Our childhood has always had mythical magical creatures, and among them, we all heard about witches, but how have our opinions change about them?

We have read many fantasy tales of many witches from The Witches by Roald Dahl to watching them on television, like The Wizard Oz. Most of us believe that witch characters were never the “good guy”. But this was never the case in early times, starting with the bible. According to history.com, “Early witches were people who practiced witchcraft, using magic spells and calling upon spirits for help or to bring about change. Most witches were thought to be pagans doing the Devil’s work. It’s unclear exactly when witches came on the historical scene, but one of the earliest records of a witch is in the Bible in the book of 1 Samuel.  It tells the story of when King Saul sought the Witch of Endor to summon the dead prophet Samuel’s spirit to help him defeat the Philistine army. The witch roused Samuel, who then prophesied the death of Saul and his sons. The next day, according to the Bible, Saul’s sons died in battle, and Saul committed suicide.”

Another historical episode was during the Puritan time period in early America. The Salem Witch Trials, “began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June.” (history.com). Although these trails were brutally performed, nowadays things have changed from our generation perspective.

Research on witches shows many different opinions and beliefs regarding the validity of the existence of witches.  According to nytimes.com, “Last year, a mob in Papua New Guinea burned alive a young mother, Kepari Leniata, 20, who was suspected of sorcery. This highly publicized case followed a series of instances over recent years of lethal group violence against women and men accused of witchcraft.”  Based on this case it easy to gain fear, but from others perspective, it doesn’t seem that way.   According to Danial Hrominchuk, a formal user of quora.com, “Witches are good if they go by the rules they are supposed to obey. … they will but harm none. Those that use black magic might call themselves witches but they are really sorcerers/ Black Magic is Devil Magic.”  In the end, no one really knows if witches are real or not.

Here is a screenshot of opinions from the Quora website about their thoughts about witches.