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Each month, thousands of witches cast a spell against Donald Trump. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Credit Katherine Gojira Casting spells as a form of political protest might sound strange. Next Up In Identities. Delivered Fridays. Thanks for signing up! Check your inbox for a welcome email. Email required. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy.
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Tech can either lend a kind of scientific authority, or provide a blank digital canvas welcoming of screwy new ideas. Suddenly fiction is no longer something you can only access from the outside. We can redraw the boundaries of reality. Even the communication medium of the internet is ripe for the occult. The realest of them is probably Pastafarianism—the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which started as a satirical protest against teaching intelligent design in schools, then became a meme and acquired thousands of followers.
You may have even seen a car bedecked with its Fry Guy-meets-Sebastian emblem. But the quasi-belief that really shows how these things can go sideways is Slender Man. The now-iconic internet boogieman got his start as an online game that boiled down to "come up with the scariest photoshopped image possible.
Some of the users mentioned tricking people into believing in their new hoax image, but as Slender Man's popularity grew, reality got blurrier. Still, Slender Man was real for at least two people: Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, who at 12 years old lured a friend into the woods and then stabbed her 19 times, all to impress Slender Man. Both have since been committed to mental institutions. Back to our two current-day phenomena—both of which are, in their own ways, surprisingly traditional.
For example, this isn't the first time a group of women has turned to witchcraft as a form of protest. In the s, a coven calling themselves W. H Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell set about hexing Wall Street and beauty pageants and generally hanging around being creepy.
Witchblr is the internet version of that, with similar goals. The development has sparked fury among Christian conservatives, who have accused the witches of "declaring spiritual war". Writer Michael Hughes, who describes himself as a "magical thinker" posted a version of the spell online , saying he had seen multiple versions on private witchcraft groups. In it, he suggests using a stubby orange candle, an unflattering picture of Mr Trump, and a Tower tarot card.
Followers of magic are told to carve the president's name into the candle using a pin, recite an incantation, and then burn his picture in the flame. The words of the spell include a plea to the Wiccan deities to "bind Donald J Trump, so that his malignant works may fail utterly" and so that he "shall not break our polity, usurp our liberty, or fill our minds with hate, confusion, fear, or despair".
Mr Trump's supporters don't escape either, as the spell asks that their "malicious tongues" be curbed too. Mr Hughes suggests that instead of the normal closing line, "So mote it be! The writer said he published details of the spell because he felt "it would be very welcome to a lot of people". Under the tenets of witchcraft, a "binding spell" does not wish harm on its target, but aims to stop them from doing harm themselves.
MaryPat Azevedo, who took part in the ritual in Arizona, said she saw the ritual as "a unity prayer". She told the BBC: "A true witch would never cast a spell on anyone without their permission. This prayer is for wellbeing and peace for all beings.
Ms Azevedo said she hopes to see "physical, emotional, and spiritual changes in Donald Trump and American politics".
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