Kat Von D went to Instagram to share that she would be tossing books on witchcraft and other occult items. Born Katherine von Drachenberg, Von D first came to fame through a TLC show that highlighted her tattoo parlor, LA Ink. In her Instagram post, Von D stated that she had come to some “meaningful realizations” and that the things she was throwing out were things that, “don’t align with who I am and who I want to be.” The post shared images of witchcraft books and tarot cards. Although Von D did not give out a specific reason why she had come to this realization, she did allude to a “spiritual battle.” “I’ve always found beauty in the macabre, but at this point, I just had to ask myself what is my relationship with this content? And the truth is, I just don’t want to invite any of these things into our family’s lives, even if it comes disguised in beautiful covers, collecting dust on my shelves,” she wrote.

Kat has undergone a number of changes throughout the last few years. In December 2020, Insider detailed how she had begun covering up some of her tattoos. Kat had shared another Instagram post showing the blacked-out tattoos. She stated the tattoos had been done before she had gotten sober. Von D had been sober for thirteen years at the time and no longer wanted to be reminded of that past. She had also become a wife and mother just two years before that.

Von D’s post comes when witchcraft and wicca are on the rise in the United States. A 2014 Pew Research poll showed that the number of adult pagans and wiccans in the United States had risen to 730,000. A 2019 article in “Wired” detailed the rise of witchcraft after Donald Trump was elected president. A group called the Magic Resistance would meet every waning crescent moon since February 24, 2017, to cast a hex or binding spell against the former president. After Roe vs. Wade was overturned in June, Chairman Mat Staver of the Liberty Action Counsel detailed the harassment pro-life groups experienced from satanists and witches. “Half-burnt candles and other garbage of active witchcraft lay scattered on the public spaces around the Court. Meanwhile, one man, who had the attire and appearance of a horror-movie warlock, targeted senior ladies quietly praying for the lives of the unborn.  The warlock would crowd one woman at a time, making the sign of Satan over each woman’s head,” he detailed. The imagery is reminiscent of the “spiritual war” Von D referred to and calls back Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”