Witchcraft

Introduction
Witchcraft as harm
Witch trials
Satanic witchcraft and the early modern witch trials
Contemporary witch-hunting
Witchcraft as a morally neutral term
Witches as women
Modern religious witchcraft

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Oil painting The Witches' Sabbath by Francisco de Goya shows a group of figures in dark robes gathered around a crouching person, with eerie creatures flying in a moonlit sky.

Watch the Weird Sisters conspire in the opening scene of William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth

Compendium maleficarum: Devil and witches trampling a cross

Quizzes

Saint Thomas Aquinas. Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas, altarpiece by Francesco Traini, 1363; in Santa Caterina, Pisa, Italy. St. Thomas Aquinas (c1225-1274) Italian philosopher and theologian. Dominican order of monks (black friars).

Medieval History Quiz: Part Four

Illustration of Halloween characters silhouetted on a purple background (silhouette, spooky, scary)

A Monstrous Vocab Quiz

Related Questions

How are Wiccan covens organized and how do people join them?
How did Arthur Miller’s The Crucible connect the Salem witch trials to McCarthyism?
How did Gardnerian Wicca and Alexandrian Wicca develop?
How did Shakespeare’s Macbeth contribute to literary images of witchcraft?
How did accusations against heretical groups influence later beliefs about witches?
How did beliefs about harmful witchcraft vary across different societies?
How did beliefs about witches flying appear in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas?
How did beliefs about witches who harmed people through thoughts or desires develop in Africa and Melanesia?
How did changing standards of evidence contribute to the decline of European witch trials?
How did fears of ceremonial magic contribute to early modern witch trials?
How did feminism, gay rights activism, and environmentalism influence Wiccan traditions?
How did films and television shows such as The Craft, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Charmed influence interest in Wicca?
How did folk tales such as “Hansel and Gretel” influence popular images of witches?
How did folklore about nighttime spirit journeys influence beliefs about witches’ sabbaths?
How did ideas about whether people chose witchcraft differ among cultures?
How did occultism differ from Spiritualism according to many 19th-century occultists?
How did ritual specialists differ from people accused of malevolent witchcraft?
How did sympathetic magic supposedly allow a witch to harm another person?
How did the Council of Basel help spread ideas about Satanic witchcraft?
How did the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn influence Aleister Crowley and Wicca?
How did the inquisitorial legal procedure contribute to the growth of witch hunts?
How did the meaning of the English words witch and witchcraft change over time?
How did the phrase witch hunt gain a political meaning in the 20th century?
How did torture affect confessions and accusations during witch trials?
How did Éliphas Lévi help popularize the term occultism?
How do scholars use the terms occultism and esotericism differently?
How does the Wheel of the Year organize Wiccan seasonal festivals?
How many people were tried and executed during the early modern witch trials?
How was witchcraft connected to fears about illness, crop failure, and dying livestock?
What did the Bangwa people of Cameroon traditionally believe about witches?
What did the Nyakyusa people of Tanzania believe about witches and pythons?
What kinds of shape-shifting powers were witches believed to have in folklore?
What medieval ideas contributed to the stereotype of the Satanic witch?
What tools are commonly used in Wiccan rituals?
What was the swimming test used on people accused of witchcraft?
Why did the western Alps play an important role in the development of Satanic witchcraft ideas?
Why do historians reject the claim that Wicca survived unchanged from a pre-Christian European religion?
Why were hair, nail clippings, and bodily waste feared in some witchcraft beliefs?
Why were the Salem witch trials a comparatively small part of the larger history of witch hunts?
Why were witch hunts most severe in parts of Germany, France, northern Italy, and Switzerland?

Philosophy & Religion Religious Beliefs

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External Websites

Gresham College - Modern Pagan Witchcraft
PressbooksOER - Beliefs: An Open Invitation to the Anthropology of Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion - Witchcraft
National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Witchcraft beliefs around the world: An exploratory analysis
Salem Witch Museum - Witches: Evolving Perceptions
CUNY Academic Commons - Digital Occult Library - Witchcraft and Wicca
Social Sciences LibreTexts - Witchcraft

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

witchcraft - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
witchcraft - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Witchcraft

occultism

Written by

Ethan Doyle White

Possessing a PhD in Medieval History and Archaeology from University College London, Ethan Doyle White writes on religion, folklore, history, and archaeology, with a particular focus on areas of cultural...

Ethan Doyle White

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 3, 2026 •History

Witchcraft, term usually applied to harm brought upon others through the use of supernatural or occult powers. The person engaging in witchcraft is called a witch, while the act of causing harm may be termed cursing, hexing, bewitchment, or maleficium. A belief in malevolent witchcraft has been found across many societies throughout recorded history. Sometimes witches are believed to act alone and at other times to operate in tandem with other witches, often as part...

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