Witchcraft and magic are two separate things. Witchcraft is a
religion or spiritual tradition, and
magic is a tool. Not all Witches use magic. In contemporary society,
it is often confusing as many people tend to associated Witchcraft and
magic because of cultural stereotypes and poor definitions of the word
witchcraft.
The English King Edgar during the years of 959-975 AD wrote the following in
regards to Witchcraft:
"We enjoin that every priest zealously promote Christianity, and
totally
extinguish every heathendom; and formid well worshipings, and man
worshiping, and the vain practices which are carried on with various
spells, and with frith-spots, and with elders and with other trees, and
with stones, and with many other delusions, with which men do much of
what they should not... And we enjoin, that on feast days there be
complete abstinence from heathen songs and devil's games."
In 1398 AD, the theology faculty at the University of Paris
officially
categorized the practice of magic as being separate and distinct from
accusation of witchcraft. At this point in time, magic can be defined
as any of the practices which were not condoned or sanctioned by the
Catholic Church. All non-sanctioned magical practices, both beneficial
and malignant, were seen as a denial of the Christian faith. During the
year 1484, the Papal Bull declared an open war against what remained of
the Heathen religious practices. By these two distinct events, you can
easily discern that even the Catholics distinguished between the
religion of Witchcraft and the use of magic. The final list of charges
which were used by the Catholic Church included heresy, witchcraft, and
unsanctioned magic. During this time, magic was used by both those of
Catholic and Heathen religions, and so the emphasis was on those
systems of magic which were not sanctioned by the Catholic Church.
Later, the accusations of heresy, magic, and witchcraft became more
blurred.
Anything which was not understood was deemed as magic. People began to
forget and turn away from the Heathen religions, and as they did so
they began to no longer understand these religious practices and they
too became labeled as magical. Both magic and witchcraft were
considered heresy against the Church. In time, these three charges were
pushed further into a single charge of witchcraft. Anyone who committed
heresy against the Church was likely to be deemed a witch.
The confusion between Witchcraft and magic in popular society
became even more entangled when the writings of E. E. Evans-Pritchard
were published in 1937 in his book, "Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic in
the Azande." In his book, he mistranslated the word mangu into the English word magic. The word mangu
actually meant something akin to sorcery or malignant magic. However,
by mistranslating this word he set the precedent for the
anthropological definition of the term witchcraft.
