On September 10, 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University. Two days earlier, an American publication had released an extraordinary article describing purchases of witchcraft curses targeting him.
The timing immediately attracted attention. What had originally been presented as a provocative experiment involving online spell sellers suddenly appeared alongside a real assassination, creating an unsettling coincidence that spread through public discussion.
The article appeared on Jezebel, an American feminist news and commentary website. Its journalist had reportedly visited Etsy, a marketplace normally associated with handmade products, searching for sellers offering curses against political opponents.
During August 2025, the writer contacted several self-described witches and purchased supernatural services intended to inconvenience or negatively affect Kirk. The article treated the transactions as a provocative, humorous response to his politics.
One practitioner allegedly offered a powerful hex directed at Kirk. Another seller, identified in the account as Priestess Lilith, provided supposed evidence that a ritual had been performed on the intended target.
That evidence included a photograph showing Kirk’s image burning, its edges curling inward. According to the article, the ritual occurred around August 23, during a new moon associated with the astrological sign Virgo.
Another practitioner reportedly predicted that the curse’s effects would begin appearing within two or three weeks. The prediction was not evidence of supernatural power, but the timing later became central to public fascination.
On September 8, Jezebel published its account of the purchased curses. The article described the experiment with satirical language and made clear that the writer was not seeking Kirk’s physical injury or death.
Two days later, Kirk was shot while addressing an audience at Utah Valley University. His death transformed the public interpretation of the earlier article, attracting condemnation, speculation, and renewed attention to the online sellers.
The coincidence was undeniably striking, but chronology alone cannot establish causation. No credible evidence demonstrated that the purchased spells influenced the shooting or that the journalist or practitioners orchestrated the violent attack.
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Following the assassination, Jezebel publicly condemned political violence. Its publisher explained that the article had been intended as satire, while the publication subsequently removed the text after receiving legal advice.
The removal generated additional discussion about responsibility and interpretation. Some readers regarded the article as tasteless political commentary, while others questioned whether the events revealed something unsettling about ritual and human intention.
The episode also revived a much older question. For thousands of years, people across different cultures have attempted to influence enemies through symbolic acts, believing that destroying an image might harm its subject.
Anthropologists commonly describe this principle as sympathetic magic. The underlying belief proposes that objects resembling people, or connected to them symbolically, can become substitutes through which supernatural influence is supposedly directed.
British anthropologist James George Frazer explored these ideas in The Golden Bough. He argued that many magical traditions relied upon the belief that similar objects and actions could produce corresponding effects.
Under this interpretation, a photograph represents more than ordinary paper. For someone practicing sympathetic magic, its resemblance to a particular individual supposedly creates a connection that allows a ritual to influence that person.
Such beliefs existed long before photography. Ancient Egyptians performed ceremonies involving objects inscribed with the names of enemies, hoping that the ritual destruction of those objects would weaken threatening individuals or kingdoms.
These objects are known as execration texts. Names could be written on pottery, figurines, or other materials before the items were deliberately broken, creating a symbolic representation of defeating the named adversaries.
Comparable practices appeared in ancient Greece and Rome. People inscribed curses on thin sheets of lead, sometimes piercing them with nails or depositing them in places associated with supernatural powers.
The surviving objects reveal a remarkable range of concerns. Some curses targeted personal rivals, romantic competitors, thieves, or legal opponents, showing how magical practices became tools for expressing resentment and seeking imagined intervention.
During medieval and early modern European history, similar beliefs appeared in the creation of wax or cloth effigies. These small figures represented particular people and could be used in protective or harmful rituals.
Practitioners sometimes inserted needles into figures or exposed wax models to flames. According to the sympathetic principle, the symbolic injury was intended to produce suffering in the person represented by the object.
The similarities between these historical practices and the burning photograph of Kirk are visually striking. Nevertheless, similarity in ritual symbolism does not prove that the same supernatural mechanism exists or produces measurable effects.
Another modern example emerged during protests against Iran’s leadership. In January 2026, footage circulated showing a woman lighting a cigarette from a burning photograph of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The footage originated in Canada and became associated with opposition to Iran’s government. The act was understood primarily as political protest, using the destruction of a leader’s image to communicate rejection.
On February 28, 2026, Khamenei was killed during American and Israeli military strikes against Iran. The event occurred after the protest footage circulated, creating another chronological connection explored through the lens of sympathetic magic.
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The military operation had identifiable human and geopolitical causes. The burning photograph did not demonstrate supernatural involvement, and there is no established evidence connecting the protester’s symbolic action to the subsequent airstrike.
Yet the comparison illustrates why these images attract attention. Both involved recognizable political figures whose photographs were deliberately burned before their deaths, inviting interpretations based upon symbolism, coincidence, and supernatural belief.
Within some magical traditions, practitioners argue that rituals do not directly cause events. Instead, they believe concentrated intention influences surrounding circumstances, allegedly increasing the likelihood of particular outcomes occurring in reality.
This interpretation differs fundamentally from scientific explanations. There is no reliable evidence that concentrating hostile intentions through magical rituals can change physical events or cause the death of another person.
The documentary contrasts these coincidences with another political ritual that did not produce the intended result. In February 2017, practitioners organized collective magical ceremonies directed against newly inaugurated President Donald Trump.
The event became widely associated with a movement attempting to bind Trump’s political influence. Participants were encouraged to use photographs, candles, spoken invocations, and symbolic gestures during a coordinated ritual.
Instructions circulated through social media, allowing individuals in different locations to participate simultaneously. The practice transformed a traditionally private supernatural ceremony into a public act of collective political resistance.
The ritual sought to prevent Trump from causing harm rather than to physically attack him. Nevertheless, its participants invoked spiritual powers and performed symbolic actions intended to limit his political effectiveness.
Trump remained alive and politically influential long afterward. His continued public career presented an obvious challenge to claims that the collective spell had successfully restrained his ability to exercise political power.
Skeptics would regard the outcome as consistent with the absence of supernatural influence. Believers, however, sometimes explain unsuccessful rituals through competing intentions, protective spiritual forces, or other elements of magical doctrine.
The documentary explores one such explanation through Christian prayers offered for Trump. During his first inauguration in January 2017, religious supporters publicly prayed for his presidency and described his election in spiritual terms.
Some evangelical leaders portrayed Trump as a figure serving divine purposes. Their language reflected religious interpretations of political events rather than independently established evidence that supernatural forces had selected or protected him.
Prayer gatherings attracted supporters who believed their faith could guide national leadership. In this understanding, religious devotion represented a positive spiritual influence operating alongside the hostile intentions expressed through opposing magical ceremonies.
The documentary develops this contrast into the idea of spiritual warfare. It suggests that different groups might attempt to direct supernatural intentions toward competing political outcomes, although this remains a theological interpretation.
A related discussion concerns Christian leaders praying over Trump during his later presidency. The account describes religious figures laying hands upon him and requesting divine protection during heightened international tensions involving Iran.
Such ceremonies represent recognizable Christian prayer practices. Calling them magic is an interpretive comparison based upon shared ideas about intention, not a universally accepted description of Christian theology or religious worship.
The documentary also references reports of religious language used in military settings. According to the account, some personnel alleged that commanders framed the conflict with Iran through biblical prophecy and apocalyptic imagery.
These allegations raised concerns about the relationship between religious belief and military authority. They also demonstrated how supernatural interpretations can influence political narratives without establishing that supernatural powers determine actual military outcomes.
The broader philosophical discussion turns toward Hermeticism, a tradition associated with Western esoteric thought. Certain Hermetic writings present consciousness as fundamental to reality, encouraging followers to explore relationships between thought and existence.
An influential twentieth-century occult text, The Kybalion, expresses this philosophy through the principle of mentalism. It proposes that the universe possesses an underlying mental nature rather than existing entirely apart from consciousness.
For believers, this provides a possible explanation for ritual intention. If reality itself is fundamentally mental, concentrated thought might supposedly influence events, with symbolic objects serving as tools for focused attention.
However, philosophical assertions about consciousness are not scientific demonstrations of supernatural causation. The idea that thoughts can alter distant physical events through curses remains unsupported by reliable experimental evidence.
Historically, powerful rulers sometimes feared magical attacks regardless of whether those attacks could work. Royal courts treated accusations of sorcery seriously because perceived threats could become intertwined with political loyalty and personal security.
Historian Francis Young has examined connections between magic and political treason in English history. Such concerns developed especially during periods when supernatural explanations formed an important part of public and elite understanding.
During the reign of Edward II, allegations involving sorcery appeared alongside political accusations. The possibility of harming rulers through forbidden practices became entangled with questions about rebellion and threats against legitimate authority.
The documentary also mentions Britain’s Treason Felony Act of 1848. However, the law’s language concerning intentions against the monarch does not establish that Parliament considered thoughts themselves capable of supernatural assassination.
Rather, treason legislation addresses political intentions and specified forms of conduct within a legal framework. Treating its wording as proof of official recognition of magical power would misrepresent the distinction between law and occult belief.
Another historical example concerns Catherine de’ Medici, the sixteenth-century French queen consort and regent. Political opponents and later storytellers associated her with poison, astrology, occult knowledge, and sinister supernatural practices.
Among the figures connected to her reputation was Cosimo Ruggieri, an Italian astrologer and occult practitioner. Stories alleged that he performed dangerous rituals involving symbolic representations of powerful individuals.
The documentary describes allegations involving an effigy of Henry IV of France in 1598. Such stories belong to the history of political suspicion and accusations of sorcery, not verified examples of supernatural murder.
Catherine’s formidable political reputation helped sustain these legends. Powerful women could attract accusations of witchcraft, particularly when opponents sought to portray their authority as unnatural, dangerous, or morally illegitimate.
England’s annual Bonfire Night provides another striking example of symbolic destruction. Each November 5, communities commemorate the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605 through fireworks, bonfires, and sometimes the burning of effigies.
Guy Fawkes became closely associated with the plot to destroy Parliament. Burning his symbolic figure expresses historical remembrance and political condemnation, although participants generally do not regard the tradition as literal spellcasting.
The comparison reveals how symbolic destruction can survive even when supernatural interpretations fade. Destroying an image may represent condemnation, communal identity, protest, or celebration without implying that physical harm will reach anyone.
In the modern era, social media has greatly expanded the visibility of these actions. A burning photograph recorded on a phone can circulate internationally, acquiring meanings far beyond those intended by its creator.
Online audiences interpret ritual images through their existing beliefs. Some view them as theatrical political statements, others as spiritual ceremonies, while skeptics regard claims of supernatural influence as unsupported assertions.
The controversy surrounding Kirk illustrates how rapidly a coincidence can become a supernatural narrative. Once the assassination occurred, an earlier satirical article was reinterpreted through the emotional shock of a real death.
The Iranian photograph offered a similar pattern. A symbolic act preceded a violent political event, encouraging observers to connect them despite the absence of evidence that one caused the other.
The Trump ritual provided the contrasting example. A publicly organized magical ceremony occurred, yet the targeted political figure continued exercising influence, demonstrating the difficulty of evaluating supernatural claims through selective coincidences.
People often remember striking apparent successes while overlooking unsuccessful predictions. This psychological tendency can make unrelated events appear connected, especially when dramatic imagery and emotionally charged political conflicts are involved.
Nevertheless, rituals possess real social and psychological significance. They can express anger, strengthen community relationships, provide emotional reassurance, and help participants feel that they possess agency during otherwise powerless circumstances.
For individuals confronting political leaders they oppose, symbolic acts may offer a sense of participation without direct confrontation. Burning an image becomes a visible declaration of hostility or rejection rather than evidence of supernatural violence.
Modern digital platforms amplify this symbolism. Photographs, videos, and shared messages allow thousands of people to participate in collective expressions that resemble older ceremonies while operating through contemporary technologies.
The documentary ultimately proposes that intention is the common element connecting ancient curse tablets, wax figures, political photograph burning, and religious prayer. These practices differ substantially, yet each assigns significance to deliberate symbolic action.
Whether concentrated intention can influence physical reality through supernatural mechanisms remains unproven. What is certain is that rituals can influence human behavior, communicate beliefs, and shape interpretations of important public events.
Charlie Kirk’s death was a political assassination, not a demonstrated consequence of witchcraft. Khamenei’s death resulted from military action, while Trump’s survival offered no reliable evidence of supernatural protection or competing spells.
The lasting fascination lies in the human response to uncertainty. Across centuries, people have turned toward symbols and ritual when confronting powerful enemies, hoping that concentrated intention might accomplish what ordinary action cannot.
From ancient Egyptian figurines to twenty-first-century internet controversies, the language of symbolic destruction remains recognizable. Its cultural power is undeniable, even though claims that curses physically determine life and death remain unsupported.
