Brooklyn Witches Plan Ultimate Hex On President Donald Trump

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — Better watch your back, Mr. President. If Congress (or Kim Jong-un) doesn't take you out first, the witches of New York City are fairly confident they can get the job done.

This Friday night, local "transgender wolfqueen witch-goddess" Dakota Bracciale, somewhat of a celebrity on the Brooklyn witchcraft circuit, plans to lead a Hoodoo hexing ritual designed specifically to boot U.S. President Donald Trump from the nation's highest office.

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The ritual will run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Catland Books, a tiny, occult bookshop at Flushing and Central avenues.

Trump's staffers, constituents and other cohorts will be targeted as well, according to organizers. “Join us in bringing this monolith of hatred to the ground,” their Facebook event says. “Guidance will be given, but please come prepared to participate.”

The Catland crowd has held events like this before — but they're expecting their largest turnout yet under the dark moon this Friday night.

Together, the group will cast hundreds of individual curses on the Trump Administration, Bracciale said.

Another spell was cast on Trump back in February by witchy types across the nation, including the likes of Lana Del Rey. During that ritual, participants called on spirits to "bind" the president "so that his malignant works may fail utterly."

Bracciale, a co-owner of Catland Books, has a different approach.

"There's a monumental difference between binding work and hexing," they told Patch in a phone interview. (Pronoun intentional.) "It's a major ideological schism in the witch community."

When you bind someone, Bracciale explained, you're trying to restrict them from doing further harm. When you hex someone, on the other hand, you actively wish harm upon them — for instance, "I want you to suffer endlessly," "I want food to turn to ash in your mouth," etc.

And for the purposes of taking down the president, they said, the binding ritual seemed "too loving, light and soft."

So this is how Friday night's hex will play out, according to Bracciale.

Participants will pack into Catland Books — maximum capacity is 70 people and interest is soaring, Bracciale said, so arrive before the 7 p.m. start time to guarantee a spot — and write their own personal curses for Trump onto little pieces of paper.

"Everyone said after the last one that this was extremely cathartic," Bracciale said. "It just seemed like it was the best way to do it. It allows everybody to speak for themselves."

Individual curses will then be dropped into six big Mason jars, alongside a bunch of curses written at previous ceremonies and a mysterious combo of "cursing ingredients." (Coffin nails, graveyard dirt, broken mirror shards, "rain from a bad thunderstorm" and urine, to name just a few.)

Once the jars are filled and sealed, candles will be placed upon their lids and lit on fire.

Now the "magical versing" can begin. The group will be reciting Psalm 109 from the Bible, otherwise known as the "cursing psalm" — the same one "actually used for eight years by so-called born-again-Christian 'spiritual prayer warriors' against President Obama," according to Bracciale.

By using the same psalm to hex President Trump, they said, the witches of Brooklyn are "turning it back and using it the way that it really should be."

Here's a particularly relevant excerpt:

Do not keep silent,
O God of my praise!
For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful
Have opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And fought against me without a cause.
In return for my love they are my accusers,
But I give myself to prayer.
Thus they have rewarded me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.
Set a wicked man over him,
And let an accuser stand at his right hand.
When he is judged, let him be found guilty,
And let his prayer become sin.
Let his days be few,
And another take his office.

Ever since Catland Books began hosting these ceremonies, Bracciale pointed out, the president and his administration have suffered repeated scandals and setbacks. (Among them the damning testimony of ex-FBI Director James Comey, a confession from Donald Trump, Jr. that he cavorted with the Russians, all those failed attempts to lock down a White House spokesperson and the horrible joke that is Trumpcare.)

"Just look at Kellyanne Connway," Bracciale said. "It looks like the life has been sucked out of her. She looks like she’s wasting away before our eyes."

Itching to get in on the action? Organizers urge you to reserve a spot in advance, and to donate at least $10 upon entry — half of which they've vowed to give to Planned Parenthood.

And although anyone is welcome, Bracciale said they really hope the trolls stay home Friday night. "Last time, there was this alt-right YouTube channel that tried to f--- everything up," they said. "Come on. We all know what we’re here for. No one's going to change their mind. We’re not here for another f---ing political argument."

This story has been updated. Additional reporting by Simone Wilson/Patch. Lead photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr