Our growing fascination with witchcraft

If you’ve ever fancied dabbling in the occult, you’re in good company as a trend for Wicca is sweeping the UK

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Just as the title "feminist" has its own kind of stigma, the word "witch" brings up connotations of a dark and misleading crone; a woman shunned from society. We've seen her rise as many fictional characters: the subject is the bread and butter of teenage occult dramas, horror films, plays and fantasy novels. Historically, she's the hysterical woman, the barren outcast and the lonely spinster. (Or, as seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, an introverted bisexual teenager with undeveloped magical abilities.)

Not any more, it seems. A growing movement of women are finding empowerment through alternative practices from healing crystals, meditation, Wiccan rituals or divination. No, it's not the 1960s; it's the new wave of female "magick" that is fast becoming the new mode of expression and self-acceptance for a generation of witches across the western world.

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