The Ultimate Witches Quiz

The connotations of "pagan" didn't start off negatively. In fact, the word comes from the Latin word meaning "home dweller" or "country person."

The two girls who blamed their convulsions and painful sensations of being pinched and bitten on witchcraft may have suffered from clinical hysteria. Twenty people were executed as a result of their claims.

Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum, outlined witchcraft as devised by females. They claimed that women are, by nature, more susceptible to the influence of evil spirits.

The Middle Ages weren't a good time for witches in Europe. Witch hunts lasted in Europe and European colonies from the 1450s to the 1750s.

The broomstick connection, which began during the Renaissance, is most closely associated with fertility. Women used brooms to clean the house, and some cultures included broomsticks in rituals to promote fertility and bountiful harvests.

Wicca, a modern pagan religion that worships the Earth and nature, was established in Britain in the 1940s and '50s by Gerald Gardner, who defined witchcraft as a positive and life-affirming religion. The central Wiccan theme is, "If it does no harm, do your own will."

In ancient Egypt, cats were originally worshipped as divine, but during the Inquisition, their ominous black fur became associated with witchcraft. According to some folklore, witches can turn themselves into black cats.

Modern witches refer to their craft as magick, to differentiate it from magicians' illusion work.

Male witches are still called witches, as opposed to warlocks. The term "warlock" is actually an insult meaning "oath breaker" in reference to people who identified fellow witches during the medieval witch hunts.

Since Wiccans are taught to do no harm, ill-intended magick will be returned to them threefold. Wiccan magick is intended for personal change only.