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Witchcraft is formally linked to four religions in this atlas: Celtic Paganism, Haitian Vodou, Slavic Native Faith and Wicca. Three describe a genuine reconstruction of folk magic and craft. The fourth does not recognise itself in the word at all.

A Craft Rebuilt From Fragments, and a Religion Built Around It

Celtic Paganism's own note: Irish, Welsh and Scottish sources supply the charms, the cunning folk, the healing and cursing traditions and the fairy material that modern Celtic-oriented witchcraft draws on; the ancient Celtic religions themselves are known chiefly through outsiders and later Christian writers. Slavic Native Faith's own note describes the identical situation in a different place: Rodnovery reconstructs Slavic folk magic and ritual from ethnographic collections of charms, herb lore and seasonal custom, since almost nothing of pre-Christian Slavic religion survives directly, so practice varies widely between groups. Wicca's own note names the point where reconstruction became a religion: Wicca is the principal modern religion built around the practice, shaped by Gardner in the mid twentieth century with a Goddess and a Horned God, eight sabbats, the cast circle and the Rede, making witchcraft a religion rather than a craft or an accusation.

Haitian Vodou Does Not Call This Witchcraft

Haitian Vodou's own record is direct about the fourth link: Vodou is a religion with a priesthood, an initiation and a liturgy, not a form of witchcraft; the label was applied by outsiders and by hostile press and has done real harm. Practitioners distinguish service to the lwa from the malign work they themselves condemn. The link exists in this atlas because outside writers have long reached for the word witchcraft to describe Vodou, not because Vodou describes itself that way. Reading all four links together is what shows this: three religions independently describe a rebuilding of folk practice under a name they accept, and the fourth is carried into the same convergence by a name it rejects.

Where To Read More

• WitchcraftMagical DisciplinesThe practice itself; three religions reconstruct it under an accepted name, one carries it under a rejected label
• Celtic PaganismPolytheistic (Historical/Revived)Irish, Welsh and Scottish sources supply the charm and cunning-folk material modern practice draws on
• Slavic Native Faith (Rodnovery)Polytheistic (Historical/Revived)Reconstructs Slavic folk magic from ethnographic collections; practice varies widely between groups
• WiccaModern PaganThe principal modern religion built around the practice, making witchcraft a religion rather than an accusation
• Haitian VodouSyncretic (Afro-Caribbean)Its own record: a religion with a priesthood and a liturgy, not a form of witchcraft; the label is an outsider's