“Judaism also focuses on practices, so does Islam,” said Ann Burlein, PhD, a professor of religion at Hofstra University who teaches a course on Paganism. “This is not unique. It only seems unique if your template for religion is Protestantism.”
One reason why witchcraft may be attracting more followers is because it’s relatively easy to be a solitary practitioner today. Platforms like Youtube, TikTok, and Instagram have made it easier for beginners to find spellwork tutorials. Podcasts and blogs allow practitioners to share their experiences and expertise with a wider audience.
“The internet has served as a way for one generation of various kinds of pagans to pass information and debates and concerns and knowledge and practices on to another,” Burlein said.
Witches can also find like-minded neighbors via online groups, which is how Sobczak’s group connected.
“I was mostly solitary, just doing it by myself for a long time, until I found them,” Shafer said.
Sobczak’s group practices eclectic Wicca, where followers mix and match Wiccan traditions. Her students came together a few months ago to learn the basics of the religion. After a year and a day of studying – the traditional time period – they will be initiated into a coven.
Sobczak operates as the group’s high priestess, a role that guides members with less knowledge of the craft.
“They need to learn the tools of the altar, they need to know what the elements are, they need to know what the watchtowers are and how to call the quarters and how to draw down the moon,” Sobczak said. “But the most important thing is how to become the people that our religion shows us we can be.”
Various paths have different ethical codes. Wiccans, for example, believe in the rule of three, which states that what you send out into the world will come back to you three-fold – much like the idea of karma in Hinduism and Buddhism.
“If you were to ask me to do something negative to another person, I would never do it,” Sobczak said. “Not for free, not for any amount of money, not for anything.”
Another draw of witchcraft is how inclusive it can be. “One of the other aspects that makes Paganism, particularly Wicca…so popular is their openness to non-normative forms of sexuality, non-normative forms of gender in ways that mainstream progressive forms of religion are still kind of struggling with,” Burlein said.
For Shafer and Marie Kowalczyk – another member of Sobczak’s group – witchcraft is also a way to tap into their cultural heritage. They are both Irish and embrace Celtic folk wisdom. Sharon Genao, 52, is part of a small coven of Latina witches. She grew up in a Dominican household watching her elders merge folk magic with Christianity.
“Even though my mother is a very devout Christian, she combined a lot of witchcraft with it,” Genao said. “It wasn’t really spoken about – especially in the ‘70s and ‘80s – but she did have a lot of kitchen traditions that go back to her mother as well.”