“Witchcraft is having a bit of a renaissance. Gen Z and Millennial women, queer-identifying people, and people of color are reclaiming practices of magic, Indigenous spirituality, and occult wellness practices — part of a larger feminist tradition that dates back for generations.
One group that embraced radical witchcraft was the Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH). Founded in 1968 as an offshoot of the radical feminist group New York Radical Women (NYRW), WITCH concentrated on coordinated acts of what radical feminist Susan Brownmiller called “hit-and-run guerrilla theater,” a form of public demonstration known as a “zap” that combined poetry, witchcraft, and protest. Peggy Dobbins, Judith Duffett, Bev Grant, Florika Remetier, Cynthia Funk, Robin Morgan, and Naomi Jaffey were among the participants in WITCH. Members of WITCH belonged to a subset of second-wave feminism that sought to expose capitalism — rather than men — as the true enemy of women.”
“On Halloween 1968, the original New York WITCH coven carried out their first zap action. They came to Wall Street dressed as witches, declaring it the epicenter of corporate America’s persecution of women and, as noted in an essay by Debra Michals, “demanded an audience with Satan, our superior, at the Stock Exchange.” The collective brought a paper-maché pig’s head on a golden plate and with their brooms and wands surrounded the statue of George Washington on the building’s stairs because it was “a symbol of patriarchal, slave-holding power,” according to Craig J. Peariso in “Radical Theatrics: Put-Ons, Politics, and the Sixties.” Then they performed a spell to render the bank’s money and gold bars useless. Victoria Bromley says Robin Morgan declared victory, claiming that the Dow Jones stock market index fell the next day as a consequence of their zap.”
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/womens-international-terrorist-conspiracy-from-hell
