WitchTok Wants You to Wear Your Magic

Taking Back Your Power

“In an increasingly unknowable world, with the advancements of AI, war, and economic instability, younger people are looking for something that gives them a sense of agency. Magical practices, the occult, and witchcraft are the perfect antidote,” says Ashley Ryan, better known as Pythian Priestess, a Los Angeles-based ceremonial magician and occult educator with more than half a million TikTok followers.

For WitchTok creator Notty Stewart, whose practice spans manifestation, ancestral work, tarot, and healing, the appeal is deeply personal. She began exploring witchcraft at 18, drawn to practitioners who shared rituals for healing, self-discovery, and manifestation.

“I became so excited, whole, but most importantly, FREE,” she tells The Diamond Collective. “And I think that is what many younger people are looking for. Freedom.”

That desire to take ownership of your own life extends to the objects you choose to wear. Jewelry, in particular, can transform an abstract intention into something tangible. “Jewelry is a way to be not only reminded of our intention but also mindful of it as we carry it close to our heart,” Ryan explains.

It’s a connection jewelry designer Jacquie Aiche knows well. Known for incorporating gemstones and symbolic motifs into her designs, Aiche also provided jewelry for the highly anticipated Practical Magic 2. “I think we’re always seeking to connect with something greater than ourselves, or greater within ourselves,” she says. “And jewelry is a beautiful way to honor and strengthen that connection.”

Whether it’s a diamond, an inherited necklace, or a crystal chosen for its symbolic properties, the significance often comes from the person wearing it. As Aiche puts it, “I believe what draws you in, above all else, is the energy and the intention behind it.”

For Stewart, that intention is everything. “I live by the affirmation that everything starts and ends with me. I am all I need for a spell, intention or manifestation to work,” she says. Her advice? “Hold that object, speak your life into it and watch it work for you.”

Sometimes, the most meaningful objects have been with us all along. Jacqueline and Liberty, the mother-daughter duo behind Magic With Jacqs and Libs, share lunar, astrological, and wellness content with nearly 170,000 TikTok followers. For Jacqueline, a tiny gold pendant set with a ruby serves as a protective talisman. Liberty wears her mother’s gold St. Christopher necklace.

“I feel protected when I wear it…because it was my mother’s and I believe that carrying energy from someone you love makes you feel more protected,” Liberty says.

Ryan has her own everyday talisman: a piece of moldavite she’s worn almost daily since 2021. Formed by a meteorite impact roughly 14.7 million years ago, the green tektite is believed by some practitioners to encourage transformation. “It has been with me through over 100 rituals in five years,” she says. Ryan credits the stone with accompanying her journey from production assistant to content creator and entrepreneur.

For her, even an ordinary object can become sacred through ritual and intention. The point isn’t necessarily what a piece costs or where it comes from, but what it represents to the person who wears it.

WitchTok Didn’t Invent the Talisman

Of course, the idea of giving jewelry a deeper meaning than aesthetics is nothing novel. From protective amulets in ancient Egypt to gemstones believed to attract luck and love, people have been wearing their intentions for thousands of years.

Justin Daughters, managing director of antique jewelry specialist Berganza, points to the Georgian and Victorian eras, when gemstones were sometimes arranged to spell out secret messages using the first letter of each stone’s name. Posy rings, meanwhile, carried intimate inscriptions and verses, turning jewelry into something deeply personal.

“For as long as humans have made jewelry, we have used it to hold onto things that cannot otherwise be held: protection, memory, belief, intention, love and grief,” Daughters explains. “Jewelry is particularly powerful because it is worn on the body, so that meaning is physically carried with us through everyday life.”

Centuries later, the sentiment hasn’t changed much. Whether it’s a diamond passed down through generations or a pendant chosen for protection, the value of a piece isn’t always measured by its price tag. As Daughters puts it, “A very expensive piece is not automatically the most meaningful, and something relatively modest can become irreplaceable because of the person, memory, or experience it represents.”

Who Needs an Occasion?

With the constant influx of trends on social media and new products flooding your inbox, it’s easy to lose sight of what makes jewelry personal. Finding something that feels distinctly yours, rather than simply following the latest trend, is becoming a more intentional way to approach what you wear. Nearly 60% of fine jewelry self-purchasers now consider themselves collectors, suggesting that the pieces we choose are becoming part of a much bigger personal story.

Jewelry designer Fie Isolde is seeing this shift firsthand. “There seems to be a stronger desire for individuality and for objects that say something personal and unique rather than simply communicating status,” she tells The Diamond Collective. “Jewelry lends itself beautifully to that because it can be incredibly valuable without announcing itself to everyone else. The meaning can be completely private.”

And that meaning only deepens with time. “It travels with you, gets scratched, and becomes part of both important moments and completely ordinary ones,” Isolde says. “Eventually, you almost stop seeing it as jewelry and start seeing it as part of yourself.”

When a Piece Becomes Part of Your Identity

Choosing a piece of jewelry that feels distinctly yours is only the beginning. According to Isolde, it’s not the designer who ultimately gives a piece its meaning, but the person who wears it.

“Something can be designed with one intention and end up representing something completely different to the person who owns it,” she says. “Once I make a piece and someone begins living with it, the meaning really belongs to them. You could theoretically replace a diamond or remake a piece of jewelry, but you can’t recreate the years someone spent wearing the original. That emotional history is what ultimately gives an object its significance.”

And sometimes, a piece becomes so personal that it turns into your signature. For Isolde, there’s something incredibly confident about wearing the same jewelry day after day.

“You’re not choosing it because it works with an outfit; you’re choosing it because it feels like you,” she says. “I love the idea that someone can become recognizable by a piece of jewelry — that it almost becomes part of their physical identity.”

For Jacquie Aiche, that’s exactly the kind of intimate relationship she hopes people develop with her designs. “I love wrapping up in pieces I never want to take off. It’s my second skin – I’ll sleep in my jewels, shower in them, yoga – everything,” she says. “I see adorning yourself as an act of self-love, and it can be so empowering and so uplifting.”

The Diamond as a Talisman

Diamonds have spent generations symbolizing love, commitment, and tradition. But who says that’s all they can represent? A diamond can be a celebration of independence, a reminder of personal growth, or simply something that feels unmistakably yours.

And diamonds have a little mystical history of their own. Long before they became synonymous with engagement rings, diamonds were believed to offer protection, courage, and strength. In modern crystal spirituality, some practitioners even associate them with clarity and the amplification of personal energy and intention. 

“I think a diamond becomes particularly personal when you stop thinking about what it is ‘supposed’ to represent and choose it because something about its individual character speaks to you,” says Isolde. “Diamonds can express personality in so many ways – through the cut, proportions, setting, and how you choose to wear them.”

For Isolde, part of their appeal is the contrast between physical strength and emotional significance. “Diamonds have this incredible combination of permanence and emotion. They’re one of the hardest natural materials, yet culturally we associate them with some of our most emotional and meaningful moments.”

Aiche approaches jewelry with a similar sense of intuition. “When I feel something special from a stone or a symbol, I pay attention, and immediately want to share that with my tribe,” she says. “And because it’s such a personal process to me, I believe that gives each piece the power to become something personal for someone else.”

A Little Magic to Take With You

Whether it’s a diamond, a crystal, or a piece of moldavite, the objects we choose to wear can become reminders of who we are, what we believe, and what we’re working toward. That’s the appeal of the modern talisman: its meaning isn’t prescribed by tradition or determined by its price tag. 

“If a client chooses a piece of jewelry with a personal intention, I hope that over time it continues to be a source of beauty and power for them,” Aiche says. “And as they evolve, I hope it evolves right along with them, lighting them up every step of the way.”