Taylor Swift: A Satanic Witch?

TW: Taylor Swift 😂

Alright people, I’m going to talk about Taylor Swift. Some of you will hate this and unfollow me, some of you will love this and share it.

You can hate her music, her dress, her friends, and her views, I don’t really care. I am not trying to change your mind on any of that, but all the stuff about her being a witch, satanic, and mocking God is ridiculous — and I’m going to tell you why.

I am going to address the out of context posts people use to “prove” she’s satanic or “prove” she’s a witch. And, just for fun, I will break down some of the out of context lyrics people share to “prove” she’s mocking God.

If you are in the unfollow bunch, I invite you to at least read what I have to say before you go. This way you’ll be a bit more informed from someone who is both a VERY traditional Catholic and has been a fan of her music for over a decade — shocker, I know, but there are a lot of us!

You’ve read and heard plenty of the negative, and I’m going to explain why most of that is incorrect.

Many of you have been with me for years and have trusted me with all sorts of things, so at least give me a few minutes of your time before you go.

If you follow me on Instagram, I’ve broken all of these topics down into individual videos. Each video has been watched HUNDREDS of HOURS in the 24 hours since I posted, so don’t say “nobody cares.”

To be completely honest, I was going to make one quick post, and 4,000(!) words later, here we are. 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣

These are the things I will cover, in order.

1. Why do you defend Taylor Swift?
2. Why do you post about Taylor Swift on a Catholic account?
3. Taylor Swift is Satanic
4. Taylor Swift is a Witch
5. Taylor Swift’s new album mocks God

I know what some of you are thinking… “Why do you spend so much time defending her?” To which I ask, why do people spend so much time slandering her?

This will be fun, let’s get started!

Why do you defend Taylor Swift?

If you’ve followed for any amount of time, you know I cannot tolerate ridiculous takes, for example…

The time I got The Washington Post to change an article criticizing Cardinal Burke during the pandemic.

The time I argued that Pope Francis was not arrested by the US SWAT Team and replaced by a hologram. That cost me thousands of dollars and came with threats, but it was worth it because it was such a dumb story.

Taylor being satanic / a witch / mocking God are all ridiculous takes, which I’ll address soon. It may come as no surprise that the same people who pushed the story about Pope Francis being a hologram, are the same ones who believe Taylor Swift is a satanic witch based on the two things I am about to debunk with logic and research.

By the way, don’t even write to me if you are not going to read the whole thing.

Taylor doesn’t need me to defend her. She has the most skilled PR rep in the world (we worked at the same record label at the same time – Hi Tree!) she can handle herself.

This is more to defend those who enjoy her music and want something to reference when they get attacked. It’s amazing how much some hate her.

I posted about going to her four Paris shows with tips on how others can do the same. People said I’m “not Catholic,” “a f*gg*t,” and “r*t*rd*d” — who even uses those last two terms? According to their bios, Catholic homeschoolers and TLM attendees. What??? Those are my people! I’ve homeschooled for over a decade! I go to the TLM! For the record, a lot of TLM and homeschoolers love her. (And don’t tell anyone, but one of the most conservative and traditional bishops, who is also a chief exorcist, who people literally move across the country to be near, loves Taylor.)

Want to tell me that I shouldn’t listen to her because of her stance on abortion and gay rights stuff? That is a valid Catholic take.

But first, throw out your iPhone, delete Instagram and Facebook, don’t watch/post videos on YouTube, toss your KitchenAid mixer, stop shopping on Amazon and making money on your affiliate links, stop asking for donations for your podcast through PayPal, pour out your Jack Daniel’s and Johnnie Walker. Those companies support the same things. They all have a much larger audience, for example, Taylor has a few hundred million listeners, Facebook has 3 BILLION active users each month. They all have a lot more money to spend supporting these things, for example, Taylor has made one billion dollars in her life, PayPal makes 25 billion dollars a year.

Once you’ve done all this, you can mail me a letter criticizing my music choices, just be sure to check the views of the manufacturer of your pens and paper first, and don’t send the letter via FedEx or UPS.

Why do you post about Taylor Swift on a Catholic account?

I post about lots of things I enjoy. For example…

Food/Drinks. I host a weekly live show (Tipsy Tuesday) where I have a drink and talk for an hour. Thousands of people watch, no one complains. I post photos of food. There’s nothing Catholic about pasta, but those posts don’t bother anyone, unless I claim to have found the best carbonara — that is very controversial.

Music. I spent a decade in the music industry at a major record label. My time in the music industry led me to starting The Catholic Traveler. It’s a huge part of my life. I go to concerts. I enjoy music. Recently I posted from concerts with Patti Smith, The Cure, Depeche Mode, and U2. Things I enjoy. Catholics are allowed to like secular music.

Believe it or not, we don’t have to like the same things. Some of you post about sports. I don’t particularly care for sports, but they don’t offend me. If you post about sports, I don’t comment with a vomit emoji, I either keep scrolling or “like” the post because I’m fine with you enjoying things I don’t enjoy. I don’t have some social disorder where I take offense to everything I dislike and start screaming.

Why do I sometimes post about Taylor Swift specifically? I enjoy her music and her concerts, I think she’s a great performer and songwriter. It’s okay to disagree with me.

I also use my platform to evangelize.

This happens all the time, I see a post about Taylor Swift. I comment on the post. That is seen by some of her fans, sometimes a lot of her fans. They see my screen name. They think, “interesting.” They check out my account. They see my posts about going to confession and going to Holy Mass. They learn some Catholic trivia. They write to me to say that they are Catholic or some other denomination or nothing at all. Maybe they’ve been away from the Church. Maybe they too go to the TLM. They ask questions about the faith. They ask questions about our beliefs. They thank me for my ministry and they stick around.

Let’s talk about that next, Taylor Swift is satanic.

Taylor Swift is Satanic

As recently as 2020 Taylor said publicly that she’s Christian.

Taylor Swift was raised Catholic, did you know that? She and her grandmother (a devout Catholic and a professional opera singer) sang in the church choir.

She went to a Catholic Montessori school run by an order of habited nuns, a school she continued to support financially until they recently closed – do satanists usually support Catholic education?

After a few years in public school, she transferred to a private Christian homeschool program, one that uses the Charlotte Mason curriculum, for those wondering.

When she was younger she would go on Catholic retreats to “reflect on God’s teachings.”

In an interview she mentioned having Catholic guilt – do satanists struggle with moral guilt?

Her brother graduated from a Catholic school.

Does any of this mean anything? No. But she’s never said she was satanic and she has said repeatedly that she’s Christian.

I know some of you are just itching to get through this so you can say to me “well Biden claims to be Catholic and look at him!”

She may not share all our Christian values, but if anything, that might make her a bad Christian or a bad Catholic, not a satanist.

Now, I’m going to talk about specific songs and events. Some of you will question why I even know this stuff. Some of you will criticize me for knowing pop culture. You are probably the same people who say we should know what we are listening to. This is me literally knowing the story behind what I’m listening to, and not just posting someone else’s shock opinion piece they never researched.

Some of you know all the characters in the Marvel Universe, or the plot lines of Downton Abbey, or can quote Friends, or know the background of players on a sports team. I know some stuff about Taylor Swift. It’s fine.

Now let’s get to the satanic clip that everyone uses to “prove” she’s a satanist…

There is a scene in the music video for Karma where she is wearing a “devil” mask, technically it’s the Greek God Hades as the video is based on Greek and Roman mythology, but let’s continue.

All the posts that call her satanic show this image. They don’t explain it. They just say, “this is proof she’s satanic!” These same people are shocked to find out Russell Crowe didn’t die in the Colosseum. She’s acting out a scene in a video.

Taylor Swift as a “demon”

Some background: The album 1989 was just released. She was now a pop star, having made the switch from country. Everything was great for this 24 year old girl.

Then Kanye West released a song with sexually explicit lyrics about her and called her a b*tch. When her fans were outraged, Kanye and Kim Kardashian said she approved it. Taylor said she did not.

Then Kanye and Kim released a 3 minute edited recording of a phone call, to make it sound like she gave approval.

Not only did Kanye and Kim’s people attack, but many of her own fans, and the press, turned on her and *demonized* her – get it? She thought her career was over. Got depressed, moved to another country, and didn’t leave her house for a year.

When the full 25 minute unedited call was leaked, Taylor was proven right.

It was during this time she wrote Reputation, since she felt hers had been destroyed.

The Karma Video: The video goes through her different “eras.” Right after the 1989 scene, the video flips upside down, just as her world had, and she’s wearing the mask, because she was *demonized*. She pulls it off to show she’s not the demon people say, and it shows her coming out of those dark days as Reputation era Taylor.

She sings to those who demonized her “you’re talking sh*t” “addicted to betrayal” “terrified to look” “because you’ll see everyone you burned.”

The video flips back to real life in her Lover era. It shows her sweeping away the pain they caused, she looks over at those who hurt her, dressed as grim reapers, blows them a kiss, and gets on with her life.

“Fine! She’s not satanic, but she’s a witch!”

Let’s address that now…

Taylor Swift is a Witch

When people try to prove Taylor is a witch, they reference the video and concert performance for Willow. As is usually the case, it is presented without context or with little to no research.

I love Lord of the Rings. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched it and read the books.

But if I posted a clip from LOTR with Christopher Lee, a Catholic, playing the evil wizard Saruman wearing his cape and using his crystal ball to perform sorcery and then told you he was an evil wizard in real life because of this out of context scene, you’d say I was nuts.

Bad witchcraft

If I then posted a clip of Gandalf using his magic for good, he is the good wizard after all, and then said that Tolkien was obviously promoting witchcraft, you’d probably have a few choice words and then block me.

Good witchcraft

Before I get myself deeper into this hole, let me be clear, I am not comparing Taylor to Tolkien or their works. But I am calling out the logic people use to call her a witch.

Willow is a three and a half minute fictional story that paints witchcraft as sad and desperate, yet everyone points to it as her literally promoting and doing witchcraft in the show.

Sad and desperate witchcraft

No one has ever said nine hours of Lord of the Rings portraying wizardry as both bad and good is promoting witchcraft, because that would be stupid. Instead we watch it over and over, show it to our kids, and even use it as a teaching tool.

If you are taking a three minute song and dance that shows witchcraft as pathetic, and say it’s inviting demons into a concert, that same logic can be used for the nine hours of LOTR showing witchcraft as good and bad.

Convince me I’m wrong.

Let’s dive more into that song and dance…

Willow is from the album Evermore. Unlike most of her albums, this one, along with Folklore, is mostly fantasy. Think The Princess Bride, not The Crown. It’s a performance piece, with made up stories and characters. There are story arcs that span and connect the two albums.

She talks about this at her concert while performing this era. “I made all this up in my head.”

She has another song from this Folkmore/Everlore era “My Tears Ricochet” from the perspective of a dead divorced woman, but no one accuses her of being dead or divorced.

Anyway, taking the lyrics and video of Willow at face value, it’s about a woman obsessed with a guy. Their paths cross a few times in life, but she can’t be with him and at one point briefly gets involved in witchcraft.

As I said previously, it’s not a happy song, and it paints witchcraft as sort of sad and desperate. Nothing comes of the witchcraft dance, and thus it’s hardly a good ad for being a witch.

“But she said she’s a witch!!!” No she didn’t.

In the promo ad for the fictional track Willow, she posted, “Witches be like “Sometimes I just want to listen to music while pining away/sulking/staring out a window.” It’s me. I’m witches.” with a link to the new song. It’s a promo for the song, not her saying she’s a witch.

Taylor (not a real witch)

When U2 was promoting ZooTV, Bono dressed as MacPhisto, his devil alter ego, and ran around Saint Peter’s Square shouting he was MacPhisto. MacPhisto is a Gaelic version of the name of the devil. Maybe that was in poor taste, but no one got confused and thought he was literally the devil.

Bono (not a real devil)

I’m pretty sure that most normal people, when they saw her social media promo post for her role in Cats, the movie, did not think she was confessing to actually being a cat when she wrote “I am a cat now.”

You guys don’t really think she’s a cat, do you?

Taylor (not a real cat)

“But an exorcist said…” I don’t know this exorcist who appeared in that clickbait article. I know he found his vocation in Medjugore, I know he does a lot on TikTok, I know he has a podcast. I watched a few of his videos, and he seems fine. His quotes in the article say that because they have orbs and capes, it could be inviting demons in and we should be careful. No word yet on how he feels about the dark magic, orbs, staffs, and capes used in LOTR.

The same people saying I need to listen to him because he’s an exorcist ignore what other exorcists say. Cupich? Tobin? Gregory?

I guarantee many of the people saying “She’s a witch! Burn her!” based on this article are the same ones saying Pope Francis and those cardinals have no place in the Church. It doesn’t matter that they are all CHEIF exorcists. But I do agree that those three Cardinals are nuts. 😂

Next let’s talk about the album that is “mocking God.”

Taylor Swift’s New Album Mocks God

When I first read this from a few Catholic “influencers,” I was confused and wondering if we had listened to the same album. My guess is they saw a few lyrics out of context, yelled into the internet, then provided a link to their donate page.

This is the equivalent of watching 3 seconds of a movie and thinking you know the whole plot. You don’t.

Before we jump in, she does have a song from a previous album that uses GD. I have a problem with that, but not the songs on this album.

Some people have issue with the language in some songs, bad words don’t scare me. I even think they have a place in some songs and movies, can you imagine Goodfellas without strong language? If you don’t like them, she has a clean album with completely different lyrics. So lazy she made two versions!

I’m going to break down the lyrics that “mock God.”

I mentioned this in more detail in the “satanic” section, but in case you didn’t read that… This is me literally digging into the music I listen to, as we all should, and not just posting someone else’s shock opinion piece they never researched.

But Daddy I Love Him

Lyrics: “Lord knows the words we never heard”

“God save the most judgmental creeps”

“you ain’t gotta pray for me… if all you want is gray for me”

Summary: She is happy in a relationship that her friends, family, and fans don’t support. She knows these people are talking behind their backs and judging them. She’s mad and refers to them as creeps. She knows people are praying for them to break up, and says don’t pray for me if you want me to be unhappy.

Has anyone ever prayed for something you didn’t want?

Have any of you Catholics ever been told by a Protestant they are praying for you to leave the Church?

Have you ever told a favorite priest you are praying he becomes bishop? I guarantee you most of the time, the priest will tell you he doesn’t want you praying for that!

Did a “satanist” really ask God to save these people? Is she being sarcastic? She calls them “vipers dressed in empath’s clothing.” So people claiming to know how she feels, but really wanting her to suffer. If she left out “judgmental creeps” it would not sound sarcastic, but she’s mad at them.

I see nothing mocking God here.

Also, no one talks about the song The Prophecy where she sings about being on her knees praying.

Anyway, let’s try another!

I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)

Lyrics: “They shake their heads saying, “God, help her”
When I tell them he’s my man
But your good Lord doesn’t need to lift a finger
I can fix him, no, really I can”

Spoiler alert: This song is probably about the same guy from the last one. So we already know her friends, family, and fans don’t like him and are praying for the relationship to end. And if you recall, she was saying she felt “they want gray for me,” meaning for her to be unhappy.

Maybe you are farther along in your faith journey than others, but many people at some point in their life thought, “I got this,” especially when they were getting no support from the people closest to them. In a relationship that your friends and family don’t approve of? That can be hard. Some people retreat and think they can do it on their own, yes, even without the help of God. It’s often at that point, when people realize they actually don’t “got this,” and that’s when a change of heart happens.

So let’s allow Taylor Alison Swift to finish her song instead of attacking one verse.

The last line is, “Whoa, maybe I can’t.”

So she literally goes on to say she was wrong and she couldn’t fix him on her own.

Is that mocking God? No.

Maybe some people take offense that she says “your good Lord” instead of “the good Lord?” That’s fair I suppose. I grew up in the south where it was quite common for people to say things like “I’ll pray for you, hun,” in a condescending way, usually right after saying “bless your heart.” So I can get her frustration. I’ve also heard both Catholics and Protestants say things like, “well, MY God would never…” knowing full well it’s the same God of course.

Let’s do one more!

Guilty As Sin

Guys, this one is *so* Catholic and people are saying it’s blasphemy.

She’s bored. She starts having lustful thoughts about a guy.

Lyrics: [What if we kiss] “Only in my mind”
[if we never touch] “How can I be guilty as sin?”

I don’t know if any of you have ever worked in youth ministry, but the number one question teens have, “how far is too far.” “What if we do this?” “Can we do that?” She’s going through that here.

If I’m just thinking these things, is that sinful?

Lyrics: “Someone told me
There’s no such thing as bad thoughts
Only your actions talk”

Now she starts trying to justify the sin. I’m sure no one here has ever tried to justify their bad decisions. But let’s continue…

Lyrics: “What if I roll the stone away?
They’re gonna crucify me anyway”

Even if I am strong enough to stop these thoughts now, I’m going to be judged anyway. So she gives in to the temptation.

I’m sure you, dear reader, have never had a lustful thought in your life, but perhaps you’ve struggled with other sins, and at times tried to justify them, and then committed the sin. You probably felt absolutely awful afterwards and maybe even cried before getting to confession. What does she say next?

She ends the song asking if she’s allowed to cry.

Maybe instead of calling her evil and saying she’s mocking God, you can think about a time you struggled with sin and how difficult it was and how bad you felt if you gave into that temptation.

I know some take issue with her saying “they are going to crucify me.” I have no doubt she specifically chose the visual of rolling the stone away and crucifixion because it’s a song about struggling with sin.

But in case you think she’s the first person to use the term, she’s not, here are two others who recently talked about being crucified for their actions…

Mark Wahlberg and Jordan Peterson.

Maybe it’s not the best phrase, but I don’t hear anyone telling these guys they mock God.

In conclusion…

Taylor Swift being a satanic witch who mocks God is ridiculous.

Those who make these claims have done zero research. They post things out of context while making some pretty damning accusations – and then they usually run and hide.

I’m not going to defend all her views, but I will stand up for a woman who’s being slandered. And I will absolutely stand up and support fans who get ridiculed for liking an artist.

I’m going to leave you with one more lyric from an older song she wrote…

“The day holds something special
Something holy and not superficial
So here’s to Jesus Christ who saved our lives”