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Episode 55: Witchcraft in Politics
459 Plays2 years ago
Welcome back Witches! In this week's episode we're going to be talking about how witchcraft has played a role in politics and how politics has used witchcraft to its advantage. We promise that this will be a fun episode and we're not going to try to persuade you to believe the way we do or change your beliefs in any way. This episode is just to be informational for everyone. So get in losers, and lets talk about Witchcraft in Politics.
We would be forever thankful if you left our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast & Buy Me a Coffee links below. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You can support our show through our
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
References
- Burton, Tara Isabella. Witchcraft Becomes a Political Stance- and a Booming Business. Religious News Service. (2019) https://religionnews.com/2019/02/14/witchcraft-becomes-a-political-stance-and-a-booming-business/
- Aloi, Peg. In Frightening Times, Witchcraft Rediscovers its Political Roots. (2017). Medium. https://medium.com/the-establishment/in-frightening-times-witchcraft-rediscovers-its-political-roots-de627501b4f6
- Mankey, Jason. Hillary Clinton as a Witch. (2016). Patheos. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2016/11/hillary-clinton-as-a-witch/
- Sabina Magliocco (2020). Witchcraft as Political Resistance: Magical Responses to the 2016 Presidential Election in the United States. Nova Religio; 23 (4): 43–68. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2020.23.4.43
- https://theosophy.wiki/en/Dion_Fortune
- Get in Loser, We’re Doing Witchcraft. (2022). Episodes:
- 1. History of Witchcraft
- 25. Astrology & your Big 3
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Witchcraft and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft and the occult but feel lost on where to start? Then welcome to Get In Loser, we're doing witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we have learned about the craft. So get in witches as we discuss
00:00:41
Speaker
And then I gotta start reading our book, because I'm ready. Yes.
Book Club: 'Spells for Forgetting' by Adrienne Young
00:00:47
Speaker
I started it the other day and I love it already. So I think I'm gonna start it today. I can't wait. Yeah, it's good. So far. I'm sure it'll end good too. But yes, so for our listeners, if you're wondering,
00:01:02
Speaker
what we're talking about. And you need to check our social media because we have advertised it already. But we are reading for our March book club read, which, you know, we'll record it at the end of March, release April 1st. But for the month of March, we are reading Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young. And she's an amazing author. She's the one that we were talking about that
00:01:27
Speaker
wrote Fable and Sky in the Deep.
Taking Breaks from Long Book Series
00:01:30
Speaker
And I mean, she's just a great author. So I'm excited to finally read a book by her because I, like I said, I've saved Sky in the Deep on my Kindle forever ago because I was like, Oh my gosh, this sounds good. And then like, I think the next day you were like, Oh my God, have you read this book? It's so good. And I was like, I actually just saved it. And then
00:01:52
Speaker
ADD brain forgot about it. But I had spells for forgiving, forgetting, not forgiving, forgetting on my book shelf for a while. And I just, I felt like we needed to read it as a
00:02:08
Speaker
kind of a palate cleanser maybe from our last two books. Not that they were like terrible, but I think we just needed a little break from Matthew. We really did. Yes. We'll come back to that series too sometime soon, but not this month. Yeah, just one more. So we have to finish it, but this month we're taking a little bit of a break. Yeah. And this book is much shorter too, because I feel like
00:02:36
Speaker
those books were very long and super like detailed and I think I just needed for myself for my own sanity I needed something shorter that I would be able to kind of like just power through pretty quickly and just go about my my mom yes because I felt like especially like shadow of night I we talked about this in the book club episode but I drug that one out because there were so many periods that I was just like oh my
00:03:06
Speaker
God, we don't want to hear about this fucking play. We don't want to hear about this one thing for like pages and pages and pages. Like let's just get to the meat and potatoes of everything and move on. Absolutely. Yeah. So what are we talking about?
Witchcraft and Politics: Historical Context
00:03:23
Speaker
we are talking about an awesome topic that I feel like is not super talked about or at least not discussed a lot on podcasts. And that is witchcraft and politics. And while that might not sound like a fun topic, we're going to make it fun. Okay. We're bringing fun information. We are like this episode was so cool to research and just read about. And if this, by the end of this episode, if this does not make you feel more empowered, I don't know what will.
00:03:53
Speaker
honestly though. So I guess let's just jump into it. So historically, I feel like a lot of what I'm going to talk about right here, we've already talked about, right? Like we talked about witch hunts. We talked about like Kings and Queens and witches and you know, like what they, what they had witches for in their employee. So a lot of this is already going to be like information that we've put out there. But if you haven't been somebody that's been listening since day one,
00:04:22
Speaker
You might not have listened to episode one. And that's where a lot of the information that I'm about to tell you comes from. So historically, like if we look at witch hunts, right? If you're listening to this podcast, chances are you've already like listened to that first episode, but just in case that you haven't, we talked about the history of witchcraft. And in that episode, we discussed the witch hunts, witch trials, and all things surrounding them at length. So I'm not really going to go into detail there.
00:04:49
Speaker
If you want to know more, go back in this episode one. We really took a deep dive into that. But this was a very prominent and historical example of witchcraft in politics. Like much of this was a way to keep women in line, unfortunately, and to show that certain leaders were willing to just go that extra mile to keep people safe by executing their neighbors for being witches and practicing witchcraft. Kings and queens kept witches in their employ,
00:05:17
Speaker
And again, this is something that I talked about in episode one, but historically, like a witch would be employed to a king to predict outcomes of events, to manage their birth charts and its meaning to their rule and how to give them guidance on ruling.
00:05:33
Speaker
And they would also be extended to the employ of others like within the court. When it came to the queen, much of what the witch did outside of the above was like a midwifery, herbal medicine, and then again, just giving that guidance and predictions. Yes, we had an episode on witchcraft in the media, which is episode two. So go back and listen to it if you haven't, where we discussed this at large and how witchcraft was viewed as satanic and evil and just any terrible synonym you can think of.
Ritual Magic vs. Political Demonstrations
00:06:03
Speaker
That's how witchcraft was viewed. But there are also the views that practitioners were irrational, primitive, and that witchcraft was for the weak. But this was a way to make practitioners feel small or unworthy.
00:06:15
Speaker
And I loved this, I pulled this parallel from an article that I read from Sabina Magliocco, and she's listed in our references down below, but I thought this was interesting. So she makes a parallel between ritual magic and political demonstrations. So if anyone ever tries to say some shit to you about practicing witchcraft, just point this out. But both forms of expression, so basically,
00:06:40
Speaker
ritual magic and political demonstrations. Both of them use language, chant, song, movement, images, symbolic action, and the quote, arts of resistance. And for arts of resistance, this goes back to things like hexing, cursing, anything to
00:06:56
Speaker
bring about revenge on an oppressor. So just FYI there because... Oh, go ahead. I'm going to talk about a lot of that later on because that is a huge thing. When you talk about witchcraft and politics, especially in modern day, there is a lot of resistance and
00:07:16
Speaker
fighting oppression. It kind of goes hand in hand with witchcraft. It's something actually, Anthony and I talked about this today, especially being children that grew up in religious or heavily Christian households.
Modern Paganism and Leftist Values
00:07:32
Speaker
When you grow up and you realize that this small portion of your life where you were so sheltered and taught certain things,
00:07:40
Speaker
When you come out of that and you're able to think for yourself and learn about other things in the world that didn't come from the Bible and didn't come from your pastor or your parents who were also very narrow-minded in that Christian mindset, you realize that you're being pushed down and oppressed and just made to think a certain way, and now you can think about all the other things that are out there. You can learn about everything that's out there.
00:08:05
Speaker
It's not a new topic. This is something we talked about before. Yeah, that is absolutely true. And so the growth of modern pagan witchcraft in the 1960s coincided with an embrace of counterculture and many other values that align more with the political left.
00:08:21
Speaker
And this goes in exactly with what you were saying, Tiffany. So not every witch or pagan is liberal. And we're not trying to say that with this episode. And we're not saying that you should be a Democrat or you should be left leaning if you are a practitioner or if you follow or found religions. I think that's a really good point to make, though. Maybe it should have been a disclaimer before we started talking. But
00:08:47
Speaker
talking about this topic isn't to be like, you should be this or you should be that. Whatever you are, that's fine. You shouldn't have to think a certain way. I know personally, I just try to align with whatever aligns with myself. Absolutely. Yeah. But with that, though, there's a large section of left-leaning witches who felt a lot of anxiety and uncertainty after the 2016 election. Yeah.
00:09:16
Speaker
And I think a big thing here is that most people who follow earthbound religions and identify as witches view things like nature being sacred and wanting to empower themselves and others and make the world a better place. I mean, these are things that are more aligned with the politically left than the right. And especially when it comes to nature and wanting to make the world a better place,
00:09:42
Speaker
This is something that would affect the earth and the environment. And unfortunately, with the US political system, the right doesn't really value those type of things. So that's why you see more of a leaning towards political left for people who believe in the occult or practitioners.
The Feminist Activism of WITCH in the 1960s
00:10:04
Speaker
Studies have also shown that many people who identify as witches or are pagan or Wiccan or follow earthbound religions tend to be more politically aware and involved and many whole jobs and things like social work, education and healthcare and really any position where social justice is the primary goal. And I mean, you see that as an example with both me and Tiffany, both of us are in those roles and we would just look at those things
00:10:27
Speaker
So, I mean, that's something that you see a lot. Something, I put this here, and I felt that even though I already talked about them, I wanted to bring them up in this particular episode. And I'm sorry if you can hear little puppies yapping in the background, but we are fostering little baby seven week old puppies, and they yap a lot. If they're not getting attention, then cuddles from me. And Anthony is trying his best, but they would prefer me. So.
00:10:57
Speaker
But, um, I talked about this group, I believe in episode one as well, they are, um, which, so an acronym, W-I-T-C-H, and the acronym stood for Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, which first of all, hilarious.
00:11:15
Speaker
which was a feminist group founded in the 1960s. They were also known as women inspired to tell their collective history and also women interested in toppling consumer holidays, which I love. But basically they focused on social change versus just simply toppling the patriarchy. And they felt that witches who came before them were the quote unquote first guerrilla fighters against women's oppression.
00:11:43
Speaker
This group carried out witch-like publicity scents, so they would protest, they would quote-unquote hex Wall Street, and then they would go around giving out garlic cloves with cards that said, we are witch, we are women, we are liberation, we are we.
00:11:59
Speaker
And I just absolutely love them. If you want to know more about them, again, I went kind of more in depth on them in episode one. Definitely maybe do some research on them. They were hilarious. I absolutely love this group. They're fun to read about. So I wanted to include them because they definitely fit into this topic.
00:12:18
Speaker
And then next, if you want to get like super American, let's talk about presidents in witchcraft.
Presidential Consultations with Witchcraft
00:12:23
Speaker
I only have a couple here because again, this is America and we don't talk about witchcraft in this country, clearly. But as discussed in episode 25, our astrology episode, President Ronald Reagan consulted an astrologer before every major move and decision, including his reelection announcement. So if you think about anything that happened during Ronald Reagan's reign as president,
00:12:48
Speaker
know that witchcraft was involved and astrology was involved. He didn't do anything unless he consulted an astrologer first. So anything he did, no. Witchcraft was definitely involved in that. And then President Theodore Roosevelt often quoted horoscopes and he kept his birth chart in the drawing room of the White House, just hanging on the wall, just casually his birth chart right on the wall. So
00:13:12
Speaker
It hasn't been absent from the White House as much as America would like you to think that witchcraft is bad. It's definitely been, at least in a couple of presidents, probably more. It's just not talked about.
British Witchcraft in WWII
00:13:24
Speaker
And then in the 1940s, early British witches worked together to prevent Hitler from invading England after the fall of France, and many of them lost their lives doing so, which is really sad. But I love this. I love that they were like, we have to do something. This dude is crazy.
00:13:42
Speaker
Absolutely. And a little bit more detail on some of the work that they were doing in World War Two. So
00:13:48
Speaker
One of the biggest forerunners for this movement during World War II was Dionne Fortune. And she coordinated the magical Battle of Britain to protect England from the Nazi invasion. And so basically, what she would do, so she lived in London. And during World War II, by that point in her life, she was pretty old. So she couldn't really provide any material support in the war. But she wanted to use her powers to protect England.
00:14:13
Speaker
So she connected with witches throughout England and they would send correspondences back and forth with constructions and dates and times that they would practice and things like that so they could all work together and have that collective power amongst all of these witches throughout England.
00:14:31
Speaker
What they would do is whenever that specific date in time rolled around for this ritual to take place, they would stand up and in their own houses, face the direction of London from wherever they're at in England, and then use their power to protect England. They would all say the same things at the same time, and I just thought that was really cool.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah.
Astrology in Nazi Germany
00:14:52
Speaker
And then I also was reading about how Gerald Gardner, he used to talk about like legends surrounding witches and World War Two. And some of the things that he talked about, I mean, there's a lot more, there's a lot more detail, if you just research it, but I didn't put all of the detail in there. But he said that like, witches would gather like what Dion did, and they would project their power with the hope of influencing Hitler's mind.
00:15:16
Speaker
and he called it like a the cone of influence or something and they would yeah they would try and like influence his mind by like chanting and doing ritual work and then they would also like groups of witches would gather on the cliffs of Dover naked and chant as well to try and like sway the course of the war and I really like that too but also depending it might be fucking freezing so
00:15:42
Speaker
Yeah. Like what season is this because it can be really cold over there. Yeah. So I think they were doing it at night too is what I was reading. So no, they were freezing their asses off. Well, and speaking of Hitler, like again, if you listen to our astrology episode, I referenced earlier, like it is believed that Adolf Hitler's birth chart actually predicted his future. So an astrologer predicted that someone born on the 20th of April in 1889,
00:16:10
Speaker
would rise to power and then enter Adolf Hitler, right? And then an assassination attempt of Hitler was actually predicted by Swiss astrologer Karl Kraft, who was then arrested for the prediction by the Nazis and once found the minister of propaganda, which what a title, right? Like the minister of propaganda, get out of here, sir. I should have looked this up. I think it was Goebbels.
00:16:39
Speaker
I'm pretty sure. But he hired Kraft as the Nazis in-house astrologer after this, right? So like they tortured this man. And then they were like, Oh, nevermind, you're innocent. Anyways, we're going to hire you. And like he really had a choice, right? They're like, he just had to work for them as an in-house like Nazi astrologer. And then unfortunately, it was Kraft's astrological forecast that led Hitler to start the successful Operation Barossa attacks.
00:17:08
Speaker
So yeah, poor guy. So like, he's like, Hey, I think these things are going to happen. And then they're like, we're arresting you because you said it. Maybe we're going to torture you. And then we're going to be like, nevermind. You're innocent, but now you have to work for us. And then he's like, Hey, by the way, this shitty thing is going to happen. And they're like, cool.
00:17:30
Speaker
What he should have done is just kept fucking quiet, let him get assassinated, and then guess what? No torture. No successful Operation Barossa attack. Yeah. Win-win. Oh my gosh.
Revival of Witchcraft in Political Activism
00:17:47
Speaker
And then in 1967, there was an activist by the name of Abby Hoffman and a poet named Allen Ginsberg.
00:17:56
Speaker
who led a large ritual in an attempt to levitate the Pentagon, which I thought was just hilarious. And then I came across this article by, I think it's Peg Aloy. I could be saying the last name wrong. I'm not 100% sure, but it's A-L-O-I.
00:18:15
Speaker
And she said that witchcraft has a long activist history and a new activist future. Witchcraft as political activism is making a comeback, which I just absolutely loved. And then if we move into modern day,
00:18:30
Speaker
We've talked about social media and witchcraft before, but social media has not only made witchcraft more widespread, but it's also allowed those near and far from each other to actually practice activism through witchcraft as a collective, allowing witches to network and find those within the craft that share their same beliefs and passions. I think it's also important to note that with the widespread social media presence of witchcraft also came some high profile discussions of witchcraft in the public arena.
00:19:00
Speaker
that are often filled with tension and where claims of expertise and experience often dwarf the lesser dogmatic and often less informed rhetoric of some millennial witches. And I'm going to preface this quote that I'm about to tell you
00:19:15
Speaker
with the fact that I had a lot of issues with this particular article that I came across. And by the end of it, like I found that the writer of this article was actually Episcopalian, which is a form of Christianity.
The Reclaiming Collective and Political Activism
00:19:30
Speaker
But she did try to keep an open mind when writing her article. And for the most part, like after being invited to a full moon ritual, she made some great points about witchcraft and politics. So her name was Tara Burton. And she stated in her article that
00:19:45
Speaker
Contemporary witch culture is a reflection of wider transitions in feminism. While the New Age movement of the 1960s and 70s tended to be largely white and geared toward the celebration of the divine feminine, contemporary witchcraft is more concerned with tearing down gender divisions like all together. So there's a group called the Reclaiming Collective and this group was started by a feminist witch and author who goes by the name of Starhawk.
00:20:14
Speaker
The group was started in California and it has several daughter groups throughout the world and they engage in political protests and ritual workings for environmental justice. This author wrote a book called Dreaming the Dark Magic Sex and Politics that is said to be like a handbook for the activist witch. I haven't read it so I can't like really give any input in it but I did come across a few different articles that actually reference this book so
00:20:42
Speaker
There's got to be something to it, right? Yeah, I want to read this book, so I'm going to have to add it to my Amazon card if I can find it on Amazon and get it shipped here. But what I was reading about this group as well, and I loved it.
00:20:56
Speaker
I loved that they're involved in so many different things. They started out in 1979, I think, right? It was a while ago. Yeah, it was super early, which was surprising. Over time, they've been involved in many left-leaning political protests and resistance movements from the anti-nuclear war actions in the 1980s.
00:21:16
Speaker
to the Occupy movements in 2011, as well as, of course, women's marches and demonstrations against Trump in 2017, 2018. So they have been around for a long time, and they are very active in politics, and I love that. Yeah, and that is something that when I was reading about them, something that was really, I guess, eye-catching to a lot of people about them is that not only have they been around for a long time, but they've been around and they've been active.
Witchcraft Against Capitalism
00:21:44
Speaker
They've been around and they've been trying to make a difference and make their own path in the world today and just throughout time, not even just today.
00:21:55
Speaker
from day one, they've been like, these are our beliefs and this is how we think things should be. So they stand up for whatever stance regardless of the outcome. So I read a lot about them being like, just kind of like that eye catching group because they are very active and they are very like open and willing to like address a lot of different topics across a wide span of beliefs.
00:22:20
Speaker
Something that's important that I think to note is that witches are objectors to the system. Witchcraft is a political marker for resistance and witchcraft and witch culture have morphed into something that is almost anti-capitalist as well as a form of resistance overall. And I think just to kind of sum up a lot of what we talked about so far, just within the historical aspects of witchcraft and politics and especially in the United States,
00:22:49
Speaker
I got this quote from Peg Aloy as well, which was crazy. We were talking about this before we were recording. I didn't realize that we both had referenced her in our notes, but I love it because her article on medium.com was actually really, really good and insightful. It was so good. I read through it twice because I read the whole thing and I was like, let me make sure I didn't miss anything because this was so good. I absolutely loved her article.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah. So she says in a quote, the 1960s gave us the witchcraft of upheaval. 1970s witchcraft became more focused on causes like feminism and environmentalism. The 1980s gave us new age spirituality and witchcraft mainstreaming. The 1990s saw a witchcraft revival in a time of growth and plenty and a concomitite rise in the religious rights superstitious paranoia.
00:23:41
Speaker
So moving on, I thought it was important to talk about some of the public influence on like witchcraft in politics. I came across a lot. I was really actually surprised that I was able to pull up as much information as I was.
'Burn the Witch' and Political Misogyny
00:23:57
Speaker
So I'm going to start with Bernie Sanders. I know he is a lot of people's favorite.
00:24:02
Speaker
Um, I am not a person of politics myself, so not, I could care less. Like I, of course, whoever's like in charge is important, but I just don't put a lot of, there's not a lot we can do as single individuals to make sure that people we want to be in charge are in charge in our country, unfortunately. So something I found surprising with Bernie Sanders was that his campaign website actually had a slogan of burn the witch. Did you know about this? No.
00:24:32
Speaker
I did not know about that. But I mean, like for us, we don't we don't have like regular cable television. We just pay for like like Netflix and Hulu and those kinds of things. So we don't see a lot of news. But apparently during one of his campaign runs, his slogan on his website was Burn the Witch. And many of Bernie's supporters could be seen chanting the slogan publicly.
00:24:59
Speaker
at campaign events. And while it was in reference to Hillary Clinton, and it may have been an oversight on Bernie for not pivoting away from the slogan created by a campaign volunteer, it still shows the outlook that the average person has on witches and witchcraft. In this instance, the term witch, like quote unquote, which is being used in a negative way to paint a bad picture of a female politician during campaign season.
00:25:27
Speaker
And I guess the male equivalent to this would be that male politicians are often referred to as the Antichrist. Like you'll never see a male politician being referred to as a witch or a magician or like anything in the realm of magic. In trying to research some of this, I did find that a constant reference to a unfavorable candidate was often Antichrist on the male spectrum.
00:25:54
Speaker
But just look at how that reinforces patriarchy too, just in the hierarchy of Antichrist is way up here and a witch is so far beneath the Antichrist. You know what I mean? Like, so it's not even equal. It's just terrible the way that that's a discussion. We talk about that later in the time. I think it's also important to note here that there was a lot of misogynistic
00:26:21
Speaker
quote-unquote witchcraft rhetoric that was thrown around during the election that Hillary Clinton ran and it had nothing to do with Hillary Clinton being an actual witch but more with her being a woman and not just not a great person overall. Think what you want, believe what you want. We said at the beginning we aren't trying to like guide you to believe anything or like feel a certain way. I know personally I was not a Hillary Clinton fan but
00:26:51
Speaker
It was these terms were used because she wasn't a great person and there were so many negatives about her. So instead of just leaning into those negatives, they were like, she's a witch. And it was like that Monty Python like movie all over again where they like put the nose on her because there was like memes and I think I bring this up later, but
00:27:11
Speaker
think I actually bring it up in my next point, but I came across a lot of photos of her during like campaign times where they took like the Wicked Witches body from The Wizard of Oz and they put Hillary Clinton's face on it and they painted her face green. So she's wearing like
00:27:27
Speaker
the robes and holding the broom and she has like the black witch hat of the wicked witch of the, what is she, the wicked witch of the East, the wicked witch of the West, whichever one she is in Wizard of Oz, but it's like Hillary Clinton's face on them. So instead of like actually talking about the problems of her as a person and her character, they just like leaned into this, well, she's a witch or she's a demon or whatever other rhetoric they use.
00:27:54
Speaker
So with that, moving into actual like Hillary Clinton topics that I brought up, Hillary Clinton was a Methodist and she was painted as a witch for male political gain.
Media Bias and Witch Portrayals
00:28:06
Speaker
And Alex Jones, who just in my personal opinion is a complete moron, I can't stand the man, publicly stated that he believed that Hillary Clinton was legitimately a demon and perpetually pushed the quote unquote, which rhetoric on his show.
00:28:24
Speaker
He stated that many people that surrounded Hilary stated that she was a dark, possessed, and even caused them to have nightmares due to her power and often linked her to demonic forces. But Alex Stone obviously wasn't the only one.
00:28:39
Speaker
He was just, he had like a huge platform and somehow he also has this like huge following of people that actually believe the crap that he spews on his show. During the election, there were those photoshopped images that I was talking about that were circulating of Hilary's face on the Wicked Witch of the East from Wizard of Oz's body and she was painted green and she was made to look like a witch because that was like the picture they were trying to paint to her, making it a negative connotation.
Hexes and Political Activism
00:29:06
Speaker
And then outside of that,
00:29:08
Speaker
Hexing in politics was actually a really big thing for a while. And I think we talked about this briefly on our social media witchcraft and social media influence on it episode early on in the podcast. But this was especially a huge thing during the Hillary and Trump elections. And it was widespread thanks to social media. It featured heavily on TikTok. And again, we talked about this in episode 10.
00:29:37
Speaker
where we were discussing social media influence on witchcraft, but we just wanted to give a little context on this.
00:29:43
Speaker
Yeah. So shortly after Trump's election, there was a lot of practitioners who went public about hexing, binding, or cursing Donald Trump. But none of it really gave, I mean, like, so it would be little things like using a symbol that represents Trump or the Trump administration and a glass of water and putting it in the freezer to like freeze the administration for making harmful actions, like small things like that. But it wasn't until like a little bit later
00:30:09
Speaker
like at the beginning of 2017 where we saw this whole viral thing come about. Right. So in February of 2017, a collective of witches from all over worked a binding ritual together through social media on President Trump. And this particular ritual was covered across several media sites like Rolling Stone, Buzzfeed, Time, and the Boston Globe. So this wasn't something that was like one person posted on social media. And it just kind of like,
00:30:39
Speaker
got passed around there. This was something that was noticed by big media outlets and talked about on these media outlets and on the news. And then groups have gathered outside of the Trump Towers to perform rituals. And while often talk of the practice of witchcraft makes the general public a little prickly, these rituals actually received high praise on Twitter by non-practitioners. This was something that people were like, yes,
00:31:07
Speaker
Let's do this even though I'm not going to do it. Like I commend you doing it though.
00:31:12
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so I was reading about this more in Sabina Magliogo's article that I referenced earlier, but she talks about how, like, so the first text, obviously February 24, 2017, it was performed under a waning crescent moon by a group of 40 practitioners and they did a binding spell on Donald Trump led by Michael Hughes. And so they had this whole script that they wrote out and they all said,
00:31:38
Speaker
like the lines from it. And it's, I mean, obviously, I'm not going to put it in the in the episode because it's kind of long. And I didn't just, you know, sit here and talk about it all. But basically, what they did was they had for the ritual, they lit a white candle to invoke spirits and the elements.
00:31:54
Speaker
And they had a small orange stub of a candle with Trump's name on it and I thought that was hilarious. So not only that but I also read that those that couldn't like find an orange candle or couldn't like they just didn't have one they used carrots and Cheetos. That's funny.
00:32:13
Speaker
They also, so they all spoke the words of the spell that they had drafted. I believe Michael drafted. And then they took a picture of Donald Trump and burned it with the orange candle. That was just so perfect. But Michael Hughes, he talks about how
00:32:30
Speaker
He felt helpless and wanted to do something outside of just contacting his legislatures because as we know, and this is something that I've done frequently, it doesn't matter how many times you contact your legislature. I feel like it doesn't do anything because- I feel like nothing we do does anything. We're supposed to have
00:32:49
Speaker
especially during elections, we're supposed to have multiple options. But the way this our school system in America at least teaches is that you have two parties, even though we have more than two parties that have different beliefs. And so like, it doesn't matter what you do, I feel like it's like doom and gloom in America when it comes to these kinds
00:33:08
Speaker
Yeah, it really is. It's like pick the less of, like not even the lesser of two evils. And I hate saying that because it kind of goes back to those archetypes of Antichrist versus a witch. And that's not what I'm saying, but like you're basically picking between like the worst of the worst. No, we actually said like, especially during this particular, like that particular election,
00:33:33
Speaker
It was like reaching into the cracker Jack box and pulling out your prize. Like, which one are we getting? You don't really get an option because, because of the way we're taught in America and the way people believe it's like you have this one or this one, even though there's like, however many other people on your ballot that you can vote for, people only vote for the two party system.
00:33:57
Speaker
And the problem with that, I mean, there's so many problems with our- A lot of problems.
Witchcraft's Influence on Political Change
00:34:03
Speaker
Yes. But the, well, I think one of the biggest problems is the people that we have representing us do not represent the American constellation at all. And so it's, yeah, but anyway, so just moving on from that. We digress.
00:34:18
Speaker
So I pulled this quote out of one of the articles that I referenced, but Anana Arthand, she says, what brings upon bad karma is having the ability to do something and do nothing. And so this kind of goes back to all of those witches and performing those hexes and performing those spells and rituals to freeze that administration or to keep them from doing bad because
00:34:44
Speaker
At the end of the day, this overarching theme that pagans and people who believe in earthbound religions, they ultimately believe that we're supposed to be protecting the innocent and taking care of our own. So by just sitting by and watching what's happening, you're going to bring bad karma on yourself. But after writing The Curse, he posted it online. And then, of course, as we know, it went viral.
00:35:09
Speaker
As of, I mean, the article that I read about this, this was from, this was published in 2020, but as of 2020, this ritual was performed every waning moon by participants. Oh my gosh. Yeah. From for years. Yeah. Cause this is what it started in 2017. Wow. Dedication. Yes, it is.
00:35:36
Speaker
And I don't know, like I said, if they're doing anything now, because obviously he's not in office, but still things are shit.
Celebrities and Witchcraft as Political Statements
00:35:43
Speaker
So I mean, I'm not sure I would have to like, yeah, or sat and see, but at least as of 2020, or like while he was still in office, they were doing it every waning moon.
00:35:53
Speaker
Something else that I found was that a store in Catlin, New York hosted a Hex Brett Kavanaugh event during the Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearing. And I thought that was kind of funny. And then a Facebook group of which is collectively Hex Donald Trump monthly. I wonder if it's the same one that you were talking about because you said they've done it every waning moon. Yeah.
00:36:19
Speaker
Yeah, so I wonder if it's the same group. They just get together every month and do this. I love it if that's the case. Yeah. And then even celebrities have been open about witchcraft in the present day, and Lana Del Rey is one of them, which I absolutely love her. But she's openly spoken about practicing witchcraft against Donald Trump, and I found that actually hilarious. Yeah, that is really funny.
00:36:46
Speaker
I know you kind of mentioned this earlier but I do think that it's important to talk about the controversy about going viral and all these things going viral because it isn't just practitioners with history and experience having access to these spells that were posted online.
00:37:03
Speaker
but you have a lot of people who know nothing about witchcraft or are new to the craft and are trying to perform these complex spells. And while technology and social media, and we've talked about this before, it has been such a positive
00:37:20
Speaker
influence on witchcraft and the occult and paganism and everything it's a double-edged sword too because you see I mean things are so dramatized or like Taken out of context or you know what I mean? So yeah, there's always like I think it's like it goes back to to like we talk about this all the time with witchcraft you see so many people drawn to it because witchcraft in itself is empowering and so especially when you have these situations in
00:37:50
Speaker
politics or in your country where you feel almost like helpless like we keep joking about like in America it's trash and there's really nothing you can do about it you get people who feel like this is just a helpless situation that I want to be able to do something about and so they're drawn to these you know these groups or whatever it is that's like getting together and being like we're gonna do this one thing to try to counteract
00:38:17
Speaker
these things happening in our country. So it's like a way that they can feel like they're making a difference and it's empowering them to feel that way as well. Yeah, absolutely. And then just to kind of end this episode, I think it's important to discuss the long lasting effects that witchcraft and politics
00:38:38
Speaker
just what you see in the ties between it. So something important to understand from all of this, you know, we spent, I mean, not the whole episode, we spent quite a bit of time discussing like recent political or recent politics, I guess I should say, even with Trump out of office. The fact is that we're still seeing like those long lasting repercussions of having him in office.
00:39:00
Speaker
And with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, women have less rights than we did a few years ago. And with the way things are continuing, it isn't a far stretch to imagine that in the future, female rights groups will be labeled as witches or evil or whatever. And even if they don't have any ties to the occult, I mean, you saw this with, like you were saying with Hillary Clinton, whenever she was running for president,
00:39:26
Speaker
Was she a
Impact on Female Rights and Podcast Conclusion
00:39:27
Speaker
great person? No, she wasn't a great person. But do you see this same type of shit with men who are a novice? You don't. And this just goes to show you it is not a far stretch for anyone to be labeled in any sort of negative way just to bring you down. Yeah. And it's just so frustrating. But
00:39:47
Speaker
And all of this is a way that men will undermine the power of women and our right to be angry about these things. But having these groups of practitioners out there who are supportive and accepting of all can only help like female rights groups or any sort of
00:40:05
Speaker
Any group that is feeling oppressed, I mean witchcraft and the occult can help because this just goes to show like even if you're not linked to the occult, having that support and those people backing you and fighting for you and wanting to stand up for you just goes to show you how powerful you can be as just one singular person and working as a collective and using your power and your strength, your inner strength to change the world around you is so important.
00:40:33
Speaker
perfect cherry on top to an episode that could be a little depressing for some people. Yes, that is it is because I mean, sometimes especially like and I know we both have felt it like the politics, especially in America, it's so disheartening and it makes you feel helpless sometimes like every time a mass shooting, it just reinforces my like desire to never return to the states because I don't want the states are trash.
00:41:00
Speaker
Yeah. We constantly are like, please get us back overseas. We miss living in Europe. I go back and forth. There are a lot of great things about the States, but there's a lot of great things about the States. I don't know.
00:41:30
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we would be forever thankful if you leave us a five-star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check out our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. There you can purchase a membership to our podcast and obtain exclusives,
00:41:57
Speaker
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