Texas family group plans protest of all-ages 'witch pride' event
A pro-family group is warning parents about a sexual “witch pride” event in North Texas at a store whose owner is a self-described “blood-oathed Priestess” of witchcraft.
Texas Coalition for Kids, a nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to “defend children against indoctrination,” announced an upcoming protest targeting Higher Purpose Emporium in Fort Worth over its planned “Pride 2024 Costume Party.”
The Oct. 26 event, which features a costume contest to “celebrate the [homosexual] members of the witchy & pagan community,” includes a “fun for the whole family” segment earlier in the day before transitioning to an “adults only after-party” in the evening.
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While pride celebrations are typically held in June, the Higher Purpose costume party has drawn criticism from the Texas Coalition for Kids for what it calls an “all-ages LGBT Witch/Pagan Pride Festival.”
"Pride events are inherently sexual and should never be open for children to attend,” the group said in a statement. “There is no telling how disturbing this event will be, but we plan to peacefully protest it."
Ivy Aranaught, the owner of Higher Purpose and a “practicing witch” who also goes by Rev. Vitka Ivy, posted a response to the planned protest on social media in which she called the Texas Coalition for Kids a “fascist cult” and said “having rainbows and letting queer youth exist is not sexualizing them.”
The post clarified that a separate adults-only pride event would not include any children.
Aranaught wrote: “I have a separate time for adult only pride AFTER the time for kids. It's not at the same time. Clearly stated in the flyer you fascists keep circulating. I'm not sure how [you] have this confused. Kids aren't even allowed at that part.”
The post also warned the group that their members were “not welcome” at Higher Purpose and threatened to contact authorities if need be, adding, “I have all your photos and we will have people looking to keep you out. I will call the police to remove you if need be.”
In addition to her role as owner of Higher Purpose, Aranaught — whose “they/them” pronouns are listed on the store’s website — advertises services as a “seeress” and “shaman” as well as an “ordained minister for The Hall of Hekate,” and holds a religious service twice a month at the store.
For a $30 fee, the website also offers a service called “The Undoing” which promotes “shedding” one’s baptism and involves the “renouncing of your previous/childhood religion.”
The description reads in part: “Why do this? you may find yourself asking. Simply put, these bonds we have with our childhood belief(s) can become a detriment to us as we seek more and more wisdom from The Universe. Shedding and removing your baptism is as simple as 4 steps.”
Last month, Aranaught celebrated Fort Worth Weekly’s “Best of 24” list naming Higher Purpose as the area’s “Best Metaphysical Shop.”
The Hall of Hekate, which meets inside Higher Purpose, promotes an ideology with a number of “tenants,” likely a misspelled reference to “tenets,” including the belief that “we are our own savior in this life” and a promise to worship all religious deities “excluding those involved in Abrahamic religions.”
In August, Aranaught told Fort Worth Weekly the store’s insurance carrier decided not to renew her contract after “reading about [the store’s] services.”
“They particularly didn’t like the readings, spellwork and rituals that I offer,” she was quoted as saying. “It was crazy. … I hate that people are like this and that their personal dogma and ideologies can in fact dictate what a small business can or cannot do.”
In response, Aranaught launched a GoFundMe campaign in June, calling the Fort Worth area a “hostile place to have this sort of business,” where she says the “store, myself, and even my employees get harassed by some extremist or another pretty regularly.”
“I don't want this place to not be here anymore because of something so trivial as bigotry and small mindedness,” she wrote. “I hate asking for this kind of help in this economy, but I have to try any and everything I can think of.
“So here we are.”
