Queer Magic: Reclaiming Power, Pleasure, and Possibility in the LGBTQ+ Mystical Tradition

To be queer is to be magic. To live outside the rules is to live inside your power.

Introduction: Queerness Is a Spell

To be queer is to defy categorization—fluid, shifting, resisting binaries and static definitions. And so is magic.

For centuries, LGBTQ+ people have existed in the margins: feared, worshipped, exiled, and exalted. Like witches. Like prophets. Like shapeshifters and tricksters and those who talk to spirits. Queerness and magic have always danced together in the dark, hidden beneath society’s polished surface, whispering secrets to those brave enough to listen.

In this blog, we’ll explore the roots, roles, and resurrection of queer magic across cultures, time periods, and spiritual frameworks, and how today’s LGBTQ+ witches, mystics, and magical practitioners are reclaiming their sacred lineage with glitter, grit, and grace.

Queer Spirits in Ancient Traditions

Magic has never been straight.

• Mesopotamia & Inanna's Priests: The gala priests of Inanna were often gender-nonconforming or trans-identified people who served the goddess through ecstatic rituals, lamentations, and sacred songs. Their gender fluidity was seen as a divine gift—a sacred crossing between worlds.

• Indigenous Third Genders: From the two-spirit peoples of many Indigenous North American nations to the hijra of South Asia, third-gender or nonbinary individuals often served as shamans, spirit mediums, or ritual specialists. Their ability to walk between gender realms mirrored their ability to walk between physical and spiritual ones.

• Greek and Roman Gender Play: Dionysus, god of wine, madness, and ecstasy, was worshipped in gender-blended rituals and sometimes took on feminine traits. Oracles, effeminate priests, and same-sex love stories flourished within ancient temple walls long before the heteronormative clampdown of empire and church.
  

Queer people have always been part of the sacred scaffolding of the spiritual world. What was once holy became heresy only when colonization, patriarchy, and religious hierarchy required conformity.

The Witch, the Outcast, and the Queer Body

Historically, queer people and witches shared the same fate: demonized, misunderstood, and targeted.

• Medieval & Colonial Witch Hunts: While gender nonconformity wasn’t always labeled as queer by today’s definitions, anyone who didn’t perform their assigned role was suspect. Unmarried women, cross-dressing men, or midwives with too much independence were at higher risk of persecution. Many of these people might now be recognized as LGBTQ+.

• The Body as Resistance: Queer bodies disrupt systems of power. They challenge ideas of what love looks like, what gender should be, what families must consist of. And in magical traditions, the body is the vessel of power. To inhabit your body fully—especially as a queer person—is itself a revolutionary act of enchantment.

• Sex Magic & Liberation: Queer sex magic is not new. From Tantric rituals to modern chaos magick orgies, LGBTQ+ practitioners have long used desire as a spiritual tool. Pleasure, when wielded intentionally, becomes a prayer—a spell of self-possession and ecstatic rebellion.
  

Modern Queer Witchcraft

Queer witches today are lighting up the cauldron again, mixing the old ways with new truths.

• Rewriting Rituals: LGBTQ+ practitioners are creating rituals that reflect their lived experiences. Gendered binaries in traditional Wicca (Goddess and God, for example) are being reimagined into fluid pantheons, queer godforms, or entirely new cosmologies.

• Deities of the Margins: Deities like Loki, Hecate, Lilith, and the Morrigan are often embraced by queer witches—not because these figures are necessarily queer themselves, but because they represent liminality, rebellion, and transformation.

• Queer Magical Communities: From queer covens to online queer tarot collectives, LGBTQ+ practitioners are forming spaces that center inclusion, intersectionality, and decolonial ethics. These spaces honor neurodivergence, disability, and race alongside queerness—making magic truly radical again.
  

Part Four: Tools, Spells, and Practices for Queer Magic

1. Queer Sigil Magic: Create sigils that represent your gender euphoria, pronoun power, or sacred sexuality. Charge them with dance, breath, glitter, or pleasure.

2. Mirror Work for Gender and Body Healing: Look into the mirror as a magical portal. Speak affirmations aloud. Ask your future self what messages they have for your present body.

3. Ancestor Reclamation: Many queer witches adopt “chosen ancestors”—saints, rebels, artists, and witches of the past who lived outside the norms. You don’t have to be biologically connected to claim spiritual kinship.

4. Queering the Tarot: Rethink the Lovers card. Deconstruct gender roles in the Emperor and Empress. Let the Fool be a drag king. Read the cards through your own lens of experience.

5. Crossroads Work: As beings who live between categories, queer people are natural dwellers of the crossroads—a potent space in many magical systems. Meditate, cast spells, or leave offerings at real or symbolic crossroads to honor your liminality.

Conclusion: You Are the Spell

In a world that told you to be silent, queer magic teaches you to speak in tongues. In a culture that punished difference, queer magic celebrates divinity in diversity. You are the liminal, the wild, the possible.

LGBTQ+ magic isn’t just about adding rainbows to your altar—it’s about radically reclaiming your right to exist, thrive, and enchant the world on your own terms.

So light the candle. Speak the spell. Dance like the spirits are watching.

You are the witch. You are the spell. You are the revolution. 🌈 Further Reading & Resources from Queer Practitioners of Magic

These books, podcasts, blogs, and zines are written or hosted by queer witches, mystics, healers, and magical thinkers. They offer personal stories, practical rituals, and authentic insight into what it means to live at the crossroads of queerness and spirituality.

📚 Books & Zines (First-Person, Queer-Authored)

• Queering Your Craft: Witchcraft from the Margins by Cassandra Snow A deeply personal guide written by a queer, nonbinary witch. Snow explores how to adapt traditional witchcraft practices to affirm queer identity, gender fluidity, and intersectional ethics.

• The Queer Witch’s Guide to Magick by Cala Rose Wren A colorful, accessible introduction to magic through a queer lens, blending storytelling and spellwork. Wren shares their journey as a queer trans witch with humor, warmth, and honesty.

• Outside the Charmed Circle: Exploring Gender & Sexuality in Magical Practice by Misha Magdalene A thoughtful and poetic dive into gender, sex, and spirituality from a polyamorous, nonbinary witch. Part memoir, part magical theory, part ritual handbook.

• Transcendent 3: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction (eds. Bogi Takács, et al.) While not strictly magical nonfiction, many of the stories blur fantasy and magical realism, offering insight into trans consciousness and transformation as a kind of spiritual alchemy.

• Queer Magic: Power Beyond Boundaries by Tomas Prower Includes both historical overviews and interviews with LGBTQ+ magical practitioners from around the world—many sharing personal reflections and first-person spells.

• Witchbody by Sabrina Scott A graphic novel-style memoir blending queer identity, ecology, and witchcraft. Highly visual, meditative, and deeply intimate.
  

🎙️ Podcasts & Audio (Queer-Run & First-Person)

• The Queer Witch Podcast – Hosted by Anna Joy, a nonbinary intuitive witch. Features interviews with LGBTQ+ practitioners and discussions on queer visibility in magical spaces.

• Betwixt & Between – A podcast hosted by two queer witches discussing their lived experiences with magic, family, seasonal practices, and queerness.

• Living Open: A Podcast for Mystics & Seekers – Hosted by queer witch Eryn Johnson, this podcast centers healing, softness, and spiritual activism through interviews and solo reflections.
  

🔮 Blogs, Essays, & Online Platforms

• Little Red Tarot Blog – A UK-based queer collective that ran for many years, offering first-person articles, queer tarot spreads, and spiritual essays. Many contributors, like Beth Maiden (they/she), identify as queer witches.

• Hoodwitch.com – Features guest articles from queer BIPOC witches and healers. Focuses on decolonized, inclusive magic with contributions rooted in lived experience.

• Venus in Retro Collective (Instagram + Newsletter) – A community of queer and trans mystics sharing ritual, poetry, astrology, and dreamwork. Often includes submissions from LGBTQ+ practitioners.

• Zines:

  • “Trans Witches Are Witches” – A community zine compiled by various queer and trans witches reclaiming space in magical communities. (Available on Etsy and Gumroad)

  • “Hex the Cis-tem” – A punky, raw, spell-slinging zine series focused on gender euphoria, trans rage, and magical resistance.
    

🧙‍♂️A Note on Using These Resources Respectfully:

These works are not just aesthetic inspiration—they are living records of resilience and reclamation. Please support the creators directly when possible (buy their books, tip on Ko-fi, follow and share their work), and remember: being an ally in queer magical spaces means listening, learning, and showing up with integrity.