Witches upset that Etsy has banned spells
Popular seller's platform is cutting them off
When eBay banned the selling of spells and potions in 2012, it hit the magickal community hard. A lot of witches had been making a decent side income selling spells, potions, talismans, and other such things. Many of them switched to Etsy to continue their sales, but Etsy has just followed suit, and the witches are ticked.
Etsy's new change bans the sale of "any metaphysical service that promises a physical change (e.g. weight loss) or other outcome (e.g. love, revenge)."
Under Etsy's previous rules, people could sell spells and hexes so long as the seller did not promise results, and as long as they came with an actual item. So for example, you could sell a tarot reading as long as you provided a digital download along with the reading. Or you could sell a spell, as long as it came with a candle.
The former rules seem reasonable enough, but it follows in the wake of a recent FDA crackdown on Etsy sellers who were marketing soap and body oils using unproven health claims, which is illegal under United States law. These new laws seem designed to help conform to those FDA restrictions. In other words, it sounds like Etsy got a spanking from the FDA in the soap aisle, and decided to tighten things up in the spells aisle proactively.
Hopefully witches will continue to be able to sell their services, as long as they adjust the wording of their listings to suit the new rules.