Resistance Magic in 2025: Hexing, Healing & World Building

Resistance magic in 2025 - how are magical practioners meeting the moment? The question emerged as I considered submitting something for the Anthropology Association of America’s conference coming up this week.

After talking to many magicians and witches, and researching online and reflecting back on how things have changed since 2017 (remember the ‘viral hex’ then?), and how they’ve shifted as protests have become more vocal (No Kings), and even how witches responded to the ‘Etsy witch hex’ preceding Charlie Kirk’s murder, I have come to some conclusions.

In general, I consider the broader cultural movement of activism and resistance has been reflected in the types of magic employed including: Healing (community, support, self-care); Hexing (protection, resistance, rebellion); World building (empowerment, activism).  I categorized ‘resistance magic’ in three areas:

Civic Magic:

-Magical activism (protection magic including hexing, rituals to empower beneficial groups, increasing visibility, divination for best timing and options);

-Healing and self-care

-Creating and supporting magical community

Teaching / Leading: sharing magical practices, philosophy, rituals, spells, opinion pieces, defending or explaining practices.

Shaping: creating the future magically & energetically. World building.

Considering that my ideas were pointed toward anthropologists, not magicians, I have summarized a definition of magic: A way to view and interact with the world, different from other modes such as ‘scientific’ (seeking cause & effect), ‘religious’ (reliance on structures, faith based), or ‘artistic’ (working with performative & aesthetic connections) (*Ramsey Dukes is an influence here!). Magical thought & action focuses on subtle and metaphysical connection between the inner and outer world, the personal self to the social whole.

Some interviews:

KRISTEN (New Orleans) –Kristen’s working of healing and protection was shared hours after the attack. Her heartfelt invocation to the four natural Elements is shared in part, for: Water: “You, water, are needed most of all.May gentle rains wash away the remnants of this horror. May it purify the hearts of the victims and their families, cleansing the pain of loss. We empower and strengthen the Water in the blood of victims to carry the medicines and energy to heal their wounds. As the Mississippi flows strong and powerful through New Orleans, may it carry away all that is negative within us and our community, thereby protecting us from future losses.”

SATURNIN (Atlanta) - Teaching magical philosophy and techniques emphasizing the use of semiurgy (magic employing signifiers) and ‘realmagie’: magic and politics employed by cults, totalitarian & oppressive regimes, on their efficacy and how to counter them. Tactics cross from psychological to magical when a figure (god, person, group) is ‘created’ to carry out the will of the magician to unmoor a culture from its existing ‘reality’ through the conscious manipulation of intersubjective content. Teaching this aids discernment and empowerment

ANYXA (NYC) – Magician fostering local magical community and networks, emphasizing in-person exchanges and magical experimentation with world building, resource sharing, and creating a local magical ecology and network supporting self-expression. Civic magic: engaging in activism and casting visibility for resistance efforts; hexing; sharing self-care practices.

THEj – International group creating magical philosophy and techniques to increase personal sovereignty by combating

consumerism and stasis. This year they have performed a group destruction ritual to remove stagnant and oppressive forces. Their methods are Teaching and Leading each other through the application of philosophy and Shaping the preferable world they’d like to see by articulating the problem and magically articulating it. The Sigil is a manifestation of their work.

Others:

STARHAWK – The OG!! - Starhawk introduced generations of witches to magic (The Spiral Dance, 1979), and she continues to lead and teach. In 2024 she launched “The Movement We Need”, an experiment in building regenerative movements. She is a pioneer in civic magic, teaching others how to apply their magic to movements, community building. She applies shaping magic to create, with others, a new world. Quote - “..magic is also important for building community and finding a group who can support us... and help encourage us to take the actions we can take, and do what we can do to create a world of greater justice, balance, and regeneration.”

MAGIC WITHOUT BORDERS – The group: International organization of mages and spirits protecting those in danger of harm, exploitation, or oppression caused by the forces of authoritarianism, bigotry, and colonialism. Sigil magic is organized in military style missions to be executed by solo ‘enlisted’ practioners.

Significant Key moments of 2025 and takeaways:

NO KINGS – Witches, covens, and magicians supported the marches on the front lines or with their magic.

JEZEBEL ARTICLE & THE FALLOUT – discussion on ‘hexing’ emerged, and many articulated what hexing was and wasn’t, and discussed the ethics of it. Some pulled quotes I found summarizing particular sentiments well:

·        SteshaOnline: “Hexing) has always been about resistance, protection, and community care; marginalized people did not have other forms of justice”; “Witchcraft is and always has been political”

·       Amanda Yates Garcia: “Peace isn’t more important than justice”; “I want to focus on empowering, rejuvenating and inspiring my community”

Conclusion:

The toolkit of resistance and revolution magic include: teaching, leading, engaging in civic magic, and experimenting with magic that focuses on creating a future not just for the individual, but for the broader culture (shaping magic).  The ethical consideration of employing magic on or for others is a complex question, touching on rights of sovereignty and personal will.  However, the idea of inventing a new future is inherently a magical one, and magic users are experimenting with how they may have a hand in crafting the future following their own internal guidance on what is appropriate and looking to old and new teachers for philosophical and magical guidance.