the amount of consumerism in a lot of modern witchcraft+paganism circles feels outright profane.
sometimes i stumble upon people showing off their "crystal hauls", where they've paid dozens or hundreds or thousands of dollars, for stones ripped from the earth in a violent and ecologically destructive process, using the highly exploited labor and endangerment of global south people, and like
the primary words that come to mind when i see this those stones is:
"ritually impure".
they are not fit for any kind of sacred purpose, let alone in what is supposedly earth-centered spirituality (additionally, as i understand it, the historical record for crystals in most european paganisms is pretty flimsy or outright nonexistent)
and like, crystals are a particularly egregious example of consumerism in witchcraft, but they certainly aren't the only one. in so many communities we've been in, the amount of emphasis on purchasing stuff, on showing off "hauls", has just ben really uncomfortable and is the thing that drives us out of those communities. and the closest thing to a public space for pagans and witches in most places, is new-age supplies shops.
if one's spirituality primarily revolves mostly around purchasing things, they are not worshiping the earth or the spirits or the gods- they are worshiping capitalism.
