Witches and their magical arts have endured for thousands of years. Indeed, some modern witches claim that the earliest witches were healers who used their knowledge and power to treat those in need more than fifty thousand years ago. During a time when nothing was known about what caused disease or illness, witches-who were known for their medical wisdom-were the one hope people had to treat and cure medical problems. While some witches worked exclusively as healers, others expanded their repertoire to include magic performed to ensure good hunting and favorable weather for crops, to protect the health of farm animals, to foretell the future, and to communicate with the dead.

Magical Tools

Witches were extremely knowledgeable about the different properties of plants. They had to be to know that thorn apple, nightshade, monkshood, hemlock, and cinquefoil had hallucinogenic properties, and according...