Witchcraft
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Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and
Depiction of witchcraft in John William Waterhouse's painting The Magic Circle (1886)
The Witches by Hans Baldung (woodcut), 1508
Preparation for the Witches' Sabbath by David Teniers the Younger. It shows a witch brewing a potion overlooked by her familiar spirit or a demon; items on the floor for casting a spell; and another witch reading from a grimoire while anointing the buttocks of a young witch about to fly upon an inverted besom.
Diorama of a cunning woman or wise woman in the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic
Witch hunt
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A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or incantations was proscribed and punishable in ear
Witchcraft
…and followed from social tensions. Suspected witches were often prosecuted and punished, if found guilty or simply believed to be guilty. European witch-hunts and witch trials in the early modern period led to tens of thousands of executions. While magical healers and midwives were sometimes accused of…
Burning witches, with others held in stocks, 14th century
Caius Furius Cressinus Accused of Sorcery, Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours, 1792
The burning of a woman in Willisau, Switzerland, 1447
The Malleus Maleficarum (the 'Hammer of Witches'), published in 1487, accused women of destroying men by planting bitter herbs throughout the field.