Dressed head-to-toe in black, Owlvine Green’s fingers hover over a steaming cauldron as a cat looks on, ominously.
Candles flicker, casting eerie shadows on the wall. Incense smokes, and a spell book — filled with mystical, arcane symbols — is laid open in front of her.
It’s a scene that wouldn’t look out of place in a Harry Potter film. But this isn’t a movie. This is an unassuming home in suburban Melbourne, and Owlvine is a real-life witch.
“We’re everywhere — young and old, in the inner city and out in the middle of the bush,” the 36-year-old told news.com.au.
“You could be sharing a desk with one of us, or living on the same street.”
From the Wizard of Oz to The Craft, the black-caped, cackling witch has been a fixture in popular culture — sand a subject of fascination and fear — for centuries. But if you think that these magical beings belong only within the pages of a storybook or on the big screen, think again.
Today, tens of thousands of Australians identify as witches and globally, we’re in the midst of a bona fide witchcraft boom.
While a fascination with the occult is nothing new, witchcraft has never been as big, or as mainstream. But why? And why now?
“A huge part of the rising popularity is social media and the internet,” said Owlvine.
“It’s so easy to jump online and find information. Once upon a time, it was really difficult to find a willing teacher, or even get your hands on the few occult books available – now we have abundant information at our finger tips.”
Owlvine’s own journey to witchcraft began in childhood. Growing up in a conservative Christian environment in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne, she began to question her parents’ religion and her place within it.
“I realised that every religion professed that they had ‘the one right way’ to god, which was incredibly confusing to me,” she recalled.
“But it caused me to look deeper, to question, and to wonder what the common denominators were, and from where the first religions began.”
But it wasn’t until, at the age of 24, she stumbled upon the online witching community that she began to explore witchcraft in earnest.
“At the time, I felt very alone,” she explained.
“I didn’t know anyone who was interested in magic but, thanks to YouTube, I discovered a community of like-minded practitioners, both in Australia and overseas.”
Since that day, Owlvine has become one of the most popular witches on the video platform, with close to 40,000 subscribers who tune in to see her vlog on a variety of subjects, from crystals and moon cycles to herbs and spell-casting.
Indeed, she is just one of a new wave of modern witches who are showcasing their passion for “the craft” via videos and posts covering spells, tarot cards, crystals, potions, clairvoyance and everything in between. And it’s this new crop of social media sorceresses who are primarily fuelling the resurgence of witchcraft in the country.
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