Witchcraft. When we think of that word, I bet a lot of the same associations probably come to mind for most of us.

Cauldrons bubbling some woman chanting and throwing stuff in. I have noot, toa frog in the hopes of conjuring some magical entity

We're making some potion that will give its recipient magical powers or harm them

You might think of a bean who somehow disgusting withered almost rotten looking corrupted a physical representation of evil

Or you might think of its mere image a seductive figure who uses her magic to burrow herself deep inside your psyche

Charming you scaring you tricking and arousing you in equal measure

If you're into fantasy series like Game of Thrones these cultural images come with concrete physical representations

Which is a remains day of our culture and every way from the benign

Halloween witches Sabrina the teenage witch charmed and more to the genuinely frightening like the witch in

Suspiria

Conjuring universe horror mainstay the Blair witch project and more

But even though we know witches it's like that most of us don't actually

Believing them. Yes, we're aware of or partaken

Spiritual practices that aren't in line with any established religion

Maybe you track your horoscope or use crystals and sage to protect yourself

But you probably don't believe in a genuine cabal of Satan worshipping women who commune at night and plot to destroy our communities and homes

At least I hope you don't

Some people certainly do but not most of us and I certainly hope things stay that way

I hope we don't regress to what much of the world did believe not all that long ago

For the majority of human history most of humanity has certainly believed in and feared witches and witchcraft

Beginning in the earliest days of recorded human society people lived in a world where magic or at least the belief in magic

Was as commonplace as anything else

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