Witches of Instagram

Inspired by our new media presentation on witches on TikTok or “Witchtok”, I was curious to see if modern-day witches had made a presence on other social media applications as well including Instagram. I found that there is a thriving witch community on Instagram endeavored to discover a bit more about this online network.

One of the best ways to track this online content and categorize posts as belonging in this category is by using hashtags. The #witch appears in about 17.5 million posts, and #witchcraft has 7.3 million posts. One of the most enlightening hashtags was #witchesofinstagram. A few trends that appeared under this hashtag were content related to the moon cycles, wiccan holidays, zodiacs and witch tips. Below are some examples of this content.

This first post was shared by an account called “mysticwitchofthemoon”, and it is an infographic with six ideas for how to practice a bit of witchcraft on Sunday. It includes ideas such as having a sunrise ritual, lighting yellow candles, and writing out spiritual goals.

This second post, shared by “moonmysticgoddess”, contains information about Beltane. After some brief research, I found that Beltane is a Pagan holiday that falls midway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It represents a time when spring is most fully in bloom, and celebrates fertility. It also is sometimes known as “May Day”. It highlights what to include in a Beltane altar, what are some activities to participate in on Beltane, and brief information about what Beltane celebrates.

This third post featured in “lovebyluna”, an account with 274K followers on Instagram,

relates to astrology and outlines ways to tap into the energy of the New Moon in Taurus. The graphic suggest six activities to connect with the new moon. The captions shares that this moon ushers in a time to “reconnect with and honor Mother Earth” and also “ground our energy and prioritize our needs”. Another post shared by this same account details positive affirmations that each zodiac sign should keep in mind as we head into the new moon cycle.

An interesting distinction between Witchtok and witches on Instagram is that some of the witch accounts on Instagram appear to be optimized for commercial purposes in addition to creating content. A few of the most popular accounts that appeared under these hashtags had their own e-commerce sites that were linked in their Instagram bio. Other accounts also advertised their own services of readings, promotions, or even subscription boxes. This distinction between commercial services being provided on TikTok and Instagram could have to do with the fact that Instagram has had the chance to develop features that are aligned with business such as the ability to shop on the app and embedded direct links to shopping websites.