Why does “being a witch” mean so many different things—and why is it everywhere right now?
Whether it’s tarot decks at Target or magic spells on TikTok, contemporary witchcraft is everywhere, and there’s a good chance you’ve got people in your life who call themselves witches.
But what exactly does that mean, and why does the witch seem to be more popular than ever?
In this lecture, religious studies scholar and author Thorn Mooney describes four modes through which contemporary witches understand and articulate their traditions: as religion, as spirituality, as practice, and as identity. These modes intertwine and overlap to give rise to a rhizomatic movement that challenges many of the assumptions we have about the boundaries of “religion” today. We’ll also consider how witchcraft exemplifies wider patterns documented by scholars: the rise of individual, personal spirituality as an alternative to “organized” movements, the increasing emphasis on marginalized voices in religion (especially queer voices), and the long-touted assertion that people turn to magic in times of crisis and upheaval.
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Your Instructor
Thorn Mooney
Thorn Mooney is completing her PhD in Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Her research considers the messy cultural and political boundaries around religion, science, and the secular, which leads her to spend a lot of time with communities that tend to exist on the margins: paranormal investigators, contemporary witches and magicians, the spiritual but not religious, and the rapidly growing landscape of new religious movements.
Prior to pursuing her PhD, Thorn worked as a Title I English teacher and literacy tutor. Her experience in a wide variety of classrooms has made her a flexible, dynamic teacher with a passion for public scholarship. She is the author of Witches Among Us: Understanding Contemporary Witchcraft and Wicca.
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