Every Witch Worth Their Salt Knows Not To Mess With Manipulative Love Magic, But...
An intermediate witch, armed with more enthusiasm than experience, decides to dabble in the delicate art of love magic. What could possibly go wrong?
By Julia Cancilla
As a descendant of Salem witches (no, really — my great nana and her sisters grew up there), magic has always been in my blood. But it wasn’t until 2019 that I decided to turn up the volume on my witchy ways. I’d always dabbled, sure — a tarot reading here, a protection spell there — but I was ready to dive deeper into the mystical pool.
It started innocently enough. My friends loved getting tarot readings from me, so I began offering them professionally, thinking it would be a fun side gig for a broke college student. As I honed in on my craft — experimenting with different spells, candles, and herbs, reading hundreds of books on spellwork and tarot — I felt a pull to share my journey with others.
So I posted a video on how to hex a selfish man. This involved pins and needles and making sure he would always have trouble getting it up. I figured a few fellow witches may find it funny. Overnight, it reached over 2 million views. The algorithm gods had smiled upon me. Within months, my TikTok follower count exploded to over 115,000. My inbox was flooded with messages from aspiring witches, curious skeptics, and everyone in between. Suddenly, I wasn’t just practicing magic; I was a bona fide witchy influencer.
With great power comes great responsibility… and a whole lot of pressure. My followers were hungry for more content, more spells, more everything. I found myself spending hours crafting the perfect spells to share, trying to condense centuries of magical knowledge into bite-sized, TikTok-friendly chunks.
As my following grew, so did my confidence. My spells genuinely worked for me, and they worked for my followers too. My tarot readings were scarily accurate. People came to me for all sorts of things. “Can you do a love spell tutorial?” “How do I make someone fall for me?”
In the world of witchcraft, there are two types of love spells: Manipulative (which takes away free-will) and non-manipulative (which enhances an already-existing love and attraction). Every witch worth their salt knows not to mess with manipulative love magic. It’s the magical equivalent of poking a sleeping dragon. But I’d be lying to say I wasn’t tempted. If I could go viral on Witchtok, surely I could master a simple love spell, right?
Enter “Bewitchments: Love Magick for Modern Romance” by Edain McCoy — a dusty spellbook from the ‘90s that practically screamed “DO NOT OPEN” on every page. Naturally, I cracked that baby wide open. Among warnings of “for educational purposes only” and “don’t you dare try this at home,” I found a manipulative love spell that seemed harmless enough.