In the news
Woo woo
in the wild.
Tarot in the Washington Post. Witches on the Wall Street Journal’s podcast. Astrology apps with venture backing. Every sighting of the spiritual world out in the mainstream, collected here — the Etsy witches, the rise of tarot, and a practice that has left the margins. 21 sightings so far.
For most of the last century this world lived in the back of the newspaper, somewhere between the crossword and the horoscope. It doesn’t anymore. Tarot decks sell in mainstream bookshops, astrology apps raise venture rounds, and when Etsy started closing its witches’ shops, it was national news. Spirituality outside the institutions is one of the quiet cultural shifts of the decade, and this is where it is being written down.
The reporting, the surveys and the stories, from the outlets that finally showed up to cover it. New pieces are added as they land — if you have seen one we have missed, send it to support@divinaapp.com.
The Etsy witches
The year the whole internet found out you could buy a spell — and the year the shops that sold them started vanishing.
- There's a spell for that: Why 2025 was the year of the Etsy witchNBC on the year buying a spell online became a normal thing to do, told through the sellers who made it one.
- Want to get rid of a toxic ex? Or curse someone? Hire an Etsy witch.The Washington Post on Etsy witches and TikTok, written in the summer of 2025 when the trend was at its height.
- The Witch Economy Is BoomingThe Wall Street Journal's daily podcast spends twenty minutes on online witches, with a spell buyer and a practising witch both on the show.
- Etsy Witches Say Spell Casting Is No Longer Welcome on the PlatformEtsy sellers on the takedowns, in their own words, including shops that had been open for years.
- “It's a literal witch hunt”: Are Etsy witches being removed from the platform?Where the phrase “a literal witch hunt” came from: sellers describing an old rule being enforced without warning.
- The Etsy Witch Trend That Took Over TikTokAir Mail on the summer the Etsy witch became a cultural moment, not just a shopping habit.
- Etsy witchesA running timeline of the Etsy witch story, with links out to most of the coverage on this page.
When Etsy and eBay first banned spells
This is not the first time. eBay closed the door in 2012, Etsy in 2015, and the craft carried on regardless.
- eBay Bans Supernatural Goods And ServiceseBay closes the whole category in 2012, three years before Etsy did the same.
- Etsy Explains Why It Banned Magic SpellsEtsy's own explanation, at the time, of why it banned the sale of spells.
- Etsy bans the sale of spells, and some are unhappyHow the 2015 ban looked from outside the craft, the week it happened.
- Witches are furious at Etsy for banning the sale of spellsHow sellers reacted in 2015 — the same things they would find themselves saying again in 2026.
The rules, as the platforms wrote them
The fine print, for anyone who has ever been told “it's against policy” and wanted to see the policy.
- Etsy's Services policyThe Etsy rule itself. It names reiki, distance healing, spellcasting, prayers and rituals, and allows a tarot or psychic reading only when something tangible comes with it.
- Prohibited services on FiverrFiverr's list of what it will not host — the same line, drawn by the other big services marketplace.
The rise of tarot
The numbers behind the headlines — who consults, who practises, and how a generation raised without a church found its way to the cards.
- 3 in 10 Americans consult astrology, tarot cards or fortune tellersPew's survey on how many Americans consult astrology, tarot or a fortune teller each year, and who they are.
- Religious Landscape Study: religious identityPew's big study of American religion, including how many people now describe theirs as “nothing in particular”.
- Tarot booms as Generation Z sorts out spiritual pathReligion News Service on why a whole generation picked up the cards, reported from inside the practice.
- Study: Gen Z doubles down on spirituality, combining tarot and traditional faithA Springtide Research study on young people keeping tarot alongside the faith they grew up in, rather than instead of it.
Out in the open
Astrology apps with investors, WitchTok with an audience, and a practice that no longer has to whisper.
- How witchcraft became a multi-billion dollar industryBig Think on how witchcraft walked in from the margins and onto the shelves of every big bookshop.
- Astrology app Co-Star raises $15 million in new fundingCo-Star, the astrology app, raising a Series A — Axios on the investors and the download numbers behind it.
- Co-Star raises $5 million to bring its astrology app to AndroidCo-Star's earlier round, from 2019, for anyone tracing how long astrology has been taken seriously as a product.
- How modern witches are enchanting TikTokAn academic look at WitchTok — who is there, what they are actually doing, and why it caught on.
Every link above was last opened on September 7, 2026. Articles move and sometimes disappear — if one has, tell us at support@divinaapp.com and it gets fixed.
This is the world Divina was built for. To commission a reading, a ritual or a blessing, find a practitioner. If you practise, Divina is the home the craft never had online — start at practising on Divina. And if you lost a reader when the Etsy shops closed, where the Etsy witches went picks up the story.