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In colloquial modern English, the word witch is particularly used for women. [36] A male practitioner of magic or witchcraft is more commonly called a 'wizard', or sometimes, 'warlock'. When the word witch is used to refer to a member of a neo-pagan tradition or religion (such as Wicca), it can refer to a person of any gender. [citation needed]
Witchcraft in the colonies was the alleged power one had to use supernatural abilities to influence people or events. [17] In these early times, witchcraft was used to explain events that otherwise could not be understood. [18] People were killed over these accusations when in reality they held no real merit at all.
Occultism is one form of mysticism. [a] This list comprises and encompasses people, both contemporary and historical, who are or were professionally or otherwise notably involved in occult practices, including alchemists, astrologers, some Kabbalists, [b] magicians, psychics, sorcerers, and practitioners some forms of divination, especially Tarot.
Their ideas were heavily criticised by other anthropologists, who argued that they had set up a false dichotomy between non-magical Western worldviews and magical non-Western worldviews. [226] The concept of the magical worldview nevertheless gained widespread use in history, folkloristics, philosophy, cultural theory, and psychology. [ 227 ]
The Western use of the terms left-hand path and right-hand path originated with Madame Blavatsky, a 19th-century occultist who founded the Theosophical Society. She had travelled across parts of southern Asia and gave accounts of having met with many mystics and magical practitioners in India and Tibet .
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Druid gathering at Stonehenge Ukrainian temple of the RUNVira in Spring Glen, New York. Modern paganism, also known as "contemporary" or "neopagan", encompasses a wide range of religious groups and individuals.
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, [1] is a term scholars use to classify a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society.