Witches have been both admired and feared, chased, murdered and asked for advice all through history. They acquired different shapes according to their actions and to how great the myth's influence was in the community. Some of those individuals being accused of being witches really practised their own ceremonies and had special rituals, made potions and dealt with energies.. Were they to be called magicians? Yes, but to a certain extent, always depending on which side of the witchcraft we are analysing.

Some of the so-called witches were human beings with natural gifts for healing and using herbal remedies, they could be lonely old ladies living houses in the outskirts of a town, being consulted when problems arose or when a baby was being born. The town people asked them for advice and charms of protection and they were paid depending on the nature of what they were providing and the will of the client. This "witches" could also be mothers and daughters witch ancestral recipes of mixings of herbs and other substances in order to protect the family from common illnesses or aliviate any loss of balance in mood or health. Sometimes the roots of actual laboratory medicine could be witnessed in those early procedures, surrounded by superstitions, the belief in a creator or creators and the power of word and will. Men could also use this "knowledge" and their natural gifts with similar purposes but they were more likely to spend the day working, traveling or with friends rather than fetching leaves in the lonely darkness (and we say in the darkness because being seen in open field with the hand full of mythic herbs could be misunderstood and the witch could end its days in a bonfire).

The ability of using the substances in plants, minerals and animals- to restrict the properties to widely proven effects instead of floating over vague concepts of paranormal powers- could also be used for evil purposes, as poisoning, for instance, as occurred with Catherine Ross, daughter of Alexander Ross, 9º laird of Balnagown, who was thought to be an excellent- and deadly- jinx and poisoner and whose fame transcended the borders of Scotland. In many other times, some poisoners were called witches, as the nature of the poison used may have been as unknown as the antidote to them.

This kind of witch could be of any religion or even pagan, and only in some rare cases worshipped the devil. As general rule, they had an entity to whom the prays were directed, Nature, an omnipotent God, central historical deities or the guardians of universe, represented by spirits , quarters or by two major deities: one female, one male. These were the "ancestors", to say it in a clear way, of the actual nature witches and fortunetellers.

A second kind of witches is conformed by those who were believed to be sorcerers and sometimes even condemned for it only because certain activities made their neighbours' or the Inquisition's attention fall on them. They could be both men and women that questioned ancestral notions of Christianity or wanted a change in the feudal system, women failing to be submissive enough or with doubtful moral principles, etc. Also prostitutes and scapegoats chosen to solve strange situations. They were accused of having relation with the devil and of practising black masses, of flying and harming with those dark powers they had acquired, of having a wicked soul and wanting to destroy the Christian order.

They were tortured with special gadgets and were frequently burnt, if not drowned, hanged or killed in some other way. The only way to save the life was to confess the crime and say the names of other witches; but the great majority of the times this was not enough.

Towards this kind of witch, charms were made and certain routines had to be followed, usually common for different kind of abnormal dangers. And that's how the myth of witches flying in full moon nights, black cats and ravens as familiars and murdering children to elaborate their rituals grew in desperate proportions, leading into massive hysteria as in some well known cases (as the Salem trials in North America).

This kind of witch could also work for politic activities, when the one accused was a well known figure dangerous to a State or Empire, as in the case of Jean D'Arc, who ceased to be in the hands of the English after being sold by the Normands.

The third group of people called witches are those that do rituals and base their powers on the worship of certain deities: they used to gather in lonely places and ask for what they want while burning sacred plants and playing with different lights and sensations. Spells, scents and gatherings as those of 'nature witches' (to give them a name) in certain occasions were placed as the base of the cult, and the "religion" was concentrated in the flow of energies and based on the popular legends. Thus, we may speak of bonfires at midnight, the use of special clothing and, later, of colour candles. Some may go even further and restrict the congregation to a single sex and punish with expulsion the violation of their own rules. These parties are still frequent and are remarkably fond of ritual and social relations: people in a spiritual sessions, adolescents in a horror club, rich people in old castles and societies, thirteen bodies dancing towards a fire and many other examples of the sort.

Of the three kinds, the most appropriate to be called witchcraft is the first one, since it combines the use of energies and incursions into spiritual encounters with potions and knowledge of nature and of oneself. A witch need not to deal with curses and nudism to be so called, and the expression 'followers of the old religion' could be preferred to the trivialised and full of prejudice of 'witch' if it did not caused a confusion: there were many 'old religions' and one cannot know 'paganism' was the oldest. Could the first humans have had myths more similar to our 'book religions' than to politheism or witchcraft? We can only guess analysing the prooves left by the pass of the centuries... Not needed to say they are not enaugh.

The second group is that of historical witches, the echoes of popular imagination and massive executions. The long queue of a victims of the deformation of Christian beliefs, sometimes on purpose, bometimes really believing it was for the best. The third one may be only a part of witchcraft or a way of manifesting our own beliefs, but should not be called witchcraft, as a leaf cannot be called a tree: the third group is the result of the mixture of the first two groups and coins many rythuals taken from old religions making them betray their original purpose: the members of this group may understand the precepts of the first one to be considered 'witches' or, if the old term would be preferred provided the prejudices of the modern term, 'wiccans'.