I’ve become increasingly wary of mainstream culture’s love affair with witches. I know, that’s a terrible thing to say, considering I love all things witchy, I’m a bruja, and I teach a class on witchcraft in pop culture.

But hear me out.

People so often come to all things witchy (and, more generally, pagan and New Age) with preconceived ideas about what these spiritual communities are about and what they should look. In many cases, they don’t really want to learn the nuances or complexity of these subcultures. And I’m not talking about the people who call me a devil worshipper for posting tarot readings on social media or the randos telling me I’ll burn in eternal hellfire for doing unnatural things like posting body butter recipes.  I’m not even talking about the people who think witchcraft only exists in pop culture with the likes of Samantha Stephens in Bewitched, the sisters in Charmed, or the midnight margarita fun of Practical Magic. In fact, I love pop culture witches and think they have some great advice for magical living! No, I’m talking about the curious souls who’ve discovered that witchcraft is having a pop culture moment and have decided that, as a historically stigmatized subculture, this cultural renaissance is a very good thing.

And, in some ways, it is. Okay, in a lot of ways!

I mean, I never thought in a million years I’d get to be a bruja professor and teach courses on the legacy of witchcraft in pop culture that includes discussions of different spiritual traditions practiced by real communities. I never thought I could be more open about my own woo-woo ways as a teacher in higher education, nor a writer who could be open about my witchy life while also writing witchy fiction. This is a HUGE deal, especially for someone who has vivid memories of “friends” telling me I was going to Hell for not going to church on Sunday when I was a tween, something unheard of in more traditional Hispanic communities. True story. 

So, yes, normalizing these forms of mysticism offer an important foundation for people to openly and safely explore their spirituality separate from institutionalized religion. This is a VERY good thing. One of the joys of a subculture moving more mainstream is that it isn’t as stigmatized and, thus, more accessible. Woohoo!

Objectively, there’s nothing wrong with wholeheartedly celebrating the normalization of New Age spirituality and the many subcultures it encompasses…until you look a little deeper, that is. We’re living in a moment where any progressively minded person has become more aware of social inequities in our country if they weren’t already. Unfortunately, the knee-jerk reaction to many of these shocking revelations is to celebrate and uphold all forms of inclusion. Again, this sounds great! And it is great in a lot of ways. 

But what often happens is that this attempt at inclusion becomes largely performative, and it frequently ignores the fact that many historically marginalized communities can also be perpetrators of systemic oppression or be problematic.  In our collective attempt to be more inclusive and progressive, we’ve silenced a lot of important complex issues that need to be addressed for meaningful change in favor of feel-good performative celebrations of diversity.

These issues play out in current discussions of witchcraft that want to celebrate female, BIPOC, and queer empowerment (to name a few historically marginalized identities) while ignoring very real issues within the community, including spiritual bypassing, cultural appropriation, and commodification, to name a few. 

It’s not all love and light…

Let’s be real, people. It’s not all love and light.

And it’s important to acknowledge this fact so we don’t perpetuate toxic behavior or encourage performative spirituality, which can have negative consequences, both personally and socially—and spiritually.

In an effort to encourage more consciousness in the theses subcultures originally designed to foster higher consciousness, I’m going to highlight some of the biggest issues within these communities and the ones that are most often ignored in favor of the feel-good quick-fix spells and witchy aesthetics divorced from genuine spirituality. I’ll explore them through the lens of pop culture, using examples from movies, books, TV shows, and other media, as they best explore the dark side of the witchy and communities in the way only pop culture can. I should note, however, that while I offer specific readings of these texts for the purposes of looking at the darkest details of many New Age subcultures, there are an infinite number of ways to read these stories—ways that are equally viable and important! I’m just using them here to illustrate some of the more pervasive issues within witchcraft communities and other pagan or New Age spirituality groups.

Common issues within mystic communities…

Spiritual Bypassing is when someone uses the outer trappings of a spiritual practice—meditation, spells, even yoga poses—to dissociate from trauma. They lose themselves in the feel-good aspects of the practice or the sense of control and temporary empowerment a spell can give without ever meaningfully dealing with the deeper things they need to work through, such as ancestral, generational, or personal traumas. Think of it as applying a glittery bandaid to a serious wound. 

I often use the witchy example of cleansing to explain this. You can smudge your house or do a cleansing spell all you want, but at the end of the day, if you find yourself in constant need of deep cleansing, you eventually have to ask yourself why you keep welcoming toxic energy into your life and engaging in toxic situations. Hard decisions have to be made and boundaries reinforced…which is not as sexy or as easy as lighting candles and reciting a cleansing spell.  And yes, you actually have to clean your space—vacuum, mop, wipe down surfaces—otherwise, it’s like putting a new coat of paint on a car that needs serious engine work done, that is, a cosmetic fix only.

Perhaps the best example of this is the cult classic The Craft (1996), in which teens start a coven, try to burn The System to the ground, and end up imploding instead. You know, the usual stuff teens do. Sure, performing spells to deal with real issues make all these young women feel powerful…for a time, but the reality is they are dealing with serious systemic issues that can’t be magic-ed away. Part of the reason why their coven dissolves is because those bigger issues—mental illness, domestic abuse, racism, physical trauma—are magnified, not diminished, by their use of the craft. 

I don’t think there’s a person out there who doesn’t love when Rochelle magically punishes the mean girl Laura for being a racist, but it ultimately doesn’t change anything. Pervasive racism in the elite space of private school is still there by the end of the movie, as is the fact that Rochelle hasn’t found a meaningful way to grapple with or heal from it. Same goes for Nancy—her magic empowers her but also makes her more unstable until she eventually becomes the kind of predator she turned to the craft to escape. Bonnie literally finds a surface or cosmetic answer to unresolved physical trauma. Even Sarah has a traumatic past that’s hinted at, though never fully developed, that’s tied to the death of her mother and her own suicide attempt. You can’t magic those issues away, and if you try to, they will bubble to the surface and create more trauma and chaos, just as they did by the end of this movie. The real villain of this film is unresolved trauma and how these young women use witchcraft like a sparkling bandaid on gaping wounds—sooner or later, the blood is going to seep out.

Toxic Positivity is closely linked to spiritual bypassing. It’s what I call the Love & Light Problem, where someone advocates for nothing but good vibes, completely suppressing or ignoring negative emotions or more serious issues. The 2016 film The Love Witch is a great example of this. Our perfectly quaffed witch swans around saying things like “Bright blessings!” She performs complex and aesthetically pleasing spells in an effort to take charge of her life. She’s also a hot mess. Her untreated trauma bleeds out into everything she does, leaving a trail of chaos in her wake.

Elaine, like the baby witches in The Craft, has a lot of undealt with trauma, to put it mildly, a fact that gets buried under her picture-perfect facade. She is always perfectly dressed with flawless makeup and a GORGEOUS aesthetic and can-do attitude which masks the very real sexual, physical, and religious trauma she’s experienced. Unlike the young women in the 1996 cult classic, however, Elaine is more put together. She hides behind positive affirmations and a carefully constructed Love Witch persona, all while perpetuating the same sexual and religious trauma on others. She, like Nancy in The Craft, becomes the predator and, while we might empathize with their traumas, those wounds, ultimately, do not give them permission to inflict them on others. 

Commodification and commercialization are also big issues within these communities. On the one hand, I love the Instagram-worthy images of witchy stuff I see online. It’s fun! It’s sparkly! It’s aspirational! On the other, it sells us the idea that we can’t be magical without a limitless expense account, tons of pricy crystals, expensive tools, and fancy accessories. In reality, these practices are about reconnecting with yourself and aligning yourself with the ebb and flow of the universe, not buying a bunch of stuff so you have the right witchy aesthetic. 

Again, I’m not saying don’t buy that thing that makes you feel witchy and fabulous or don’t watch that WitchTok feed that fills your cottagecore-loving heart with joy. I’m saying we need to separate the aesthetic from the practice. Also, in case you didn’t know this, YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY ANYTHING TO BECOME WITCHY OR MORE SPIRITUAL.

You also need to think critically about what you are buying. For example, crystals are a big part of this New Age industry now, and it is only recently that we are learning how exploitative and harmful mining practices are. Or do you really want to be like Sephora and sell witch kits that include sacred and endangered white sage and encourage people to “play witch” without understanding the real practices—and people—behind these things? I’m just pointing out the bad stuff here, but it’s also not as easy as all that. I have crystals, yes (though I’m more careful about buying them now), and I would be lying if I said I don’t want to buy my future children this witchy play set. Back in the day, I just used sticks, dirt, and rocks from my backyard, old-looking books from my parents’ library, and a random bucket. Still, there’s no reason my children can’t do both! 

The key factor here is realizing that while you might love collecting witchy mugs like me, they don’t make you a witch. In other words, I would be a bruja with or without those mugs, so I don’t believe it when someone tells me I *have* to have them in order to be *authentic.* I know the mug example is a little silly, but this is a gimmick a lot of people fall prey to, suddenly thinking they need to buy jewel-encrusted anthems and gothic couture to be an authentic practicing witch. If those things float your boat, by all means, enjoy! But don’t feel less than if you can’t afford it or it doesn’t vibe with who you are (witchcraft is learning to embrace your truest self, after all).

Spiritual Performativity combines the commodification of the craft and spiritual bypassing. There are loads of WitchTok videos that promote this spell, ritual, or a vibe…but you have to wonder at what point does their performance end, and the real spirituality begin? Some spiritual practices are close practices and are meant to be private. Not everything should be shared online. In other cases, you have to consider how informed the person behind the account is. I’ve seen many a baby witch proclaiming their knowledge and expertise with stuff that is just plain cultural appropriation, misinformation, or even dangerous (I’m looking at you, anti-vax pagan community!). 

In fact, a lot of witchy or mystic work is not something you can easily capture in an Instagram story or TikTok video. It’s a quiet, internal thing, something that works from the inside out. And, I promise you, most of us don’t often do spiritual things in full makeup and within range of an Instagram filter. Again, some of this social media stuff could be useful if this content if it’s being used mindfully. And some of it is just fun, soothing, or pretty to look at. But you have to then think about if this practice is moving beyond the performative. What ideas about spirituality are they trying to sell you? Who are these people when the camera is turned off? In other words, don’t mistake the set design, wardrobe, and theater of social media with actual spiritual practices. Often, they are two very different things.

Cultural Appropriation is, of course, a huge issue. Many people in witchy and pagan communities liberally “borrow” from other cultures. That’s a big HELL NO. Bottom line: If it’s not part of your culture, you shouldn’t be practicing it. You have no idea what energies you’re dealing with, and you’re basically welcoming in some pretty bad energy by messing with stuff you don’t understand. Seriously, any witchy horror movie will tell you this.

Still, many white practitioners have been known to publish books on voodoo, hoodoo, and other folk conjure practices that they aren’t actually connected to because they feel entitled to those practices. White practitioners also liberally label many conjure practices as “witchcraft,” when the practitioners of that practice often wouldn’t self-describe as a witch and have a completely different understanding of witchcraft. The appropriation of Indigenous practices is rampant in the community, not to mention the appropriation of practices from other marginalized groups. 

It makes sense that you shouldn’t trivialize spiritual practices from other cultures, and it’s easy to tell people not to. The problem comes from the fact that appropriation is so pervasive that many people don’t even know they're doing it. Take the use of white sage for smudging. It’s an Indigenous practice that should only be practiced within those communities. White sage is also endangered, thanks, in part, to its codification and appropriation of white New Age communities. So that means many newbie practitioners see something cool online and start doing it for themselves, not realizing that the thing they saw was appropriated from another culture. They then perpetuate that appropriation. 

Now, some people grow through that, and I respect everyone’s learning journey. Who hasn’t gotten into something only to learn that their initial foray included some sketchy info? But too often, people don’t ever bother to educate themselves or move beyond approbation. Worse, they feel entitled to it. There’s a huge problem with white supremacy and cultural appropriation in the community.

There are literally too many pop culture examples to name with this one, so I’ll just stick with the classic TV series Charmed (1998-2006), which used a vaguely Wiccan-inspired framework for their depictions of witchcraft. If you watch the series long enough, you will see the Charmed Ones engage with (read: appropriate) a variety of cultures ranging from Chinese and other Asian cultures, to black spiritual practices like Hoodoo and Voodoo, and Indigenous practices like smudging, to name a few. The reboot series, you’ll notice, makes a more concerted effort to distinguish between various spiritual practices—and who gets to practice them.

Let’s put the consciousness back in higher consciousness…

So where does all this yuck leave us? Hopefully, with a better appreciation of what is good in these subcultures and what is bad. There’s no such thing as a community—spiritual or otherwise—that’s all love and light. Every group has its dark side, and it’s best to be mindful of it. Hopefully, after reading this, you can develop a solid roadmap for navigating—and enjoying—these communities while avoiding the pitfalls. Consciousness, after all, comes with a price, as does magic. And if you truly want to practice any form of natural spirituality, you need to put the consciousness back in higher consciousness.

The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, is the scholarly sister to Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

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