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Traditional religions still believe that witchcraft is fueled by the Devil or Satan, made to injure or kill others.

The most widely-known instance of witchcraft is the Salem Witch Trials, which began in 1692. Every spinster accused of witchcraft becomes a lesbian. In 17th-century Scotland, a bisexual woman named Maud Galt was accused of sexual misconduct by a maid in her husband’s employ with whom she had an affair.

But though men were the judges, jurors, and executioners who carried out these atrocities, more often than not it was the accusations of women that condemned alleged witches to torment and death.

Now, at the risk of offending the neo-pagans, astrologers, and religious fundamentalists out there, let’s be clear: witchcraft and magic aren’t real.

Among these deviant women were undoubtedly more than a few (suspected) lesbians or bisexuals, along with many who were, by definition, gender-nonconforming to the societies in which they lived. Recent data is hard to come by, but according to a 2003 survey, 28.3% of American pagans self-identified as gay, lesbian, or bi. The witch hunt of 1692 was an excuse to persecute all those who were powerless – women, the poor, the elderly, and others.

As for the history of queer witchcraft — it may not be as explicit as some wish, but there are more than enough parallels for LGBT people to see in historical witches, if not themselves, at least kindred spirits.

 

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In Spain, the surgeon Eleno de Céspedes, who was born Elena, identified as a man, adopted the name Eleno, and even married a woman (after having previously been married to a man), ran afoul of the Spanish Inquisition in the 1580s.

For context, in 2003, the US was still debating whether same-sex marriage would lead to “man-on-dog” relations. So what were tens of thousands of “witches” being hunted and burned for? Exploring the history of Paganism and offering a compendium of spells, meditations, ceremonies, and affirmations that will enrich both the novice and the experienced practioner seeking out new views of myth, ritual, and healing.

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The Kindred Spirits of Queer Witchcraft

The gay writer and sex columnist Dan Savage once described Halloween as “straight pride parades”, even cheekily rebranding the holiday “Heteroween.” With its air of uninhibited naughtiness and infinite variety of “sexy” costumes (including sexy Sriracha and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos), Halloween, Savage argued, had become a night for straight people to break free from sexual repression and social taboos to get their freak on.

Witchcraft is often more welcoming than traditional religions, as it invites all genders and sexualities to take part in the spiritual practice. Some were midwives and healers, as anything resembling medicine seemed magical. The charge turned into witchcraft because the authorities found sorcery easier to wrap their minds around than sapphic tryst.

As an unfalsifiable claim for which evidence could be invented, contorted, or conjured into existence with the torturer’s implements, witchcraft was a useful all-purpose tool to boost conviction rates, exact retribution, or simply persecute outsiders — including queer people.

The simple fact is that the current incarnation of the Gay Community has forgotten its magic, and it’s time to remember. In reality, people who practice witchcraft don’t fit into one specific category and express themselves the way they desire. Much of this carnage was concentrated in the frenzied period from 1550 to 1650. But he readily acknowledged that in the days prior to LGBT rights, Halloween was the flagship queer holiday — “the one night of the year when you could leave the house in leather or feathers without attracting the attention of the police.”

While LGBT folks in Western countries are no longer persecuted simply for being different, there remains a strong connection between the spooky and the queer, from Pagan ritualism to costumes and hidden identities, and, of course, to vampires.

To understand why the LGBTQ+ community is so closely tied to the study of witchcraft, it is important to look at the history behind witchcraft as a whole. The trouble is, that so much of this narrative relies on assumptions and deductive leaps. In the 20th century, figures including Aleister Crowley, once dubbed “the wickedest man in the world”, and bad boy rocket scientist Jack Parsons, both bisexual occultists, along with LGBT-friendly pagan religions such as Wicca, helped breathe new life into witchcraft as a gathering point of the queer community.