The witches of Twitch: how video-sharing sites are fostering a renewed fascination with the occult

It’s 1.30 in the morning, and I’m about to watch a duel between magicians. I’m researching the representation of magic on the early modern stage, and am interested in the ways in which dangerous, forbidden or “occult” knowledge was theorised by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Interactive WitchToks are particularly popular, usually using tarot cards or pendulum boards, where a crystal is dangled over a set of words, supposedly swinging over the truth I accidentally found WitchTok because I had – to my shame, I’ll admit – found it calming to watch compilations of “Cottagecore” TikTok videos in my breaks during PhD research. Weyer’s work had a huge influence on one Englishman in particular, Reginald Scot, who borrowed from it in his own book, The Discovery of Witchcraft, first published in 1584. open image in gallery The ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ was a manual for hunting witches Scot’s The Discovery is a thrilling exposé of both the folk magic practised by witches and the “learned” magic found in grimoires, particularly those attributed to Solomon. With the debate about the ethics of Solomonic magic under way on Twitch, I hardly dare imagine Scot’s horror, much less King James’s, to hear phrases like “pro-demon rights” from a young person describing themselves as a “demonolater”, and “magic is the scientific study of conversations with spiritual beings” from a self-professed “Solomonic mage”.