Original Magic: The Rituals and Initiations of the Persian Magi - Michael M. Hughes 2018

Binding Trump

At midnight on February 24, 2017, about forty of my friends and I gathered around a bonfire in a backyard in Baltimore City to cast a binding spell on Donald Trump and all those who abet him. It was the culmination of an extraordinarily surreal week of intense international press coverage and nonstop phone and email interviews, all accompanied by my growing sense that I had not merely written a spell that had gone viral but had unknowingly assisted in the birth of something unimaginably bigger.

It was, in fact, the largest mass magical ritual in history.

When I first posted the text of the spell on the website Medium, I assumed it might generate minor interest in the progressive Pagan and magical communities, and maybe some appreciative chuckles from my network of artist and activist friends. Instead, with a viral rapidity that could not have existed before social networks, it exploded exponentially and became a novel, rapidly growing social movement under the umbrella hashtag #MagicResistance—a term I had cheekily appropriated from my adolescent years playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Something had emerged from our shattered collective psyche as we comprehended the enormity of the unspooling Trumpian dystopia—a deep and widespread desire to employ our spiritual energy as an act of resistance.

It all began an evening shortly after the 2016 election as a friend and I sat drinking beer and ruminating about the dismaying results. He had been surprised at Hillary Clinton’s loss, while I had felt a creeping unease that Donald Trump’s use of nationalism, xenophobia, racism, and misogyny during his campaign would lead him to victory. We exchanged ideas about what, exactly, we could do as a response to the increasingly bizarre and distressing events that were unfolding in the wake of Trump’s ascendancy.

We considered hosting a resistance party, for which I would DJ, and donating the proceeds to the ACLU. We bandied about ideas for direct actions and targeted protests like those we saw taking place across the United States.

“It has to be something unusual,” I said. “Something to match the surreality of what’s happening.” After a few minutes of silence, I asked, “What about a spell?”

My friend seemed perplexed. “What?”

“A spell,” I said. “A hex on Trump. A group ritual anyone could join.”

My friend laughed. “That’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever come up with.”

But I couldn’t shake the idea. I had been practicing magic most of my adult life, although I wasn’t very open about it. So the following day I started writing a binding spell, using bits and pieces from a number of diverse traditions. When I had a draft finished, I emailed it to some of my witch and occultist friends. Most of them liked it, a few didn’t, and I received some useful suggestions. I spent some time polishing the language and decided it was good enough to publish.

I posted the spell on Medium the afternoon of February 16, 2017, and shared it on Facebook and Twitter. I expected maybe a few dozen people would read and appreciate it.

After an hour I checked the stats. Several hundred people had viewed it. I started getting feedback on Facebook—people were sharing it widely. And not just my Pagan and magician friends, but people of all ages and demographics.

And then it really blew up.

Two days later, the original Medium post had passed a hundred thousand views and showed no sign of slowing. My email started filling up with requests for interviews from major print, radio, and TV reporters. Friends were asking to join in the ritual. Where was it going to happen? Could they bring their friends along?

And witches, in particular, were getting on board. I was contacted by dozens of witches and Pagans who wanted to know more or host their own binding rituals on the night I had chosen, February 24, at midnight under the waning crescent moon. Artists were creating images to promote the event. Even more fascinating were the nonwitches and people who had never considered doing a magical ritual. “Why not?” was a common refrain. “It can’t hurt.”

As the days passed, the press interest only increased. Producers from a local Fox TV station caught wind that I was based in Baltimore and began hounding me for permission to show up and film the upcoming ritual. Hate-filled emails began arriving in droves, too, along with an occasional death threat. I did so many interviews I lost track, but the requests kept coming in. I told Fox News to fuck off and that I would never work with lapdog state media, but they kept persisting.

On February 23 I received a barrage of requests from antsy TV producers who wanted to capture the ritual. Where could they find witches to film in their area? Was it happening on the West Coast? In Boston? Washington, DC? In London? Several of the covens I knew of didn’t want to be filmed, but the requests kept coming in.

I felt bad that I couldn’t give them direct answers. So I lied. “I hear a group of witches is going to do the ritual outside of Trump Tower,” I started telling them. “At midnight. It’s gonna be lit.”

In the meantime, a friend offered his wooded backyard for our ritual. He had a fire pit and it was close enough to the city for it to be easily accessible. More people were contacting me asking to attend. Another friend offered to film it for posterity.

On the day of the ritual I left work early to prepare. I needed to finish shopping. I bought all the orange candles in my local witchcraft store and then had to hit a new age bookstore several miles away to get more (I bought all of theirs, too). And because I hang out with a lot of artists and bohemian types, I stopped by a liquor store to get some beer and wine. When the young woman at the register asked me if I wanted my receipt, I said, “Oh, definitely. I’m going to write this off. I’m cursing Donald Trump tonight.”

She smiled. “Oh. Do you have the unflattering photo of him?”

I stood, stunned.

She laughed. “I’m getting together with my friends to do it tonight.”

At midnight on February 24, we performed the first ritual to bind Donald Trump and all those abetting him. It was live-streamed on Facebook, and tens of thousands tuned in to watch.

When it was over, we all broke out in spontaneous cheers. What had begun as a bit of a lark had become a global happening.

A friend showed me the news on his phone. In New York City and in Chicago, witches gathered together on the sidewalk next to the Trump Towers with their stubby orange candles and Tower tarot cards and burned unflattering photos of Donald Trump while camera crews eagerly captured it. The producers got their footage after all.

And that was just the beginning.

Every waning crescent moon since that February evening, people around the world, alone or in groups, have gathered at a minute before midnight (Eastern Time) to focus their consciousness in a ritualistic effort to bind Donald Trump and his cohorts from doing harm. Afterward, many of these witches, magicians, artists, and activists gathered on Facebook and other social media to share photos of their altars (many of which are beautiful works of art in their own right) as well as their emotions, visions, and experiences. For the majority, the spell is liberating and energizing, a reclaiming of personal power and an affirmation of their deeply held values in the face of what they see as a dangerous, antidemocratic administration.

Far from being ineffectual “slacktivism,” as some of its critics have branded it, the ritual (and others developed by participants) helps many of us stay focused, committed, and invigorated for our everyday activism and resistance. It has become a spiritual balm and a monthly reminder of our commitment to fighting injustice and the ongoing dismantling of our liberal democracy.

If you’re reading this, and if (gods forbid) Donald Trump is still president, you can join the rest of us by following the spell below every waning crescent moon at midnight. If he’s no longer president (thank the gods), you can adapt it to bind other horrible individuals in power and read it as a document of the #MagicResistance and a testament to those who drove him from office.

Because you can bet your pointy hat we’ll take credit.