America’s Witches cast a spell against Donald Trump

Yes, you read that right. At mid-night on Friday, practitioners of witchcraft across the United States cast a mass spell against Donald Trump, aimed at removing him from office. A Facebook page was set up for the ritual, which has since not only gotten over 10,000 likes, but has also coined a hashtag, #magicresistance, BBC reported.

Michael Hughes, a writer by profession who identifies as a “Magical Thinker” posted spells online, claiming that he found multiple versions of the same spell on private online witchcraft communities. Hughes recommends using a stubby orange candle and a tower tarot card to carry out the ritual. Practitioners of witchcraft across the country were urged to carve the U.S. President’s name in the candle, and recite a certain incantation before proceeding on to set a picture of him on the candle’s fire.

As amusing and harmless as this story may seem, to some however it means serious trouble. Christian conservatives are outraged by the incident, and see it as an act of declaring a spiritual war by the witches.

The followers have been urged to recite a spell that addresses the Wiccan deities asking them to “bind Donald J Trump, so that his malignant works may fail utterly” and that he may not break the polity or usurp the liberty of the American people, or fill with hatred, confusion, fear, or despair, their minds. And the spell doesn’t spare Trump’s followers either. It asks for the malicious tongues of Trump supporters to be curbed.

Finally, while burning a picture of the U.S. President, Hughes recommends that witches use Donald Trump’s own catch phrase “You’re fired!” instead of the usual closing statement, “So mote it be!”

Michael Hughes says that this mass spell is more of a “binding spell,” meaning that it cannot directly harm its target, but it will prevent the target from doing harm to others. Hughes believes that his initiative will be met with a lot of support, saying that he “felt it would be very welcome to a lot of people”.

Hughes further clarified his intention as follows.

“This is not the equivalent of magically punching a Nazi. Rather, it is ripping the bullhorn from his hands, smashing his phone so he can’t tweet, tying him up, and throwing him in a dark basement where he can’t hurt anyone.”

To some, the mumbo-jumbo put aside, the “mass spell” still plays an important role in deterring the current political climate. MaryPat Azevedo from Arizona took part in the mass ritual. She believes that the ritual is more of a “unity prayer” and she believes that it will help bring about physical, emotional, spiritual changes in Donald Trump and American politics.

“A true witch would never cast a spell on anyone without their permission. This prayer is for well being and peace for all beings.”

The Facebook group dedicated to the ritual has urged its followers to cast the spell in repeat during every Waning Crescent moon until Trump leaves office. The next round of “mass spells” will take place on 26 March.

Naturally, the President’s followers, most of whom are Christian conservatives, aren’t all that thrilled about the idea. Nor are they just willing to let this slide by as a joke. The Christian Nationalist Alliance, for instance, has declared 24 February as “a day of prayer,” where all god-fearing Christians ought to pray to counter the occult and magical fraternity. The group has accused the participants of the “mass spell” of being occultists who want to summon dark spirits and demons to earth in order to hinder President Trump’s progress. Another popular Christian conservative, pastor Joshua Feuerstein, who has previously been involved in incidents such as accusing Starbucks of taking Christian symbols off its cup, has issued a serious concern regarding the mass spell.

“Their bippity-boppity-boo isn’t more powerful than the name of Jesus!”

[Featured Image by VeraPetruk/iStockphoto]