather for her Memorial Day wedding weekend was forecasted as rainy, she decided to hire the U.K.-based witch “Emily,” of the Etsy shop Naturalistic Blessing, to cast a spell for sun. It worked—blue skies reigned on her now viral wedding. A few days later, Smith shared that she’d purchased another spell from Naturalistic Blessing, to help heal her new husband, who’d gotten sick during their honeymoon. He had recovered by the next day.
Comments on another TikTok video about the witch Wanda, of the California-based Etsy shop SpellsByWanda, included: “I paid … for my husband to find a new job and literally a week later, he got an offer for double his current salary.”
Not everyone has had good experiences with Etsy witches. Around the same time as Smith’s wedding, another TikTok user, Corinne Ferrer (@andtheg4gis), posted about how she had “bought a love spell, and I literally, like, said the guy’s name and his birthday and stuff. And [the Etsy witch] literally DM-ed him on Instagram and exposed me. She sent him screenshots of everything I said. Guys, the Etsy witch told on me.”
On Etsy’s “House Rules” page, the Web site clearly states that it prohibits the sale of metaphysical services, including “Reiki and distance healing; Spellcasting; Prayers; Rituals; and Items with a metaphysical outcome (e.g. attracting wealth, love, gambling luck, more business, employment opportunities, or assistance with legal or relationship situations).” While some witches have had their Etsy storefronts shut down, the policy does not seem to be tightly enforced, and many more are still in business. (The company did not respond to a request for comment.)
A New York–based former Etsy witch and psychic tells me that she was able to cover all of her daily expenses with the job. “Think of it as a second-year-marketing-position salary,” she says.
This witch expressed concern over the validity of the readings of certain popular Etsy witches.”I would think … very deeply before each reading, but I worry now, in the age of A.I. … that [some] readings … are not written by a person.”
With the popularity of Etsy witches soaring, she recommends exercising caution when hiring their services. “I think some people receive an amount of orders a day that would be impossible for one person to fulfill, and they are not entirely honest about how they are getting their orders completed. It’s near impossible to complete more than … 100 readings a day. Even if you are the fastest typer in the world, I just don’t believe you are able to do that.”
Gracie Wiener is the Social Media Manager at Air Mail
