The company will no longer allow sellers to offer magical incantations, sorcery or other metaphysical boons.
From the freshly-updated Can I Sell Services on Etsy? guidelines:
Any service that does not yield a new, tangible, physical item is not allowed (for example: tailoring, restoring or repairing an item, photographic retouching or color correction).
Any metaphysical service that promises or suggests it will effect a physical change (e.g., weight loss) or other outcome (e.g., love, revenge) is not allowed, even if it delivers a tangible item.
Fans of witchcraft are "incandescent", reports The Guardian, and consider the changes a form of religious discrimination.
Why, for example, should St Christopher’s medals and other blessed trinkets still be allowed for sale when they also offer less-than-tangible protections to the wearer? Are not all imaginary friends and influences created equal in the eyes of God/triple goddesses/no one at all?
The more cynical among us wonder how much the influence of mammon is at play. Because a quick sprint around the internet reveals that there is big money in spell-selling. There is a witch or witch-type-effect person ready to supply followers’/customers’/marks’ every romantic, financial or retributive need at a wide variety of price points.
eBay banned this stuff a few years back.
