International Womens day: The power of magic- and how to dream in the dark

Can magic be a shield to protect our rights?

How are power and magic related? And what does that even mean for the 8th of March? A short exploration of the power of spells, curses and protection.

In 2017, the singer Lana Del Rey gathered several people to curse the newly elected president Trump. The hex was meant to bind Trump, that is keep him from mucking things up with his words and his tweets, and deliver the U.S. safely from any harm he’s capable of. 

If it seems like it didn’t work out again in 2025, there are interesting perspectives to explore when it comes to magic. Indeed, as silly and irrational as it can sound, a good curse can have some power, but it depends on what we are talking about.

Today is the international day of women’s rights. And it feels more important than ever to remember that our rights have to be protected. Our rights weren’t given to us out of generosity, but previous generations of women have fought for us : for the right to be seen as citizens, for the right to decide on our own lives and bodies, for the right to be free.

But as Simone de Beauvoir wrote : “‘Never forget that all it takes is a political, economic or religious crisis for women's rights to be called into question. These rights can never be taken for granted. You must remain vigilant throughout your lives.” And indeed, as repression and regression are spreading like a poison all over the world, it is important to keep in mind a few things.

We look across the Atlantic to our allies and friends and we feel scared for them. We feel their grief of being erased from all public agenda. And this grief and anxiety extends to many places and people.

Some countries have never acknowledged the abortion rights, some others have taken them away, along with the rights of queer families and the conservative ideas about women and gender nonconforming people are getting more and more popular in the western world. Young people are told it is bad to be a feminist, the gender gap is getting wider but the mainstream narrative is that equality has been reached; feminists are accused of spreading the “woke virus”, whatever that means and last but not least young boys and men are targeted with misogynistic ads and videos on social media- making the divide between genders even wider. It seems that we are regressing back in time, and that everything we fought for can be snapped away.

The dark waves of the far right and fascism are getting closer. And suddenly, it feels that Simone was right again, that witch-hunts are never so far away, and that an old story from the past is coming back and haunting us again. It seems harder than ever to picture another future, another potential reality.

Power and magic

As the Californian ecofeminist witch Starhawk would put it, there are two kinds of power : the power over, the power which tries to be stronger and above others. This power is there to dominate, to extract, to control, hurt and kill. But there is also the power from within : this inner power that we can spread around us, as when we inspire others. The power of life which resists, produces and sustains itself. 

The power-from-within allows us to confront the horrors of power-over (wars, extermination of nature, pollution, sexual violence, etc.) and encourages us to dig in ourselves to find the energy to create another reality. Starhawk suggests practicing magic as an art of "changing consciousness". 

And this is where the term magic is interesting to explore. In its etymology, magic comes from Proto-Indo-European *magh-‘to manage’, ‘to have power’, to be able to. In its wide definition, it refers to the utilisation of supernatural forces to influence the real world through rituals, symbols, actions, gestures and language.’ 

“Language shapes consciousness, 

And the use of language to shape consciousness 

Is an important branch of magic.”

― Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark : Magic, Sex, and Politics

To work with magic is to construct new metaphors, to use new languages, to replace single meanings with multiple meanings, to precede elevation with descent, to search in the devalued world below for new visions to develop. To work with magic is also to modulate energy, concentrate it, to make it rise from the earth to support us, to make it pass between us by thought or through our hands, to direct it, which is the characteristic of the power-from-within. 

Magic enables analytical work to be done at the individual, collective and planetary levels. It is a political project of healing and care, of reparation on the triple scale of the earth, individuals and groups. It is a project for the transformation of globalisation, defending the values of life, love, diversity and abundance for all, through alliance with the Earth rather than its exploitation.

Reinventing meaning "for those of us who are trying to create this new politics, it is like a perpetual search for grace or a formula for connecting human beings with what is most deeply sensitive and most deeply alive in themselves" (Ynestra King).

Working with magic is a way of relating to the world that needs to be reappropriated collectively, through renewed languages, imaginations and collective practices that participate in an effort to transform the world. Faced with the steamroller of a world that crushes, reduces and oppresses while blinding us to it, we need more than ever to welcome a diversity of viewpoints and practices within our movements.

And magic is a good tool to navigate within darkness. Indeed, the work with the darkness is first to give space to the negative emotions and to learn how to work with anxiety, anger. We must learn to be aware of the extent of the devastation, but also to find power in experiencing these emotions. When emotions are experienced and expressed collectively, emotions such as despair and helplessness can be transformed into sources of action and power.

We have to face the darkness and let the light from within shine around. We have to keep dreaming in the dark, and if there is a slightest possibility to see the world we hope for, we have to gather all our courage to keep fighting, to keep moving on. The only secret is to find in each other the force of joyful solidarity and radical resilience needed to protect our freedom.

Let's dream and protest together- not just today but all days.

Investigate the daisies for invasion of the lawn,

or the ivy for trespass where it wants to grow.

Indict the sky for pouring out its rain,

contributing to the rivers overflow.

Arrest the seagull for unlawful flight,

impose a boundary to confine the sea,

demand a mountain modify its height,

dare my woman-spirit to break free.

 Poem from Susan Saxe : who is my network?

Ritual from the Danish witch Dannie Druehyld

Tying everything negative in herbs

Using rushes, weave a wreath while tying everything you wish to rid yourself of in the rush wreath. Burn the wreath in the fire and then jump through a bonfire. Fill the space, the freedom you have gained, with new clear energy.

If this is not enough

To rinse in a fire

At covens and parties, you can throw used amulets and things you want to be free of into the fire. It will burn up and free you from the binding.

Purification bath

Use after particularly strenuous treatments or when you need renewal, cleansing, energy and peace.

Juice of ½ lemon

4 drops of lemon oil

1 drop of rose geranium oil

is added to the water.

The bath can be taken as a body bath, hand bath or foot bath. For a tub bath, double the recipe.

Other sources:
 Yes, Lana Del Rey Hexed Donald Trump | Vanity Fair

 IVG : “Il suffira d’une crise…” D’où vient cette citation de Simone de Beauvoir ?