How Witchy Side Hustles Went Mainstream on “WitchTok” and Etsy

Some scholars think that the growing interest in alternative spiritual practices is partly due to many Americans moving away from traditional religious institutions, especially members of Gen Z. In a 2025 survey from the Pew Research Center, only 45% of Gen Z identified as Christian, although a much higher 65% identified themselves as spiritual. 1

Side Hustles spoke with Dr. Joseph Laycock, a professor of Religious Studies at Texas State University in San Marcos. Dr. Laycock believes that “witches are really in right now” because Gen Z is looking for spirituality outside organized religion.

“When we ask these people what they’re interested in, a lot of them are into this sort of market of metaphysical ideas,” he said. “They’re not materialists in the way that most atheists are. They don’t believe only in things that have been proven to exist by science, but they’re no longer affiliated with an institutional religion.”

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How the COVID-19 pandemic made witchcraft more popular

It isn’t just Gen Z’s move away from traditional religion that made WitchTok popular. Dr. Laycock believes that the COVID-19 pandemic played a role, too.

He cited the work of his wife, Natasha L. Milkes, who is also a religion scholar. In 2024, she published a book about COVID called Shattered Grief, which Laycock said looked at “how religious practices changed during COVID.”

“[One] thing she found that was interesting was a rise in spirit mediums,” he told us. “People who said, ‘I have this ability to talk to the dead,’ were suddenly getting all these new clients … there was a real need for closure, and [people] were willing to see if they could get that from a spirit medium.”

As online spiritual communities like WitchTok grew, they created a market for creators, teachers, tarot readers, and practitioners offering products and services. There are few places where this is more evident than the e-commerce platform Etsy.

What do Etsy witches sell?

One of the most popular services that Etsy witches offer is—unsurprisingly—magic spells.

Etsy stores offer spells for various purposes, including protection, love, and even “revenge” on ex-partners. The platform technically banned users from selling magic spells or metaphysical products back in 2015, but sellers can still offer these services so long as they’re advertised as being “for entertainment purposes.”

It’s even possible to pay for a spell that will supposedly help you land a job. In an interview with Yahoo Life, a 29-year-old job seeker named Sofia said she’d looked for work for a year and a half before she turned to an Etsy witch out of desperation, paying $4.54 for a “career and job success spell.”

The seller of the spell, SpellsByCarlton, has amassed over 57,000 sales.

Other services Etsy witches offer

Outside of spells, some Etsy witches offer psychic or tarot readings. One vendor, PsychicGoddess1, claims to have delivered “nearly 100,000” private readings.

The reviews for these are overwhelmingly positive, with one customer stating that the reading “calmed down one of the most important worries” they had.

How much do Etsy witches make?

How much you can make selling spells varies widely. Many sellers charge as little as $0.05 for “generic” spells that require relatively little personalization, such as “lottery win” spells. Personalized spells and readings can cost much more.

PsychicGoddess1, for instance, offers a “Brutally Honest Psychic Reading” and has a tiered pricing system for it:

• Standard readings: $16.50–$33
• Detailed readings: $24–$40.50
• In-depth readings: $31.50–$48

On the top end, some witchy services from very in-demand sellers can cost as much as $7,000. However, this is rare and not something new Etsy witches can expect.

The competitive market for witchy services on Etsy

The most popular Etsy stores have been active for years, so they’ve had time to build up their reputations. For anyone just starting out, it takes a while to procure customers and clients.

Side Hustles spoke with Dorian Mercury, a freelance writer, tarot reader, and workshop facilitator based in Rochester, New York. Originally a full-time content marketer, Dorian switched to freelancing and started a magic-focused blog called Liminal Magick as a side hustle.

Dorian told us that they used to offer tarot-reading services on Etsy, though they noted that “there’s a lot of competition.” With so many other witches offering similar services, it’s hard to stand out as a newbie, and getting established takes patience and persistence.

Being an Etsy witch isn’t the only way to turn your passion for the esoteric into a side hustle. Other witchcraft practitioners have found success through the following avenues:

Creating witchcraft content

The popularity of witchcraft has prompted many people to become spiritual content creators. While TikTok is the most popular home for witchcraft creators, with 9.2 million TikTok videos using the hashtag “WitchTok,” some people have also built successful side hustles elsewhere.

Dorian, for instance, self-publishes books and online zines, claiming they “have been the number one source of income” for them, “but not in ‘quit your day job’ numbers.”

They still “offer some content marketing consultation” outside of their spiritual-focused content writing. While it’s no longer their focus, Dorian said this was originally quite lucrative and was the reason they were able to quit their day job in the first place.

Witchcraft retreats or workshops

If you’d rather take your witchcraft side hustle outside of the digital realm, one way of doing so is by holding retreats or workshops, something Dr. Laycock told us has become extremely popular.

“They’ll have this kind of recreational, spiritual weekend,” he said. “And they will perform rituals together, do journaling, and do introspective spiritual work. But they’ll also go to nice restaurants and stay in a nice hotel.”

Dorian told us that a big part of their business comes from workshops, consultations, and teaching.

“I’ve taught workshops online and in-person around topics like reading tarot, creating your own oracle deck or system, and working with deities,” they said. “I have also drawn on my content marketing experience and worked with witchy business owners on creating a content strategy for social media.”

Despite WitchTok’s growing popularity, it has faced backlash from traditional religious institutions. Martin Saunders, a writer for Premier Christianity, wrote in a 2024 blog post that young people’s curiosity in witchcraft “can lead to something much more dangerous.”

“It is about seeking supernatural power apart from God,” he wrote. “It’s an attempt to control the world through spiritual means that don’t come from him—which is incredibly dangerous territory.”

This criticism of witchcraft is reminiscent of the “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s, which led conservatives and religious organizations to claim that pop culture (most infamously the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons) was leading young people toward the occult. According to Dr. Laycock, the Satanic Panic “never really died.”

“I did notice through social media we had a panic over Labubu dolls earlier this year,” he said. “And we certainly have people here in the United States who would look at the activities on WitchTok and say, ‘Can you believe how far our culture has fallen?’”

Dorian told us that they personally haven’t experienced any pushback for engaging in witchcraft practices, though they did say that some witches “struggle to come out of the broom closet” out of fear of being judged.

“While I think people are becoming more open-minded in general, there is still some ostracization of alternative spiritualities,” they said.

Genuine practitioners or “grifters”?

Another argument against witchcraft practitioners and content creators is that they’re “grifting,” rather than genuinely trying to offer spiritual services. The high price tags on some spells, charms, and so on have prompted critics to claim that self-described witches are taking advantage of vulnerable people.

A lot of this criticism isn’t coming from skeptics, but from other witches. In a post on the subreddit r/witchcraft, many people called WitchTok content untrustworthy. One user claimed that many content creators just do things “that look interesting on video to get views,” while another said they “make up insane lies.”

While Dr. Laycock acknowledges that some purported practitioners “clearly” are grifting, he thinks it’s unfair to say everyone is. As for charging for spiritual services, Dr. Laycock believes that it’s actually surprisingly common in other religions, too.

“The idea that religion and money do not mix is specific to Christianity,” he said, adding that paying spiritual “specialists” is relatively uncontroversial in “lots of other traditions around the world.”

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If you’re looking to start a witchcraft-based side hustle, Dorian offered a few tips on how to make it work.

Look to your skillset

Dorian told us the first step is to ask, “What do you already know that you can use to help you get started?”

“For example, as a content marketer, I received a foundation in writing, design, and content creation for online audiences, plus SEO and web analytics to understand how to build, maintain, and grow a website,” they said.

“I also have a master’s degree in creative writing, and today, I teach college composition and rhetoric. I look at the teaching and writing I do as educational. I’ve figured out practices that have been useful for me, and I want to help others find what works for them.”

In the same way, Dorian believes you should look at what you’re good at and see how you can transfer those skills to a witchy side hustle.

“What you choose to do doesn’t have to connect with your day job,” they told us via email. “Starting a side hustle of any kind gives you a chance to learn new things and expand on your skillset … follow your curiosity and your own magickal interests and see where they lead you.”

Identify what you want to do (and put a spin on it)

Once you’ve figured out what skills you have that would lend themselves well to a witchy side hustle, you need to decide what you actually want to do.

If you’re interested in selling magic spells, look at what kind of spells are most popular. In her interview with Yahoo Life, McNamara (SpellsByCarlton) said that career success spells were her biggest earners, though there are a few others that people frequently request, such as “spells which involve love.”

“Another is ‘removal of blockages,’ which will focus on chakra imbalances,” she said. 2

Dorian told us that since many witchcraft services are saturated, it’s important to offer something that other witches aren’t providing. “I think people want more original ideas,” they said. “For example, I teach tarot, but I have my own method that I’ve developed for how to understand and interpret the cards.”

For those looking for something in-person, witchcraft retreats and workshops are a good option. Dorian told us that workshops “are often reliant on an existing community or venue for hosting and getting paid.” You’ll need to find a space that will allow you to host these kinds of events.

Build a network and audience

Another important step is to find your audience. Social media can be a part of that, but Dorian told us that they rely on it far less than when they started out.

“I use social media, mainly Instagram, but I’ve grown frustrated with ‘the algorithm,’” they said. “I used it a lot more consistently years ago when I was publishing blog posts more consistently.”

Dorian said that Substack is popular among the witchcraft community, though they don’t use it themselves. Instead, Dorian recommended Beehiiv, Ghost, and Buttondown as good options for “creating blog, newsletter content, and podcasts.”

Above all, Dorian’s recommendation was to set up your own website for your witchy side hustle. “My website also gets a fair amount of organic search traffic from Google and referral traffic from other places,” they said. “I think many of us have realized that we need to have some ownership of our content, audience, mailing lists, shops, etc.”

Dorian argued that owning your own website has become increasingly important as creators contend with changing algorithms and the growth AI-generated content on social platforms.

“Having a website gives you more ownership,” they said.

While witchcraft is extremely popular now, does that mean a witchy side hustle is actually worth it? For Dorian, it certainly is, though they told us that those trying to make money as quickly as possible are likely to be disappointed.

“The one thing I’d caution against is looking at witchy or spiritual communities as a sort of ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme,” they said. “Especially today with AI, it seems that everyone wants to produce a lot of content … in a short amount of time. Don’t rush the process, and don’t try to fake your expertise.”

Dorian noted that “the market is somewhat saturated with spiritual businesses,” and added that if you’re just looking to churn out low-effort content or copy what other witches are doing, you’ll do yourself a disservice.

As with any side hustle, having a passion for what you do is the most important thing. In Dorian’s view, those who are authentic and genuinely engaged with witchcraft or esoteric practices can absolutely find success with a witchy side hustle.

They told us that, if they had to start from square one all over again, it’d be worth the effort.

“People are hungry for information and want to learn new ways of understanding themselves and the world around them,” Dorian said. “If you truly have an authentic message and something that helps others, why not share it?”