What is a Witch?

The word witch comes from Old English wicce "female magician, sorceress," fem. of Old English wicca "sorcerer, wizard, man who practices witchcraft or magic,"which in turn is of uncertain origin. Kleins Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language suggests connection with Old English wigle "divination," and wig, wih "idol." Ernest Weekley, a British philologist best known as the author of a number of works on etymology, notes possible connection to Gothic weihs "holy" and German weihan "consecrate," and writes, "the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents." In Anglo-Saxon glossaries, wicca renders Latin augur (c. 1100), and wicce stands for "pythoness, divinatricem." In the "Three Kings of Cologne" (c. 1400) wicca translates magi, plural of magus "learned magician" which originally referred to a member of the ancient Persian priestly caste. We can imagine therefore, that witches were members of the ancient priestly caste of Anglo-Saxon paganism, which dominated from the fifth through to the eighth centuries.

Anglo-Saxon paganism was polytheistic, worshipping many gods and goddesses. The most prominent of these deities had the days of the week named after them. They were Mona for Monday, Tiw for Tuesday, Woden for Wednesday, Thunor for Thursday, Frige for Friday, and Sunne for Sunday. Worship took place in specially built temples, sacred groves, hilltops or wells. There was also a belief in a variety of nature spirits, including elves, dwarves, and dragons. There were many seasonal festivals, one of the most important being the Winter Solstice which marked the new year. We can't tell much about what the witches did exactly, but we have found their graves. The grave of a witch dubbed "Rita" was found near the Rollright Stones in Warwickshire. The skeleton dates to about 600 CE, and was accompanied by a patera, which is a kind of religious spoon, a large spindle whorl, a large amber bead, and a piece of amethyst set in silver. 

Anglo-Saxon records usually describe witches as young women who practice magic to find a lover, win the love of their husbands, successfully give birth, or to protect their children. Theodore of Tarsus, the Archbishop of Canterbury from 667 to 690, commanded: "If a woman has performed incantations or diabolical divinations, let her do penance for one year. About which it says in the canon: Those who observe auguries or auspices or dreams or any kind of divinations according to the customs of the heathens, or introduce men of this kind into their homes in investigating a device of the magicians – if these repent, if they are of the clergy let them be cast out, but if they are truly secular people let them do penance for five years." in chapter I.XV of Paenitentiale Theodori.

The image of a witch dressed all in black with a conical wide-brimmed hat is actually based on the fashion of the Puritans, who were particularly keen on accusing each other of witchcraft. Otherwise, the common garb of a witch is that of a simple peasant woman. I don't know how many people would have remembered the old gods after several hundred years of Christianity, but I am sure that some of the old beliefs in nature spirits, divination, and magic prevailed. People tended to make a distinction between good and bad magic, and it was the bad magic which was classified as witchcraft, because of its overtly pagan nature. This, I feel, is what distinguishes a witch from a casual practitioner of folk magic - it is the amount of paganism involved. If a Christian person was able to cure sickness by the power of Jesus, no big deal, but if it was the power of pagan gods being called upon, then all hell broke loose. This is because pagan gods were believed to be devils and demons, who fooled simple minded peasants into worshipping them by pretending to be benign and holy, or by offering them rewards such as good health and riches. It was said that the devil, under which ever guise he appeared, persuaded witches to perform all kinds of diabolical acts to satisfy his evil desires. The pagans were not immoral however, they had their own ethical codes of conduct. Some say the witches' code was to "harm none" or “do as you would be done by”.