Protect yourself and your craft online

Why you should be careful when posting your Altar, Spells or rituals online.

Ask yourself a question. Would you be happy if someone barged in on you whilst you were doing a spell or ritual? 

Would you let strangers watch over your shoulder?

Then perhaps you should think about this when posting yourself and your Craft online to complete strangers.

If you think we are being overly dramatic or cautious or that we are telling you what to do then that’s fine. You do as you please. But if things go wrong for you then there may not be a way of restoring your balance or correct the situation.

Here’s a practical, no-nonsense guide to digital privacy tailored specifically for witches, occultists, conjurers, and anyone who does real magic (not just the aesthetic kind).

Core Principle

Treat anything you put online the same way you would treat handing a physical photo or personal concern to 10,000 random strangers—because that’s exactly what you’re doing.

What NOT to post (ever, if you’re serious)

•  Active altars with personal concerns (photos of yourself/target, petitions, hair, bodily fluids, handwriting, birth dates, etc.)

•  Spirit vessels, pakets, dolls, or anything that is “alive” or feeds from you

•  Sigils that are currently charging or active

•  Your real full name + magical name in the same place

•  Your exact home address or easily recognizable background (window views, street signs, house numbers)

•  Photos taken inside your actual temple room or permanent working space

•  Anything you have been told by spirits, gods, or elders “do not photograph”

Acceptable compromises (if you must post)

•  Use a completely separate “craft” account that is in no way linked to your legal name, main e-mail, or phone number

•  Create a second “pretty but fake” altar just for photos (90 % of big Witchtok accounts do exactly this)

•  Photograph only after the working is finished and dismantled

•  Crop, blur, or digitally alter anything that could be used against you (faces, handwriting, tags, etc.)

•  Never geotag, and strip EXIF data (use an app like Scrambled Exif or ImageOptim)

•  Post with a 24–72 hour delay so the photo isn’t tied to the actual timing of the spell

Device & account hygiene

•  Use a burner phone or cheap tablet only for witchy social media

•  Separate e-mail (ProtonMail or Tutanota) that has never had your real name on it

•  Two-factor authentication everywhere (preferably with an authenticator app, not SMS)

•  VPN on public Wi-Fi (ProtonVPN free tier is fine)

•  Never log into craft accounts on your work or family computer

•  Password manager (Bitwarden is free and open-source)

•  Turn off “people you may know” suggestions on all platforms

Photos & videos – specific tricks

•  Never let your real face and your altar be in the same frame

•  Flip the image horizontally (breaks facial recognition)

•  Add slight color filters or overlays (again, defeats most recognition algorithms)

•  If you show hands, remove rings, scars, tattoos, or anything distinctive

•  If you speak in videos, use a voice changer app (many free ones exist)

Also be aware of any personal

Photos, documents, certificates etc. that are in your photo or video. 

Special warnings for certain practices

•  Hoodoo / rootwork: never show the inside of a working mojo bag, doll baby with concerns, or nation sack

•  Goetia / grimoire spirits: most texts explicitly forbid showing the actual circle or triangle while work is active

•  ATRs (Vodou, Santería, etc.): many orishas and spirits prohibit being filmed; initiatory items are oath-bound secrets

•  Pact or blood work: posting evidence can literally give others leverage over you or the spirit

Damage-control if you already posted too much

•  Mass-delete old photos (use browser extensions like “Image Delete” for Instagram)

•  Make accounts private or delete entirely and start over with a new handle

•  Do uncrossing + protection work focused on digital spaces (some people use mirror boxes with screenshots of the old posts)

•  Change your magical name or sigil if it’s been widely linked to your face/legal name

The witches who move the most in real life are almost never the ones with 300k followers and perfect altar pics. They’re the ones you can’t find online at all.

Keep your real magic off the timeline.

Post art, aesthetics, book reviews, lore, or heavily staged setups if you want community—but treat your actual power like the nuclear launch codes. Because to someone who knows what they’re looking at, that’s exactly what it is.