European witchcraft
European witchcraft can be traced back to classical antiquity, when magic and religion were closely entwined. During the pagan era of ancient Rome, there were laws against harmful magic. After Christianization, the medieval Catholic Church began to see witchcraft as a blend of black magic and apostasy involving a pact with the Devil. During the early modern period, witch hunts became widespread in Europe, partly fueled by religious tensions, societal anxieties, and economic upheaval. European belief in witchcraft gradually dwindled during and after the Age of Enlightenment.
One text that shaped the witch-hunts was the Malleus Maleficarum, a 1486 treatise that provided a framework for identifying, prosecuting, and punishing witches. During the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a wave of witch trials across Europe, resulting in tens of thousands of executions and many more prosecutions. Usually, accusations of witchcraft were made by neighbours and followed from social tensions. Accusations were most often made against women, the elderly, and marginalized individuals. Women made accusations as often as men. The common people believed that magical healers could undo bewitchment. These magical healers were sometimes denounced as harmful witches themselves, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused. This dark period of history reflects the confluence of superstition, fear, and authority, as well as the societal tendency of scapegoating. A feminist interpretation of the witch trials is that misogyny led to the association of women and malevolent witchcraft.
Russia also had witchcraft trials during the 17th century. Witches were often accused of sorcery and engaging in supernatural activities, leading to their excommunication and execution. The blending of ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions in Russian witchcraft trials highlight the intertwined nature of religious and political power during that time. Witchcraft fears and accusations came to be used as a political weapon against individuals who posed threats to the ruling elite.
Since the 1940s, diverse neopagan witchcraft movements have emerged in Europe, seeking to revive and reinterpret historical pagan and mystical practices. Wicca, pioneered by Gerald Gardner, is the biggest and most influential. Inspired by the now-discredited witch-cult theory and ceremonial magic, Wicca emphasizes a connection to nature, the divine, and personal growth. Stregheria is a distinctly Italian form of neopagan witchcraft. Many of these neopagans self-identify as "witches".
Concept
The concept of malevolent magic has since been found among cultures worldwide, and it is prominent in some cultures today. Most societies have believed in, and feared, an ability by some individuals to cause supernatural harm and misfortune to others. This may come from mankind's tendency "to want to assign occurrences of remarkable good or bad luck to agency, either human or superhuman".Historians and anthropologists see the concept of "witchcraft" as one of the ways humans have tried to explain strange misfortune. Some cultures have feared witchcraft much less than others, because they tend to have other explanations for strange misfortune; for example that it was caused by gods, spirits, demons or fairies, or by other humans who have unwittingly cast the evil eye. For example, the Gaels of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands historically held a strong belief in fairy folk, who could cause supernatural harm, and witch-hunting was very rare in these regions compared to other regions of the British Isles.
Ronald Hutton outlined five key characteristics ascribed to witches and witchcraft by most cultures that believe in the concept. Traditionally, witchcraft was believed to be the use of magic to cause harm or misfortune to others; it was used by the witch against their own community; it was seen as immoral and often thought to involve communion with evil beings; powers of witchcraft were believed to have been acquired through inheritance or initiation; and witchcraft could be thwarted by defensive magic, persuasion, intimidation or physical punishment of the alleged witch.
Image:Martin van Maele - La Sorcière 06.jpg|thumb|right|Illustration by Martin van Maële, of a Witches' Sabbath, in the 1911 edition of La Sorcière by Jules Michelet
The Christian concept of witchcraft derives from Old Testament laws against it. European Christianity viewed witchcraft as a blend of sorcery and apostasy. Witches were believed to renounce Christ, the sacraments and salvation, instead performing Black Masses and making a pact with the Devil, through which they gained powers of sorcery. In medieval and early modern Europe, many common folk who were Christians believed in both good and bad magic. As opposed to the helpful magic of folk healers, witchcraft was seen as evil.
Pre-modern beliefs about witchcraft
In medieval and early modern Europe, witches were usually believed to be women who used black magic against their community, and often to have communed with demons or the Devil. Witches were commonly believed to cast curses; a spell or set of magical words and gestures intended to inflict supernatural harm. Cursing could also involve inscribing runes or sigils on an object to give that object magical powers; burning or binding a wax or clay image of a person to affect them magically; or using herbs, animal parts and other substances to make potions or poisons; among other means. A common belief was that witches tended to use something from their victim's body to work black magic against them; for example hair, nail clippings, clothing, or bodily waste.Witches were believed to work in secret, sometimes alone and sometimes with other witches. They were sometimes said to hold gatherings at night where they worked black magic and transgressed social norms by engaging in cannibalism, incest and open nudity.
Another common belief was that witches had a demonic helper or "familiar", often in animal form. Witches were also often thought to be able to shapeshift into animals themselves, particularly cats and owls.
Witchcraft was blamed for many kinds of misfortune. By far the most common kind of harm attributed to witchcraft was illness or death suffered by adults, their children, or their animals. "Certain ailments, like impotence in men, infertility in women, and lack of milk in cows, were particularly associated with witchcraft". Illnesses that were poorly understood were more likely to be blamed on witchcraft. Edward Bever writes: "Witchcraft was particularly likely to be suspected when a disease came on unusually swiftly, lingered unusually long, could not be diagnosed clearly, or presented some other unusual symptoms".
It was thought witchcraft could be thwarted by protective magic or counter-magic, which could be provided by the 'cunning folk' or 'wise people'. This included charms, talismans and amulets, anti-witch marks, witch bottles, witch balls, and burying objects such as horse skulls inside the walls of buildings. People believed that bewitchment could be broken by physically punishing the alleged witch, such as by banishing, wounding, torturing or killing them. "In most societies, however, a formal and legal remedy was preferred to this sort of private action", whereby the alleged witch would be prosecuted and then formally punished if found guilty.
Witches and folk healers
Most societies that have believed in harmful witchcraft or 'black' magic have also believed in helpful or 'white' magic. In these societies, practitioners of helpful magic provided services such as breaking the effects of witchcraft, healing, divination, finding lost or stolen goods, and love magic. In Britain they were commonly known as cunning folk or wise people. Alan McFarlane writes that they might be called 'white', 'good', or 'unbinding' witches, as well as blessers or wizards, but were more often known as cunning folk. Historian Owen Davies says the term "white witch" was rarely used before the 20th century. Ronald Hutton uses the general term "service magicians". Often these people were involved in identifying alleged witches.Such magic-workers "were normally contrasted with the witch who practised maleficium—that is, magic used for harmful ends". In the early years of the witch hunts "the cunning folk were widely tolerated by church, state and general populace". Some of the more hostile churchmen and secular authorities tried to smear folk-healers and magic-workers by branding them 'witches' and associating them with harmful 'witchcraft', but generally the masses did not accept this and continued to make use of their services. The English MP and skeptic Reginald Scot sought to disprove magic and witchcraft, writing in The Discoverie of Witchcraft, "At this day it is indifferent to say in the English tongue, 'she is a witch' or 'she is a wise woman. Emma Wilby says folk magicians in Europe were viewed ambivalently by communities, and were considered as capable of harming as of healing, which could lead to their being accused as "witches" in the negative sense. She suggests some English "witches" convicted of consorting with demons may have been cunning folk whose supposed fairy familiars had been demonised.
Hutton says that healers and cunning folk "were sometimes denounced as witches, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused in any area studied". Likewise, Davies says "relatively few cunning-folk were prosecuted under secular statutes for witchcraft" and were dealt with more leniently than alleged witches. The Constitutio Criminalis Carolina of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Danish Witchcraft Act of 1617, stated that workers of folk magic should be dealt with differently from witches. It was suggested by Richard Horsley that cunning folk made up a significant proportion of those tried for witchcraft in France and Switzerland, but more recent surveys conclude that they made up less than 2% of the accused. However, Éva Pócs says that half the accused witches in Hungary seem to have been healers, and Kathleen Stokker says the "vast majority" of Norway's accused witches were folk healers.