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What’s up with people hiring witches on Etsy?

Credit: Thred
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Brighton, UK
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The phenomenon isn’t as uncommon as you might think. 

Like many individuals, Riley Wenckus felt distraught and disempowered in the aftermath of Trump’s re-election. Wenckus was particularly furious at Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, and the key role he’d played in Trump’s victory.

So she turned to an unconventional solution: Wenckus paid $7.99 to an Etsy witch to curse Musk. In a viral TikTok, she shouted, ‘Elon motherf***ing Musk! I just paid an Etsy witch to make your life a living hell!’ Five million views later, the video’s audio is being used by others to promote their own spell-casting services.

‘I was feeling really existential about what I can do’ Wenckus said. ‘You know, he is the richest man on Earth.’

Hiring witches on Etsy isn’t as niche as it sounds. The platform has long been a hub for the weird and handmade, but its thriving market for magical spells is surprising. Listings for curses, blessings, and sigils sit alongside tea cozies and pet portraits, all rated with glowing five-star reviews.

Wenckus’ decision to hire a witch also speaks to a desire to prop up other creators online, an ideology that has bolstered Etsy’s success.

‘I really just love the idea of supporting a small business and sending ill will to someone I hate,’ she told Wired.

While Etsy officially banned spells and metaphysical services in 2015, the ban is barely enforced, and business is booming.

Witchcraft-for-hire is thriving because it taps into something deeper: anger, powerlessness, and the craving for control. Billionaires like Musk dominate the news cycle, influence elections, and shape the digital space, often in ways that feel untouchable.

Hiring a witch may be absurd, but it’s a tiny symbolic act of rebellion.

Etsy witches like ‘Nick the Alchemist’ sell spells for everything from “fast cash” to confusing enemies or attracting love. Most cost under $50.

This transactional approach raises questions: can magic retain its meaning when reduced to a commodity? The point of magic has always been to transcend the physical world, not become a product within it. Yet here it is, monetized, branded, and delivered via email.

And it’s working. Etsy, which generated $307 million in profit last year, thrives on niche offerings. Spells for love or revenge are just another product category. It’s easy to mock, but it’s also clever.

In the face of mass production, selling magic – something intangible, ancient, and deeply personal – feels like a logical extension of Etsy’s ethos.

challenge systems of power, often by those marginalized within them.

Rituals are aestheticized, spells filmed for virality, and practitioners advertise like influencers. Whether or not people believe in magic, the spectacle is the point.

On platforms like TikTok, attention is currency, making witchcraft a goldmine.

The rise of Etsy witchcraft reflects a broader frustration with the systems governing our lives. Hiring a witch to curse a billionaire may not change anything, but it feels like action in a moment of helplessness. It’s cheap, theatrical, and oddly satisfying.

When traditional tools for change, like elections, protests and institutions, fail to deliver results, some people turn to the mystical. That’s not to say it’s rational, but it does offer a kind of release.

Most spells marketed on Etsy come with disclaimers noting they are for ‘entertainment purposes only’. This protects sellers from legal consequences in most markets. Unsurprisingly, few offer refunds.

These other-worldy offers aren’t without their critics. ‘These are scams’ Kenny Biddle told Forbes. Biddle is a chief investigator for the Center of Inquiry, an organisation devoted to ‘defending science’.

‘There is no evidence that these things work […] they’re taking money from people and they’re going to keep consumers from looking at science-based medicine, which is harming them.’

But Biddle seems unaware of the fact that many aren’t turning to mystical Etsy sources because they distrust science.

Whether it’s a curse, a blessing, or just an expensive placebo, magic on Etsy is selling because it speaks to something real: the need to feel like we can fight back, even in small, ridiculous ways.

During tumultuous political and social times, an air of the ‘magical’ can provide a welcome escape, a means of taking back control – even if it amounts to nothing.

The rise of Etsy witchcraft taps into a deeper truth. When the so-called real world lets you down time and again, the unreal looks pretty appealing.

Politicians and corporations constantly peddle the gospel of ‘authenticity’ and ‘real connection,’ yet these promises crumble under the weight of systemic failures and empty gestures.

Sometimes, the best way to cope with a broken world is to lean into the magic it refuses to believe in.

Writer Brighton, UK

I’m Flo, (She/Her) a remote writer at Thred. I recently completed a Masters in Visual Anthropology, and seek to interrogate the ways digital spaces can amplify marginalised voices in the arts and cultural sectors. Follow me on LinkedIn or ping me some feedback via email.

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