the chat-gpt-ificaction of witchcraft spaces
This is not a post about using ai in witchcraft, which is the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard genuinely. This is about the way witchcraft spaces and the people in them are interacting.
I have been practicing for many years, ive read a lot of books, and because of this people tend to come to me with a lot of questions. just a few years ago people would ask me things like, "how do i get started with energy sensing and manipulation" "what are good sources for witchcraft in x religion/culture" and i was happy to help, i love to answer questions.
Now i get significantly more questions, but the questions are " what does this tarot spread mean" "is aphrodite angry at me since my candle flame moved?" "why did my ceramic plate break when i lit a pile of dry herbs on fire on it" (thats a real question i got, which they then ignored the scientific explanation for and blamed hermes instead) "i saw a deer outside, in texas, in the spring, is that a sign?"
you know what else? ill say "start with this book" sometimes i even give them a pdf, and they say, "i dont really read books." so i go "ok heres a really good in depth video on it" and they say "but thats 45 minutes long."
and i have been very deeply upset about this, and ive thought "what is happening to this community where people are getting just plain stupid?" and then the other day it clicked for me. These people are using me like chat-gpt. theyre asking me these bizarre, either wildly vague or hyper specific questions about minute things, and expecting a short, currated response. this behavior is so strange, they pull a card and instead of reading the symbolism, or the little white book, they pick up their phone and open discord or tumblr or whatever and ask people like me. its this bypassing of thought, of intuition, of critical thinking.
i dont have a solution, but i needed to point this out as a sanity check or psa or whatever you'd call this.
