It’s the Golden Age of Woo. Not since pre-modernity have the practices of astrology, crystal worship and other celestial arts been such a mainstream event. From horoscope apps to the music of Lana Del Rey, contemporary pop culture is full of witchcraft.
Witches often get a bad wrap. In fiction, they put hexes on Disney princesses and try to eat children—so, you can see the source of their publicity problem. And while Wicked is singlehandedly pleading the case of witches today, the truth is, witchcraft ain’t so bad! In fact, the idea and practice of witchcraft and Wicca has been reclaimed by some who understand witchcraft to be a feminine rebellion against the patriarchy. Depending on how broadly you define witchcraft, everything from smudging your apartment with sage, to dabbling in tarot, or even growing a healthy herb garden could be associated with traditional witchcraft. Just ask these celebrities.
Here, a list of mystically-inclined stars who have publicly spoken about their connection and commitment to the occult, and the wonderful witchy things that come with it.
13 Celebrity Witches
Below, we’ve round up celebrities who are rumoured to dabble in, or have admitted to practicing, witchcraft.
Beyoncé
In 2018, a drummer from Beyoncé’s backup band accused the musician of practising vindictive witchcraft. According to The Blast, she even sued the singer, claiming Beyoncé dabbled in “extreme witchcraft, dark magic”. The case was thrown out.
Meanwhile, Beyoncé has since leant heavily on southern gothic aesthetics and Cajun influences of the Louisiana Bayou, which historically has associations with witchcraft.
While we’re not here for a witch hunt (um, 16th century much?), we wouldn’t be surprised if Beyoncé had magical powers.
Lorde
Lorde claims to have seen the ghost of David Bowie, something she says is not really “a surprise”. Why? “I am basically a witch,” she said.
“It would be no surprise to anyone I am not weirded out by ghosts or spirits. I am basically a witch,” Lorde told The Daily Telegraph.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
The Olsen Twins are more than just their witchy, boho vibe. They dabble in witchcraft like smudging (clearing a space of negative energies) and crystal healing. “I sage everything, all the time. Constantly sage’ing. I don’t want bad energy,” Mary-Kate Olsen told Vogue in 2017.
Meanwhile at The Row Fall 2018 runway, they gifted attendees either a black or white quartz crystal. “This crystal is a protective stone which repels and blocks negative energies,” the twins wrote in an accompanying text. “It also works in reducing fear and increasing focus.” They also recommended cleaning the crystals in a 24-hour salt bath.
Lana Del Rey
In 2017, Lana Del Rey encouraged her followers to do a binding spell on Donald Trump. Later, when asked if she did it herself, she said: “Yeah, I did it. Why not? Look, I do a lot of shit.” Unfortunately, given he’s headed back to the White House it didn’t appear to work that well.
In a follow-up Billboard article, Lana confessed to being “a mystic at heart”. “I’m in line with Yoko [Ono] and John [Lennon] and the belief that there’s a power to the vibration of a thought. Your thoughts are very powerful things and they become words, and words become actions, and actions lead to physical charges,” she said. “I really do believe that words are one of the last forms of magic and I’m a bit of a mystic at heart.”
Since then, Lana has posted mystic pursuits to her Instagram, including Tarot. Now, recently married to an alligator tour guide based in New Orleans, we hope Lana will get to flex her nature-loving, cosmically-inclined talents.
Stevie Nicks
One of the OG pop culture witches, Stevie Nicks is famous for her ethereal persona. But is it more than that?
“I totally believe in magic,” she once said. “Because my life, I think, has been very magic, and magical things have come true for me time after time after time.”
Katy Perry
“I don’t stay single for long. I carry a lot of rose quartz, which attracts the male,” Katy Perry told Cosmopolitan in 2014. “Maybe I need to calm it down with the amethyst. I’m not like Professor Higgins with my sex life. I’m not super strict. For me, the most important thing about sex is connection.” Regardless of her feelings around sex, the crystals definitely worked because she started dating Orlando Bloom in 2016 and they’ve now been together for over eight years.
Evan Rachel Wood
In 2017, Evan Rachel Wood told Cosmopolitan UK that she always carries “sage and the gemstone tiger’s eye. For cleaning demons out of places!”
Then in 2018, Evan revealed she had her aura read before testifying before congress about her experience with abuse and trauma. Post testimony, she went back with the New York Times in tow and had it read again. The Times journalist Melena Ryziik wrote: “She was still glowing lavender — ‘wonderful storytellers, writers and artists,’ the description said. ‘They have the talent to visualise and describe magical, mystical worlds.’ But where before her emotional chart looked like a jagged mountain range, now it was flat, calm. ‘Speaking your truth!’ she said.”
Cybill Shepard
In 1996, while accepting the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series, Cybill Shepard said: “Thanks to the Great Goddess in all her guises. May she bring us peace, joy and righteous anger. Blessed be.” In 2009, she added that she identified as “a Christian Pagan Buddhist Goddess worshiper.” Sounds witch-adjacent, right?
Patrick Swayze
“I absolutely believe in crystals,” Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1992. “They are a major part of my life. I really think I’m on a journey now, spiritually and career-wise. [He holds up a thin opalescent rock.] This is my magic wand. And this one … tiny, smooth, black, this has positive properties … I have tons of these things. Museum quality. I don’t know if this stuff works. But I tell ya, I believe that things you believe in can come true.”
Gabrielle Anwar
Burn Notice star Gabrielle Anwar once said of gender inequality in a former marriage: “I’m doing this work. I’m making dinner. I’m being a wife, trying to be as attractive as I can, trying to put out with my sexuality to the degree that will keep my husband interested in me and not in other women. I’m pulling my weight financially. I’m doing all this stuff, and I’m feeling this incredible inequality… And I’m a Pagan. I’m a… Pagan, and this isn’t for me. This institution that was invented to control women, and I’m not willing to be controlled any longer.” Of course, being a pagan doesn’t automatically mean a witch, though the two have been linked.
Heather Graham
“I have this group of friends and we get together and we call ourselves The Goddesses and we wish for things and then a lot of amazing things have happened to all of us. We burn things—honoring the elements of earth, wind, air and fire. You do spells. We did this thing where we were calling on the wind and the air and this whole storm started on my roof… It was amazing… empowering.”
Spencer Pratt
The Hills star Spencer Pratt confessed to training as a wizard. “I spent thousands of dollars having a wizard coach. Being a wizard, it’s pretty heavy,” he told EW. “Going around with a [rutilated quartz] wand, and people start looking at you weird when you’re wanding your coffee in the morning and whatever… Now I just love to look at them, because I’ve moved past them having powers. If they had powers, I would be Kim Kardashian right now and not Spencer.”
Aubrey Plaza
Aubrey Plaza has leaned in to her witchy vibe, both on screen and off. On screen, she played a witch in Agatha All Along. Plaza has also penned a children’s book called The Christmas Witch, and as part of its publicity, she did press and went door-knocking as a red-cloaked witch.
