Famed feminist website Jezebel paid witches on Etsy to curse Charlie Kirk — 2 days before he was assassinated

[Niels]

Why pay for Etsy witches when Temu witches are cheaper?

But seriously, Charlie Kirk was killed by a criminal. Not by a coven.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

.... that's an interesting esoteric résumé, Tropical Wilds.

I enjoy learning and hyper-fixate. I started on a rabbithole that originated with WWII (one of the other 3.5 subjects I know a shocking amount on) and the role of occult mythology used as justifications and potential "power sources" by the German government and then wandered off on other topics, as one does.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

Why pay for Etsy witches when Temu witches are cheaper?

But seriously, Charlie Kirk was killed by a criminal. Not by a coven.

Temu witches don't have the turnaround time an Etsy witch does. She promises same-day service on her listing. Try to get anything from Temu delivered same-day.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I enjoy learning and hyper-fixate. I started on a rabbithole that originated with WWII (one of the other 3.5 subjects I know a shocking amount on) and the role of occult mythology used as justifications and potential "power sources" by the German government and then wandered off on other topics, as one does.

While my knowledge of Nazi cultural lore isn't shocking, it is a topic I've doused my ankles in from time to time and I have several books that inform my particular niche access to that topic, minus the esoteric part of it. Wicca or witchcraft, on the other hand, is a general field of interest that I'll admit I have very little knowledge of. I have seen a few 'witch' flix over the past few decades, and I'm sure you could tell me where they each go wrong in their depictions.

As for learning and fixating in general, it sounds like we have that in common. I can respect that.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

If you want to expound on your knowledge about the subject do so. But leave me out of the discussion and stop inferring. Running a site on witchcraft doesn’t make you an expert. It demonstrates the depth of your depravity and a questionable moral compass and I’m glad you’ve found your way out of it.

Well, no, it doesn't.... But all the other stuff does, and it shows that I'm widely accepted as one by all major publishing houses of the genre and the general community as one as well. Being invited to join by the former site owner shows that, at least for awhile, the leadership here acknowledged it too. So...

I have never led a group, site, or taken vows. There are lines I‘ve never crossed and never will. I don‘t care what you know on the subject. All of it comes from the pit of hell.

~bella

It actually came from an Invision Forum. Thanks to the hybredized BB Code, HTML, and PHP that they used back in the day, wasn't exactly the pit of hell but I imagine it was probably on the same bus route.

 

[RileyG]

I enjoy learning and hyper-fixate.

Sounds like we have something in common

 

[RileyG]

Because from 2001-2010 I ran the largest Wiccan/witchcraft website & forum on the internet, as a result was invited to join here in 2003? Or 2007? by Erwin (the original owner of the forums) to haunt the old Non-Christian sections, spoke or taught at over 400 engagements through 2010, another 240ish through 2020, helped co-write 21 books through 2020 (with a break from 2010-2017), wrote 11 books through 2025 (same break as above) under my pen name with 2 more in development, did moonlighting as a fact checker for witchcraft books from 2010 to 2017, had the top blog on the subject on Bravenet until it closed, the top website on the subject on Geocities until it closed, currently own the largest private collection of Tarot cards in the region which has been photographed and used to reconstruct information deemed “lost” in older niche decks, travel to Salem for business and pleasure at least twice a month (except during the busy season), and was basically the first witchy influencer in early social media, before stepping back to explore theology as a whole after I met and fell in love with my devoutly conservative Christian husband in 2008 then having a baby in 2010.

There are 3.5 subjects I’m ridiculously over-informed on, and this is one of the three.

If it’s ok to ask, when did you become a Christian or were you always one?

 

[Tropical Wilds]

While my knowledge of Nazi cultural lore isn't shocking, it is a topic I've doused my ankles in from time to time and I have several books that inform my particular niche access to that topic, minus the esoteric part of it.

The fascination of all things occult, esoteric, and supernatural from the high-ranking Nazis was actually super interesting because for a regime that was so knowledge driven, so regimented, so orderly, so attentive to perfection through logic and purity, they were heckin' obsessed with exploring every avenue of domination, which included a truly deep, deep dive into the occult. The rationale varies from "in all things we dominate, including that realm, which we will bend to our will" and Homer Simpson's prayer: "I'm not a praying man, but Jesus, Allah, Buddha, and Superman, if you're up there and you can hear me..."

If it's your jam, you should check it out. The juxtaposition of the rational logic with the crippling superstitiousness is a journey through the backend of what made the Nazi party so dangerously, unpredictably erratic, in a way not seen with, say, the Russians and the Japanese, who had layers of predictability given their sense of country over all (Russians) and Nationalistic traditions of honor and religion (Japan).

Wicca or witchcraft, on the other hand, is a general field of interest that I'll admit I have very little knowledge of. I have seen a few 'witch' flix over the past few decades, and I'm sure you could tell me where they each go wrong in their depictions.

I could, but I suspect I'd land in trouble. I'll just say that what this lady did is popular culture/Instagram witchcraft and the listing on Etsy seems very "here's my baloney pedigree of made up things that sound good to the general public... Give me your money." I maintain judging by the price, reviews, and listing, she took a picture, set a witchy stage using the picture, sent it, and called it a day, collecting $1.25 (after fees) for the trouble.

As for learning and fixating in general, it sounds like we have that in common. I can respect that.

Why doom scroll fearing for disasters when you can doom historical facts and scientific research and see disasters repeat themselves over hundreds of years?

 

[2PhiloVoid]

The fascination of all things occult, esoteric, and supernatural from the high-ranking Nazis was actually super interesting because for a regime that was so knowledge driven, so regimented, so orderly, so attentive to perfection through logic and purity, they were heckin' obsessed with exploring every avenue of domination, which included a truly deep, deep dive into the occult. The rationale varies from "in all things we dominate, including that realm, which we will bend to our will" and Homer Simpson's prayer: "I'm not a praying man, but Jesus, Allah, Buddha, and Superman, if you're up there and you can hear me..."

If it's your jam, you should check it out. The juxtaposition of the rational logic with the crippling superstitiousness is a journey through the backend of what made the Nazi party so dangerously, unpredictably erratic, in a way not seen with, say, the Russians and the Japanese, who had layers of predictability given their sense of country over all (Russians) and Nationalistic traditions of honor and religion (Japan).

It's not in fact my jam, but the archaeologist and historian in me makes it enticing. Should I resist my philosophical desire to "know more....."

Hmmmmm..................

I could, but I suspect I'd land in trouble. I'll just say that what this lady did is popular culture/Instagram witchcraft and the listing on Etsy seems very "here's my baloney pedigree of made up things that sound good to the general public... Give me your money." I maintain judging by the price, reviews, and listing, she took a picture, set a witchy stage using the picture, sent it, and called it a day, collecting $1.25 (after fees) for the trouble.

That's interesting. We can just end that line of discussion there then.

Why doom scroll fearing for disasters when you can doom historical facts and scientific research and see disasters repeat themselves over hundreds of years?

Exactly! I'm all about historical facts and scientific research, especially if one can learn to avoid certain outcomes.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

If it’s ok to ask, when did you become a Christian or were you always one?

I was raised Catholic by my Mom, who's a moderate Catholic with heavy influence on the folk aspects of Catholicism/Christianity. Mostly old-world German and a lot of Appalachian-influenced beliefs. Heavy doses of superstition, Catholicism, and Biblical influences. I was involved in our local Catholic shrine and church, lead the Christmastime candlelight service from, I think... 1995? 1996? Through 1999. Followed that consistently, but then after a bunch of diaries from my family turned up, I had a lot of questions about my family heritage, which lead me down a deep, deep, deep multi-year rabbit hole which began with overall folk Christianity, then expanded to the old world, then just kept going as I saw the overlaps, growth, and morphing of both religions. Wandered back to researching about the differences between Louisiana-style folk Catholicism and old European folk Christianity, which lead me to the other mentioned forum, which I joined to interview people for a paper I was writing for college. While there, the forum was getting nonstop hacked by hackers and constantly taken offline, so I worked with the owner to plug the hole because I had a decent working knowledge of HTML. In the process, we found out the hacks were coming from the private company hosting the forum, which really, really bothered me. By then it was, like, 2003? 2004? Who does that in 2004? The forum owner at the time couldn't afford to buy a new place to host and run the website, but I could, so she sold it to me and I took over.

It was only a forum with no information, and not a website, and the same questions were being asked over and over and over again, and I couldn't be sure the information being repeated was accurate so I worked to develop the resource center with another 3 people, which was basically like what we'd think of as a Substack now. Because I owned the site and didn't want to spread incorrect information from people who volunteered on the forum, I went hardcore researching and basically became an expert in the area, meeting all sorts of people, reading all sorts of books, consuming all sorts of research. It was way easier back then because, at the time, there were only a handful of authors in the genre so I could keep up with both all the content put out in the genre, but also research from other sources that were more fact-based historical, less religion/tradition-based speculation. Developing that led to everything else.

The whole time I still went to church, still did the Catholic thing, though I wandered off into more non-denominational around 2005ish. I was frequently confused as Wiccan, which I wasn't, or a "Christian Witch," which sometimes I corrected and other times I didn't because explaining all the above EVERY time I needed to correct somebody wasn't realistic. I understood what they were saying, so even if they got the label wrong, I knew the intent behind what they were saying... A person who knows a lot about the topic and can speak about it knowledgably. That's what people were looking for at the time, especially in the non-Christian forum, which is where I landed a lot (at Erwin's invite).

After I divorced my first husband, I met my now-husband who was a super, hardline, far right, deeply conservative Christian who understood my faith as a non-denominational Christian, but also my interest in researching all things in that witchy field... But even then, he didn't want to be in a house with it, didn't feel comfortable with the books, the decks, the work, so (for him) I shelved it all, put a lot in storage, and pivoted to more mainline theology explorations, specifically on Islam, Shintoism, and tribal faiths of Asia, then back to Christianity.

Throughout that journey, never waivered in accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior or my belief in his death and resurrection. I also have always accepted Bible as God’s Word committed to following Christ through the church. I've hopped from Catholic to Methodist to non-Denom, back to Methodist, back to non-Denom as I needed to given I live in a ruralish area and I don't have a ton of choices, but the overall belief structure hasn't waivered.

My husband, on the other hand... LOL

 

[Tropical Wilds]

It's not in fact my jam, but the archaeologist and historian in me makes it enticing. Should I resist my philosophical desire to "know more....."

Hmmmmm..................

View attachment 370238

Funny thing is I didn't actually see Indiana Jones (besides Last Crusade and that awful one with the guy from Transformers) until like 5 years ago. It was one of those things that I just missed it, somehow. I was too young to see it when it came out, so it kind of just drifted out of my orbit until my husband's flabber was ghasted that I hadn't seen it. We watched it together and I had NO IDEA that is what it was about. I ended up dropping facts all through our viewing like it was Pop-Up Video from the 90s. My husband was like "JUST WATCH THE MOVIE."

He does it to me during LOTR, so whatever.

Did you know when Viggo Mortenson kicked the orc helmet in LOTR:TT he actually broke 2 toes?

 

[RileyG]

I was raised Catholic by my Mom, who's a moderate Catholic with heavy influence on the folk aspects of Catholicism/Christianity. Mostly old-world German and a lot of Appalachian-influenced beliefs. Heavy doses of superstition, Catholicism, and Biblical influences. I was involved in our local Catholic shrine and church, lead the Christmastime candlelight service from, I think... 1995? 1996? Through 1999. Followed that consistently, but then after a bunch of diaries from my family turned up, I had a lot of questions about my family heritage, which lead me down a deep, deep, deep multi-year rabbit hole which began with overall folk Christianity, then expanded to the old world, then just kept going as I saw the overlaps, growth, and morphing of both religions. Wandered back to researching about the differences between Louisiana-style folk Catholicism and old European folk Christianity, which lead me to the other mentioned forum, which I joined to interview people for a paper I was writing for college. While there, the forum was getting nonstop hacked by hackers and constantly taken offline, so I worked with the owner to plug the hole because I had a decent working knowledge of HTML. In the process, we found out the hacks were coming from the private company hosting the forum, which really, really bothered me. By then it was, like, 2003? 2004? Who does that in 2004? The forum owner at the time couldn't afford to buy a new place to host and run the website, but I could, so she sold it to me and I took over.

It was only a forum with no information, and not a website, and the same questions were being asked over and over and over again, and I couldn't be sure the information being repeated was accurate so I worked to develop the resource center with another 3 people, which was basically like what we'd think of as a Substack now. Because I owned the site and didn't want to spread incorrect information from people who volunteered on the forum, I went hardcore researching and basically became an expert in the area, meeting all sorts of people, reading all sorts of books, consuming all sorts of research. It was way easier back then because, at the time, there were only a handful of authors in the genre so I could keep up with both all the content put out in the genre, but also research from other sources that were more fact-based historical, less religion/tradition-based speculation. Developing that led to everything else.

The whole time I still went to church, still did the Catholic thing, though I wandered off into more non-denominational around 2005ish. I was frequently confused as Wiccan, which I wasn't, or a "Christian Witch," which sometimes I corrected and other times I didn't because explaining all the above EVERY time I needed to correct somebody wasn't realistic. I understood what they were saying, so even if they got the label wrong, I knew the intent behind what they were saying... A person who knows a lot about the topic and can speak about it knowledgably. That's what people were looking for at the time, especially in the non-Christian forum, which is where I landed a lot (at Erwin's invite).

After I divorced my first husband, I met my now-husband who was a super, hardline, far right, deeply conservative Christian who understood my faith as a non-denominational Christian, but also my interest in researching all things in that witchy field... But even then, he didn't want to be in a house with it, didn't feel comfortable with the books, the decks, the work, so (for him) I shelved it all, put a lot in storage, and pivoted to more mainline theology explorations, specifically on Islam, Shintoism, and tribal faiths of Asia, then back to Christianity.

Throughout that journey, never waivered in accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior or my belief in his death and resurrection. I also have always accepted Bible as God’s Word committed to following Christ through the church. I've hopped from Catholic to Methodist to non-Denom, back to Methodist, back to non-Denom as I needed to given I live in a ruralish area and I don't have a ton of choices, but the overall belief structure hasn't waivered.

My husband, on the other hand... LOL

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

Peace

 

[RileyG]

Funny thing is I didn't actually see Indiana Jones (besides Last Crusade and that awful one with the guy from Transformers) until like 5 years ago. It was one of those things that I just missed it, somehow. I was too young to see it when it came out, so it kind of just drifted out of my orbit until my husband's flabber was ghasted that I hadn't seen it. We watched it together and I had NO IDEA that is what it was about. I ended up dropping facts all through our viewing like it was Pop-Up Video from the 90s. My husband was like "JUST WATCH THE MOVIE."

He does it to me during LOTR, so whatever.

Did you know when Viggo Mortenson kicked the orc helmet in LOTR:TT he actually broke 2 toes?

Send all the Indiana Jones movies, and only the first LOTR.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

Send all the Indiana Jones movies, and only the first LOTR.

I've seen them all now, and I actually liked all three of the LOTR movies. The Hobbit was whatever. It wasn't awful but it wasn't great. The new show I can't do, though.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Funny thing is I didn't actually see Indiana Jones (besides Last Crusade and that awful one with the guy from Transformers) until like 5 years ago. It was one of those things that I just missed it, somehow. I was too young to see it when it came out, so it kind of just drifted out of my orbit until my husband's flabber was ghasted that I hadn't seen it. We watched it together and I had NO IDEA that is what it was about. I ended up dropping facts all through our viewing like it was Pop-Up Video from the 90s. My husband was like "JUST WATCH THE MOVIE."

He does it to me during LOTR, so whatever.

Did you know when Viggo Mortenson kicked the orc helmet in LOTR:TT he actually broke 2 toes?

No, I didn't realize that Mortenson had a run in with an orc helmet. Lol! That's good to know, though!

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Funny thing is I didn't actually see Indiana Jones (besides Last Crusade and that awful one with the guy from Transformers) until like 5 years ago. It was one of those things that I just missed it, somehow. I was too young to see it when it came out, so it kind of just drifted out of my orbit until my husband's flabber was ghasted that I hadn't seen it. We watched it together and I had NO IDEA that is what it was about. I ended up dropping facts all through our viewing like it was Pop-Up Video from the 90s. My husband was like "JUST WATCH THE MOVIE."

Due to my age, I saw all of the Indiana Jones movies in the theater. Obviously, the 1st and 3rd [and 5th, I guess] ones played into my early but still superficial interest in Nazi cultural lore. My "jam" is found in the nexus where philosophy and social science meet (i.e. sociology, history, psychology, neuroscience, epistemology), all of which then feeds into my desire to understand other people's viewpoints.

So, I'm with your husband in expressing my initial gasp that you hadn't seen these classic movies. But if you're younger, I understand why.

He does it to me during LOTR, so whatever.

Your husband sounds like my kind of guy!

Did you know when Viggo Mortenson kicked the orc helmet in LOTR:TT he actually broke 2 toes?

 

[Tropical Wilds]

Due to my age, I saw all of the Indiana Jones movies in the theater. Obviously, the 1st and 3rd [and 5th, I guess] ones played into my early but still superficial interest in Nazi cultural lore. My "jam" is found in the nexus where philosophy and social science meet (i.e. sociology, history, psychology, neuroscience, epistemology), all of which then feeds into my desire to understand other people's viewpoints.

So, I'm with your husband in expressing my initial gasp that you hadn't seen these classic movies. But if you're younger, I understand why.

I'm in my mid 40's, so it came out when I was too young to see but it had largely faded from the forefront when I started watching movies. It just fell through the gaps, like Jaws and Towering Inferno and James Bond. I had to circle back to get them, but for some reason I never did Indiana. Which is super weird because I did see IJ:TLC when it came out (thanks to a promo from McDonalds).

Your husband sounds like my kind of guy!

He's Ok. I guess I'll keep him.

 

[The Barbarian]

No, I didn't realize that Mortenson had a run in with an orc helmet. Lol! That's good to know, though!

You know the fight where an orc threw a weapon at him, and he batted it away with his sword? That wasn't scripted. Someone messed up and he just stayed in character. Apparently, he became a pretty good swordsman training for the film.

 

[bèlla]

Well, no, it doesn't.... But all the other stuff does, and it shows that I'm widely accepted as one by all major publishing houses of the genre and the general community as one as well. Being invited to join by the former site owner shows that, at least for awhile, the leadership here acknowledged it too. So...

None of which means anything to me personally. Sin is a reminder of our weaknesses and not a flex. Publishing books on witchcraft is an unfortunate reminder of the lives you’ll impact due to your waywardness. I wouldn’t be proud of that and it’s genuinely strange to hear someone speak like this. Most people who‘ve walked similar roads don’t glory in their accolades. They give more attention to its rejection and change of heart. Perhaps others may find it remarkable but to my ear it sounds you need deliverance. To each his own.

~bella

 

[Tropical Wilds]

You know the fight where an orc threw a weapon at him, and he batted it away with his sword? That wasn't scripted. Someone messed up and he just stayed in character. Apparently, he became a pretty good swordsman training for the film.

Such a good scene. I have a friend who was a local near where they filmed some of the early stuff and very end scenes. They said Viggo was a crazy nice but super eccentric. Some shoots finished late and his callback would be for early the next morning, so he'd just stay up all night and go fishing. Apparently it wasn't at all uncommon to see him in full regalia just fly fishing in the middle of the night, then he'd wander into a coffee place in full regalia, use the restroom, get a drink, and then would be off again.