Mihai Viteazul National College

Witchcraft

Coordinating Teacher,

Student,

~2010~
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Witchcraft, like any science or philosophical system, must be approached from a liberal point of view. When looked at objectively, we see that Witchcraft is just another theoretical body of knowledge. It is a process, not a person. Therefore it is neutral, incapable of being either good or evil. Like all belief systems, Witchcraft is only as good or evil as the people using it.

LADY SABRINA, Secrets of Modern Witchcraft Revealed

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Table of contents
Foreword Chapter 1 : Terminology 1.1 Social anthropology 1.2 Witchcraft historiography 1.3 White witches Chapter 2: Alleged practices 2.1 Spell casting 2.2 Conjuring the dead Chapter 3: Neopaganism 3.1 Wicca Chapter 4: Modern Day Of Understanding The Witches Chapter 5: Trials Against Witches Chapter 6: Laws Against Witchcraft in England Chapter 7: Witchcraft in England The Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries Chapter 8: Witchcraft in America 8.1 The Witches of Salem, Massachusetts Chapter 9: Books and Movies Inspired By Witchcraft Conclusion Bibliography

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Foreword
The theme of my paper is Witchcraft.The novelty of the paper draws attention upon the manner in which the society was affected by this concept. My paper is structured on nine chapters, each of them being focused on the history of witchcraft and the persecutions of this practice at different periods of time. Also, some of the chapters emphasize the trials of witches and the alleged practices. The main argument for choosing this theme is the fact that this subject has been, since its beginnings, a controversial one, a subject that remains a paradox for many and it has made me curious to discover more things of probably one of the most ancient practice of all times, one which deals with evil powers, even if many pleaded that it does not involve evil at all. Some other aspects fascinated me, as well, such as the laws and the trials against the practitioners, the cruelty against innocent people who were tortured without reasons. Consequently, my purpose is to underline some of the basic information on witchcraft, and the famous practitioners that influenced the history.

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Chapter 1 TERMINOLOGY
Witchcraft, in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers to inflict harm or damage upon members of a community or their property. In many societies, people distinguish between bad witchcraft and good witchcraft, the latter involving the use of these powers to heal someone using herbs, crystal, and plants. The concept of witchcraft is normally treated as a cultural ideology, a means of explaining human misfortune by blaming it either on a supernatural entity or a known person in the community. A witch ( from Old English wicce f./Wicca m.) is a practitioner of witchcraft. Belief in witchcraft, and by consequence witch-hunts, are found in many cultures worldwide, today mostly in Africa and historically notably in Early Modern Europe, where witchcraft came to be seen as a vast diabolical conspiracy against Christianity, and accusations of witchcraft led to large-scale witch-hunts, especially in Germanic Europe. The "witch-cult hypothesis", a controversial theory that European witchcraft was a suppressed pagan religion, was popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries. From the mid-20th century on Witchcraft has become the self-designation of a branch of neopaganism, especially in the Wicca tradition following Gerald Gardner, who claimed a religious tradition of Witchcraft with pre-Christian roots.

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1.1 Social Anthropology

Social-anthropological inspirations were published in E.E. Evans-Pritchards 1937 study of Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. According to this, witchcraft accusations are send as a means of explaining human misfortune and regulating community conflicts, whereby calamities are blamed on someone within the community believed capable of causing harm by supernatural powers. This model identifies a web of functional relationships between malefactor, bewitched, witch identifier and healer. Those individuals who consciously performed some physical bewitching act (positive or negative) are normally termed sorcerers rather than witches; for the remainder of cases, the question of whether the accused person performed such an act or had any awareness of being a witch is generally treated as irrelevant. A witch is a person, often a woman, who practices witchcraft. A man that practices witchcraft is often called a warlock. The stereotypical witches are commonly portrayed as wicked old women who have wrinkled skin and pointy hats. They wear clothes that are black or purple. They also have warts on their noses and sometimes long claw-like fingernails. In the Bible , the punishment for witchcraft is death (Exodus 22:18, Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, meaning you should not let a witch live). Witch in the Bible means summoner of spirits, so it might really mean warlock. In Europe, in the early modern period, persecution of witches such as witch hunts and witchcraft trials took place.

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Witchcraft historiography
Historians of European witchcraft have found the anthropological definition difficult to apply to European and British witchcraft, which doesn't match African models. The presence or absence of magical techniques seems to have been of little concern to those participating in witch trials, and some of the accused really had attempted to cause harm by mere ill-wishing. As in anthropology, witchcraft is seen by historians as an ideology for explaining misfortune, however this ideology manifested in diverse ways. There were a few varieties of witch in popular belief, and a few types of people accused of witchcraft for different reasons. Richard Kieckhefer places the accused into three categories: Those caught in the act of positive or negative sorcery; well-meaning sorcerers or healers who lost their clients' or the authorities' trust; and those did nothing more than gain the hostility of their neighbours. To these Christina Larner adds a fourth category: those reputed to be witches and surrounded with an aura of witch-beliefs. va Pcs in turn identifies three varieties of witch in popular belief:

The 'neighbourhood witch' or 'social witch': a witch who curses a neighbour The 'magical' or 'sorcerer' witch: either a professional healer, sorcerer, seer or

following some conflict.

midwife, or a person who has through magic increased their fortune to the perceived detriment of a neighbouring household; due to neighbourly or community rivalries and the ambiguity between positive and negative magic, they can become labelled as 'witches'.

The 'supernatural' or 'night' witch: portrayed in court narratives as a demon

appearing in visions and dreams.

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1.2

White Witches

In England, the term 'witch' was not used exclusively to describe malevolent magicians, but could also indicate cunning folk. "There were a number of interchangeable terms for these practitioners, white, good, or unbinding witches, blessers, wizards, sorcerers, however cunning-man and wise-man were the most frequent." The contemporary Reginald Scott noted At this day it is indifferent to say in the English tongue, she is a witch or she is a wise woman. While cunning-folk could command a lot of respect, public perceptions of them were often ambivalent and a little fearful, for many were deemed just as capable of harming as of healing. Throughout Europe many such healers and wise men and women were convicted of witchcraft (va Pcs' 'sorcerer witches'): many English 'witches' convicted of consorting with demons seem to have been cunning folk whose fairy familiars had been demonized. Some of the healers and diviners historically accused of witchcraft have considered themselves mediators between the mundane and spiritual worlds, roughly equivalent to shamans. Such people described their contacts with fairies, spirits or the dead, often involving out-of-body experiences and travelling through the realms of an 'other-world'. Beliefs of this nature are implied in the folklore of much of Europe, and were explicitly described by accused witches in central and southern Europe. Repeated themes include participation in processions of the dead or large feasts, often presided over by a female divinity who teaches magic and gives prophecies; and participation in battles against evil spirits, 'vampires' or 'witches' to win fertility and prosperity for the community.

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Chapter 2 ALLEGED PRACTICES

Practices to which the witchcraft label have historically been applied are those which influence another person's mind, body or property against his or her will, or which are believed, by the person doing the labelling, to undermine the social or religious order. Some modern commentators consider the malefic nature of witchcraft to be a Christian projection. The concept of a magic-worker influencing another person's body or property against his or her will was clearly present in many cultures, as there are traditions in both folk magic and religious magic that have the purpose of countering malicious magic or identifying malicious magic users. Many examples can be found in ancient texts, such as those from Egypt and Babylonia, where malicious magic is believed to have the power to influence the mind, body or possessions, malicious magic users can become a credible cause for disease, sickness in animals, bad luck, sudden death, impotence and other such misfortunes. Witchcraft of a more benign and socially acceptable sort may then be employed to turn the malevolence aside, or identify the supposed evil-doer so that punishment may be carried out. The folk magic used to identify or protect against malicious magic users is often indistinguishable from that used by the witches themselves. There has also existed in popular belief the concept of white witches and white witchcraft, which is strictly benevolent. Many neopagan witches strongly identify with this concept, and profess ethical codes that prevent them from performing magic on a person without their request. Where belief in malicious magic practices exists, such practitioners are typically forbidden by law as well as hated and feared by the general populace, while beneficial magic is tolerated or even accepted wholesale by the people even if the orthodox establishment objects to it.
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2.1 Spell Casting

Probably the most obvious characteristic of a witch was the ability to cast a spell, a "spell" being the word used to signify the means employed to accomplish a magical action. A spell could consist of a set of words, a formula or verse, or a ritual action, or any combination of these. The most important part of a spell is of course the energy the practitioner puts into it; this being done in a variety of ways by many different people. Spells traditionally were cast by many methods, such as by the inscription of runes or sigils on an object to give it magical powers, by the immolation or binding of a wax or clay image (poppet) of a person to affect him or her magically, by the recitation of incantations, by the performance of physical rituals, by the employment of magical herbs as amulets or potions, by gazing at mirrors, swords or other specula (scrying) for purposes of divination, and by many other means. Scrying is one of the oldest techniques used to connect to one's inner knowing. Most commonly it's done with a crystal ball though anything can be used from a drop of ink in a bowl of water to cloud gazing. There are scrying mirrors (usually black) which can be purchased, but you can also practice this ancient art with common household items.

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2.2 Dead Conjuring

Strictly speaking, "necromancy" is the practice of conjuring the spirits of the dead for divination or prophecy - although the term has also been applied to raising the dead for other purposes. Necromancy is not to be confused with conjuring devils or demons for help. Necromancy is the seeking of the spirits of the dead. The spirits are sought because they, being without physical bodies, are no longer limited by the earthly plane. Therefore, it is thought these spirits have access to information of the past and future which is not available to the living. It has been used to help find sunken or buried treasure, and whether or not a person was murdered or died from other causes. The practice of necromancy has been compared by some to modern mediumistic or practiced spiritualism. Many consider it a dangerous and repugnant practice. Dangerous because it is alleged that when some spirits take control of the medium they are reluctant to release their control for some time. The Biblical Witch of Endor is supposed to have performed it (1 Sam. 28), and it is among the witchcraft practices condemned by lfric of Eynsham: "Witches still go to cross-roads and to heathen burials with their delusive magic and call to the devil; and he comes to them in the likeness of the man that is buried there, as if he arise from death

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Chapter 3 NEOPAGANISM
Modern practices identified by their practitioners as "witchcraft" have arisen in the twentieth century which may be broadly subsumed under the heading of Neopaganism. However, as forms of Neopaganism can be quite different and have very different origins, these representations can vary considerably despite the shared name. Contemporary witchcraft often involves the use of divination, magic, and working with the classical elements and unseen forces such as spirits and the forces of nature. The practice of natural medicine, folk medicine, and spiritual healing is also common, as are alternative medical and New Age healing practices. Some schools of modern witchcraft, such as traditional forms of Wicca, are secretive and operate as initiatory secret societies. There have been a number of pagan practitioners such as Paul Huson claiming inheritance to non-Gardnerian traditions as well. More recently a movement to recreate pre-Christian traditions has taken shape in polytheistic reconstructionism, including such practices as Divination, Seid and various forms of Shamanism.

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3.1 Wicca

During the 20th century interest in witchcraft in English-speaking and European countries began to increase, inspired particularly by Margaret Murray's theory of a pan-European witchcult originally published in 1921, since discredited by further careful historical research. Interest was intensified, however, by Gerald Gardner's claim in 1954 in Witchcraft Today that a form of witchcraft still existed in England. The Wicca that Gardner initially taught was a witchcraft religion having a lot in common with Margaret Murray's hypothetically posited cult of the 1920s. Indeed Murray wrote an introduction to Gardner's Witchcraft Today, in effect putting her stamp of approval on it. Wicca is now practised as a religion of an initiatory secret society nature with positive ethical principles, organised into autonomous covens and led by a High Priesthood. There is also a large "Eclectic Wiccan" movement of individuals and groups who share key Wiccan beliefs but have no initiatory connection or affiliation with traditional Wicca. Wiccan writings and ritual show borrowings from a number of sources including 19th and 20th century ceremonial magic, the medieval grimoire known as the Key of Solomon, Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis and pre-Christian religions. Both men and women are equally termed "witches." They practice a form of duotheistic universalism. Since Gardner's death in 1964 the Wicca that he claimed he was initiated into has attracted many initiates, becoming the largest of the various witchcraft traditions in the Western world, and has influenced other Neopagan and occult movements.

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Chapter 4 MODERN-DAY UNDERSTANDING OF WITCHES

In the 20th century, a new attempt has been made at understanding witchcraft. Many people say that witches were in fact wise women who were hunted down by the church (mostly for their knowledge of herbs to treat certain diseases). This has led to a new movement. Some of it is known as Wicca. Some of it is known as Shamanism. Often, women understand this as a way to express themselves. Sometimes feminists have also spoken about it. Some of the rites have also been used as a form of protest. Witchcraft is a dynamic, demanding spiritual path based on personal growth, natural rhythms, and an intense relationship with Divinity. By working to heal the community and the Earth, Witches are making positive contributions to create a healthier world.

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Chapter 5 TRIALS AGAINST WITCHES

Witch trials were most common in Central Europe, in Germany, France, Switzerland and what is now Belgium. Witch trials were somewhat less common in Scotland, Scandinavia and Poland. Executions for witchcraft were much less common in England, Russia and Southern Europe (Italy, Spain and Portugal). Hungary escaped witch trials and executions until the early 18th century, the (Hungarians disbelieved in witchcraft but trials were imposed by the Austrians). Furthermore the frequency of witch trials varied over time. In Western Europe the first witch hunts (in which large numbers of people were tried and convicted of witchcraft) were held in France and Germany in the 15th century. In the 16th century the witch mania spread to England and Scotland. (Both the English and Scottish parliaments passed laws against witchcraft in 1563). In Western Europe witch trials reached a peak in the late 16th and early 17th centuries then declined. In many parts of Europe people accused of witchcraft were tortured until they 'confessed. Obviously if one was tortured they would probably 'confess' to anything to stop the torture. However torture was not used in England and after 1594 it was not used in Holland, (which is probably one reason why there were fewer executions for witchcraft there). In England witches were hanged not burned. In the rest of Europe witches were usually burned but normally they were strangled first. Some people confessed without torture but that does not mean they were guilty. In recent years a number of people have falsely confessed to murder. Vulnerable people may confess to serious crimes

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Chapter 6 LAWS AGAINST WITCHCRAFT

The development of a secular legal code dealing with the crime of witchcraft in England was dependent upon the inheritance of intellectual and judicial trends from the Continent, but was also quite unique in its language and application. Three major laws criminalized witchcraft in the early modern period, at the height of the Reformation, each reflecting the political and intellectual position of the monarch on the English throne. The often turbulent periods surrounding the passage of these laws led to reinterpretations of the legality and punishments appropriate for the various forms of witchcraft and sorcery. Each new law represented an updated English understanding of the crime of witchcraft and the punishments appropriate for such an offense. Prior to the reign of Henry VIII, witchcraft, sorcery and related crimes were primarily the responsibility of the ecclesiastical courts in England. The secular law and courts were not interested in witchcraft and magic until 1542 when Henry passed a law making the crimes a felony. He declared, "It shall be Felony to practice or cause to be practiced Conjuration, Enchantment, Witchcraft or Sorcery, to get money or to consume any person in his body, members or goods, or to provoke any person to unlawful love...". The language of the law made it clear that the nature of the crime of witchcraft was the malicious intent and effect of the act, not in the diabolical pact with Satan. According to the law, felonious witchcraft or magic (a capital offense) was"...witchcraft, enchantment or sorcery, in order to find treasure ;to waste or destroy a person's body, limbs, or goods; to provoke to unlawful love; to declare what happened to stolen goods; or 'for any other unlawful intent or purpose.'" The antisocial nature of the felonious acts was the focus of the law, not the antiChristian heretical nature of invoking spirits or making a diabolical pact.

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Chapter 7 WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH & SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES

Witchcraft persecutions really began in England in 1563 with the statute of Elizabeth I, much later than elsewhere in Europe, but did not really become fully developed until the reign of James I. Various estimates have been given of the number of persons hanged as witches in England during the period of laws against witchcraft (1542-1736) but the probable number is around 1,000. The first person definitely known to be hanged for witchcraft in modern times was Agnes Waterhouse at Chelmsford in 1566; the last was Alice Molland at Exeter in 1684. The last person to be found guilty of the crime of witchcraft was in 1712 when Jane Wenham, the Wise Woman of Walkern. She was reprieved.

English witchcraft trials took a different direction from those of Europe. In England there were generally no elements of extreme torture, such as those used by the Inquisition, nor were witches burned at the stake as was the universal practice elsewhere. Under English law burning was the penalty for treason and those witches who were burned in England suffered this fate because they were convicted of the crime of "Petty Treason", usually for murdering their husbands.

Nor were there mass executions in England such as those in France and Germany. The largest groups in England were nineteen witches hanged at Chelmsford in 1645, and the nine Lancashire witches sent to the gallows in 1612.

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Peculiarly English features of witchcraft trials were the concepts of "pricking" to locate the devils mark and the use of "possessed" children as accusers, a feature that was to recur in the Salem trials in America. The relative simplicity of English trials and the absence of many of the satanic features of their continental counterparts were probably due to the absence of a centralized persecuting body such as the Inquisition.

Chapter 8
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WITCHCRAFT IN AMERICA
The Colonial experience was entirely different from the European one. The settlers, many of whom came from crowded cities, suddenly encountered open land, deep woods and magnificent countryside. Experiencing nature for the first time had its threatening side despite the beauty. Hostile native population, years of failed crops and starvation, diseases and pirates were always there. In addition, many of the settlers brought their old superstitions. The fear of the supernatural did not disappear just because the people moved to a new country. They saw "signs" in any natural event such as meteorites, comets, or thunderbolts. These poor people used fasting and prayer to relieve the fear and the sense of helplessness. Unfortunately, they believed that evil witches followed them to their new home. They had books about sorcery, written by people who knew nothing about the Old Religion. Some they brought from Europe, some they wrote in America. But unlike the Europeans, the settlers were not interested in complicated religious discussions. They just wanted to stop the witches from harming pigs, cattle, crops, and children. Penalties for Witchcraft were the same as in Europe. However, the hysteria and mass executions did not occur, except later in Salem. Perhaps because of the sparse population, the settlers were more careful about destroying human lives. The most famous clergyman, Cotton Mather, was neither a monster nor a lunatic, but an intelligent, educated man, with some medical as well as religious knowledge. And yet, he talked about an "army of devils" ready to strike New England at any moment, and said that the Native Americans were sorcerers and evil magicians. As a result, about 95 percent of all American Witch executions were in New England. In other parts of the country, the settlers were kinder. They accepted witchcraft as a reality, but did not think about it as demonic conspiracy. They viewed witches as annoying, but not as threatening to life and society. To the average man and woman of the seventeenth century the Devil was very much alive. Many claimed they saw him in person. To one he appeared as a short black man with
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cloven feet; to another he came as a well-dressed gentleman; a third saw him as a white bird which promptly turned itself into a black cat. The most surprising description, given by an accused witch at Salem, was that he came to her as a little deer. One wonders how she knew that the harmless animal was the Devil! He was said to leave a mark upon the body of the victim. The marks could be anything - birthmarks, moles, scars, or skin discolorations, and had to be insensitive to pain. The older the person was, the easier it was to find marks on her. Age spots and warts made the older women doubly suspect. Also, in a new settlement, strong resentment existed against people who could not work very hard. An old woman, worn out by years of suffering and toil, could not produce. Throwing her in jail, where she would soon die from neglect, was a good way to get rid of her. Killing her directly was even better. If she had any property that could be confiscated, no matter how little, many were ready to point at her as a witch. The Sabbats didn't exist in America. Unlike the Europeans, the Americans believed the witch operated alone, despite the demonic plan to overthrow the Puritan settlements. No gatherings were mentioned until the Salem incidents. But even then, the gatherings were just a few witches getting together. The biggest ceremony ever described involved no more than twenty-five witches. This is because a social gathering of any nature was frowned upon by the Puritans. A result of such a lifestyle was that the people never learned to get along. Endless fights arose among the people of Salem, and the attempt to create a social gathering among the girls started the rumors about the Witchcraft. The most feared was the "sea witch." Supposedly, the witch could control the winds at sea. The settlers believed that when a witch was on board, she often caused a storm to sink the ship. For some reason, they did not wonder why the witch would not be afraid of drowning herself when the ship sank. So the torture and hanging of old women on those ship was commonplace whenever a storm happened at sea. Often it was against the captain's wishes, but the only way to prevent a mutiny was to allow the crew to have their fun. In one well-known case, an old woman denied causing the storm. She was stripped naked, tied to the mast, and exposed to the horrible gale and huge waves for the entire night. Somehow she didn't die. In the
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morning, to end the torture and humiliation, she confessed to being a witch and was immediately hanged.

8.1 The Witches of Salem, Massachusetts

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Possession roused the greatest fear. The Puritans believed that witches ordered demons to enter the bodies of their victims and torture them; that demons possessed all the mentally handicapped, the physically deformed, and the insane; that suicide was caused by possessing demons, who tortured the victim beyond endurance. It's incredible how little investigation was made into the character of the accuser, particularly if she was a young girl. In a society where men outnumbered women, the marriageable young woman became a valuable asset. She had many years of hard work in front of her, while the old witch, as mentioned above, outlived her usefulness. This explains why the people in Salem were so eager to believe the hysterical girls who accused the witches. These girls could have had an unknown disease - perhaps epilepsy, or Huntington disease, which causes the same contortion of the body and convulsions as cases of "possessions." They may have had some mental illness based on their fear of Witchcraft. Or they could have been simply lying in order to get attention - common behavior for frustrated, lonely, young persons. And yet, no one questioned their motives. Just before the outbreak of terror, Salem had a new minister, Reverend Samuel Paris, who was disliked by many of his congregation. The inhabitants were constantly fighting and squabbling, and two former ministers resigned, unable to control the people. It was in this household that a group of young girls started to meet regularly. The notion of a social gathering for girls, so obvious and normal to us, was not so under Puritan regime. The only gathering allowed was in Church. But as the circle included the Reverend Parris' nine-year-old daughter and eleven-year-old niece, it seemed harmless enough. However, it was not restricted to this age group. Some young women were in their teens, two were twenty years of age, and one was much older. This was Tibula, a West Indian slave. She wanted to amuse the girls by playing with a bit of magic from her Island home. She put the white of one egg in a cup to simulate a crystal ball, said some charms, and supposedly could see the face of your future husband in it. But the girls, brought up with an intense fear of the supernatural, saw it as a grave sin. They had to keep it as a secret, and even the youngest told nothing to their families. As the winter progressed, they played with more magic tricks with Tibula. Eventually, the
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strain of hiding such a horrible sin showed, and two of the girls went into seizures. Everyone who saw them immediately assumed it was demonic possession. The doctor, William Griggs, who was the uncle of one of the afflicted girls, said that the sickness had no physical and natural explanation. He decided it was caused by the evil eye of a witch. Reverend Parris leapt into action. He started rousing the villagers against the powerful witches who, he believed, lived among them. The first suspects were Tibula and her husband. Tibula, for some reason, admitted that she had bewitched the girls, and named other conspirators. Parris decided that a body of witches stood ready to destroy all the good Puritans of Salem. They could be lurking anywhere, so many arrests were made and other villages joined the Witch hunt. Cotton Mather, watching all of it from Boston, was requested to prepare a document explaining the position of the church on sorcery, and suggesting legal procedures. The paper was called "The Return of Several Ministers." It insisted that the possessed persons be treated with all consideration and support, while the guilty treated decisively and harshly. Mather suggested extreme care in the conduct of the trials and the avoidance of noise and distractions. Most important was his decision to use "spectral evidence" in court. If the vision of a witch appeared to the suffering victim, then that witch was guilty as charged. In other words, hallucinations were admitted as court evidence, and an alibi was, therefore, useless. You could be in jail for months, but if a girl said you came to her in a vision and bewitched her, this was as good evidence as if you came to her in person. So the courts eagerly adopted spectral evidence as valid, even allowing ghosts that came back to report who murdered them. Mather's request that silence and good behavior be maintained in court, was, of course, ignored. The possessed girls shrieked, fainted, pointed out new witches, and probably enjoyed their power tremendously. They were also encouraged in the "doctrine of fascination" which claimed that the witch could harm her victims by various acts done from a distance. For example, if the witch bit her lip, the girls howled that they felt she bit them, directly. The crowd went wild.
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There is no point in describing each act and every trial. It was all an exercise in ignorance, stupidity and gullibility of a deluded population, frustrated by harsh living and a religion that offered no comfort or compassion. Fortunately, some "witches" escaped, but the town hanged twenty people, including old Rebecca Nurse and the new mother, Sarah Good. One old man was pressed to death - his tormentors put heavy weights on his body to crush him and make him confess. It took him two full days to die. Eventually, the madness stopped. Brave people like Robert Pike, who had also objected to the Puritans' harsh treatment of Quakers, wrote against it. John Foster, a member of the Governor's Councils, joined him. Twenty-four inhabitants of Andover organized a petition. Judge Nathaniel Saltonstall resigned in disgust. They questioned the motives of the girls and particularly the validity of spectral evidence. Public opinion, always volatile in America, began to change. Other states joined in the opposition. A group of New York clergymen denounced the Salem courts, particularly the spectral evidence. No one took responsibility for the horrors, and a theory was put forth to pacify the population. It said that all the participants, including accusers, judges, and jurors, acted not out of malice but were controlled by the Devil. He wanted, as suspected before, to destroy Puritan settlements. Therefore, he made it seem as if witches were working in the area, while in reality there were no witches there at all. Moreover, Queen Anne of England, who was consulted, absolved them of all responsibility, and only requested that care and moderation should be the style of the future. And so the good residents of Massachusetts regained their clear conscience. After all, the entire nightmare was not their fault. The Devil made them do it.

Chapter 9
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BOOKS AND MOVIES INSPIRED BY WITCHCRAFT

Books:
Hannah Abbott (Harry Potter) Tiffany Aching (Discworld) Alice (The Adventures of Tweeny Witches) Amanda Anderson (Wicked Series by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie) Nicole Anderson (Wicked Series by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie) Jaenelle Angelline (Black Jewels Trilogy) Arachne Gorgon (Soul Eater (manga)) Ariadne - Theseus and the Minotaur (Greek Mythology Baba Yaga (Fables) Bathsheda Babbling (Harry Potter) Bathilda Bagshot (Harry Potter) Griselda Blackwood(The Worst Witch) Davina Bat, aka Miss Bat (The Worst Witch) Katie Bell (Harry Potter) Belladonna (Which Witch?) The Broom Witch, (Ophelia Learns to Swim) Lavender Brown (Harry Potter) Charity Burbage (Harry Potter) Millicent Bulstrode (Harry Potter) Chocolat Meilleure (Sugar Sugar Rune) Ruby Cherrytree (The Worst Witch) Marietta Edgecombe (Harry Potter) Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West(Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West)

Movies:
The Blair Witch Project The Witches of Eastwick Little Witches
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Charmed Harry Potter Hocus Pocus

CONCLUSION

I hope that I successfully reached the purpose of my paper, to deal with the basic information of witchcraft and the famous practitioners that influenced the history. My purpose was also to introduce magic into our lives through the information I gathered about the magical side of witchcraft. Another aspect that I wanted to underline in my paper was the manner the society was influenced by witchcraft both in England and USA, as well as the ways those who practiced it were punished. The people who suffered those harsh consequences inspired today's practitioners and helped bulding the concept of witchcraft.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
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1. 2. 3. 1975. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Encyclopdia Britannica - Witchcraft Encyclopedia Mythica Witchcraft Booth, Sally Smith. The Witches of Early America. New York: Hastings House. Woods, William. A History of the Devil. New York: Berkley Publishing Levabeck, Brian P. Witchcraft in Early America. New York and London: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft http://www.pantheon.org/areas/featured/witchcraft/bibliography.html http://www.umich.edu/~classics/news/newsletter/summer2002/witchcraft.html

Corporation. 1974. Carland Publishing, Inc. 1992.

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