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Discussion
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Yesterday, I came across a banishing work on TikTok that got me thinking. I feel like it’s implied that anyone who comes across these spells can just copy what they see and have success with it. I don’t believe that beginners and dabblers – regardless of the path, including simple folk magic – have the capacity for most work beyond basic protection spells and the like. I’m just not buying it, and wish more emphasis was placed on fundamentals like grounding, visualization, etc.
Why is this even a concern? Because beginner witches might become disillusioned when they don’t see results and that is ultimately a disservice to the community at large. I realize that on a platform like TikTok there isn’t much room for nuance; so maybe that’s not the right venue for posting advanced work. Maybe in your path a person can hit the ground running with curses and love spells. Please chime in if so, but it doesn’t seem realistic.
Just food for thought for any content creators reading this.
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Witchtok has given beginners and dabblers a false sense of what they can accomplish at the outset.
updated 2 years ago
2 Members
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I agree 100% I learned on my own. I use flowers I find and rocks from the river. My rituals are powerful. I’m so happy I found spirituality on my own path.
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As frustrating as it is these kids are walking their own path. Albeit they are going to learn the hard way, but that is what it boils down to. The best any of us can do is try to be supportive to the young ones around us, and give them good information to start their practice. We can also advise distancing from witchtok. Just sit back and relax. Send good loving energy out to the young ones. And be open for conversation when they show up here.
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I agree…and it’s one of the reasons I stopped looking at Witchy social media. The dumbing-down of witchcraft, or it’s appropriation into the $elf-care lifestyle, was driving me mental. I was accused of gatekeeping.
I finally made my peace with it by telling myself it was a sort of **filter and natural selection process…..**
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It’s also tarnished many of the old god religions and it upsets me
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There’s a difference between crafting/casting and just going thru the motions. People want instant results but don’t want to learn or put the needed effort into things.
When they make a mistake because they don’t want to study, they then don’t want to be corrected.
Your results depend entirely on the effort you put into a thing. Low/no effort = crappy results. The fault lies completely in the crafter/caster for not looking into the reliability of the source material.
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TikTok can be nice. It gets some information out there. It can let people know that Witchcraft is real. That’s how a lot of people find out. But never listen to everything they say.
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I know so many people have already replied but I honestly dislike TikTok and even more so recently. I have a certain someone in my life who is young and exploring what witchcraft is about. I am doing my best to guide them into a good direction for beginners but it’s hard. I hear about things they saw on TikTok and are actually listening to. Things like tarot readings and information on Deities and it makes me sick.
No one in these videos explain anything or talk about protecting yourself. I had to go out of my way to explain that they shouldn’t do any spells until they understand how to ground themselves and protect themselves and have an understanding of what they are doing.
I encourage them to explore and do research but sure as heck not directing them to witchtok.
It is highly frustrating!
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First off, I despise the whole TikTok thing when it comes to this way of life.
But, I believe very different than you when it comes to what anyone is capable of from the beginning.
Magick is always reliant on the belief I your abilities. Your only as powerful as you believe you are. Everyone does things differently. Some believe they have to do a circle every single time, some believe they have to have a wand and all the tools to do spell work, but it all honesty, all anyone really needs is a belief that they can succeed and a work thier magick.
I always recommend that someone who wishes to do a spell of any kind, create it for yourself. Spells you find online or in a book may give you insight into the spell you wish to do, but, a truly good way to help ensure the results are what you wish is to include your own intent, you own ideas of what you wish and your own power.
The biggest reason I hate TikTok crap and ‘pretenders’ is that those of us that t live this life style everyday are the ones that have to fix the things they unleash or do that they are incapable of fixing
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Witchtok is a mess.
A lot of the real and experienced practitioners have long since moved out of it. The ones left are the ones who exaggerate their results or the ones who know little to nothing about what they’re doing.
There’s also a huge cultural appropriation problem. Last year, there was a trend where witches were putting honey on their tongue to help with relationship problems. That is spell work in Latin American brujería. It is a closed practice yet everyone and their dog was doing it on witchtok. Somehow those people were then surprised when they started seeing bad results from it.
And don’t even get me started on the paranoia. Someone will comment that they “fELt a sHifT” and suddenly everyone feels it too. Or someone will present typical mental health symptoms and romanticize them as a spiritual awakening.
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also super sketched out when people talk about meeting entities. like hmm you’ve been practicing witchcraft for a couple weeks & have serious mental health issues? but no really i totally believe you had a full conversation with odin about your room being messy or whatever. ffs
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I got into witchcraft as a teen in the early 00s, with my head full of unrealistic expectations and fluff (inspired by the Internet- it’s not a new or tiktok thing). 20 years later and I’m still on the path.
The people who have a serious calling towards it will continue, while dabblers will be weeded out when they don’t get the spectacular results they expected.
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if there was a simple recipe to summon a demon the world would have ended a long time ago /s
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It makes me sad to see some of the aggressive mental illness too. (Especially the ‘you don’t need meds you’re just a star seed mentality’)
I don’t want to say a whole lot because I’m not trying to call them out but the example I have is this specific person basically going on long rants about deities and angels and demons (working with them in the guise of teaching) and then in the same breath they tell us they’ve had extensive trauma to cause extreme mental illnesses.
I’m not saying you can’t be super mentally I’ll and do witchcraft (cause fuuuck I’d be out of luck) but the way they say things makes it seem like it’s a mental illness fueled psychosis and people take it as truth. I used to believe everything they said too about deities and whatnot but I don’t remember what they said that made me go ‘oh you’re actually just crazy’ but the psychosis is real…
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Lucky me, I found a really great Witch on TikTok right away (Frankie Castanea aka Chaotic Witch Aunt, not sponsored lol). She’s really simple and explained everything in a good way, nothing crazy, she’s really someone who practices the right kind of magic and shares it with others.
But I know what you mena, I found a couple of crazy ones, too. One said that you don’t need the COVID vaccine because you are a witch and can protect and heal yourself, which is not only not 100% true but definitely dangerous misinformation. So finding good, honest witches on the internet can be hard, especially since it has become such a trend to practicemagic and now all the scammers come through even more.
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I don’t think all witchtok videos are intended for beginners and I believe it should be down to the individual witch and their own intiution to know what they should attempt and what is too advanced.
Personally, I believe that the only way to learn is through research then safe experimentation. Most creators that I have come across on witchtok tend to be well researched and therefore I believe that the majority of spells/magick are safe (but this isn’t advice to be followed blindly – I always cross reference the magick I intend to do.) However, I do believe that some spells can’t be rushed into as a beginner e.g. cursing and love.
It is a really interesting thought though – I hadn’t really thought of it before. Blessed be 🙂
