Witches are casting a spell again in time for Halloween

Co-owner Michéal Reilly minds the shop at Raven's Veil in Vancouver on Oct. 23. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /10113042A

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On a crisp late October day, as leaves drift from trees like offerings in front of a metaphysical shop tucked away on Commercial Drive, a steady stream of people cross the threshold and step into the mystic.

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Nowhere has a room painted black seemed so bright. Sun pours through the windows. The air is scented with something delicious. Cinnamon, maybe. Or magic. At the counter of Raven’s Veil, Michéal Reilly has been hand-rolling beeswax spell candles for hours.

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“I can’t keep up,” he said.

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The shop Reilly co-owns with his partner, Kara Gilbertson, is bustling.

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“Some people just come in, walk around and leave,” said Reilly.

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They aren’t here to buy, they come to absorb the energy, explains Reilly.

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“We wanted to create a warm space, where everything we do says, ‘You are beautiful.’ ”

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Raven’s Veil, a community collective and curio shop, features a bone bar, candles, teas, potions, botanicals and elements, even bees in tiny bell jars, all “tools,” Reilly explains, for ritual and connection with the natural and spirit worlds.

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Bees, in folklore, were sacred links between the physical and spiritual world, messengers and symbols of transformation. There are tiny crow ribs and pelvises, bones for renewal, Tarot cards for divination and a reader, offering wisdom at a lace-covered table behind a curtain. There are also candles, botanicals and tinctures for ritual, prayer, protection, purification and cleansing.

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On a Thursday afternoon where every nearby shop is empty, Raven’s Veil is alive with a spirit of conviviality. Magic is having a moment.

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And it’s not just in Vancouver.

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Modern witchcraft is surging in popularity. WitchTok posts, with hashtags like #babywitch, have more than 30 billion views on TikTok.

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Etsy witches, selling custom spells and curses, became so popular that in early 2026 Etsy launched an actual witch hunt to flush out practitioners.

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Although Etsy witches had been banned from selling hexes and spells since 2015, the company mostly looked the other way, until TikTok-user Riley Wenckus paid $7.99 to curse Elon Musk during the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

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The rise of interest in witches, and pushback against them, is no surprise to Sabina Magliocco, a University of B.C. professor, folklorist and anthropologist, and author of Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America.

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Magliocco likens witchcraft to tofu for its ability to soak up the flavours — or culture — around it.

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Sabina Magliocco, a University of B.C. professor, folklorist and anthropologist, and author of Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America. Photo by UBC

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Witches are often seen as rebels, said Magliocco. Historically, those who break social conventions are convenient people to scapegoat when things go wrong.

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“The witch is a perfect figure to project hopes and dreams and cultural anxieties on to,” said Magliocco. “They are greatly feared and often blamed for things like epidemics, mysterious illnesses and bad things that would happen.”