And why it's good for faith, spirituality, and yes, society.
Christian Witch Informational Book Progress:
Proposal written
Introduction written
First two chapters in progress
There's a scene on Tiktok that, for quite a few Christians, has long been a cause for concern: WitchTok. With 37.9 billion views, #witchtok is a sizeable community full of creators and users alike sharing their experiences, spells, spiritual journeys, and more. It surpasses the #christiantiktok hashtag, which has 31.4 billion views—and is steadily growing.
The word "witch" alone makes people uncomfortable—especially when so many verses of the Bible seem to condemn witchcraft. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"—Exodus 22:18—is one of the most clear and obvious condemnations of witchcraft (at least, it is if you don't know the actual Hebrew word, mekhashepah, or the cultural and historical context of it), and yet here's the sinful and misguided WitchTok, proudly and loudly shoving their rebellion in the face of all the good, God-fearing Christians out there.
(Pause here to wipe the dripping sarcasm off your screen.)
But what has the modern Church of believers even more upset—even more concerned and outraged—is a much smaller hashtag: the #christianwitch hashtag.
What the hell is it? Why are 69 million people viewing it? And who are these heretics contributing to it, twisting the minds of impressionable youths and leading people astray?
(Some of) The Minds Behind the Movement
Hi. I'm Sara Raztresen (or @srazzie97 on Tiktok). I'm a fantasy writer, Slovene-American, and one of the many content creators in the #christianwitch scene; I regularly and gladly show people how to unite the practices of what we call "witchcraft" in the modern day
I'm also writing a book with my friend Emyle D. "Mimi" Prata (or @feral_southern_housewife on Tiktok) about how people can get started on their personal journey with God through the lens of witchcraft, magic, and personal spirituality.
We're taking on this project for a simple reason: because while we love making short videos that freely disseminate information back to the people, liberating it from the institutions (like seminary schools and churches) that have long tried to cover it up and keep it out of reach of the common people, we find that there's something missing in the Christian Witch community, and that's a true one-stop-shop book to explain the path for people unsure how to start.
We believe that a relationship with God needs no middleman (though assistants, allies, and masters like Jesus, the angels, and the many Saints are wonderful guides to Him), and that the forced reliance on priests, pastors, institutions, and even the (heavily edited and altered) Bible have not helped humanity achieve the vision of Christ, but instead taken us further away from it. That the Bible itself has become not only a false idol, but a symbol of false faith. Modern Christians put so much focus on the physical, tangible Bible, the only token they have to "prove" the faith that causes them such cognitive dissonance in the modern world, that they forget how to listen to the God that they believe inspired it in the first place.
I mean, how else do you explain the worldwide mess that's occurred in Jesus's name since He died about two thousand years ago? It seems like St. Paul's famous words in Galatians 3:28 have been absolutely buried under the dozens of out-of-context verses that "Christian" institutions have used for centuries to justify some of the most heinous injustices possible.
Including slavery.
Including the systematic silencing of women, or nearly half the population of the planet, even the holy women of Scripture and the Saints themselves.
Including the erasure of all people who don't even fit into the contrived binary of "man" and "woman," or who don't love in the narrow, constricting way these institutions tell them to love.
Including genocide against Jewish people, indigenous people, even people of the same faith who interpret the Word a touch differently—including the colonization of countries across the globe and desecration of the many ways Divinity shows itself to humanity.
Christianity as an organized religion has become nothing but a mockery of the spirit of Christ. The 4th century saw a complete reversal of the subversive, radical, liberating message of Christ, with church "fathers" deciding that no, women were not equal to men after all and should not teach or preach (despite having done so for decades already, the evidence of which they decreed be destroyed)—and that no, you couldn't get your salvation any way except through Christ (and you couldn't get to Christ except through the Church and its many tithes, its mandatory attendance, its laws and oversight and tight yoke of social, political, and economic control).
Forget that many early Christians (and even later Christians) had different ideas. Forget that Christianity was never a monolith, where everyone thought the same way, or that many of these so-called "heretical" ideas of salvation being personal and inherent were backed up by Jesus Himself when He said that the Kingdom of God is already within each and every person (Luke 17:21). Forget all of that, because the Church as an institution told you to forget it, attempting to erase the evidence that contradicts them in the process. That's what they tell you to do: forget.
Well.
Christian witches have rediscovered these truths, and Christian witches have remembered. Christian witches don't let institutions motivated by money to tell them who God is or what He wants from them. Christian witches don't fear the spiritual world or the unknown; they see through the boogeymen the Church have created to herd them into the spiritual slaughterhouse, and they recognize the power God gave them as beings made in His image.
Christian witches call themselves witches because they acknowledge that the difference between miracles and magic is nothing other than divisive, wretched semantics, a trick of the ego to make one seem better or more holy than the other. They call themselves witches because they know that the title of "witch" itself is a litmus test—a way to see who truly understands the spirit of Christ by the way they respond to that which they do not understand (yet).
And I, Mimi, and so many others are here to help people reclaim their spiritual heritage. To fully embrace the magic and mysticism that help us connect to our God, and to illuminate the history, tradition, and even Scripture that justify our position. E.D. and I are writing this book with the full intent to show people how to find the spirit of God not in the places that hurt them—the churches, the schools—but within themselves, which is where it has always been. We are here to show people that respect and love for God's creation is perfectly synonymous with faith in Him, and that what we deem "witchcraft" today has always been done in God's name under so many different titles and traditions and practices.
But in the wise words of Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet, "a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet." And so to is magic by any other name still magic—whether you call it miracle or "gifts of the Spirit" or anything else. It's how we connect to God. It's how we channel His power and grace through us and into the world. It's how we come into harmony with all that is and remember our true nature as beings both fully human and fully divine.
So keep an eye out. The one-stop-shop for Christian witchcraft, the book that breaks the ice and creates a space for those disillusioned with the institutions of Christianity, that defends and legitimizes this path with proper scholarly, philosophical, and Scriptural basis, is on its way. For the deconstructionists and #exvangelical crowd that still want to love God, just not in the way the Church tells them to, or for those who just know there's more out there than what the Church is telling them, that know that the world and its many spirits are not things to fear, but things to appreciate and experience, this book is for you.
And I can't wait for you all to hold it in your hands.
Sara Raztresen is a Slovene-American writer, screenwriter, and Christian witch. Her fantasy works draw heavily on the wisdom she gathers from her own personal and spiritual experience, and her spiritual practice borrows much of the whimsy and wonder that modern society has relegated to fairy-and-folktale. Her goal is to help people regain their spiritual footing and discover God through a new (yet old) lens of mysticism.
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