Everything You Wanted to Know About Witches, Part 2: Origins of Witches and Magic
Let's go back in time to uncover the origins and traditions of practitioners of magic, whom in our modern vernacular are witches, sorcerers, or wizards. We will first learn about the different magic practitioners in cultures through the ages. In the second part, we will examine what magic is, its etymology, the different types of magic, and how it has manifested itself through the ages with religion and science.
Different Flavors of Magic Practitioners
Depending on which culture at a certain time period, the magic practitioner, or spiritual specialist, could be functioning as a shaman, seer, priest, sorcerer, or witch. The terms for these roles (shamans, seers, etc.) are often used interchangeably by writers of antiquity all the way to the writers of today.
Early societies usually did not distinguish between the roles and the corresponding functions in neat separate boxes. The community would need their magic practitioner to act as a shaman to perform divination, rituals, and incantations, as well having the knowledge to find ingredients, mix potions, and provide herbal remedies for healing—tasks that sorcerers and witches perform. They didn't seem to care about what their particular magic specialist was called.
That being said, I have provided a table of magic practitioner definitions and characteristics to clear up the muddy waters, establishing boundaries for this complex subject—with our primary focus being on witches.
The different magical practitioners, in order of earliest historical appearance (from left to right).
Magic Practitioners
Shaman | Priest | Seer | Sorcerer | Witch | |
Definition | A healer and diviner who enters trance to journey among spirits on behalf of the community | An appointed official who performs sacred rituals as an intermediary between a community and the divine | One who perceives hidden truths, knowledge of the future, or the will of the gods | One who intentionally performs magic by conjuring up spirits or through learned spells and rituals | Traditionally, one believed to have an innate hidden power to cause harm; in modern usage, a practitioner of nature-based spirituality |
Main function | Healing and mediating with spirits | Performing official rituals and maintaining the bond between gods and people | Knowing and revealing | Acting through magic | Harming (traditionally) or nature-based practice (modern) |
Source of power | Calling, trance, spirit helpers | Institutional office: ordination, appointment, or hereditary lineage | Divine gift, inspiration, or reading signs | Learned technique | Innate power (traditional) or practice (modern) |
Typical method | Drumming, trance, soul-journey | Sacrifice, prayer, liturgy, sacraments | Visions, dreams, omens | Spells, rituals, objects | Hidden influence, curses (as accused) |
Social standing | Usually respected, also feared | Officially sanctioned, often powerful | Usually respected | Ambiguous, often feared | Usually condemned (historically) |
Serves | Community | Community, the city-state, or a religious institution | Rulers, seekers, the community | Self or clients | Self, clients, or the Devil (accused of causing harm) |
Earliest Evidence | A lion-human figurine excavated in Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany (circa 40,000 years ago); a Natufian shaman woman found in Hilazon Tachtit burial site in Israel (ca. 12,000 years ago); a Bad Dürrenberg shaman woman found in Germany (ca. 9,000 years ago) | Enheduanna, high priestess of Ur, Mesopotamia (about 2285–2250 BCE); Imhotep, high priest of Heliopolis, Egypt (about 2650 BCE) | Greek seers Tiresias (before Trojan War ca. 1250 BCE) and Cassandra (ca. 1200 BCE); the Pythia at Delphi (about 700 BCE to 390 CE); Norse völva (about 800–1050 CE) | Greek sorceresses Circe (ca. 700 BCE, may be later like ca. 1250 BCE) and Medea (ca 700 BCE); Egyptian magicians of Pharaoh’s court (about 2500 BCE); medieval grimoire magicians (1200–1600 CE) | Sorcerers-witches involved in the Harem Conspiracy, Egypt (about 1155 BCE); Theoris of Lemnos, Athens (4th century BCE) |
Ancient Origins of Witches
Early Magic Practitioners: Shamans and Healer-Seers
Early societies had magical practitioners, or spiritual specialists, who healed people and performed divination through various means. For our purpose, we will call these early magic practitioners shamans, although the word shaman is derived from the Tungusic/Evenki word šamān (meaning "one who knows"), spoken by the indigenous people of Siberia and northern China. Frequently, we will use this term for a society that has little or nothing to do with the Tungusic culture.
Simultaneously, alongside shamans in these early cultures, there existed practitioners who frequently dealt with dark magic—what we would call sorcerers or witches. Their work is attested to by the evidence of counter-rituals and counter-spells in tablets, amulets, bowls, and other objects to reduce malicious witchcraft.
Europe: Germany
A lion-man figurine was excavated in the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany (1939) that is dated about 40,000 years ago. The hybrid figurine has links to shamanic concepts of transformation into an animal spirit or spirit being; or it could be the representation of a deity, totem, ancestor, or mythological figure.
Middle East
The burial site of a woman who died in her 40s was excavated at Hilazon Tachtit in Israel, dating back roughly 12,000 years. This woman was part of the Natufian culture and was believed to be a shaman because of the burial goods: an eagle's wing, a whole human foot, 50+ tortoise shells (conjectured to be eaten during the ceremonial feast), a leopard pelvis, two marten skulls, a wild boar forearm, tail bones from wild cattle, and broken pieces of a basalt bowl (Grosman et al).
Some of these burial items—the leopard pelvis and tortoise shells—were hard to find in the region. Tortoises are known to be solitary animals and to find more than 50 of these animals meant a "significant investment" of time (Grosman et al). Moreover, "cow tails, eagle wings, fur-bearing animals, as well as tortoises, play important symbolic and shamanistic roles in human cultures worldwide even today" (ibid., paraphrase).
Other elements supporting the interpretation that this woman was a shaman are:
Physical deformity: The woman had skeletal deformities in her spine and pelvis that caused a limp (ibid.). Many early societies link spiritual or healing powers to individuals with physical disabilities. Hence, the human foot buried with her is postulated as needed to restore her walking abilities in the afterlife.
Burial site itself: Unlike the other 28 Natufian burial sites found in the region (Grosman et al; Balter), which sometimes were collective burial places, this burial site was separate and purposely made because it is an oval plastered pit. The grave site is elevated, 150 meters up on a steep rocky slope. The closest settlement site is about 10 km away (Grosman et al). It probably took tremendous effort for her community to transport her body from her home and up to the grave.
Body positioning: The body was laid on its side with the spinal column, pelvis and right femur resting against the rounded southern wall of the oval-shaped pit. The legs were spread apart, folded inward at the knees. Many large stones were placed directly on the head, pelvis and arms of the woman at the time of burial. The body positioning and the heavy stones were probably to keep the woman's spirit confined to the grave and to protect the body from being eaten by wild animals (ibid.).
We can infer the great time and special care that her people took in accumulating these burial goods and making the plastered burial pit secure for the woman, especially if she were a shaman.
Norse
In Scandinavia during the Viking Age (ca. 800- 1050 CE), the Norse people revered their shaman-seeress called the völva (plural is völur), meaning "wand-carrier" or "staff-bearer," who foresaw the future, communicated with spirits, and provided healing and divination for guidance (Price, pp. 63-65). The völva carried a knobbed staff and practiced seiðr, a sorcery associated mainly with woman and with the goddess Freya. Seiðr would later influence the concepts of witches in Europe.
The Norse community valued the völur and even feared them for their power to shape-shift, curse enemies, and cloud people's minds, affecting their judgment and will (ibid., p. 64). Völur were often invited by Norse royalty to come to their homes—to be asked questions about the future, the fortunes of the specific royals, and the health of the crops (ibid., Section "Witches, seeresses and wise women," p. 242). Archaeologist Price notes that some early sources held the völur as generally untrustworthy—"rather disreputable company" (ibid., p. 244). So, suspicions were already present within society for the power the völva wielded.
Mesopotamia
Earliest recorded evidence is contained in the Tablets of the Ritual Maqlû ("Burning" in Akkadian). These incantation tablets, originating circa 1000 BCE and written in the Akkadian language, describe in detail an elaborate ritual to counteract malevolent witchcraft, kišpū. For these tablets to be codified describing obscure ceremonial and rite instructions, implies an already-established belief system about witches and their magic in early Mesopotamian society.
Egypt
In Ancient Egypt, magic is known as heka, which is frequently described as the cosmic force keeping harmonious balance in the universe. Heka, originating possibly in Pre-Dynastic period (circa 6000–3150 BCE), is sometimes believed to be the soul or energy of the sun god Atum (Pinch, Magic in Ancient Egypt, p. 10). It later evolved into a structured religious practice in the Early Dynastic period (circa 3150–2686 BCE) with priests, priestesses, and other ritual experts.
The practitioners of heka were priests and healers, so the negative connotations linked with witches were not attributed to heka specialists—those insinuations were instead projected onto foreigners and outsiders, who were the ones usually accused of practicing dark magic in Egyptian society (Geraldine Pinch, "Magic in Ancient Egypt," BBC—BBC History website, February 17, 2011).
Hebrew
One of the oldest Hebrew written accounts of a witchlike figure comes at King Saul's meeting with the "Woman (or Witch) of Endor" (1 Sam 28). With his kingdom of Israel at war with the Philistines, King Saul sought the counsel of his God at the start of the war. But God was no longer speaking to Saul through the prophets nor through his dreams (verses 6, 15). Saul then thought he could ask the prophet Samuel for advice. The king's problem was: Samuel had passed away already.
The king arranged a secret meeting with the witch of Endor, who could conjure up Samuel's spirit. She was reluctant to engage in necromancy, as the king himself had outlawed such activities. But Saul persisted in telling her he would not harm her if she performed this work for him. She summoned Samuel back from the dead, and the prophet wasn't pleased. Samuel pronounced misfortunes on King Saul and his sons (they were to be killed in battle the next day) and foretold of David taking over the kingdom from Saul (verses 17-19). Unfortunately for King Saul, these things came to pass.
Ancient Greece
Circe and Medea (circa 700 BCE) are two of the most famous early Greek mythological witches. In Homer’s Odyssey, Circe lives on an island called Aeaea; this is after she was ejected out of her queenship through the murdering of her own husband and other cruelties (Ogden, p. 78). Being the daughter of the sun god Helios and Hecate (or the Oceanid Perse, depending on the written source), Circe is a "goddess of beautiful tresses" (ibid., pp. 95-96). She has control of the sun and moon, a great understanding of drugs and roots, and an ability to transform men into obedient animals.
In the Odyssey, Odysseus and his crew sail to Circe's island. His crew is welcomed by Circe into her house, who then gives them drugged food. Striking the men with her wand, Circe transforms them into swine, forcing them into the pigsty. She later tries to transform Odysseus into a pig too but cannot, because of Herme's protective drug ("molu") given to Odysseus. He confronts her with his sword about her dark magic and intentions to transmute him. Circe then placates him by welcoming him into her bed. Later, she transforms the swine back to men for Odysseus—but makes the men younger, taller, and more attractive (ibid., pp. 97-98). Circe helped shape the later image of the witch as a seductive woman who lives apart and holds hidden knowledge.
The other Greek witch figure, Medea, is the niece or sister of Circe, depending on the textual sources. She is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis. She shows a darker side of the witch myth. Being a priestess of Hecate and having learned her witchcraft from Circe, Medea is linked with herbs, poisons, oaths, and revenge.
Her tragic story comes through her dealings with Jason and the Argonauts. Unbeknownst to her, Medea was enchanted to fall in love with Jason—through Aphrodite ordering Eros to shoot a love arrow at her (Argonautica 3.6–166). When Jason and his crew landed at Colchis, he was given impossible tasks to perform from King Aeëtes to gain the golden fleece.
Medea offers to help Jason, provided he would marry her and take her away to Greece. He agrees; they complete the tasks, and eventually they escape to Greece with the golden fleece. They marry and settle in Corinth for many years, where they raise two sons. But Jason, having political ambitions, abandons Medea for Glauce, the daughter of King Creon of Corinth.
As Jason and Glauce's wedding approaches, Medea, in vengeance, sends a wedding gift of a poisoned robe and crown to Glauce, which kills the princess and her father. The sorceress then kills her own two sons to devastate Jason, and escapes in a chariot sent by her grandfather Helios. Some earlier sources say that the Corinthians killed her sons and not Medea (Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.3.6–7). Some scholars believe that Euripides, in writing his play Medea, may have made up the sorceress' murder of her two sons to add more drama and tragedy—his play became the most popular form of the myth.
Like Circe, Medea is a foreigner and marked as a dangerous outsider. Both women were held in great dread—for their potential to harm people who encounter and cross them.
Asia Minor (Anatolia)/Greece
Now we focus on Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, necromancy, crossroads, and transitions between realms, and who is also the mother of Circe. Her cult worship lasted about 1,100 years from around 700 BCE to 400 CE. She is frequently depicted in one of two ways: as a woman holding twin torches and as three women facing three different directions.
At first Hecate appears in Hesiod’s Theogony as a powerful goddess honored by Zeus, being the only child of the Titans Perses ("the Destroyer") and Asteria ("the Starry One"), which gives her dominion over heaven, earth, and sea (Theogony 415–425). Later, Hecate evolved into a larger role as goddess of the underworld, the crossroads, ghosts, the night, and witchcraft. In modern Wicca and paganism, Hecate is revered as a goddess of magic and the crossroads. Numerous rituals, spells, and invocations involving Hecate are found in books and other media.
Hecate's origins are still under debate with most scholars maintaining that she arose from Caria in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), while some others argue that she is Greek. Small house shrines were commonly made for her to ward off evil and harmful witchcraft.
In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hecate holds a torch and aids Demeter in her search for her daughter Persephone, who had been kidnapped by Hades. After Persephone is freed and returned from the underworld, Hecate becomes Persephone's companion. This role linked Hecate to the underworld and to transitions between the worlds.
Of note are the many Greek magical papyri—full of invocations to Hecate for love spells, revenge, and conjuring spirits (circa 2nd century BCE-5th century CE), and curse tablets (ca. 5th-4th century BCE)—for Hecate to bind and restrain the cursed victim to the underworld.
Dogs are Hecate's sacred animal. One of her epithets is skylakageia, which means "leader of dogs"—found in the Great Paris Magical Papyrus, PGM IV, line 2722 (Betz, p. 89). She is often depicted accompanied by packs of barking dogs, especially black dogs. Her coming is believed to be announced by howling dogs, and dogs were among the animals sacrificed to her. During the Hekate Deipnon, a monthly ritual on the night of the dark moon, food offerings (bread, cakes, cheese, eggs, and fish) are left at crossroads for Hecate. The dogs that feed on the offerings are considered her sacred attendants.
Rome
In ancient Rome, the witch figures are grotesque and malevolent—rather different from the more nuanced, complex, and beautiful witch goddesses of Greece. In the Horace poems Satires and Epodes, Canidia and Sagana (Horace, circa 35–30 BCE) are hideous women with wild hair, long nails, and bare feet who perform blood sacrifices in graveyards, burn wax dolls to conjure up spirits, and try to kill children to make love potions.
We also have the terrifying witch Erictho (Lucan, ca. 60–65 CE). In his epic Pharsalia (Book 6), Lucan writes of Erictho, a necromancer who lives among the tombs, feeds on corpses, and even scorns the gods themselves. She is from Thessaly in northern Greece—the legendary homeland of witches, famous for women believed to have power over the moon.
Another category of Roman witches are the striges (singular strix), a mythical screeching owl-witch hybrid. These striges are believed to be witches who transform into screeching owls at night to hunt, abduct, and feed on infants and young children, even weaker adults. Ovid explains in his poem Fasti (ca. 8 CE) that it is not known whether the striges are birds to begin with, or were originally women transformed into birds by spells (Ovid, Fasti 6.131–168).
China
In ancient China, the early shaman and witch figures are called wu (巫). Wu are ritual specialists who communicate with spirits, dance for rain, heal illnesses, exorcise demons, and "calling back" souls. The early wu were often women. Some texts call female practitioners wu and male ones xi (覡). The wu’s most characteristic technique was dancing, often with music, drums, and costume, to bring a spirit down into their own body. The Guoyu (ca. 4th century BCE) tells of gods descending into the most gifted xi and wu. This descent of another spirit into a wu is sometimes believed to be a spiritual possession.
Over time their status and respect fell. Wu began as respected religious experts, healers, patrons of astronomy, demon exorcists, and rain dancers at the Shang and Zhou dynasties (circa 1600–256 BCE). By the Han era, they were often treated suspiciously, and wu became linked to sorcery and black magic. Daoist groups and government officials tried to suppress wu in the Six Dynasties (220–589 CE).
Of special note, scholars today are still in disagreement as to how to translate wu, with one scholar translating it as "medium" and "ritualist," not shaman or witch (Winkelman). The wu were of different types depending on the era.
Anthropologist Winkelman matches different kinds of wu to these categories (ibid.)
Prehistoric and commoner wu mostly look like shamans.
The early male xi look like healers.
The Zhou state officials look like priests.
The Han wugu look like sorcerer/witches.
Since Chinese religion does not have a universal enemy like the Western devil or Satan, the Chinese did not develop a pervasive satanic conspiracy as the Western world. However, China did prosecute harmful magic at times (wugu affair 91 BCE), and the wu did undergo persecution in the later dynasties but not anywhere near as deadly as the European and North American witch hunts.
India
For ancient India, the following spirit-medium specialists appeared gradually over time:
Vedic ritual healers and spellcasters (circa 1500–500 BCE), especially the Atharvan and Aṅgiras priests
Sorcerers, such as the yātudhāna (male) and yātudhānī (female) (ca. 1500 BCE–early 1st millennium CE)
Ecstatic ascetics, e.g., the keśin and muni (ca. 1200 BCE and on)
Possession specialists (ca. 700 BCE and on).
A possession specialist is needed for these two situations.
1. Driving out demons: An afflicted person, usually a woman or child, is possessed by a spirit and needs a possession specialist to identify the spirit and drive it out.
2. Channeling a spirit: An individual is possessed by a spirit and acts as the mouthpiece for that spirit, and then can answer questions from authoritative, learned men.
Usually, priests were the exorcists, but sometimes physician-healers, monks, or tantric masters treated the possessed. Channeling occurred frequently in commoners like women and children.
Female figures of tantric lore, the ḍākinīs and yoginīs (c. 5th–12th century CE), who later became the closest thing to “witches” in the European sense.
Depending on the geographical area (Nepal, Tibet, China, India, Japan) and religious traditions (Buddhist, Hindu), ḍākinīs can range from being goddesses, who guard and completely annihilate enemies, to demonesses, who eat the flesh and vital essence of humans.
Yoginīs are often dreaded, and at other times, revered. Some yoginīs were fierce female deities who could grant supernatural powers (including flight) to worthy tantric practitioners. The dangerous yoginīs are witch-like beings who could fly by night, devour human flesh, steal a person’s vital essence, and turn men into animals.
In summary, spirit possession is the better-documented pattern in South Asia, rather than soul-flight, as is common in Western cultures. The Vedic healers, sorcerers, and ascetics all appear in the earliest texts, before 1000 BCE. Possession specialists became clearly visible in the last centuries BCE. The witch-like ḍākinīs and yoginīs are a much later, medieval development.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Everyday Folk Magic
In our modern world, we tend to view magic as a special, mysterious power. Magic practitioners are accordingly set apart also. Archaeological evidence shows that shamans of ancient cultures indeed were given special treatment when they were buried, such as the Natufian woman buried about 12,000 years ago at Hilazon Tachtit with special burial goods (tortoise shells, an eagle’s wing, and a leopard's bone).
However, many early societies believed magic was also a mundane part of life—a daily element coexisting with religion and practical knowledge. An individual can participate in magic simply be wearing amulets, charms, and verbalizing "prayers," spells, or incantations as part of daily life.
With that perspective, magic practitioners in early societies used folk magic for healing people and animals, resolving conflicts, recovering lost goods, identifying curses, facing death, and advising community-wide decisions, like whether to go to battle, where to find game, or where to plant crops.
Magic specialists used various techniques and means to draw out and direct their powers of divination and magic, including rituals (tied to moon phases, seasonal changes, or holy days), trances, spirit journeys, casting lots, dream interpretation, reading oracle bones, spells, prayers, potions, drumming, water, fire, and animal or human sacrifices.
Divination Vs Magic
The differences between magic and divination may be subtle but distinctions abound. We need to define each concept to sharpen our understanding of magic.
Divination is the practice of seeking hidden knowledge, especially about the future through ritual or spiritual means. The knowledge could be why an event was occurring, what will happen, or what the gods want.
People sought divination for virtually all aspects of living, e.g., such as marriage and pregnancy matters, healing sicknesses, responsibility for sudden deaths, safety of trails for travel or sea voyage, rainfall, thief identification, settling disputes, appointment for leadership office, or guidance in a personal matter.
Magic, on the other hand, is the use of ritual actions, objects, words, spells or substances to influence people, events, or natural forces through supernatural, spiritual, or hidden means—whether for protection, healing, harm, cursing, love, or divination.
Ordinary people can practice folk magic, as well as educated people who learn magic, divination, and the healing arts, naturally-gifted people with magic (witches), or are people appointed to spiritual offices, as in priests, monks, or clergy.
Etymology of Magic
Magic is traced from the Old Persian magush, which refers to a priestly class. Explaining the word's evolution is complex and better illustrated with arrows.
Old Persian magush (priest) → Greek magos → Greek magikos (adjective) → Greek magikē (tekhnē, “the magian art”) → Late Latin magice → Old French magique → Middle English magike (late 1300s) → magic
High & Low Magic
Magic can be further divided into:
1. High magic: Magic that is esoteric and ceremonial for initiation rites, secret societies, mysticism, alchemy, astrology, numerology, philosophy, or metaphysical goals.
The common threads of high magic are long preparation and purification, Hebrew divine names and Kabbalistic correspondences, robes and consecrated tools, and an ideal of transforming the practitioner.
Examples: Marsilio Ficino’s astral magic used music, images and planetary correspondences; Pico della Mirandola fused magic with Kabbalah; Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1533); Enochian magic; Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; Solomonic grimoires such as the Key of Solomon and the Lesser Key of Solomon)
2. Low magic; Magic that is folk and practical for ordinary purposes like healing, protection, love, relationships, fortune, or prosperity.
Examples: Curse tablets, amulets, protective and healing charms, witch bottles, love magic, divination, and folk practices with mojo bags, roots, candles, oils, spells, and prayers
Special note: In practice, high and low magic overlapped constantly. Cunning folk (village healers and wise men and women in early modern Britain) owned copies of Agrippa, and grimoires borrowed folk charms.
Aims and Technologies of Magic
The Oxford archaeologist, Dr. Chris Gosden, discusses his research in the lecture video "The History of Magic" (Gosden). Challenging the traditional academic view that magic is a "primitive" belief destined to disappear as society progresses toward science and religion, he argues that magic is a fundamental and ongoing part of human life.
The professor defines magic on a broad scale: Magic is humanity's direct participation in and connection with the universe (Gosden, timestamp 4:37). He suggests a reciprocal relationship between humans and the world around them (5:46 - 6:30).
Gosden describes magic's specific aims and technologies below (13:28-19:06).
The Aims of Magic: Why it is used
Benign Uses
Protective magic
Foretell the future
Diagnose the past
Relationship work—maintaining relationships with significant others
Sickness, health and possession (spirit or demon possession)
Understanding and affecting transformation
Dying, death, and the dead
Manipulate desire (love)
Malign Uses
Sorcery and harms
Curses
Inversions (black magic)
The Technologies of Magic: How it is performed (methods)
Words—written and spoke—spells, curses, protections
Deposition—deliberate deposition across the landscape
Modes of divination
Forms of oracles—Oracle of Delphi, poison oracle
Material means of harm, protection, and cure
Monumental construction
Means of altering states of consciousness
Art, representation, manipulation
Triple Helix of Magic, Religion, and Science
Gosden refers to the interworking of the three fields of knowledge as the "triple helix of magic, religion, and science" (Gosden, timestamp 6:45-8:24). He proposes historical eras where the threads of the triple helix are intertwined with differing peaks and troughs—a thread gaining more significance at certain points in time than the other strands. He models it on the genetic double helix. But here we have three strands of human behavior, interlinked and interlocking: each strand stands for a different relationship to the world. No thread ever totally disappears in any historical period.
Gosden defines the triple strands in the following way.
Magic is direct human participation in the universe. Gosden borrows this principle from the work of French philosopher Lucien Lévy-Bruhl.
Religion is belief in something transcendent.
Science is a practical, technical grasp of the world through abstract, mathematical means.
Magic was dominant in prehistoric Europe, the early Neolithic Middle East, the Steppe lands, Australia, and the Americas, according to Professor Gosden. Magic and religion are "intertangled" and roughly equal in Mesopotamia, Egypt, ancient India, and medieval Europe. Religion becomes dominant and magic more ambiguous in ancient Israel, Greece and Rome. In our world today science dominates, then religion, and lastly magic. Gosden calls this combination historically and culturally unusual (19:07-21:07).
Magical Results
Models of success
Every magical technique has its own way of judging whether something worked, and those judgments are not arbitrary. A protective amulet against Lamashtu “worked” if the pregnancy went well (success). For a love potion, the "object of desire" either falls in love with the person using the potion (success), or he/she doesn't (failure). The shaman-healer gives an herbal remedy that heals the sickness (success), or the sickness is still present (failure). The seer's advice that the tribe should go to war ends in victory or defeat.
Explanations of failures
Whenever a magic tradition does not deliver well, people look for explanations. Maybe the ritual was performed wrongly, a taboo was broken, the practitioner wasn’t properly purified, or a rival’s counter-magic was stronger—as there was “magic and counter magic.”
Gosden points out that science does the same too. When an experiment fails, scientists blame contamination, faulty equipment, or a bad sample before abandoning the theory. The anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard made this argument about Azande witchcraft and oracles in the 1930s: explanations of failure protect the overall framework, which is how every belief system, scientific or not, stays stable.
Experimental and Changing
Magic is “often extremely experimental”; if one approach doesn’t quite work, people try another. For example, hexafoils, which are protective symbols, travelled with European settlers to barns in Tasmania, Pennsylvania and New Zealand, and adapted along the way. Sumatran fighters developed new "magic" to make their clothing bulletproof against Dutch colonial forces—clearly, a response to a brand-new threat. Finally, astrology moved onto smartphone apps today for greater access.
Onward and Upward on Our Broom Flight
We have traced the story back to the very beginning—to the shamans, the first "magical practitioners" of human history. Along the way, we have seen examples of
shamans, seers, priests, sorcerers, and witches across cultures that had almost nothing in common. Of note to our study of witches are Hecate, Circe, Medea, and the Norse völva figures. Their relevance to the development of witchcraft will be seen soon.
So where does this leave us? With the origin of witches and an overview of the history and nuances of magic under our belt, we will take a darker road up ahead. We will explore the medieval and modern history of witches—including witch hunts, persecution, execution, and the tragedy of the accused witch in the next installment.
By Mel Bridges
References
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Balter, Michael. "Ancient Grave May Have Belonged to Shaman," Science, Nov 3, 2008; https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-grave-may-have-belonged-shaman?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.brave.com%2F
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Coleridge, E. P. Medea By Euripides, 431 BCE.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1937.
Grosman, Leore, Natalie D. Munro, and Anna Belfer-Cohen. "A 12,000-year-old Shaman burial from the southern Levant (Israel)," PNAS, Nov18, 2008; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0806030105).
Kline, A. S. Ovid: Fasti, 2004. Fasti, Book 6, June 1, line 131–168 can be viewed here:
Magnússon, Magnús and Hermann Pálsson (translators). The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America, New York University Press, 1966. https://archive.org/details/vinlandsagasnors0000unse_s1p3/page/80/mode/2up
Ogden, David. Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts In The Greek and Roman Worlds : A Sourcebook, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. https://archive.org/details/magicwitchcraftg0000ogde
Pausanias. Description of Greece 2.3.6–7, https://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias2A.html
Price, Neil. The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia, 2nd ed., Oxbow Books, 2019.
Sigurðsson, Gísli. The Medieval Icelandic Saga and Oral Tradition: A Discourse on Method, Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature, Harvard University Press, 2004. https://archive.org/details/medievalicelandi0000gisl/page/258/mode/2up
Winkelman, Michael James. “Chinese Wu, Ritualists and Shamans: An Ethnological Analysis,” The Revitalization of Shamanism in Contemporary China, 2023. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/7/852
Videos
Gosden, Chris. “The History of Magic, by Professor Chris Gosden." School of Archaeology Oxford, Nov 2, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA7pr7Jh02A&t=12s.
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