Yet, where Cottagecore offers hope for a good, green world that just might be baked and planted into existence, WitchTok audaciously skips past the bounds of possibility, and promises supernatural means of making life more bearable. In short, it is pure escapism, and so is WitchTok creators of WitchToks often also make Cottagecore videos. Cottagecore TikToks are perfect means of escapism, featuring castles, fields, elf ears, and magic flutes, among other elements of wonder. Cottagecore videos are saccharine and safe: jam is preserved, mushrooms are picked, and flowing dresses stream across ripe fields while a girlfriend holds the camera and gentle music plays. Cottagecore is a popular fashion and lifestyle aesthetic that evokes the bucolic idyll of country living.

I accidentally found WitchTok because I had вЂ“ to my shame, IвЂ™ll admit вЂ“ found it calming to watch compilations of Cottagecore TikTok videos in my breaks during PhD research. Videos labelled #WitchTok have so far clocked up an impressive 18.7 billion views. One of these is the вЂњWitchTokвЂќ community. While the most watched TikTok videos may appear asinine to anyone who doesnвЂ™t enjoy teenagers lip syncing to popular songs, some surprising subcultures have arisen since the platformвЂ™s inception in 2017. The Insights team generates long-form journalism and is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges. This story is part of Conversation Insights This is why IвЂ™m here to listen to articulate and likeable young people across the globe discussing theories of knowledge and the supernatural вЂ“ beliefs to which I myself cannot subscribe.Д®ven more astonishingly, these Generation Z occultists, with their substantial followings on Twitter and TikTok, are about to debate a form of magic that lies at the heart of my research into ShakespeareвЂ™s England. The history of magic fascinates me because it is a history of people вЂ“ of human faults and foibles, vanities, hopes and needs вЂ“ rather than because of any genuine investment in the esoteric. Suspending disbelief is my forte, but actually believing is something IвЂ™ve never been very good at. British painter George Romney was only one of many artists whose imagination was inspired by the three witches in ShakespeareвЂ™s Macbeth. When IвЂ™m not researching plays, IвЂ™m writing them: IвЂ™m an award-winning playwright, whose work has been performed across the UK and abroad. My research combines my fascination with the mechanisms of belief with my love of storytelling and the stage. IвЂ™m researching the representation of magic on the early modern stage, and am interested in the ways in which dangerous, forbidden or вЂњoccultвЂќ knowledge was theorised by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

When people ask me what I do, itвЂ™s always fun to tell them, вЂњI study magic at Cambridge University.вЂќ ItвЂ™s technically true. She didnвЂ™t even let me read Harry Potter.

My mum would hate this, I canвЂ™t help thinking to myself. The chat box is buzzing as occultists of various stripes arrive to hear the arguments. As an atheist, IвЂ™m very likely in the minority, though IвЂ™m not the only Brit to have turned up in spite of it being such an ungodly hour this side of the pond. As I had made a note in my diary of a public debate that I wanted to attend out of sheer curiosity, it seemed astonishing to be asking myself whether Solomonic magic, the same found in books of necromancy dating back hundreds of years, was on the brink of cancellation in 2021.ДЄt 28, IвЂ™m slightly too old to be familiar with the platform Twitch, mostly used for live video streaming, but tonight IвЂ™ve managed to get it working for this particular debate. To my further bemusement, it seemed that the tradition of Solomonic magic had recently faced accusations that its strict and authoritative approach to the command of demons amounted to a form of abuse, akin to domestic violence.

Twitter had suggested to me that I might be interested in an account called вЂњSolomonic magicвЂќ, and a few clicks later I had found myself immersed in a vast online community of young occultists, tweeting and retweeting the latest theories and controversies, and using TikTok to share their craft. I first discovered this debate because, in the course of studying 16th century books of magic attributed to Solomon, I had found, to my astonishment, that вЂњSolomonic magicвЂќ is still alive and well today, and growing in popularity. The other describes themselves as a вЂњSolomonic magicianвЂќ, and claims to be able to command demons to do his bidding, as some Jewish and Islamic traditions have believed of King Solomon, who ruled Israel in the 10th century BC. One is a вЂњdemonolaterвЂќ, a word I have never heard before, someone who claims they worship demons and can petition them in return for knowledge or power. ItвЂ™s 1.30am in the morning, and IвЂ™m about to watch a duel between magicians.

Fallout 1 cut content