INVESTIGATING WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT INTRODUCTION any young people are first introduced to the world of witches with the famous line from the movie The Wizard of Oz Ill get you my pretty and your little dog too The line is uttered by the Wicked Witch of the West With her green skin pointy hat and magical powers she has many char acteristics that people think of when they imagine witches But stories of witches and witchcraft were around thousands of years before this 1939 movie and the book upon which it is based In fact witchcraft or rather the belief in it has shaped some major events in history often at a terrible cost in human life as illustrated by the European witch hunts and the Salem witch trials Witchcraft is not however a practice only from history and fiction Some cultures around the world still believe in witchcraft today There is also a modern Western movement called Wicca that embraces some benevolent kind and helpful aspects of the magical
The actress Margaret Hamilton became famous for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz Hamilton is shown here in makeup and
CH A PTER ONE THE WORLD OF WITCHCRAFT Irom the Wicked Witch of the West to the many witches of the Harry Potter series of books and films there are numerous examples of good and bad witches in literature movies and other parts of pop ular culture Though creations of someone s imagination all these shape people s ideas of what witchcraft is How ever the stereotypical image of a cackling old woman flying around on a broomstick has little to do with the historical or modern practice of witchcraft WHAT S WITCHCRAFT Witchcraft refers to the activity of witches people alleged to use supernatural powers in the form of magic to influence people or events The term sorcery has
THE WORLD OF WITCHCRAFT long been synonymous with witchcraft in the English speaking world Nevertheless some scholars distinguish witchcraft from sorcery by noting that witches are usually regarded as possessing natural mag ical powers whereas sorcerers are ordinary people using learned techniques Other scholars noting that modern witches claim to learn their craft suggest that sorcery's intent is always evil and that of a witchcraft can be either Tilda Swinton portrays the White Witch in good or bad Histori the film The Chronicles of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe which cally some people feared is based on the book by C S Lewis witches believing their powers stemmed from the devil or evil spirits Today in Western popular cul ture and especially in children's literature the sorcerer often has a positive character while witches are often malevolent or
