Witches Are Hexing Brock Turner

The more you read about the Brock Turner sexual assault case, the more upsetting it becomes — and for some people, the idea of hexing him is terrifically appealing. That's right: Witches are hexing Brock Turner via some well-organized online coordination. And whether you're a witch or not, I think we all understand the impulse.

Last week the woman Brock Turner sexually assaulted behind a dumpster in January of 2015 released a copy of the letter she read at his sentencing. In March of 2016, Turner was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault felony; but on June 2, he was sentenced to only six months in county jail, which is well below the minimum sentencing guidelines for the case. Turner faced up to 14 years in pison for his crimes.

And it seems that certain people in the pagan and magical community are among those who think that Turner's sentence was way too lenient.

Not content with just signing petitions or speaking out online, a group of witches created a Facebook event and ultimately invited 1,000 people to attend for the purposes of hexing Brock Turner. Among other things, the hex was meant to cause impotence. The Facebook event page has since been taken down, but the proposed hex read:

Brock Allen Turner we hex you.You will be impotentYou will know constant pain of pine needles in your gutsFood will bring you no sustenanceIn water, your lungs will fail youSleep will only bring nightmaresShame will be your mantle.You will meet justice.

My witchcraft is strong. Our witchcraft is powerful. The spell will work. So Mote it be.

The page also indicated that people participating would need a solid black candle, a black string, and his photo.

The event was first organized by Melanie Hexen, a self-identified witch who initially invited only other members of her coven. However, she wasn't upset at all that invites quickly piled up until over 1,000 people were invited on the Facebook page.

"I think it really struck a chord with a lot of women as a way to feel like they had some power in this situation," Hexen told U.S. News. "That there was something they could do, some way they could come together and focus their rage and their need for justice that wasn’t being met.”

Most magical traditions discourage things like hexes or curses, often teaching that any magical intentions you send out will return to you threefold — kind of like a magical "what goes around comes around" system. But Hexen told U.S. News that she wasn't worried in this case. "There was a lot of anger sent to Brock Turner and to the judge," she said. "However, there was also very much healing and love poured out amongst the women in the group ... and much love and healing poured out to Brock Turner’s victim."

So will the spell be effective? Only Brock Turner would really be able to confirm that, I suppose. But either way, you might want to make a note: Don't anger a large number of witches.

Image: Getty Images