Etsy bans spells

spellsThe company will no longer allow sellers to offer magical incantations, sorcery or other metaphysical boons.

From the freshly-updated Can I Sell Services on Etsy? guidelines:

Any service that does not yield a new, tangible, physical item is not allowed (for example: tailoring, restoring or repairing an item, photographic retouching or color correction).


Fans of witchcraft are "incandescent", reports The Guardian, and consider the changes a form of religious discrimination.

Why, for example, should St Christopher’s medals and other blessed trinkets still be allowed for sale when they also offer less-than-tangible protections to the wearer? Are not all imaginary friends and influences created equal in the eyes of God/triple goddesses/no one at all?

The more cynical among us wonder how much the influence of mammon is at play. Because a quick sprint around the internet reveals that there is big money in spell-selling. There is a witch or witch-type-effect person ready to supply followers’/customers’/marks’ every romantic, financial or retributive need at a wide variety of price points.

eBay banned this stuff a few years back.