Six types of Witchcraft

Details of six types of witchcraft: Evil sorcery in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) Poisoners in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) Gothic Satanism during the Renaissance in western Europe Wicca Religious Satanism Sorcery and magic in fantasy novels

English versions of the Bible sometimes translate the Hebrew word m'khashepah or m'khaseph in the Hebrew Scriptures as Witch or Wizard. For example:

	Exodus 22:18: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (KJV)
	Deuteronomy 18:10-11: "There shall not be found among you anyone ....that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer." (KJV)

The Hebrew words M'khashepah and m'khaseph means an evil sorceress or sorcerer; a person who uses spoken spells in secret to harm or kill other people. They were greatly feared by the ancient Israelites because they believed that there was no protective measures that a person could take against such curses.

Wicca is recently-created religion, partly based on the concepts, deities, symbols and seasonal days of celebration of the ancient Celtic people. Some Wiccans also refer to themselves as Witches, Pagans or Neopagans. Both men and women who follow the religion are typically called Witches; the term Wizard is not used. The two laws that govern Wiccan behavior are:

The Wiccan Rede: "An it harm none, do what you wilt" i.e. Wiccans are free to do whatever they want to, as long as it harms nobody, including themselves.  The Threefold Law: Any evil that one does will return three times over; so too with any good that one accomplishes.

The Rede and the Law obviously motivate Witches/Wiccans to avoid doing evil. "Witches" in the Bible and the "Witches" within Wicca are, in fact, totally opposite in belief and practice. They are also unrelated to the Gothic Satanism hoax created by the Christian church in the late Middle Ages. Wiccans do not believe in Satan; their pantheons of deities do not include an all-evil supernatural being. They are unrelated to imaginary witchcraft of children's literature; Wiccans very definitely live in the real world, not an alternative universe.

Imaginary witchcraft often appears science fantasy and children's novels. The environment is in a type of alternative universe in which normal physical laws do not apply. Magic takes over. For example, the staircases and other structures in the Hogwarts School building in the Harry Potter™ books do not obey the laws of physics; they are constantly being rearranged by magic. In this magical world, people can fly through the air on broomsticks. They can change their shape from human to an animal. Dementors can attack people and suck their soul out of their body, leaving them joyless. The "soul suckers" and others can be defeated by waving a wand and reciting a spell. This form of wizardry/witchcraft is also seen in a delightful passage in the movie Fantasia in which Mickey Mouse plays the role of a sorcerer's apprentice. He experiments with a magical spell without permission, and gets into a lot of trouble by creating thousands of water-carrying brooms. Evil and good Witches inhabit the world of children's nursery rhymes, cartoons, and movies -- from Cinderella to the Wizard of Oz. As author Rowling says: "My wizarding world is a world of the imagination. I think it's a moral world....I don't believe in the kind of magic that appears in my books." ₂

	Her books are unrelated to the "Witchcraft" of the Bible, with the exception of the malicious "wizard" Lord Voldemort. His behavior closely fits that of the Hebrew word m'khaseph -- an evil sorcerer. He is consistently described throughout the book series as a profoundly evil force to be despised and fought against.
	Her book does describe Harry and his friends using some methods of divination which might have some vague similarities to techniques that some Wiccans also use to foretell the future. However, divination is not an integral part of the Wiccan religion; it is merely an activity which some Wiccans engage in. And, of course, most people who attempt to foretell the future are not Wiccans. Divination takes many benign forms in North America, including consulting one's horoscope, the casting of runes, reading tarot cards, interpreting tea leaves, or the observing of a groundhog's shadow to decide whether Spring will be delayed.
	The Harry Potter books teach a positive system of morality: They are totally non-racist. When Harry is selecting a girl to take to a dance, he tries to get a date with a number of students. From their names, we can infer that one is East Indian and one is African. Harry is Caucasian. They are quite non-sexist. The male and female students interact as equals; the boys do not adopt a position of superiority over the girls. In the first book, Harry relies heavily on the logical ability of a female student to solve a puzzle. They are moral: right always ultimately triumphs over might; good wins over evil; love over hate. Rowling's characters exhibit strong loyalty to family and friends. A visitor to this web site wrote: "Even though the various main characters have fallings out they don't engage in petty vengeance or malicious gossip. They eventually apologize and reconcile. Also, though Harry's uncle treats him badly, he is not totally evil. We see that he and his wife are motivated by fear and jealousy (and a reluctant acknowledgment that magic is a real and powerful force which must be respected) and we can maybe have some sympathy for them. ... No matter how bad the treatment, it is clear Harry must stay with them as the protection of blood family outweighs all other considerations."

The "witchcraft" seen in fiction is quite different from the religion of "Witchcraft" (commonly called Wicca) in the real world. For example:

Lindy Beam of Focus on the Family, commented on the Harry Potter books: "Harry’s magic is of an entirely different nature from real-world witchcraft." Beam quotes Chuck Colson, a popular conservative Christian author: "Harry and his friends cast spells, read crystal balls, and turn themselves into animals—but they don't make contact with a supernatural world."  3

Beam also quoted Wren Walker, a Wiccan from Clearwater, Fla., who co-founded the Witches Voice, a popular source for information on Wicca and other Pagan traditions. Walker states that the Harry Potter book could never be an instructional piece for real-life witchcraft. Walker said: "Spells tend to be more like prayers for most Wiccans and witches that practice it in the religious sense...We don’t use ‘abracadabra.’ If somebody wanted to pick up the book and do the things in it, it wouldn’t be Witchcraft." 3

Confusion reigns when people try to link together two of these unrelated forms of witchcraft. This most often happens when:

	Some conservative Christians link together Bible Witchcraft, Gothic Satanism, Wicca, and the imaginary witchcraft of the Harry Potter books as a single, forbidden entity. As described above, the witchcraft of the Bible and of Wicca are exact opposites in many ways. Gothic Satanism and imaginary witchcraft do not exist.
	Teenage students confuse imaginary witchcraft of the Potter books with Wicca and want to learn spells that they can use to change their environment.

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