Witches - the facts

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Witch is an individual who uses extra-ordinary or supernatural power (what is generally termed magic) to influence events. Witch has come to signify a wide assortment of meanings, depending on the culture, and the context in which it is presented. While mythological witches are often supernatural creatures, historically many people were also accused of witchcraft, or claimed to be witches. To this day there are a good number of individuals who refer to themselves as witches.

There is some belief that the term witch only refers to female magic-users, with another term attributed to the males (such as warlock, wizard, or sorceror). This however is not necessarily true. There are many texts which assert that men are now, and have been considered witches just as readily as women.
The belief in witches of any variety has existed since prehistoric times, and examples can be found all over the world. People have a tendency to categorize witches under one of two categories: Good and Evil. Evil witches are the ones who are thought to bring illness, bad luck, and curses upon neighbours, locals, and crops. Usually however, wherever there is an evil witch, the magic-user who counteracts the ill effects is usually not referred to as a "good witch". As a matter of fact, most good witches are not referred to as such, except in fiction. Benevolent magic-users have traditionally been referred to by other names, such as "healers", or "shamans".
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word witch originally stemmed from the Old English wicca, which was a masculine noun (the female being wicce), that stemmed apparently from the verb wiccian, which seems to have as its roots the Middle German word wikken, or wicken. The first recorded use of the term wicca comes from the Laws of Ælfred, circa 890CE. Over time, the spelling changed with the progression of English to wicche around the 13th century, then to wytche by the 15th, eventually settling on the current spelling sometime around the 17th century.

It is difficult to trace the history of witches, as there is as diverse a history as there is a witch. Many people have skewed ideas regarding such periods of history regarding witches, such as what is commonly referred to amongst the NeoPagan communities as "The Burning Times", or the Salem Witch Trials.
Witches were often blamed for such things as epidemics and famines in the Middle Ages, especially in light of such continent-wide problems as the Bubonic Plague. It is crucial to remember that these witches who were accused were not the same as the cunning folk who practiced herbal medicine, and often assisted others in locating so-called witches. Often times the ones persecuted for being witches were midwives, due to their knowledge of contraceptives and abortifacients.

One of the most infamous texts that outlined the proper methods of discovering and trying witches was the Malleus Maleficarum, or, "The Hammer of Witches", written by James Sprenger and Henry Kramer, which was first published in 1486. It was first written in Latin, and translated to English in 1928 by Montague Summers. Prior to the publication of the text, there was wide skepticism as to whether or not witches actually existed. The authors responded within the text itself by asserting that such disbelief was tantamount to heresy, which thereby silenced any dissenters, out of fear that they too would be persecuted. The book was instrumental to the Inquisition, who especially utilized the methods of torture and dispatching outlined in the work. It is from the Malleus Maleficarum that many of the superstitions surrounding witches arose, such as the belief that women are much more likely to be witches.

It is this period in Medieval Europe that many modern persons who self-identify as witches refer to as "The Burning Times". Often times, the facts and figures that are presented to sway the reader's sympathy with the oppressed witches are skewed, in that there are no official records that explicitly state how many were indeed murdered. The records that do exist are often difficult to verify, as some have included all manner of people killed in the count, regardless of the nature of their case (whether they were truly witches, heretics, or merely non-Catholic). Figures have ranged from 40,000 deaths, to as high as 100,000.
Most do not mistake the work of the shaman for that of a witch, despite the fact that they often times are capable of very similar things. However, in many Native American groups, shamans are at risk for becoming malicious witches, and can even influence others in similar ways.

The most famous case of supposed witches in the Americas comes from the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Aproxximately 27 people died in various ways during the trials, the vast majority being either hanged, or dying in jail.

Ever since the renewed interest in the occult and related phenomena in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there has been an upswing in interest in the potential actuality of witches, and a new desire to attain such a position.

In 1921, Margaret Murray published a book which proposed that there was evidence for the existance of an underground witch-cult in Europe surviving from pre-history through the time of the witch trials to the 18th century. This has since been debated by various researchers, due to Murray's questionable sources, comprised primarily of heavily tainted information gathered from individuals who, for the most part, were forced to provide their statements under extreme duress.

In 1899, Charles Leland wrote what would be a highly influential book called Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. The text was supposedly based primarily on the writings given to Leland by a woman named "Maddalena", who had the writings as evidence of a long-living witch collective in Italy. There is still debate as to the validity of this text as well.

Later, scholar Marija Gimbutas had located evidence to suggest that ancient peoples in Europe possessed Mother Goddess symbols and figurines, which lends to the idea that there possibly existed a matriarchal society before the widespread patriarchal societies with which most people are familiar. Some contemporary witches have turned to this research as validating their reconstructed social structures.

Witches are a popular topic in literature, folktales, and movies. Witches abound in the works of the Brothers Grimm, such as Rapunzel, and Hansel and Gretel. The idea of the evil witch continued as the popular stories were adapted over the decades for newer audiences, eventually winding up becoming the classic images that immediate spring to mind when one hears the word, witch.

Many of these are passed down from serious sources such as the Malleus Maleficarum, or have been acquired into popular witch lore over the years, possibly through children's stories, etc.

In Britain the main surge of witch burning was caused by the Stuart monarchy, after James VI was told in the 1590s that a witch was attacking him, he even tortured a witch to death, then inspired a massive witch burning craze in Scotland, then later in England.