The Aesthetic Witch vs. The Bone Witch

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Why the Mountains Don’t Recognize Everyone Who Claims Them.


There’s been a lot of noise lately in the witchcraft spaces — new faces arriving with elaborate titles, curated imagery, and declarations of lineage as if ancestry can be purchased, assembled, or AI-generated.

So let’s get one thing straight:

Not everyone who claims the mountains is of the mountains.

Not everyone who calls herself a Granny Witch has ever sat at the feet of a woman who brewed tea that could end fever and marriages with equal precision.

And no amount of ethereal portrait filters can mirror the look in the eyes of someone who has paid for their sight.

My jar of death coins

The Rise of the Aesthetic Witch

We’ve all seen her.

She appears suddenly, already branded.
Already titled.
Already enlightened.

Her practice is:

  • curated altar photos

  • oracle decks arranged like boutique displays

  • “ancestral messages” that sound suspiciously like motivational quotes

Her magic exists in a mood, not a memory.

She means well — most do — but her craft has no weight because it has required no loss.

Her identity was assembled, not inherited.

Meanwhile — The Bone Witch

The Bone Witch didn’t choose this.

She was born into it, and then life proceeded to shape her with grief, timing, and ghosts that do not stay politely in cemeteries.

Her teachers were:

  • grandmothers with hard hands

  • kitchens that doubled as apothecaries and confessionals

  • deathbeds that whispered more truth than any church pulpit

Her altars are not arranged for photographs.
They are:

  • jars of coins from the dead

  • a rusted horseshoe that earned its power by being ignored

  • a quilt made by someone who promised to haunt kindly, and does

Her magic is not beautiful — it is effective.

And everything effective has a cost.

Health.
Sleep.
Relationships.
A portion of your softness you will never get back.

The Work takes, and the witch continues anyway.

The Litmus Test

If you want to know what kind of witch someone is, do not ask:

“Who guides you?”

Ask:

“What did it take from you?”

If the answer is:

“Nothing. Only love and light!”

Then they are not practicing witchcraft.

They are arranging aesthetics in the shape of spirituality.

There is a difference.

The Mountains Remember Their Own

You cannot:

  • download lineage

  • AI-generate blood memory

  • or brand your way into the old ways

Folk magic is born in:

  • hunger

  • death

  • prayer that sounds more like bargaining than faith

  • knowing the dead personally

The mountains do not care about your aesthetic.

They care whether your people are buried in them.

And whether you remember their names.

If You Want the Real Work

I don’t teach the glitter version of witchcraft.
I don’t teach the Pinterest spell-jar starter kit.
And I sure as hell don’t teach ancestor cosplay.

I teach the bone-deep craft:
the kitchen-and-graveyard, grief-and-knowing, hard-earned kind.

If you want to learn:

  • real protection magic

  • real spirit communication

  • real ancestor work

  • and the truth about what this path actually costs

I teach that on Ko-fi, where I can speak freely and in depth — without diluting the work for algorithms or aesthetics.

This is not for dabblers.
This is for the ones who feel the pull in their ribs.

If that’s you:

Subscribe here:
https://ko-fi.com/sagemcintire

If it’s not — the mountain keeps its secrets.

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