Welcome to the season of the witch – and it’s not just for Halloween

Sign up for the Independent Women email for the latest news, opinion and features Get the Independent Women email for free Get the Independent Women email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “We didn’t consider ourselves real witches, but we used the moniker because of what it represented: a powerful woman,” said author Robin Morgan, one of the protest organisers, noting that the acronym – which stood for “Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy From Hell” – probably wouldn’t go over so well today. Witches are influencers who use the hashtag #witchesofinstagram to share horoscopes, spells and witchy memes, and they are anti-Trump resistance activists carrying signs that say “Hex the Patriarchy” and “We are the granddaughters of the witches you weren’t able to burn.” Witches are panellists, they are podcasters, they are members of The Wing, they are in-house residents at swanky Manhattan hotels, and some might say that one is even a presidential candidate, Marianne Williamson.. “I think everyone probably is the son or the daughter of a witch,” said Augusten Burroughs, the best-selling memoirist, whose new book, Toil & Trouble, tells the story of his own witchy coming out. It is the moment somehow for witches to come out – in all their vibrant diversity.” I was brought up practising witchcraft – my mother was a witch – and even though it does have a lineage in my family, even recently, you couldn’t really say you were a witch Yates Garcia Indeed, this autumn, at least a dozen new witch books have or will hit the market – so many that Publishers Weekly has declared it “season of the witch”. “It’s giving them autonomy.” And, of course, witches have long been linked to women’s issues, which are front and centre in the present political moment “I often say, show me your witches and I’ll show you your feelings about women,” said Pam Grossman, author of Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Power and Magic and host of the Witch Wave podcast.