Investigating Witches and Witchcraft

Investigating Witches and Witchcraft — page 3 — 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

Investigating Witches and Witchcraft — page 4 — 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

Investigating Witches and Witchcraft — page 5 — OD Gandalf the good wizard of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books and movies is just one of the many magical beings both benevolent and malevolent of Middle earth The live action film version of Gandalf is played by Ian McKellen pictured here 8

Investigating Witches and Witchcraft — page 6 — THE WORLD OF WITCHCRAFT Witches are often described in Western books and movies as being women especially old women However people practicing or accused of practicing witchcraft have included both women and men of various ages WHAT S A WARLOCK Warlock is one name for a man who practices witch craft The term may come from the Old English word waerloga meaning oath breaker which is why it is not a term often used positively Male witches are also some times called sorcerers or wizards or simply witches Wizard comes from a word meaning wise Some people use the label warlock to mean a wizard with stronger and more complex powers WITCH POWERS AND METHODS Let s look at the powers associated with witchcraft and what it means to influence people and events Witch craft has been thought to control death and disease feel ings of love and hate crop failure and success and the weather Although some events attributed to witchcraft

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