The People Who Hurt You the Most Rarely Need Witchcraft
Sometimes the real “magic” is envy, manipulation, and quiet human cruelty.
In the place where I grew up, the word witchcraft wasn’t a metaphor.
It was spoken carefully.
Quietly.
Almost like saying it too loudly might invite something unwanted into the room.
People didn’t laugh about witchcraft. They respected it. Feared it. Stories about it moved through families the same way recipes did; passed down, repeated, rarely questioned.
A neighbor falls mysteriously sick.
A business collapses overnight.
A child wakes up screaming about the same dream every night.
And sooner or later someone would whisper the explanation.
“Someone is doing something.”
When enough people around you believe something, it stops sounding like folklore and starts feeling like truth right?
So yes, there was a time I believed in witchcraft too.
But growing older has a strange way of rearranging your beliefs.
Not because the stories disappear.
But because you begin to notice something else.
...
Sometimes What We Call Witchcraft Is Just a Name for the Unknown
Human beings have always needed explanations.
Before science explained disease, people blamed curses.
Before psychology explained trauma, people blamed spirits.
Before we understood probability, we blamed enemies we couldn’t see.
Witchcraft became a convenient answer to life’s most uncomfortable mystery:
Why do bad things happen when no one can explain them?
It fills the space between “I don’t know why this happened” and “someone must be responsible.”
And in many places around the world, that explanation still survives.
But adulthood complicates simple beliefs.
Because when you observe people closely enough, you begin to realize something unsettling.
Sometimes the darkness we fear isn’t supernatural at all.
Sometimes it’s just human.
...
Humans Don’t Need Magic to Destroy Each Other
No spells.
No rituals.
No mysterious powders.
Just words.
Just jealousy.
Just manipulation.
I have watched reputations collapse because someone started a rumor at the right moment.
I have seen friendships dissolve because someone quietly planted doubt in the wrong ear.
I have seen people isolate others so effectively that the victim began questioning their own sanity.
No witchcraft required.
Just strategy.
Just cruelty.
Just the frightening precision of human behavior when envy enters the room.
...
Sometimes what we call witchcraft is simply the human ability to harm others without leaving fingerprints.
Fear Makes the Invisible Feel Real
Belief itself is powerful.
If a community decides someone is cursed, the consequences become real even if the cause is imagined.
People begin avoiding them.
Opportunities quietly disappear.
Conversations stop when they enter the room.
Slowly, their world shrinks.
Not because magic exists.
But because fear does.
And fear spreads faster than facts.
...
The Older I Get, the Simpler the Truth Looks
Do I believe people are capable of hurting others intentionally?
Absolutely.
Do I believe jealousy can drive people to sabotage someone else's happiness?
Without hesitation.
But do I believe there are secret circles of people controlling lives through invisible spells?
The older I get, the more I suspect something else.
Something simpler.
Something more uncomfortable.
Humans don’t need supernatural powers to create suffering.
We are already very good at it.
The real danger has never been witches.
It has always been the quiet darkness people carry inside them.
...
So Do I Believe in Witchcraft?
I believe in envy.
I believe in manipulation.
I believe in people who smile warmly while quietly undermining someone’s life.
And sometimes, when those forces combine, the outcome feels so strange and destructive that people reach for the only word that seems big enough to explain it.
Witchcraft.
But maybe the better question isn’t whether witchcraft exists.
Maybe the real question is:
Why are we so quick to blame invisible forces instead of confronting the darkness that already lives inside human behavior?
A Question For You;
Where you come from, do people believe in witchcraft?
Or
do you think most of what people call witchcraft is simply human jealousy and manipulation wearing a mysterious name?
About the Creator
Ajan Lori Abei
Writer exploring identity, human behavior, and life between cultures. Sharing reflective essays and observations from an African living in Japan.


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