A rising trend on TikTok involves witchcraft practitioners casting protective spells on Black Lives Matter protesters, and negative hexes on police. They are gathering under hashtags like "Witches for BLM," and some of their rituals and ceremonies are gaining widespread attention. After last week's full moon, witches say that their manifestations will be more powerful than ever.
With protests all over the country for the last two weeks, social media has already proven to be a game-changer for activists by allowing video evidence to be spread and public officials to be called out. Now, witches and other esoteric practitioners are taking it a step further, using the TikTok video app to perform group rituals across great distances and "super-charge" each other's manifestations. Judging by the millions of views in the "Witches for BLM" hashtag, most are directing their energy toward protecting protesters and undermining cops. The tag has over 15 million views at the time of this writing, with new users joining in all the time.
The tag includes everything from instructional videos to parodies of witchcraft as a whole. For the most part, however, users seem to be taking these practices seriously, with few questioning or belittling witchcraft as a legitimate philosophy or religion.
Many users also believe that "Witches for BLM" practices have already shown results. Some shared the viral video clip of lightning appearing to strike the Washington monument this week, taking it as a sign of divine intervention or karmic justice.
"The witches or practitioners are using [their] power to help aid in healing and protecting people of color, or anyone affected," TikTok user geminimoon01 told Refinery29. "Some witches are also taking the advantage of this great energy to hex the oppressors. Some people choose to believe in our craft and some don't. At the end of the day we are all human and we just want to survive in this world."
The rapid growth of the "Witches for BLM" tag is just one more indicator of the diverse and widespread sympathy that these protests are garnering all over the country. Still, scrolling through the tag there is public debate about how best to help and which solutions to pursue. Self-identified witches can frequently be seen reminding each other that witchcraft is not enough, and that must sign petitions, donate money, and show up to protests as well if they care about the movement.
