White Witch

White witch and good witch are qualifying terms in English used to distinguish practitioners of folk magic for benevolent purposes (i.e. white magic) from practitioners of malevolent witchcraft. Related terms are "cunning-folk", "witch doctor", and the French devins-guérisseurs, "seer-healers".

During the witch trials of Early Modern Europe, many practitioners of folk magic that did not see themselves as witches, but as healers or seers, were convicted of witchcraft (Éva Pócs' "sorcerer witches"): many English "witches" convicted of consorting with demons seem to have been cunning folk whose fairy familiars had been demonised, and over half the accused witches in Hungary seem to have been healers. 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.

Read more about White WitchIn Literature

Other articles related to "white witch, witch, white":

White Witch - In Literature
... Sir Walter Scott spoke of a "white witch" in his novel Kenilworth (1821) You must know that some two or three years past there came to these parts one who ... of the devil’s giving for he was what the vulgar call a white witch, a cunning man, and such like ... The "white witch" Glinda is the Good Witch in L ...
Hundred-Year Winter
... The White Witch Jadis cast a spell to make it Winter all year round, but never reaches Christmas ... Aslan is entering Narnia and his presence weakens The White Witch, Jadis, causing Spring and Father Christmas to slowly appear ... in throne at the Cair Pavirel, the reign of the White Witch will be over and done.) This would put an end to White Witch's plan and her reign and the endless winter would come to an end ...
The Mother Of Tears - Plot
... She uses this to avoid the police detective, though she is forced to kill a witch who catches and corners her on the train ... At the priest's home, Sarah meets Marta, a fellow white witch and friend of Sarah's deceased mother ... Her mother was a powerful white witch who dared to challenge and severely wound Mater Suspiriorum, the eldest and wisest of the Three Mothers ...
The Great Darkness Saga - Plot
... allow her to foresee the Servants attacking her sister, the sorceress known as the White Witch, on their homeworld Naltor ... squad of Legionnaires travel there and prevent one of the Servants from kidnapping the White Witch ... that a large stripe of his jet black hair turns white permanently ...
Stone Table - As Shown in The Films - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
... In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the Stone Table is the sacred place where Aslan is killed by Jadis, the White Witch ... The White Witch then travels to Aslan's camp where she states that the "blood of any traitor is" hers ... decide to return to their camp and prepare to face the White Witch ...

Famous quotes containing the words witch and/or white:

    A witch is one who worketh by the Devil or by some curious art either healing or revealing things secret, or foretelling things to come which the Devil hath devised to ensnare men’s souls withal unto damnation. The conjurer, the enchanter, the sorcerer, the diviner, and whatever other sort there is encompassed within this circle.
    George Gifford (16th century)

    Judge Ginsburg’s selection should be a model—chosen on merit and not ideology, despite some naysaying, with little advance publicity. Her treatment could begin to overturn a terrible precedent: that is, that the most terrifying sentence among the accomplished in America has become, “Honey—the White House is on the phone.”
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)