What is witchcraft

Witchcraft is practice of magic or sorcery by those outside the religious mainstream of a society; the term is used in different ways in various historical and social contexts.

Many people participating in the contemporary revival of witchcraft, known as the neopagan revival, identify themselves as benign witches. Therefore, the practice of witchcraft should not be associated with evil or the infliction of harm, nor with diabolism, (the invocation of Devils). In addition, many accusations of malicious witchcraft-especially in some primal societies and in early modern Europe and North America-have been unfounded and have sprung from irrational fears and social anxieties.

This piece discusses witchcraft under three main headings: sorcery, with reference primarily to witchcraft in primal and ancient societies; diabolical witchcraft, with a focus on the persecution of alleged witches in Europe and the United States and on the social pathologies that accompanied this persecution; and modern witchcraft, dealing with contemporary witchcraft in the neopagan revival. These are different phenomena, and perceptions of witchcraft drawn from one arena cannot be applied indiscriminately to another.

Sorcery