Do you believe in magic?
I definitely do! My best friend reads tarot cards, and his predictions for me have always been accurate. I have to believe in magic! And I'm not the only one.
In the 1600s, people were notorious for believing in witchcraft. That's what led to the famous Salem Witch Trials. We don't torture or burn people at the stake anymore -- thankfully -- but that doesn't mean the belief in witchcraft has faded.
People make money by boasting the power of Sight. Magical talismans are sold for protection. Ouiji boards are constantly used to try and contact the dead.
Then there are people who have witnessed actual witchcraft themselves. If seeing is believing, those people are definitely believers.
Redditor hows_my_driving1, wanting to know more about real witchcraft, asked:
"people of reddit who have practiced or witnessed acts of witchcraft, voodoo or the occult. What was your experience?"
Revenge Spells
"It’s been healing. I cast a spell against my abuser. It was empowering to face not only the memories but forever banish them from my life. A week later she was arrested and finally charged."
– _queer_fox
Geographical Mind Reading
"I drove over to Salem on hot August morning and killed some time in the tourist district. One shop owner asked me if I wanted a psychic appt, but I told her I was just in to buy a candle. She laughed and grabbed my hand lightly and said "So you grew up in Reading.""
"She was right."
– The68Guns
The Power of Sight
"little backstory first my grammy was a christian witch she told me when she was about to die when i was 4 and that this is in my blood to predict personal events, she told me how you have to listen to those little voices you hear but can’t pinpoint. anyways i’ve seen a 10ft tall shadowy figure with a deer skull and glowing yellow eyes my entire life this is what tells me the events i can “see” through it if i connect to a person with rituals we do together idk what i’d do without it honestly it scared me the first 16 years of my life but it’s been nothing but comforting since i accepted it"
– Dry_Needleworker5719
Expelling The Cold
"I’m pretty sure my grandma practiced some sort of witchcraft. When i was really young maybe 4-5 i remember her taking me, my brother, and my cousin to this sort of church basement-like dark room and the only light was a small fire in the middle of the room. there was about 20 people in the room including a few more kids. I remember the adults had all the kids line up and walk around the room and once we got to the middle there was an old lady that essentially fire bended around each kid. I only remember this because it was the warmest i’ve ever been and i’ve had problems with always being cold ever since."
– Sea-Butterscotch1828
Healing Magic
"So when I was a teenager I started practicing Buddhism. Or at least what I thought was Buddhism as I never went to a temple. Just read books and whatever I found on the net. Well at this point I believed in the possibility of magic. I wanted to be a healer. So I looked up whatever I could find about healing magic. I actually don't remember what I read. I know I used key terms like "Tibetan" and "shaolin" and even "druid" rather than "black magic" or "occult"
"One of the things I learned was the need for long spans of deep meditation. So after school I would often meditate for 30 mins to 2 or 3 hours. I did feel things, I did feel different. I even felt at some point that I had ascended to a higher meditative ability. However I only practiced healing magic once and the result is worth mentioning."
"The event begins with my then-girlfriend being very sick. Idk with what but very sick. High temp, pretty sure she was throwing up but she was stuck in bed for a few days so it was rough. Anyways, I told her I wanted to try and help her. Try to remove the negative energy, purify it and send it back. I sat and meditated as I believed I basically needed to "charge up". I meditated for literally between 4 and 6 hours. Might've fallen asleep. I begin the "procedure" which is to trace the body without touching it. The right hand ahead of the left. The right pulls out the negative energy, the energy is purified within the body and send back through the left. (read this somewhere)"
"Here's where things get weird. I was about half done and I accidently touched her forearm with my thumb. The result was a blue, thick arc of static leapt from my thumb and shocked her. she screamed like she had been pinched. I apologized of course but we soon noticed she had a sooty burn mark on her forearm and another near her own thumb where the electricity exited her body. She retained that mark for a quite a while but that's not the end of it. That night, minutes after the shock she asked for a glass of water. I left her room, to cross the living room to get to the kitchen. ...as I passed under the dome light fixture in the living room.... the lightbulb inside literally explodes and the light goes out. I still got the water."
"The next day her mom confirmed that the bulb had indeed completely shattered inside the dome and strangely enough my gf was completely better the next day."
"I never practiced healing magic again because I decided I had gotten lucky and that I probably could have hurt her."
– SilhoueX
Always Complete The Ritual
"A lot of people aren’t going to believe me and that’s fine. You shouldn’t believe half of the things on the internet anyways but I’m saying that this actually did happen."
"So back in the summer last year I started getting more into witch craft and rituals. Spell jars, incense, herbs, moon water, all that jazz. So after I did a bunch of research on how to make spell jars and the steps to go through it I decided I wanted to finally make a protection spell jar (that’s the first spell jar or spell you have to do before you start anything else). So I did everything I remembered to do, I lit incense and cleansed the jar and my work space, I told each herb what it’s purpose was as I put it from my hand into the jar, and I used a white candle to seal it. Keep in mind I did this around 11:30-12:00 at night. So I started to get a little dizzy and tired (assumed it was just from the incense) and decided to go to bed."
"I was laying down in my bed and I felt kinda weird like something was just off like that kind gut feeling? So I peak over a little on the side of my bed and out of the corner of my eye I saw this black figure was just sitting on the ground starring at me, and then I quickly turned my head fully and it looked like it’s whole body just smacked on the ground and dragged underneath my bed. Of course I turn my phone flash on and I start freaking out and I quickly look up wtf that was and if I accidentally caused it."
"Turned out I didn’t pray to my spirit guide for safety before I did the spell so the thing I saw was a “shadow man”, and they usually show up if you did something in the spell wrong. Idk just thought I’d share my creepy experience:)."
– Edeirain
Now You See Them, Now You Don't
"I was a member of a ghost hunting crew in my free time for a few years. On one occasion, we were investigating at an old mental hospital/Tuberculosis hospital. It was a huge building with four floors. Did a walk through a few hours before and were on the property all day setting up cameras and equipment. Fast forward to about half way through the investigation."
"We'd been through most of the building and decided to go to the basement at about 3-4am. While walking through we started hearing some weird noises on the opposite side of the hospital. We made our way over and saw light coming from underneath a door. Disclaimer, this building had no electricity. So obviously, we were spooked. We opened the door and that's when we saw about 6 or 7 people sitting around a pentagram drawn on the floor surrounded by candles, and a dead cat in the middle. They all had on black cloaks and red masks. Very horror movie like. We were frozen in terror until one stood up, maintaining eye contact with me, and ran toward us. I slammed the door shut and we all took off."
"We got outside and immediately called the cops. When they arrived, we took them to the room, and the people were gone. No candles, no pentagram, no dead cat. Just disappeared. The cops thought we were crazy but we went through footage on a go-pro I had strapped to my chest that caught it all. I don't have the footage anymore, unfortunately, but honestly I don't know if I ever want to see it again."
"Should also note that the only entrance/exit to this hospital is where we came in and out. The backdoor was boarded shut, and we couldn't find any broken windows anywhere. We were by the front door when we called the cops and didn't leave it. They never came in or out of that door that night. We had a camera on the door all day, and they never went in, and we never saw them come out before the cops got there. Only thing I can assume is they either live in that basement, or aren't actually alive. Still have nightmares to this day of opening that door, and the eye contact held with the man that ran at me. I'll never know what happened, but I left the crew and never looked back after that night."
– fluffykitty97
Jealousy-Fueled Magic
"Had an uncle who would consult witchdoctors to do harm to my dad who was a successful doctor. He and my dad had quite an age gap, so at a point in time, he paid for my dad's fees. Then was in disbelief that my dad had so much success so he begun to consult witchdoctors and things would happen ie unexplained accidents etc."
"There was a time the roof of our house would flap like there were animals jumping, and we heard noises like chicken or rats but when my brother would climb up to check, he would see nothing. With alot of prayers these incidents stopped, but to this day, we still find strange bottles with liquid and stuff ie feathers, bones planted around our village house. When I was younger, like 8, one time I was upset and sulking, and couldn't sleep. When I got up to put the light on, I felt hot breath on my neck. I was shocked and scared, but my parents came and said they saw nothing. When I put out the lights I heard someone breathing heavily. So I would block my ears and sleep, as my parents would say its nothing, and I was an only girl so I slept alone while my brothers slept in the other room, and my parents had their own room."
"There was onetime I saw an old lady in my room. She just sat there on the chair beside my bed in traditional garb. I would shut my eyes and just sleep, as no one would believe me. But when I was in campus years later, my dad said he stayed with a great aunt who was a sorcerer and he heard her speaking to evil spirits in the night. She would be slapping the ground and talking to them like they were little mischievous children. My dad never saw them."
"There are two areas in Kenya known for witchcraft, and we come from one of them. With alot of prayers, God has intervened in our lives rescuing us from bad situations.""
– Africanahgirl
Last Resort Magic
"I remember having to lean on “witchcraft” to help keep my friend from getting deported, because there was a point where it seemed like nothing else could be done (I just flipped a cigarette in my pack, like back in the first two world wars, and I would smoke that cigarette to “cast my spell”)"
"Next thing you know, something happened that ended up working out in his favor, thus he got to come back home."
"Not to sound like that person, but I’m 70% convinced that if I didn’t do that, it would have ended terribly for him and everyone else that knew and loved him."
– VeeSquibbles
The Art Of Tarot
"I read tarot cards and so far I have always been accurate. I can read for people who have always had no luck with readings as they are described as "unreadable". My partner thinks it's all bull turd but asked me to do a reading for him and it hit every single nail on the head for stuff even I didn't know about him. I am a practicing witch but i only do small things for me and my close people. Spells, protection, cleansing that kind of thing. I've had way too many experiences of seeing things and experiencing things for me to deny any of its existence. Since I was a small child."
– woolofdoom
If I didn't believe in witchcraft before, I certainly would after those stories! What do you think?
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