There's a spell for that: Why 2025 was the year of the Etsy witch

Katie Begley needed “some good juju” this summer. Begley, a New York-based content creator and fitness instructor, was waiting to hear back about several big work opportunities, including a potential Little Caesars commercial with Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley. So she turned to a figure praised online for offering low-stakes help for the price of a latte: an Etsy witch. “It can’t hurt. I love witches. I love magic. I love all of that,” Begley, 25, recalled thinking at the end of August when she went on the online marketplace known for personalized party swag and vintage clothing. “What’s the downside?” She ultimately bought four spells from a TikTok-approved witch - a soulmate attraction spell, a powerful obsession spell, glamor magic and a wealth and prosperity casting - for $60.76. The next day, Begley got a call that she had booked the commercial starring Barkley . “Of course, my head was like, ‘Oh - it was my witch,’” she said, laughing. Begley shared the story in two TikTok videos , racking up millions of views as the latest success story in the cultural phenomenon around Etsy witches. In the last year alone, these spiritual workers have been hailed online for saving weddings , selling houses , securing jobs, influencing basketball games, drawing soulmates and even sparking outrage after Charlie Kirk’s death . For Emily D. Crews, the executive director of the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School, the rise of Etsy witches mirrors a broader shift in American religious life. Institutional religion is in steady decline, with the religiously unaffiliated now making up roughly 28% of the U.S. population. In its place, she said, many Americans - especially millennials and Gen Z - are pivoting toward belief systems that borrow from multiple traditions. “This is the context in which people are buying blessings and curses from witches on Etsy,” she said. “It makes sense, in this kind of religious landscape, that someone might just as easily seek help from a witch than from a priest or a rabbi or a sacred text, even if they were raised Christian or Jewish or some other more conventionally recognizable religion.” Amid rising economic uncertainty , burnout and increasing political division, the popularity of the Etsy witch seems like an easy escape that doesn’t require a massive financial leap of faith - just a spiritual one. One that even this reporter dabbled in, in the name of journalism. Viral weddings and political controversy While witchcraft is an ancient practice and Etsy witches have existed online for years, interest in buying quick spells online surged in 2025 after several influencers praised their results. The blessings and rituals are often priced between $7 and $50, and sometimes even cheaper with a discount code or in a flash sale, and they are frequently listed as an “entertainment” service. It’s a workaround after Etsy banned the sale of metaphysical services , including spellcasting , in 2015. Etsy...

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