Pam Grossman

In October 2005, Grossman founded Phantasmaphile, a blog dedicated to esoteric art and culture. The blog officially closed in September 2025.^[5] In 2009, Grossman co-founded Observatory, an arts and event space in Brooklyn, alongside Joanna Ebenstein of Morbid Anatomy, Ethan Gould and Wythe Marschall of the Hollow Earth Society, animator and illustrator G.F. Newland, Salvador Olguin of Borderline Projects, Dylan Thuras and Michelle Enemark of Curious Expeditions / Atlas Obscura, video and book artist James Walsh, artist Herbert Pföstl, and spirit photographer Shannon Taggart.^[6] Grossman's programming highlighted mysticism and the occult. The space closed in 2014.

Through Phantasmaphile, Grossman curated several group art shows and projects, including Language of the Birds: Occult and Art at 80WSE Gallery on New York University's campus in 2016.^[7]

Grossman is the co-organizer of the biennial Occult Humanities Conference at New York University with fine art professor Jesse Bransford. The conference was founded in 2013.^[8]

The Witch Wave podcast launched in October 2017 and as of September 24, 2025, is in its ninth season. The podcast centers on magic, creativity, and culture, with Grossman interviewing a diverse range of guests across witchcraft and the arts. Guests have included RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon; scholar Ronald Hutton; musicians Neko Case, Bat For Lashes, and Chelsea Wolfe; authors Madeline Miller and Augusten Burroughs; actors Rachel True and Suranne Jones; comedian Chris Fleming; and prominent witches and occultists Starhawk, Mitch Horowitz, and Bri Luna of The Hoodwitch.^[9]

The Witch Wave is featured in Sean Malin's 2025 book The Podcast Pantheon: 101 Podcasts That Changed How We Listen.^[10] Vulture dubbed Grossman “the Terry Gross of witches.”^[11]

Grossman contributed the text to Tin Can Forest's illustrated book What Is A Witch, first published in 2016 and reprinted in 2024.^[12] Boing Boing’s Gareth Branwyn called the book a “dizzying dream of character and identity.”^[13] The Beat's Philippe Leblanc noted that Grossman was the ideal author for What Is A Witch, writing, “Her master of the topic and the pen allows this story to feel refreshing and unique.”^[14] The Times Literary Supplement called Grossman's second book, Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power, a “beguiling exploration of witches across history, myth, art and pop culture.” The book is also part memoir, chronicling Grossman's path to becoming a practicing witch herself. In an interview with Jake Leibowitz of The Wild Hunt, Grossman explained she wanted Waking the Witch to be accessible to everyone, “both for people who might identify as witches already, and for those who may not, but who have an interest in the witch as a symbol via which ideas about gender and power can be explored.”^[15]

In 2021, Grossman was co-editor and co-author with Jessica Hundley for Witchcraft, the third book in Taschen’s Library of Esoterica series. The volume explores the history of witchcraft through over 400 artworks and features essays and interviews with prominent figures in modern witchcraft. Critics praised the thoroughness of Witchcraft, with The New York Times calling it “a decadent feast for the eyes, laced with belladonna,”^[16] and CNN considered Witchcraft “a visually vibrant volume that isn’t so much a book as it is a spellbinding tribute to a figure and a practice that are as old as time.”^[17]

Magic Maker: The Enchanted Path to Creativity released October 14, 2025 on Penguin's Life imprint.

Grossman has appeared in documentaries, including All of Them Witches for AMC, Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials on Channel 4, and WITCH on BBC. She also regularly consults for film/television and brands, most notably the 2020 film The Craft: Legacy from Sony Pictures.^[18]

She is featured in Frances F. Denny's photography book Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America.^[19]

Grossman began working at Getty Images as a sales consultant in 2003 and was appointed Director of Visual Trends in 2013.^[20] As Director of Visual Trends, she led a team that analyzed and predicted trends within media, then worked with art directors and photo editors to curate Getty Images’ collection of images and video.^[21] In 2014, Grossman was named one of Marie Claire’s “20 Women Who Are Changing the Ratio”^[22] for her work on Getty Images’ Lean In Collection^[23] in collaboration with Sheryl Sandberg's LeanIn.org. The collection received the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award.^[24]

Grossman was also selected as one of LinkedIn’s Next Wave “Top Professionals 35 & Under,” and named one of Adweek’s Creative 100.^[25]

Grossman graduated from New York University in 2003 with a degree in Cultural Anthropology and minors in Art History, Religious Studies, and Creative Writing.^[26] She is also a graduate of Robin Rose Bennett's Green Witch Herbal Apprenticeship.^[27] She is married to the playwright Matthew Freeman.^[28]

Wrote

• 2016 - What Is A Witch: An Illuminated Manifesto (Tin Can Forest Press) ISBN 978-0-9880222-3-2
• 2019 - Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster) ISBN 978-1-9821-4585-9
• 2021 - Witchcraft (The Library of Esoteria) (Taschen) ISBN 978-3-8365-8560-6
• 2025 - Magic Maker: The Enchanted Path to Creativity (Penguin Life and Hay House UK) ISBN 978-0-593-83236-3

Contributed

• 2014 - Earth Magic (Fulgur Esoterica)
• 2017 - Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive (ThreeL Media) ISBN 978-0-9964852-7-2
• 2017 - Literary Witches (Seal/Hachette) ISBN 978-1-58005-673-1
• 2018 - Le Tarot de L'étoile Cachée (Sabat Magazine)
• 2019 - Ascend Ascend (Third Man Books) ISBN 978-0-9974578-3-4
• 2019 - Cat Call: Reclaiming the Feral Feminine (Weiser Books) ISBN 978-1-57863-662-4
• 2020 - Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America (Andrew McMeel Publishing) ISBN 978-1-5248-5833-9
• 2022 - Spiritus Mundi: Writings Borne from the Occult (Liminal11) ISBN 978-1-912634-46-0
• 2022 - The Meaning of Witchcraft (Weiser Books) ISBN 978-1-57863-789-8