Season Of The Witch

In an age where wellness has become a buzzing global industry worth $5 trillion, where the verb “manifesting” has entered polite usage and where even Silicon Valley start-ups turn to psychics and mediums (in one case, to exorcise malfunctioning hardware... seriously), there’s a new movement towards the occult – one that puts feminism at the forefront.

- Anna Christensen

Scroll through Instagram and you’ll find images of artfully arranged crystals and tarot cards. Take a sip of your morning juice and chances are it’s been infused with herbs that are claimed to have healing powers. But is witchcraft merely the velvet choker of the spiritual world – an offshoot of ’90s nostalgia enjoying a resurgence thanks to a generation raised on Charmed, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and The Craft? Or is the witch – a woman who was historically oppressed for her knowledge and power – a powerful feminist reclamation?

In their most recent release “A Report On Doubt”, trend forecasters K-Hole (who also coined the term normcore) put the rise of “occult technologies” and “magical thinking” down to our attempts to wield control in an uncertain world. “It’s not a tool for changing others – it’s a tool for changing yourself.” To Tiana Wallace, former fashion stylist and owner of “conscious concept” store Coven in Mullumbimby, NSW, it represents something bigger. “This movement is all about the feminine consciousness – you can call it witchcraft, the divine feminine or goddess energy – but there’s this big shift, this big momentum,” she says. “If you think about the patriarchy as a stage in the history of the earth like the ice age, it’s kind of like the glaciers melting.”