Witch

"We're witches, dear. We can do anything."

- Penny Halliwell.

A witch is a person who has the power to effect change by magical means ("witchcraft"). Witches can be either male or female, and good or evil. However, witches that betray the Wiccan Rede and kill good witches for their powers are called a Warlock. Witches have the power to cast spells, make potions, and scry for persons and objects.

Witches are mostly known as females, but there have also been male witches, though in a lesser population.

It is clarified in the Charmed Comics that the first witch to ever walk the Earth was Neena, who went by many different names such as Isabel or Victoria. She and her mate first gained their powers when they ate an apple from the magical tree known as The All.

Classification
Witches come in two types: Magical witches and Practitioners. This method of classification has been used several times in the show when practitioners have been an element of the storyline.

Practitioners
People who practice witchcraft, but lack any true magical powers are known as "practitioners". These witches tend to treat witchcraft as a more spiritual or religious experience than the sisters do. Witch practitioners are usually followers of the Neopagan religion Wicca. Alice Hicks, the woman who shot and killed Piper in an alternate timeline during All Hell Breaks Loose was a witch practioner. Like magical witches, practitioners have whitelighters. This witches are not immune to the power of Molecular Immobilization.

Magical Witches
In addition, magical witches are each born with one or more personal powers. These powers can be used at will, and do not require incantations. Powers vary widely among individuals, although the powers do appear to have a hereditary aspect. That is, witches of common ancestry are most likely to have the same or similar powers, or to have powers drawn from the common list. For instance, the descendants of Melinda Warren tend to have premonition, molecular immobilization or telekinesis. However, unrelated powers do sometimes appear. Two witches of Melinda Warren's line who lived during the 1920s had unrelated powers: one could create fire, and the other could exhale breaths of extreme cold.

Charmed Novels
Although the idea of the practitioner is not elaborated on in the show, the Charmed novel "Mystic Knoll" goes into great detail about them. According to the book, witch practitioners are mortals with a natural affinity to magic. Hence they can use magic. However, the witch practitioner must rely upon external sources of power from which to draw upon in order to use the three basic witch powers. For example Abigail Thornwood was able to curse her daughter at Mystic Knoll because the place was a natural reservoir of magic which she could tap into and use as 'fuel'. Magic may also be drawn from magical people such as when Harriet Thornwood cast a spell using both Mystic Knoll and the Charmed Ones magic.

However, magical witches have an internal spring from which their magical power flows and hence can use basic witch powers wherever and whenever they want. Due to the nature of their power source (i.e. an inward one personal to them) they have a unique connection with magic and because of this they are able to tap into it in a unique way through personal powers i.e. Premonition, Telekinesis etc.

Although the books are only semi-canonical this idea does not contradict anything on the show and both is highly similar to modern ideas on magic Wicca (especially Scott Cunningham's concepts on "powers") in reality and serves to explain a lot about the difference between practitioners and Magical witches and so would not be too much of a stretch to consider it canon rather than fanon.

Evil Witches


An evil witch, sometimes confused with a warlock, is a witch who renounces The Wiccan Rede, and uses his/her powers for personal gain and evil, sinister means, though they do not kill witches for their powers (though they can cast spells to steal a witch's power) and do not sell their soul to the forces of evil. As shown in Bride and Gloom, when witches turn evil, they renounce their right to a Whitelighter.

The first evil witch encountered by the Charmed Ones was Tuatha, with many more following the same basic trend. The Charmed Ones have faced many evil witches, including their ancestor Pearl Russell, the Evil Enchantress of the Dark Ages, the Wicked Witch, the Evil Witch of Fairy Tales, the Stillman Sisters, and Christy Jenkins.

Ghost-Witches
The spirit of a deceased witch. They retain their powers in their afterlives, but are also granted with the abilities of haunting, whisping and possessing other creatures. They are mostly needed to be summoned through a spell or a ritual to cross on over to the physical plane, but some of them can freely cross the borders if powerful enough or know the tricks. As ghosts, they also have the power to cast the spell to banish ghosts, unlike witches who are still alive.

Whitelighter-witches
The offspring of a witch and a whitelighter. These hybrids usually possess abilities of whitelighters, but are also granted with certain powers that come from their Wiccan blood. Some of their powers are also a mixture of witchcraft and whitelighter magic, for instance, telekinetic orbing, the Wiccan ability to move objects with the individual's mind control blended with whitelighter's orbing power. These hybrids are vulnerable to the poison of darklighter arrow and the effects of a paranoia crystal.

Empath-witches
They are witches that later also become empaths and possess the magic and abilities of both. These hybrids are unique as they are full witch and full empath. Due to the mixture of their witchcraft and empath magic, they become far more powerful than they previously were and far more powerful than a average empath. These hybrids are rare as only a few begins are chosen to become empaths. However, unlike reincarnated empaths, witch-empaths are not immortal. It's unknown if the children of empath-witches will inherit their powers.

Cupid-witches
The offspring of a witch and a Cupid. These offsprings tend to inherit the powers of Cupids, but also the basic abilities of witches, unless their powers mix from both ancestries. They do not require a Cupid Ring to activate the power, possibly due to the witch-side of their magic. The only known half-cupids are the three daughters of Coop and Phoebe Halliwell, the eldest of which is Prue.

Gypsies
The Gypsy magic is sister traditions with witchcraft. The high priestess of gypsies is called a Shuvani and is wiser than most gypsies. Unlike witches, they are not as powerful and rely on using herbal remedies and spells to access their powers. When a Gypsy sees a "mulo", the spirit of a living dead, it only depicts that something horrible is about to happen. In the Nicoli family, one member of each generation was assigned with the task to protect the Evil Eye - the protective symbol of the Gypsy family, much like the symbol of a witch family.

Phoenix
A coven of assassin witches depicted as the rise of the ashes from Salem witch trials. Powerful, agile and cunning, these witches will stop at nothing to collect whatever bounty they have been hired for. Such witches are born with the birthmark of a phoenix on their bodies as proof of their legion. Unlike most witches, they also have the power to strip away other people's powers, and unless they finish the process, the interrupted effect will kill the target. Their other powers include energy balls, shimmering and reconstitution.

Firestarter
A witch or human with the power to create fire out of thin air at will. They are not to be confused with witches and magical beings who can shoot fire out of their hands. Unlike a normal firestarter, a witch with such ability also possesses the basic abilities of scrying, spellcasting and potion making. Not particularly common, they can be good or evil. Because of their advanced power, they are tracked by Demonic Bounty Hunters, to be given to and trained by a powerful Upper-Level demon called Ludlow, who will train them to become bodyguards to the Source.

The Window of Opportunity
The Window of Opportunity presents itself if a new witch hasn't decided to use her powers for good or evil yet, that she/he could be swayed either way. The Window of Opportunity remains open for forty-eight hours from the moment the witch's powers awake.

While possessing a free will, good and evil are unable to make her/him choose her/his path magically. However, evil can tempt the witch to take an innocent's life to make her/him take the path of evil, which will make her/him evil forever. On the other hand, if the witch does an act of good, she/he becomes good. The Window of Opportunity was created eons ago by good and evil to protect the free will.

What happens after the forty-eight hours if the witch still hasn't made her choice remains unexplained from the show.

A window opened in Charmed Again, Part 2 for Paige Matthews when she felt confused by the magical situation and attempted to remain oblivious from the world of magic, and gave the Source a chance to turn her evil forever. Thankfully, Phoebe and Piper managed to turn her good before the time ran out.

History
During the late 1600s in Salem, Massachusetts, several men and women were prosecuted for witchcraft. During this period in Colonial America, many of the Puritans who had settled in the Northeast believed that witches were servants for the Devil. During this time, Melinda Warren was accused, prosecuted, and condemned to death. This became known the Salem witch trials, in which numerous people - witches and not - were hanged or otherwise killed (No one was burned during the Salem Trials).


 * In reality, none of these people were witches. Furthermore, people believed to be witches were hanged, though burning is a common historical misconception that has been stated and shown in Charmed. Although, in Europe, in an earlier time period, known as the Dark Ages (and referred to by Wiccans and other Pagans as "The Burning Times") accused witches were often burned at the stake as a mean to purify them of their "sins".

Portrayal in Fiction
Witches have been central to the plot of numerous fictional stories, even if the general public doesn't believe in real magic.

Bewitched was a popular TV show that originally ran from 1964 to 1972 that followed the witch Samantha Stephens, and how she had to avoid using her magic because her husband didn't approve. The show (in reruns) was Phoebe Halliwell's favorite show growing up, and she has said it is where she learned "how to be a wife." Cole Turner, however, had never heard of the show. ("Lost and Bound")

Piper occasionally watched Passions, a soap opera involving an evil witch Tabitha who wreaks havoc on the city the show takes place in. While watching Tabitha cast a spell once, Piper noted: "Hm! Like that spell would've worked." ("The Day the Magic Died")

Many other shows also deal with the concept of modern day witches. Below, is a list of shows and movies, that have at least one of their main characters, a witch.

Television

 * Bewitched
 * Tabitha
 * Sabrina the Teenage Witch
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer
 * Charmed
 * Eastwick
 * The Vampire Diaries
 * True Blood
 * Witch Hunt
 * The Secret Circle
 * The Worst Witch
 * Smallville
 * Hex
 * Big Wolf on Campus
 * My Babysitter's A Vampire

Films

 * The Witches of Eastwick
 * Hocus Pocus
 * The Craft
 * Practical Magic
 * Halloweentown series
 * Stardust
 * Little Witches
 * Bewitched
 * Twitches
 * The Covenant
 * Harry Potter series
 * Sleepy Hollow
 * Spirited Away
 * Sleeping Beauty
 * Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
 * The Little Mermaid
 * The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
 * Stranger in Our House
 * Enchanted
 * The Chronicles of Narnia
 * Kiki's Delivery Service
 * The Initiation of Sarah
 * Satan's School for Girls
 * Teen Witch
 * Conan The Barbarian