Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of alleged supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft, and may be male or female. While mythological witches are often supernatural creatures, historically many people were also accused of witchcraft, or claimed to be witches. Witchcraft still exists in a number of belief systems, with many modern practitioners.

The term "witchcraft" can have positive or negative connotations depending on cultural context; for instance, in post-Christian European cultures it has historically been associated with evil and the Devil, while most modern witches see it as beneficent and morally positive.

In both historical and mythological contexts, witches are most often female, the male equivalent being a wizard, sorcerer, warlock or magician. In the context of modern Wicca and other Neopagan witchcraft, males and females are "witches" equally, the term "warlock" being reserved for those who have betrayed their fellows.

Overview
Practices and beliefs that have been termed "witchcraft" do not constitute a single identifiable religion, since they are found in a wide variety of cultures, both present and historical; however these beliefs do generally involve religious elements dealing with spirits or deities, the afterlife, magic and ritual. Witchcraft is generally characterised by its use of magic.

Sometimes witchcraft is used to refer, broadly, to the practice of indigenous magic, and has a connotation similar to shamanism. Depending on the values of the community, witchcraft in this sense may be regarded with varying degrees of respect or suspicion, or with ambivalence, being neither intrinsically good nor evil. Members of some religions have applied the term witchcraft in a pejorative sense to refer to all magical or ritual practices other than those sanctioned by their own doctrines - although this has become less common, at least in the Western world. According to some religious doctrines, all forms of magic are labelled witchcraft, and are either proscribed or treated as superstitious. Such religions consider their own ritual practices to be not at all magical, but rather simply variations of prayer.

"Witchcraft" is also used to refer, narrowly, to the practice of magic in an exclusively inimical sense. If the community accepts magical practice in general, then there is typically a clear separation between witches (in this sense) and the terms used to describe legitimate practitioners. This use of the term is most often found in accusations against individuals who are suspected of causing harm in the community by way of supernatural means. Belief in witches of this sort has been common among most of the indigenous populations of the world, including Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. On occasion such accusations have led to witch hunts.

Under the monotheistic religions of the Levant (primarily Christianity, and Islam), witchcraft came to be associated with heresy, rising to a fever pitch among the Catholics, Protestants, and secular leadership of the European Late Medieval/Early Modern period. Throughout this time, the concept of witchcraft came increasingly to be interpreted as a form of Devil worship. Accusations of witchcraft were frequently combined with other charges of heresy against such groups as the Cathars and Waldensians.

In the modern Western world, witchcraft accusations have often accompanied the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria. Such accusations are a counterpart to blood libel of various kinds, which may be found throughout history across the globe.

Practices considered to be witchcraft
Practices to which the witchcraft label have historically been applied are those which influence another person's body or property against his or her will, or which are believed, by the person doing the labelling, to undermine the social or religious order. Some modern commentators, especially neopagan ones, consider the malefic nature of witchcraft to be a Christian projection. Witchcraft can also be a magical art alone, not necessarily part of a religion.

Influencing another person's body or property
The concept of a magic-worker influencing another person's body or property against his or her will was clearly present in many cultures, as there are traditions in both folk magic and religious magic that have the purpose of countering malicious magic or identifying malicious magic users. Many examples can be found in ancient texts, such as those from Egypt and Babylonia. Where malicious magic is believed to have the power to influence the body or possessions, malicious magic users can become a credible cause for disease, sickness in animals, bad luck, sudden death, impotence and other such misfortunes. Witchcraft of a more benign and socially acceptable sort may then be employed to turn the malevolence aside, or identify the supposed evil-doer so that punishment may be carried out. The folk magic used to identify or protect against malicious magic users is often indistinguishable from that used by the witches themeslves.

There has also existed in popular belief the concept of white witches and white witchcraft, which is strictly benevolent. Some neopagan witches identify with this concept, and profess strong ethical codes that prevent them from attempting magic on someone without that person having requested it or at least given permission.

Where belief in malicious magic practices exists they are typically forbidden by law as well as hated and feared by the general populace, while beneficial witchcraft is tolerated or even accepted wholesale by the people - even if the orthodox establishment objects to it.

Spellcasting
Probably the most obvious characteristic of a witch is the ability to cast magic spells. Spells can be cast by many methods, including meditation, burning of candles, chanting or reciting incantations, performing physical rituals and making herbal, oil or incense preparations. Spells can also be attached to physical objects. Sometimes quite simple and mundane actions can constitute the physical casting of a spell, and it is a common belief amongst modern witches that the intention behind the actions is at least as important as the actions themselves. Methods are many and differ from witch to witch.

Conjuring the dead
Strictly speaking, "Necromancy" is the practice of conjuring the spirits of the dead for divination or prophecy - although the term has also been applied to raising the dead for other purposes. The Biblical 'Witch' of Endor is supposed to have performed it (1 Sam. 28), and it is among the witchcraft practices condemned by Ælfric of Eynsham:

"Yet fares witches to where roads meet, and to heathen burials with their phantom craft and call to them the devil, and he comes to them in the dead man's likeness, as if he from death arises, but she cannot cause that to happen, the dead to arise through her wizardry."[1]

In Wicca, Samhain or Halloween is held to be the time when the veil between the living world and the Other World is at its thinnest, and this is a common time to attempt contact with those who have passed on.

Other practices

 * Meditation
 * The manipulation of energy
 * Seeing auras
 * Conducting séances; using ouija boards
 * Chanting mantras
 * Healing
 * Divination - by tarot, runes, etc.
 * Astrology, reading of horoscopes
 * Use of poppets
 * Invoking Spirits
 * Scrying

Europe


The characterisation of the witch in Europe is not derived from a single source. Popular neopagan beliefs suggest that witches were female or male shamans who were made into malicious figures by Christian propaganda. But the familiar witch of folklore and popular superstition is a combination of numerous influences.

The characterisation of the witch, as an evil magic user, developed over time. The advent of Christianity suggests that potential Christians, comfortable with the use of magic as part of their daily lives, expected Christian clergy to work magic more effectively than the old Pagan way. While Christianity competed with Pagan religion, this concern was paramount, only lessening in importance once Christianity was the dominant religion in most of Europe. In place of the old Pagan magic methodology, the Church placed a Christian methodology involving saints and divine relics &mdash; a short step from the old Pagan techniques of numerous deities, amulets and talismans.

The Protestant Christian explanation for witchcraft, such as those typified in the confessions of the Pendle Witches, commonly involve a diabolical pact or at least an appeal to the intervention of the spirits of evil. The witches or wizards addicted to such practices were alleged to reject Jesus and the sacraments, observe "the witches' sabbath" (performing infernal rites which often parodied the Mass or other sacraments of the Church), pay Divine honour to the Prince of Darkness, and, in return, receive from him preternatural powers. Witches were most often characterized as women. Witches disrupted the societal institutions, and more specifically, marriage. It was believed that a witch often joined a pact with the devil to gain powers to deal with infertility, immense fear for her children's well-being, or revenge against a lover.

The Catholic Church and European society was not always obsessed with hunting witches and blaming them for bad occurrences. Saint Boniface declared in the eighth century that belief in the existence of witches was un-Christian. The emperor Charlemagne decreed that the burning of supposed witches was a pagan custom that would be punished by the death penalty. In 820 the Bishop of Lyon and others repudiated the belief that witches could make bad weather, fly in the night, and change their shape. This denial was accepted into Church law until it was reversed in later centuries as the witch-hunt gained force. Other rulers such as King Coloman of Hungary declared that witch-hunts should cease because witches do not exist.

The Church did not invent the idea of witchcraft as a potentially harmful force whose practitioners should be put to death. This idea is commonplace in pre-Christian religions and is a logical consequence of belief in magic. According to the scholar Max Dashu, the concept of medieval witchcraft contained many of its elements even before the emergence of Christianity. These can be found in Bacchanalias, especially in the time when they were led by priestess Paculla Annia (188-186). However, previous to this time, not all witches were assumed to be harmful practicers of the craft. The Malleus Maleficarum defined a witch as evil and typically female. This document outlined how to identify a witch, what made a woman more likely to be a witch, how to put a witch to trial (involving extensive torture and confession) and how to punish a witch.

In England, the provision of this curative magic was the job of a witch doctor, also known as a cunning man, white witch, or wiseman. The term "witch doctor" was in use in England before it came to be associated with Africa. Toad doctors were also credited with the ability to undo evil witchcraft. (Other folk magicians had their own purviews. Girdle-measurers specialised in diagnosing ailments caused by fairies, while magical cures for more mundane ailments, such as burns or toothache, could be had from charmers.)


 * "In the north of England, the superstition lingers to an almost inconceivable extent. Lancashire abounds with witch-doctors, a set of quacks, who pretend to cure diseases inflicted by the devil... The witch-doctor alluded to is better known by the name of the cunning man, and has a large practice in the counties of Lincoln and Nottingham."
 * Source: Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Such "cunning-folk" did not refer to themselves as witches and objected to the accusation that they were such. Records from the Middle Ages, however, make it appear that it was, quite often, not entirely clear to the populace whether a given practitioner of magic was a witch or one of the cunning-folk. In addition, it appears that much of the populace was willing to approach either of these groups for healing magic and divination. When a person was known to be a witch, the populace would still seek to employ their healing skills; however, as was not the case with cunning-folk, members of the general population would also hire witches to curse their enemies. The important distinction is that there are records of the populace reporting alleged witches to the authorities as such, whereas cunning-folk were not so incriminated; they were more commonly prosecuted for accusing the innocent or defrauding people of money.

The long-term result of this amalgamation of distinct types of magic-worker into one is the considerable present-day confusion as to what witches actually did, whether they harmed or healed, what role (if any) they had in the community, whether they can be identified with the "witches" of other cultures and even whether they existed as anything other than a projection. Present-day beliefs about the witches of history attribute to them elements of the folklore witch, the charmer, the cunning man or wise woman, the diviner and the astrologer.

Powers typically attributed to European witches include turning food poisonous or inedible, flying on broomsticks or pitchforks, casting spells, cursing people, making livestock ill and crops fail, and creating fear and local chaos.

See for example:
 * Malleus Maleficarum
 * witchhunts
 * witchcraft trials
 * flying ointments
 * Sorginak (Basque witches)

Ancient times
The belief in witchcraft and its practice seem to have been widespread in the past. Both in ancient Egypt and in Babylonia it played a conspicuous part, as existing records plainly show. It will be sufficient to quote a short section from the Code of Hammurabi (about 2000 B.C.). It is there prescribed,


 * If a man has put a spell upon another man and it is not justified, he upon whom the spell is laid shall go to the holy river; into the holy river shall he plunge. If the holy river overcome him and he is drowned, the man who put the spell upon him shall take possession of his house. If the holy river declares him innocent and he remains unharmed the man who laid the spell shall be put to death. He that plunged into the river shall take possession of the house of him who laid the spell upon him.

India
In the Vedic Age, talented mystics were recognized and called yogins (fem.: yoginī); wrongful magic was called abhichāra. One of the four holy Vedas of the Hindus, the Atharva Veda, itself contains semi-magical incantations, chiefly against such sorcerers meaning harm to the Aryan peoples. In modern Hindi, a witch is called chudail or Daayan, and is greatly feared even today as a potential harm by many of the illiterate villagers. There have been quite number of cases where old women have been burned to death by villagers on the notion of she being witch.

Pakistan
Many Pakistanis due to a heavy Islamic influence strongly believe in the concept of Black Magic. Many cases of witch-burning were reported in late 60s and early 70s. Some women were also honour killed due to their alleged practice of witchcraft.

In Pakistan, a woman seen with her feet pointed backwards and without toes is considered to be a witch or a creature of darkness. Though many have claimed to have encountered such a creature, it is widely regarded as being mythical.

Hebrew Bible
In the Hebrew Bible references to witchcraft are frequent, and the strong condemnations of such practices which we read there do not seem to be based so much upon the supposition of fraud as upon the "abomination" of the magic in itself. (See Deuteronomy 18:11-12; Exodus 22:18, "wizards thou shalt not suffer to live" - A.V. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live".)

Many bible scholars have noted that in the original Hebrew the word "M'khasephah" (מכשפה)(translated in the King James as "witch") means "someone who malevolently uses spoken curses to hurt people", which the modern Wiccan Rede specifically forbids its practitioners to do.

Be that as it may, it is well-known that this verse was in later times to provide Scripural justification for Christian witch hunters. But the Bible also provides some evidence that the commandment was taken seriously and implemented at the time itself, as seen from the account in (I Samuel 28):

"'And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee. And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?'(The Hebrew verb 'Hichrit' (הכרית) translated in the King James as 'cut off', can also be translated as 'kill wholesale' or 'exterminate')"

The whole narrative of this visit by Saul to the Witch of En Dor implies belief in the reality of the witch's evocation of the shade of Samuel. However, the witch responds with shocked surprise at the manifestation, denoting that the witch had actually expected something different -- presumably either nothing real at all or a lying ("familiar") spirit.

From Leviticus 20:27: "A man or woman in whom there is a pythonical or divining spirit, dying let them die: they shall stone them: Their blood be upon them", we should naturally infer that the divining spirit was not believed to be a mere imposture.

New Testament

 * See also: Christian views on witchcraft

The prohibitions of sorcery in the New Testament leave the same impression (Galatians 5:20, compared with Revelation 21:8; 22:15; and Acts 8:9; 13:6). Supposing that the belief in witchcraft were held to be an idle superstition, it would be strange that the suggestion should nowhere be made that the evil of these practices only lay in the pretending to the possession of powers which did not really exist.

There is some debate, however, as to whether the word used in Galatians and Revelation, Pharmakeia, is properly translated as "sorcery", as the word was commonly used to describe malicious use of drugs as in poisons, contraceptives, and abortifacients.

Judaism
Jewish law views the practice of witchcraft as being laden with idolatry and/or necromancy; both being serious theological and practical offenses in Judaism. According to Traditional Judaism, it is acknowledged that while magic exists, it is forbidden to practice it on the basis that it usually involves the worship of other gods. Rabbis of the Talmud also condemned magic when it produced something other than illusion, giving the example of two men who use magic to pick cucumbers (Sanhedrin 67a). The one who creates the illusion of picking cucumbers should not be condemned, only the one who actually picks the cucumbers through magic. However, some of the Rabbis practiced magic themselves. For instance, Rabbi Rabbah created a person and sent him to Rabbi Zera, and Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Oshaia studied every Sabbath evening together and created a small calf to eat (Sanhedrin 65b).

Some Orthodox Jews study Kabbalah, in other words Jewish esoteric mysticism, which contains magical elements. Their practices use terminology very different from witchcraft. Since the Enlightenment, many Jewish people have abandoned belief in the Kabbalah, though it is currently popularized by some Jewish groups, such as Chabad-Lubavitch and Jewish Renewal.

Some Neopagans study and practice forms of magery based on a syncretism between classical Jewish mysticism and modern witchcraft. (See "The Witches Qabalah", in the list of references below.) These practitioners tend to identify with Judeo-Paganism (also known as Jewish Paganism), and/or practice Jewitchery, or Jewish Witchcraft. These individuals and groups either borrow from existing Jewish magical traditions or reconstruct rituals based on Judaism and NeoPaganism. Several references on these subjects include Ellen Cannon Reed's book "The Witches Qabala: The Pagan Path and the Tree of Life", "The Hebrew Goddess", by Raphael Patai, and the forthcoming book "Magickal Judaism: Blending Pagan and Jewish Practice", by Jennifer Hunter.

Africa
Africans have a wide range of views of traditional religions. African Christians typically accept Christian dogma as do their counterparts in Latin America and Asia. The term witch doctor, often attributed to Zulu inyanga, has been misconstrued to mean "a healer who uses witchcraft" rather than its original meaning of "one who diagnoses and cures maladies caused by witches" (using practices indistinguishable from Witchcraft). Combining Roman Catholic beliefs and practices and traditional West African religious beliefs and practices are several syncretic religions in the Americas, including Voudun, Obeah, Candomblé, Quimbanda and Santería.

In Southern African traditions, there are three classifications of somebody who uses magic. The thakathi is usually improperly translated into English as "witch", and is a spiteful person who operates in secret to harm others. The sangoma is a diviner, somewhere on a par with a fortune teller, and is employed in detecting illness, predicting a person's future (or advising them on which path to take), or identifying the guilty party in a crime. She also practices some degree of medicine. The inyanga is often translated as "witch doctor" (though many Southern Africans resent this implication, as it perpetuates the mistaken belief that a "witch doctor" is in some sense a practitioner of malicious magic). The inyanga's job is to heal illness and injury and provide customers with magical items for everyday use. Of these three categories the thakatha is almost exclusively female, the sangoma is usually female, and the inyanga is almost exclusively male.

In some Central African areas, malicious magic users are believed by locals to be the source of terminal illness such as AIDS and cancer. In such cases, various methods are used to rid the person from the bewitching spirit, often Physical abuse and Psychological abuse. Children are often accused of being witches. A young niece may be blamed for the illness of a relative. Most of these cases of abuse go unreported since the members of the society that witness such abuse are too afraid of being accused of being accomplices. It is also believed that witchcraft can be transmitted to children by feeding. Parents discourage their children from interacting with people believed to be witches.

Neopaganism
As forms of Neopaganism can be quite different and have very different origins, these representations can vary considerably despite the shared name.

Wicca
During the 20th century interest in witchcraft in English-speaking and European countries began to increase, inspired particularly by Margaret Murray's theory of a pan-European witch-cult, published in 1921 and then Gerald Gardner's claim in 1954 that a form of witchcraft still existed in England. The truth of Gardner's claim is disputed, with different historians offering evidence for or against  the religion's existence prior to Gardner.

Since Gardner's death in 1964 the "Wicca" cult that Gardner claims he was initiated into has attracted many initiates, becoming the largest of the various witchcraft traditions in the Western world. It has influenced various occult movements and groups. Wiccan writings and ritual show borrowings from a number of sources including 19th and 20th century ceremonial magic, the medieval grimoire known as the Key of Solomon, Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis, and pre-Christian religions. They practice a form of duotheistic universalism.

Reconstructive
The basis of various historical forms of witchcraft find their roots in pre-Christian cultural practices. There has been a strong movement to recreate pre-Christian traditions where the old forms have been lost for various reasons, including practices such as Divination, Seid and various forms of Shamanism.

Movies
Many movies contain witches as a plot element for example Practical Magic, The Craft, Hocus Pocus. These movies, whilst not all aimed at young audiences as Hocus Pocus is, illustrate how witches in general are portrayed as having amazing abilities. The use of these amazing abilities varies from movie to movie but generally includes stereotypical use of Brooms, Wands, and Cauldrons, all items with which all witches are associated

Books
One of the most famous series, the Harry Potter books, are set in a world populated by Witches and Wizards.

Another rather popular series of books that deal with witches are the Sweep or Wicca series by Cate Tiernan. The series contains fourteen books and one novel that follow the story of Morgan Rowlands, a girl who finds out she is descended from a long line of witches. Along with Morgan, other characters develop their own role in Wicca, and relationships. The books deal with teen problems, and many teens can relate to the stories on countless levels.

Recent history
Especially in media aimed at children (such as fairy tales), witches are often depicted as wicked old women with wrinkled skin and pointy hats, clothed in black or purple, with warts on their noses and sometimes long claw-like fingernails. Like the three "Weird Sisters" from Macbeth, they are often portrayed as concocting potions in large cauldrons. Witches typically ride through the air on a broomstick as in the Harry Potter universe or in more modern spoof versions, a vacuum cleaner as in the Hocus Pocus universe. One of the most famous recent depictions is the Wicked Witch of the West, from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Etymology
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word witch dates back to Old English wher the noun forms were wicca (masc.) and wicce (fem.), from the Old English verb wiccian ('to practise witchcraft', 'to put a spell upon (a person)') and from a Proto-Germanic predecessor thereof. The American Heritage Dictionary suggests connection to the Proto-Indo-European root *weg- ('to be lively', 'to be wakeful or alert'), and offers the Proto-Germanic reconstruction *wikkjaz ('one who wakes the dead') as a probable ancestor. A contemporary cognate may be found in the Low German wicker ('soothsayer').. In Old English, wicca and wicce may have had a specific sense now lost to modern scholars but suggested by the presence of synonyms, such as gealdricge and scinlæce.

The Middle English word wicche did not differentiate between masculine and feminine, however the masculine meaning became less common in Standard English, being replaced by words like 'wizard' and 'warlock'. The modern spelling witch with the medial 't' first appears in the 15th century. In current colloquial English "witch" is almost exclusively applied to women, although some Wiccans and other Neopagans apply it equally to men and women.

The Old English plural form for both the masculine and feminine nouns was wiccan (= "witches") and wiccecræft was "witchcraft". The earliest recorded use of the word is in the Laws of Ælfred which date to circa 890:
 * Tha faemnan, the gewuniath onfon gealdorcraeftigan and scinlaecan and wiccan, ne laet thu tha libban.
 * Women who are accustomed to receiving enchanters and sorceresses and witches, do not let them live!

This is merely echoing the Old Testament verse Exodus 22:18. In the homilies of the Old English grammarian Ælfric, dating to the late 10th century we find:
 * Ne sceal se cristena befrinan tha fulan wiccan be his gesundfulnysse.
 * A Christian should not consult foul witches concerning his prosperity.

In both these examples wiccan is the plural noun, not an adjective. The adjective fulan (foul) can mean "physically unclean" as well as "morally or spiritually unclean" or "wicked".

In Old English glossaries the words wicce and wicca are used to gloss such Latin terms as hariolus, conjector, and pythonyssa, all of which mean 'diviner', 'soothsayer', which suggests a possible role of fortune-teller for the witch in Anglo-Saxon times. However, since bilingual glossaries provide only crude correspondences between similar words in different languages, these glossarial connections are uncertain. Anglo-Saxon Britain was progressively converted to Christianity from the 5th century onwards, but the bulk of the surviving Old English texts date only from the 10th to 12th centuries. Furthermore, the surviving corpus of texts for the most part represent the language of the literary and learned Anglo-Saxons, principally religious or court men. Of the vernacular tongue used by the peasantry, villagers, and presumably practitioners of "wiccecræft", virtually nothing survives. Therefore, it can be assumed that any mention of witches or witchcraft in Old English texts will basically reflect the views of the medieval Christian church.

The word wicca is associated with animistic healing rites in Halitgar's Latin Penitential where it is stated that
 * Some men are so blind that they bring their offering to earth-fast stone and also to trees and to wellsprings, as the witches teach, and are unwilling to understand how stupidly they do or how that dead stone or that dumb tree might help them or give forth health when they themselves are never able to stir from their place.

The phrase swa wiccan tæcaþ ("as the witches teach") seems to be an addition to Halitgar's original, added by an eleventh-century Old-English translator.