#54 Black Magic
Monetising the dark side.
Hiiii. No promises but we’re back to our weekly schedule. Enjoy. xoxo Esther 💋
🧙🏻♀️I’m bullish on black magic
In a world where malevolent forces operate in plain sight — where no one seems to suffer consequences for appearing in the Epstein files, for example — and where increasingly autonomous AI systems quietly arbitrate our lives, a question (re)surfaces: how do you regain even a sliver of control?
Some girlies are turning towards black magic. I’m being completely serious. And I’m equally serious when I say there’s an untapped market here.
What I’ve noticed:
‘Etsy witches’ are having a moment. A famous TikToker mentioned hiring one to secure good weather for her over-the-top 2025 wedding. The follow-up wasn’t scepticism. Instead, a flood of comments and DMs asking for links. Etsy witch recommendations are now passed around like insider stock tips.
TikTok tarot readers are inescapable. Their videos almost always open with the same incantation: “No hashtags… if this found you, it was meant to.” Algorithmic distribution dressed up as divine intervention. It works.
Every full moon, eclipse, or vaguely ominous astronomical event triggers a spike in calls for rituals. Cleansing, manifesting, releasing, protecting. The language varies. The impulse doesn’t. When the future feels unreadable, people reach for symbolic control.
Every chic, highly functional woman I know has someone. An astrologer. A medium. A numerology girl. A trusted woo-woo contact on retainer. Not because they’re naïve, but because they’re decisive. This is less about belief than about outsourcing uncertainty.
Proven examples of the esoteric entering the mainstream:
Astrology apps like Co–Star (raised $21M in funding from investors like Spark Capital, Maveron and Aspect Investors) and The Pattern (raised $14M) dragged the esoteric into the App Store era. Both monetise from add-ons such as compatibility estimates and subscriptions.
The scale problem:
Which brings us to the real issue: scale.
There is an obvious willingness to pay. These services are already monetised. Inefficiently. Like many “for women” markets, they’re underfunded, under-legitimised, and written off as unserious. Most practitioners operate 1:1, which caps income and limits reach.
The person who cracks the scale problem will make a lot of money.
Imagine a trusted marketplace somewhere between Deliveroo and Doctolib: vetted practitioners, transparent pricing, ratings, and availability. Not stripping the magic, just professionalising access. Less crystal ball, more infrastructure.
When institutions feel hollow and systems feel rigged, people don’t stop seeking meaning. They just look elsewhere. And right now, that elsewhere smells faintly of incense.
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📈 Bullish news
‘Chinese Peptides’ Are the Latest Biohacking Trend in the Tech World. The gray-market drugs flooding Silicon Valley reveal a community that believes it can move faster than the F.D.A. (NYT) + Life on Peptides Feels Amazing. Young people are buying unregulated peptides directly from Chinese manufacturers via Instagram and WhatsApp for $13.50 a pop, compared to $400 per vial from U.S. retailers, and “injecting them into their bloodstream” (NYMag).
TikTok Star Khaby Lame Signs $975 M Deal to Monetize Global Fan Base. Khaby Lame, the world’s biggest TikToker with 160 million followers, signed a $975 M deal with Nasdaq-listed Rich Sparkle Holdings Ltd. for 36 months of exclusive global rights to his brand. (Bloomberg)
📉 Bearish news
Can You Optimize Love? A group of tech executives, app developers and Silicon Valley philosophers is seeking to streamline the messy matters of the heart. (NYT)
WTF?
A deep dive into why and how Pat McGrath is now filing for bankruptcy, despite being one of the most respected makeup artists in the world, and having built a gorgeous brand. tl;dr: if a private equity deal sounds too good to be true…
WTF is so right, thanks for linking!!!
Spookie luv