'A literal witch hunt': Etsy sellers paid to curse evil exes say they're being persecuted

For years, Etsy quietly hosted a parallel economy alongside its macramé plant hangers and wedding fonts: a thriving marketplace of witches, clairvoyants, and spiritual practitioners offering everything from soulmate drawings to protection spells.

It wasn't exactly advertised on the homepage—but it existed, peacefully, profitably, and for the most part unnoticed.

That calm has now been shattered.

Although Etsy formally banned the sale of spells, enchantments, and supernatural services back in 2015, many sellers say the rule was loosely enforced—until very recently, says the New York Post.

Over the past few weeks, a wave of sudden removals has wiped out shops offering metaphysical services, prompting outrage from sellers and confusion from customers who woke up to find their favorite witches gone.

"On Etsy, witches had a place where we could complete our work without discrimination," said Beatrix, a 62-year-old seller who ran Celestial Craft Spells. She says the removals happened abruptly. "Suddenly, and quietly, they have removed us with no real explanations, whether it's an immediate ban or slowly taking down our listings."

The services now disappearing ranged from tarot and clairvoyant readings to manifestation rituals for love, money, or protection—sometimes even curses. To critics, they were violations of policy. To sellers, they were legitimate spiritual labor. And for many, they paid the bills. "For some of us, this was our livelihood," Beatrix said.

The emotional fallout has been intense. Beatrix described the experience as "very vexing and upsetting," adding that the situation was "terrible for their health and feelings. It is an all round a terrible situation." She went further, framing the crackdown in historical terms: "It feels like persecution and like we are regressing back to the Salem witch trials."

On social media, that language stuck. Commenters began describing the purge as a "literal witch hunt," while one unnamed user warned ominously: "Etsy about to get cursed." Another screenshot circulating among sellers bluntly stated: "Etsy is standing by its policy and removing all spell casters."

Customers were swept up in the chaos too. Carol Jay, an Etsy customer and TikTok creator, said she panicked when she realized she could no longer contact a seller she had already paid. "I was very alarmed. I couldn't message her or anything like that," she said.

Her frustration quickly turned performative—and viral. In one video, she dismissed the idea that witches could simply rebrand elsewhere. "Website Witch just doesn't hit the same!" she joked, before rallying support in full protest mode: "I will still be calling my Etsy witch my Etsy witch. I don't care. Justice for the Etsy witch. Etsy, you need to bring the Etsy witches back."

Beatrix, however, warns that the shift away from Etsy may leave customers worse off. "Customers will still seek spiritual work whether it's Etsy or not," she said, "but they are less protected now." With sellers migrating to private websites or niche platforms like Witchly—a marketplace built specifically for spiritual practitioners—the safety net of Etsy's messaging and payment systems disappears.

Etsy has declined to comment on the recent enforcement push, leaving sellers to read meaning into silence and customers to follow their witches wherever they reappear. What's left behind is a reminder that even in a hyper-modern digital marketplace, belief systems still collide with platform rules—and sometimes, the algorithm wins.

The spells may be gone from Etsy, but the fallout is very much alive. And judging by TikTok, no enchantment was required to make this blow up.