* The indie rock band Liars ' album They Were Wrong, So We Drowned is a concept album loosely based on tales of the gatherings of witches on The Brocken as well as witch trials.

This practice may stem from the influence of Gerald Gardner who wrote ( ostensibly quoting a witch, but perhaps in his own words ): The witches tell me ' The law always has been that power must be passed from man to woman or from woman to man, the only exception being when a mother initiates her daughter or a father his son, because they are part of themselves ' ( the reason is that great love is apt to occur between people who go through the rites together.

Although his own book had been put together with the help of Doreen Valiente and included material from a variety of modern sources, ( notably from Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches and the writings of Aleister Crowley ) it also included sections written in an antique ( or mock-antique ) style, including advice for witches brought to trial and tortured.

* " De lamiis liber item de commentitiis jejuniis ," 1577, ( A book on witches together with a treatise on false fasting ), translated into German as:

Though witches have no leader, Tiffany joined an informal " coven " of peer witches she gathers together for sabbats, of which Annagramma Hawkin acted as the self-appointed " boss " due to her having the tallest hat and the loudest voice.

This method of working alone was one factor that separated the cunning folk from the stereotype of witches then prevalent in Britain, which often held that these witches met together in groups, sometimes known as covens, and at times flew through the air in order to get to their meeting points.

It represents the three sister witches working together as one.

Later, Phoebe and Prue go out together and talk, after finishing up at the hospital, about being witches.

Upon arriving in France, Bedford condemns Charles for aligning himself with Joan: " How much he wrongs his fame ,/ Despairing of his own arms ' fortitude ,/ To join with witches and the help of hell " ( 2. 1. 16 – 18 ).

In response to the priest's disbelief, Gaspurotto invited both him and the Inquisitor to join the benandanti on their next journey, although refused to provide the names of any other members of the brethren, stating that he would be " badly beaten by the witches " should he do so.

For the witches, and most likely shamans, this is at a specific canyon underneath the earth in Lyra's world.

When Banquo asks of his own fortunes, the witches inform him that he will father a line of kings, though he himself will not be one.

Her father took her to eleven different witches but none alleviated her condition.

A diviner, known as babalawo, literally “ father of ancient wisdom ” will use a variety of methods to communicate with the inhabitants of orun, or to identify the “ enemies of humankind ,” namely: “ Death, Disease, Infirmity, and Loss .” The babalawo may also identify other entities for concern: egbe abiku literally “ spirit children ” that kill newborn babies, or aje and oso, literally “ witches ” and “ wizards ” respectively.

In the comics, Sabrina, a " half-witch " ( her mother is an ordinary human, or " mortal " as witches refer to them, while her father is a warlock ) lives with her two aunts, Hilda and Zelda Spellman ( both witches themselves ), in the fictional town of Greendale, which is located somewhere near Riverdale, the home of Archie Andrews.

Two witches in colonial Salem, Jennifer ( Veronica Lake ) and her father Daniel ( Cecil Kellaway ), are burned at the stake after being denounced by Puritan Jonathan Wooley ( Fredric March ) and their ashes buried beneath a tree to imprison their evil spirits.

L. Frank Baum's fourth Oz book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, chronicles that Pastoria's father ( Ozma's grandfather ) ruled Oz before the wicked witches conquered the land and divided it among themselves, but makes it unclear as to whether Pastoria himself ruled Oz.

As Harry learns from his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger The Order is a group of witches and wizards, led by Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, dedicated to fighting the evil Lord Voldemort and his followers.

In the fictional world of the Harry Potter series, the Death Eaters constitute a group of wizards and witches, led by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, the chief antagonist of the series, who seek to purify the Wizarding community by eliminating the Muggle-borns ( wizards or witches born to non-magical parents ).

Harry is sorted into Gryffindor, after pleading with the hat not to place him in Slytherin, notorious for being the house of darker witches and wizards, as well as Lord Voldemort.

As his eldest son sleeps with his pretty young wife and his daughter seeks out her favorite hairy-chested servant for comfort, Lord Whitman begins mumbling that he wants to " clean up " the witches in the area, especially " that decrepit old bag, Oona.

The strain of this traumatic incident turned her against John, and she enlisted the help of a coven of witches to kill him, which later came to a head when John was forced to fight off a brutal Demon summoned by them using John's iconic trenchcoat to target him.

During the season finale of season three, Prue and Piper unwittingly expose themselves as witches to the world after battling Shax, the Source's personal assassin, in public with the fight being caught on camera by a local news crew.

Merrick explains that he originally joined the SSI because he was an angry young man who wanted to fight witches and other supernatural entities.

Some people in a village had the power to see and fight witches in their dreams and were called ' defenders ', the most important being the village headmen.

The spirits of the men would go to the fields to fight evil witches ( malandanti ).

He fought like a fiend for the helpless and oppressed, worked for the abolition of slavery, helped the Quakers and Indians, and worked against the prosecution of witches.

Bancroft notes that Mather considered witches " among the poor, and vile, and ragged beggars upon Earth ," and Bancroft asserts that Mather considered the people against the witch trials to be witch advocates.

Dianic Wiccans as " positive path " practitioners do neither manipulative spellwork nor hexing because it goes against the Wiccan Rede ; other Dianic witches ( notably Zsuzsanna Budapest ) do not consider hexing or binding of those who attack women to be wrong.

The 10th century Metrical Charm " Against A Sudden Stitch " ( Wið færstice ) offers remedy against sudden pain ( such as rheumatism ) caused by projectiles of either ése or ylfe or witches ( gif hit wære esa gescot oððe hit wære ylfa gescot oððe hit wære hægtessan gescot " be it Ése-shot or Elf-shot or witch-shot ").

The Africans saw witchcraft as a powerful influence on their lives and frequently took violent action against suspected witches.

During what is known as the Little Ice Age, Innocent VIII, in his papal bull Summis desiderantes ( 5 December 1484 ) instigated severe measures against magicians and witches in Germany.

In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Russian Orthodox Church while they were alive.

Later in the 17th and 18th century, the trials in Hungary not only were conduced against witches, but against werewolves too, and many records exist creating connections between both kinds.

Throughout this time, it was increasingly believed that Christianity was engaged in an apocalyptic battle against the Devil and his secret army of witches, who had entered into a diabolical pact.

Repeated themes include participation in processions of the dead or large feasts, often presided over by a horned male deity or a female divinity who teaches magic and gives prophecies ; and participation in battles against evil spirits, " vampires ", or " witches " to win fertility and prosperity for the community.

The folk magic used to identify or protect against malicious magic users is often indistinguishable from that used by the witches themselves.

The torture used against accused witches, 1577

The Inquisition had conducted trials against supposed witches in the 13th century, but these trials were to punish heresy, of which belief in witchcraft was merely one variety.

It developed as a compendium ( with multiple authorship ) from Philosophical Considerations Touching the Being of Witches and Witchcraft ( 1666 ), addressed to Robert Hunt, a Justice of the Peace active from the 1650s against witches in Somerset ( where Glanvill had his living at Frome ); the 1668 version A Blow at Modern Sadducism promoted the view that the judicial procedures such as Hunt's court offered should be taken as adequate tests of evidence, because to argue otherwise was to undermine society at its legal roots.

September 20, Cotton Mather wrote to Stephen Sewall, the clerk of the court: " That I may be the more capable to assist in lifting up a standard against the infernal enemy ..." requesting "... a narrative of the evidence given in at the trials of half a dozen, or if you please, a dozen, of the principal witches that have been condemned.

His fanatical preaching was frequently directed against witches, homosexuals, and Jews.

By contrast, there is still no evidence for Sumerian incantations against witches.

He was among the first to publish against the persecution of witches.

Fought against persecution of " witches " during Salem Witch Trials.

A harbinger of spring, and it is said to bring good fortune and protect against witches and the evil eye.

Such a rowan is called a " flying rowan " and was thought of as especially potent against witches and their magic, and as a counter-charm against sorcery.