Believers is a series running throughout April, examining different facets of faith and religion among young people.
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On a moonlit night in October, Carol Sobczak set up candles, cake, and other supplies on an altar at her Long Island home for a Wiccan ritual. Her students – three women in their late 20s and early 30s – gathered in her backyard for their weekly meeting to learn and practice witchcraft.
“This is our religion…it makes us feel good and whole and joyful,” Sobczak, 61, said. “That's, I think, what religion is supposed to do.”
The witches of Long Island are not hidden away. They are active in society as social workers, nurses, receptionists, retail managers, PTA leaders, and more. Still, most aren’t aware of their presence.
“I never thought there were witches on Long Island. I thought I was the only one for some reason,” Derry Shafer, 33, said. “Then you go on Facebook and there's like hundreds of people that are like, ‘Oh, who else is a witch? Can we be friends?’”
Across the U.S., witchcraft has been growing in popularity. Paganism – or Neopaganism – is an umbrella term for various belief systems that pull from pre-Christian folk traditions. A 2014 Pew Research Center study estimated there to be approximately 1 million Americans who identified as Pagan, Wiccan, or New Age. In 1990, there were only about 8,000 practicing Wiccans in the U.S., according to survey data from Trinity College. But witchcraft is not a monolith; not every witch identifies as Wiccan, and some don’t view their craft as religious at all. This, coupled with stigmatization and lack of formal groups, is why scholars note that it’s difficult to get an accurate estimate of practitioners. Various forms of witchcraft are heavily centered around rituals and practices.
“Judaism also focuses on practices, so does Islam,” said Ann Burlein, PhD, a professor of religion at Hofstra University who teaches a course on Paganism. “This is not unique. It only seems unique if your template for religion is Protestantism.”
One reason why witchcraft may be attracting more followers is because it’s relatively easy to be a solitary practitioner today. Platforms like Youtube, TikTok, and Instagram have made it easier for beginners to find spellwork tutorials. Podcasts and blogs allow practitioners to share their experiences and expertise with a wider audience.
“The internet has served as a way for one generation of various kinds of pagans to pass information and debates and concerns and knowledge and practices on to another,” Burlein said.
Witches can also find like-minded neighbors via online groups, which is how Sobczak’s group connected.
“I was mostly solitary, just doing it by myself for a long time, until I found them,” Shafer said.
Sobczak’s group practices eclectic Wicca, where followers mix and match Wiccan traditions. Her students came together a few months ago to learn the basics of the religion. After a year and a day of studying – the traditional time period – they will be initiated into a coven.
Sobczak operates as the group’s high priestess, a role that guides members with less knowledge of the craft.
“They need to learn the tools of the altar, they need to know what the elements are, they need to know what the watchtowers are and how to call the quarters and how to draw down the moon,” Sobczak said. “But the most important thing is how to become the people that our religion shows us we can be.”
Various paths have different ethical codes. Wiccans, for example, believe in the rule of three, which states that what you send out into the world will come back to you three-fold – much like the idea of karma in Hinduism and Buddhism.
“If you were to ask me to do something negative to another person, I would never do it,” Sobczak said. “Not for free, not for any amount of money, not for anything.”
Another draw of witchcraft is how inclusive it can be. “One of the other aspects that makes Paganism, particularly Wicca…so popular is their openness to non-normative forms of sexuality, non-normative forms of gender in ways that mainstream progressive forms of religion are still kind of struggling with,” Burlein said.
For Shafer and Marie Kowalczyk – another member of Sobczak’s group – witchcraft is also a way to tap into their cultural heritage. They are both Irish and embrace Celtic folk wisdom. Sharon Genao, 52, is part of a small coven of Latina witches. She grew up in a Dominican household watching her elders merge folk magic with Christianity.
“Even though my mother is a very devout Christian, she combined a lot of witchcraft with it,” Genao said. “It wasn't really spoken about – especially in the ‘70s and ‘80s – but she did have a lot of kitchen traditions that go back to her mother as well.”
Genao comes from a line of kitchen witches – those who blend witchcraft with cooking and baking – and green witches, who heavily incorporate herbalism and the natural world.
“I thought it was normal to take ritual baths and to wash your home with smoke and with Florida water. I thought this was the kind of thing that every Spanish child did,” Genao said. “For me, it goes hand in hand with my heritage.”
Though witchcraft may be growing, the taboo surrounding it hasn’t yet faded. Genao has been practicing since she was 16, but she’s only been open about it for about four years.
“It's still a little taboo, especially in Hispanic religions, because we're taught to be Christian,” Genao said, adding that she lost both friends and family after she started speaking openly about being a witch. Still, she doesn’t regret going public. “If there's someone out there that can't accept me for who I am, then they're not really my friends.”
Prejudice can come from misinformation about what witchcraft entails. Sobczak remembers her mother-in-law asking if she worshiped the devil when she first told her she was a witch.
“People do not understand that we don't believe in the devil. I can't worship something I don't believe in,” Sobczak said. “We don't believe in sin, we believe in responsibility.”
Some witches, however, feel the stigma lessening. “I work at a Catholic hospital and I joke with my co-workers that I'm a Wiccan all the time,” Christine Hughes, 28, said. “No one cares.” Still, they’re cognizant that outward displays of their faith can result in prejudice. “I do not wear my pentacle [necklace] to work because I think it would freak my customers out,” Sobczak, who manages a Vitamin Shoppe store, said.
As witchcraft gains popularity, Long Island’s witches hope it brings a better understanding of their practice.
“It's really just getting together with like-minded people and creating what is coming in the new year, what's coming in the new month and the new week,” Genao said. “[And] making the world a better place for each other.”
