The witches are gathering—in the name of magical, earth-loving candidate Bernie Sanders.
Over the weekend, a group of Wiccans in Portland held a ritual for the “amplification of positive energy of Bernie Sanders and the progressive movement,” leader Leigha Lafleur told the Los Angeles Times. However, the IRL meeting just reflects the fervor that’s been brewing online, as Facebook is full of witch groups for the presidential candidate.
Individually, Witches4Bernie, Pagans for Bernie Sanders, Magical Practitioners for Bernie Sanders, and “Pagans, Witches & Magickal people for Bernie Sanders” don’t have many members, but together they show that many witches, Wiccans, and others are devoting their powers toward the senator’s presidential campaign. Here, witches are not only sharing positive political messages (“Get out and vote!”), but sharing ways in which they can harness their powers to enact change.
And action can take many forms. Certain pages post rituals for members to participate in, such as tarot readings or spiritual invocation. Others ask individuals to direct their magical energy toward Sanders’ campaign. “This is for physical and practical magicians who do work, and less for political talk, although that is welcome, but not the focus. This group will be focused on doing work putting positive energy into his campaign,” says Magical Practitioners for Bernie Sanders, a private group with about 25 members.
“People in our group have done some work that includes keeping Bernie in Isis's throne, and some sigil work for individual state's primaries,” wrote one member on the Pagans, Witches & Magickal people for Bernie Sanders’ page. “We are also focused on protection for Bernie, strength and clarity of his message and energy, and also to amplify the message.”
“Bernie's position on global climate change is first and foremost of importance to Wiccans,” S’hauni, a practicing witch and founder of Witches4Bernie, told the Daily Dot in a message. “Wicca is an earth-based faith, and we experience our planet as the living embodiment of The Mother...Bernie is the ONLY candidate who is sincerely on the side of our home, the Planet Earth.” For her, using social media (the group is also on Twitter) is less about organizing rituals like the one in Portland, but inspiring witches to use their powers in whatever way makes sense to them. “I carry Bernie's energy with me at all times by using specific totems, with my intent to send him energy to complete his mission here.”
It seems like Sanders’ general position as an “outsider,” despite his years of serving as a U.S. senator, is enticing to witches and pagans, who similarly feel like they operate outside mainstream society. Or maybe it’s just that he can magically conjure birds.
A search on Facebook shows no groups for the searches “pagan Hillary,” “pagan Clinton,” or “Wicca Hillary,” and a search for “witch Hillary” only brings up a YouTube video accusing Hillary Clinton of being an Illuminati witch.
There is, however, a group of “Christian witches” giving their support to Trump.
