Category: Witch Glossary

  Thirteen Number of Transgression, Transformation, and Mystical Manifestation The number thirteen has long occupied a paradoxical position in superstition, religion, and esoteric tradition. Widely…

According to folk belief, witches are unable to shed tears. The origins of this belief may be found in the tears shed over the crucifixion…

A test of guilt or innocence for witches was trial by water, or swimming, a method that was used up until the 19th century. Accused…

Storm raising is the ability of witches to cause tempests, hailstorms and lightning, according to lore, especially during the witch-hunts. By whipping up the elements…

Witches were widely supposed to have the power to fly through the air. In particular, they were thought to fly to their secret nocturnal gatherings,…

Literally meaning “good women,” bonae mulieres was a common term by which authorities writing in Latin described various women or female creatures found in many…

A religious celebration in honour of the Roman god of wine, Bacchus, the rites, real or supposed, of the Bacchanalia became an important basis for…

Referring to a complete renunciation of the basic principles of faith, apostasy was considered to be one of the chief crimes entailed in witchcraft, along…

Burning times is a term used by Wiccans and Pagans to refer to the period in Western history of intense witch hunting and executions, generally…

A widespread belief from about the 16th to early 18th centuries was that true witches were incapable of reciting the Lord’s Prayer from start to…