Witch Glossary- Page 2

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

Tears and Witchcraft According to old folk belief, witches were unable to shed tears. This strange and cruel idea became one of the many “tests” used against accused witches during the witch

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 witches were bound and thrown into water

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 of nature, witches struck homes and crops,

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, known as sabbaths. They often did so

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 European folk legends who flew or otherwise

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 the idea of the witches sabbath in

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 with idolatry, during the medieval and early-modern

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 the mid-15th to mid18th centuries. Burning, one

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 finish. The reasoning was that the prayer,