Witchcraft

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Witchcraft is the art or power of bringing magical or preternatural power to bear or the act or practice of attempting to do so. People who practice witchcraft are known as witches. Witchcraft along with other supernatural phenomena has become a big part of pop culture. Movies, television shows, and books such as the Harry Potter franchise, Charmed, The Wizard of Oz, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch all contain witches. Witches have moved from something that was so feared that they prompted the infamous witch-hunts, to a source of entertainment and a popular Halloween costume. The belief in the practice of magic has been around for a long time. Witchcraft is an alternative belief system and although witches are no longer being burned at the stake, there is still a huge prejudice against witches. This paper will be an investigation into the exceptional witches of the past and present, important historical events and practices of witchcraft.
The word witch is derived from the old English noun wicca which means sorcerer and the verb wiccian which means to cast a spell. Claims of witchcraft have existed in all societies at one point in time. There have also been many different beliefs on what witches are and how they look. Witches throughout history have been pegged as unnatural or hideous creatures with hooked noses or talon like fingers. It was a wide spread belief that witches compelled spirits to carry out their demands. However many believed that they could not compel angels as they were under God’s protection, thus the spirits they did compel were evil demons. This was a huge reason witches were so feared. If these witches compelled evils demons which were controlled by Satan than they must be evil themselves was the general co...

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...2nd ed. Vol. 14. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 9768-776. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 May 2014.
"Witchcraft." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 14. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 9768. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 May 2014.
"Witchcraft." The Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained. Ed. Brad Steiger and Sherry Hanson Steiger. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 91-99. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 May 2014.
"Witchcraft." Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students. Ed. Paul F. Grendler. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. 171-73. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 May 2014.
"Witchcraft Trials." The Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained. Ed. Brad Steiger and Sherry Hanson Steiger. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 99-108. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 May 2014.

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