Date of Award

Winter 1-21-2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

History

First Advisor

Elizabeth Shermer

Second Advisor

Robert Bucholz

Abstract

"Selling the Spell" argues that Feminist Witches, or Crafters, navigated a fraught relationship with consumer culture, at once resisting commodification, embracing it, and reshaping it in ways that carried spiritual, political, and economic consequences. Drawing on oral histories, archival and digital sources, this dissertation traces the evolution of American Feminist Witchcraft and related Pagan traditions from the 1960s through the early 2000s. It situates the Craft at the intersection of feminism, counterculture, and capitalism, showing how spiritual practices that emphasized female embodiment and communal ritual became entangled with publishing, festivals, consumer goods, and the Internet. The dissertation contributes to four fields of scholarship. In Counterculture Studies, it demonstrates how Paganism extended and transformed the politics of the 1960s and 70s. In Feminist Studies, it recovers the overlooked role of spiritual feminists in shaping debates over embodiment and liberation. In Capitalism Studies, it examines how spiritual goods and services illustrate the commodification of resistance. Finally, in Pagan Studies, it offers a historical account that emphasizes intergenerational conflict, inclusion, and the destabilizing force of the digital turn. By following Paganism’s trajectory from grassroots to online communities, Selling the Spell reveals that Feminist Witchcraft's survival in America was not despite the market, but through it.

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