During the Halloween season, many people celebrate by watching cute, witchy movies like Practical Magic. But for some, being a witch is more than a movie trope: it’s a year-round lifestyle they live while balancing a full-time college schedule.
Amber Fae Moon is a junior in college who began identifying as a witch about 10 years ago. “I had experimented with witchcraft and was drawn to it from a very early age, but I was raised as a pastor’s kid in a very strict, religious house,” she explains to Her Campus. “So, dabbling in the occult was expressly forbidden.”
Eventually, she tried her hand at casting a spell. “I was shocked when it worked,” she says. “And that’s when it ‘clicked,’ and I called myself a witch from that point on.”
Moon isn’t the only witch on a college campus. Gaby*, a senior at the University of Central Florida, also said she had felt an attraction to the occult since she was young. “I didn’t identify as a witch until one of my friends at the time and I had a discussion about it [when I was older],” she says. “We did some research [about witchcraft], and being a witch made sense.”
So, what is it like being a witch in college? Are there cauldrons in the dorm room, or secret seances in the rec hall? As it turns out, college witchcraft is much more grounded in community and personal empowerment.
In Moon’s room, you can find earthy elements — like leaves, sticks, and the occasional animal carcass — used in rituals and altars. “[My witchcraft practice is] heavily influenced by European folk tradition on the skeleton of ritual high magick,” she explains. “I go for walks in nature and find things I’m drawn to, and usually, I come home and find out something I picked up from my walk was used in folk magic for specific intentions I was already looking to accomplish.”
While Gaby’s craft uses fewer earth materials, she utilizes more specific objects to assist her in her spells — and she keeps them in her room, where she also does readings and spells for friends. “I frequently use my tarot cards, a pendulum, and I have a small collection of crystals,” she says.
For Gaby, balancing school, a job, and her practice is difficult. “I am so busy with school that I don’t really have much of a set schedule for any sort of casting,” she says. “College has really hindered my ability to [dedicate time to it], but once I graduate, I hope to do more with my craft.”
Despite this, Gaby still says she finds time to practice, especially when life gets busy or overwhelming. “I keep track of lunar changes and certain times when I should pull tarot cards — [like during] seasonal changes,” she says. “I [also] make an effort to use my tarot cards whenever I have something I’m struggling with.”
On the flip side, Moon says she actually practices witchcraft more now than she did before college. “I definitely have less time to research and get into intense ritual space,” she says, “but people come to me to perform spells and tarot readings for them. My time is pretty stretched thin.”
While doing things like spellwork for others takes up a good chunk of her time, as it turns out, witchcraft is something Moon uses to help with her studies. “I’m a philosophy major with goals of law school, so my academics come first,” she says. “I love using witchcraft to help with my schoolwork.” Moon does so by doing things like spellwork to help her with exams, or energy work to help her stay in a routine when things get hectic. “It helps me focus, gets me in the zone, and gives me confidence,” she says.
Along with balancing school and witchcraft, there’s another inevitable struggle college witches run into: housing constraints. Between using candles, lighting incense, and finding the space to display tools like altars, being a college witch means adjusting how they practice. “I lived in an apartment that would set off the smoke detectors anytime a candle was lit, and the upstairs neighbors would complain if I lit incense,” Moon says.
Gaby shares a similar experience. “I always have to be careful of setting off the fire alarm from having too many candles burning,” she admits.
It’s not every day that you meet a college witch, even if they’re walking right next to you on campus. The reason for that may be less about the fact that they’re rare, and more about an inherent fear of judgment — something both Gaby and Moon say they’ve experienced. “I grew up Catholic, and my family doesn’t know,” Gaby says. “I would prefer to keep it that way.”
Moon shares a similar experience with her family. “My family was the scariest part, [with my dad] being a pastor and all,” she says. “However, they’ve grown a lot over the years, and my dad asks me about my tarot clients all the time now.”
Despite feeling judged for practicing witchcraft as a child, Moon says continuing her work has allowed her to build a community, which includes people who didn’t understand witchcraft at first. Recently, someone from Moon’s childhood even asked her to cast a spell for good weather on their wedding day. “Getting the message that it was clear skies and cool weather for a perfect ceremony was incredibly fulfilling,” she says.
For Gaby, her friends are actually her safe place from that judgment — giving her a community that not only accepts, but embraces her practice. “My friends have always been like, ‘That’s so cool’ or, ‘That makes sense for you,’” she says, adding that she regularly does readings for her friends.
From being able to give friends insights about what the next semester has in store to helping others during important life events, being a college witch is ultimately about connection and empowerment — and being able to create that is magic in and of itself.
*Names have been changed