The term witchcraft embraces a wide variety of phenomena. Its meaning varies according to historical and cultural context. The word witch derives from the Old English noun wicca (sorcerer) and the verb wiccian (to cast a spell). The original concept of...

the exercise or invocation of alleged supernatural powers to control people or events, practices typically involving sorcery or magic. Although defined differently in disparate historical and cultural contexts, witchcraft has often been seen,...

. The term “witchcraft” (Fr. sorcellerie) can be used for maleficent magic or sorcery, but in France from the 1430s onward this and related terms were applied to an alleged “sect” of conspiratorial Devil worshipers bent on...

15,000 B.C. Ancient peoples revere healers, known as witches, who practice magic. 600 A.D. Christian pope Gregory the Great proclaims "all the gods of the heathens are...

Use of means (such as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces. It constitutes the core of many religious systems and plays a central social role in many nonliterate cultures. Magic is often distinguished from religion...

Witchcraft (from Old English wiccecræft "sorcery , necromancy"), in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers. A witch (from Old English masculine wicca,...