Category:Witches

The coven from 3.09 Malleus Maleficarum.

A witch, also known as a sorcerer or warlock, is a person with the power to effect change by magical means aka witchcraft.

There are three types of witches:

Natural witches are born with magical abilities e.g. Rowena.
Trained witches who are trained or mentored by usually by Grand Coven approved witches e.g. Alicia Banes.
"Borrowers" who gain their power through deals with demons e.g. Amanda Burns, Elizabeth and Renee Van Allen.

Some witches also have a companion known as a familiar who can appear in either animal or human form. Witches can be extremely long lived and very powerful. Only three of the witches encountered have been killed by Sam or Dean. Rowena was a very powerful witch, according to Sam maybe "maybe the most powerful of all time."^[1]

The Grand Coven is a council of witches who ruled and controlled the affairs of witches and guarded the lore. However, the Grand Coven and the witch community is now greatly weakened, after many years of attacks and witch hunts coupled with an organised effort by the Men of Letters to plunder them of their spell books and records, which they hid in various spell-guarded bunkers around the world. When a witch dies, willow moss is said to grow on the graves, making them easily identifiable to hunters.^[2]

A common suspicion of the Winchesters is that a witch is responsible for a killing, resulting in them usually checking for hex bags as well as EMF and sulfur. When Rowena notes this when Dean again suggests that a witch is responsible for what turns out to be a gorgon victim. Dean tells Rowena that they are suspicious so much of witches because they are often responsible for strange killings.^[3]

Hunters like Sam, Dean and Bobby often use the same spells and rituals, but would not consider themselves witches. However over time, Sam becomes skilled enough that Rowena asks for Sam's help with a spell because he's "as close to a seasoned witch as we've got in this lot." ^[4] Rowena has a deadly warding spell on her apartment, killing anyone who enters, except Sam who she intended to inherit all her magical books, journals and ingredients. He is able to complete the resurrection spell Rowena had started, and uses it to resurrect Eileen Leahy.

Appearances

Episode	Witch/es
1.18 Something Wicked	Dr. Hydeker / Shtriga
3.09 Malleus Maleficarum	Amanda Burns, Elizabeth and Renee Van Allen. It is revealed Ruby was a witch when she was human.
4.07 It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester	Don Harding and Tracy Davis
4.12 Criss Angel Is a Douchebag	Charlie the Magician
5.07 The Curious Case of Dean Winchester	Lia and Patrick
5.12 Swap Meat	Maggie Briggs (Poltergeist)
7.05 Shut Up, Dr. Phil	Don Stark and Maggie Stark
7.15 Repo Man	Nora Havelock
8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin	Delta Mendota
8.15 Man's Best Friend with Benefits	Drexil, James Frampton and Spencer
9.04 Slumber Party	The Wicked Witch of the West
10.03 Soul Survivor	Rowena
10.07 Girls, Girls, Girls	Rowena
10.09 The Things We Left Behind	Rowena
10.10 The Hunter Games	Rowena
10.11 There's No Place Like Home	The Wizard of Oz
10.12 About A Boy	Katja
10.14 The Executioner's Song	Rowena
10.16 Paint It Black	Rowena and Olivette
10.19 The Werther Project	Rowena
10.21 Dark Dynasty	Rowena
10.23 Brother's Keeper	Rowena
11.03 The Bad Seed	Rowena and three unnamed Grand Coven witches
11.08 Just My Imagination	Rowena
11.09 O Brother Where Art Thou?	Rowena
11.10 The Devil in the Details	Rowena
11.13 Love Hurts	Sonja
11.18 Hell's Angel	Rowena
11.22 We Happy Few	Clea and Rowena
11.23 Alpha and Omega	Rowena
12.02 Mamma Mia	Rowena
12.03 The Foundry	Rowena
12.04 American Nightmare	Rowena
12.06 Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox	Max Banes
12.08 LOTUS	Rowena
12.11 Regarding Dean	Catriona Loughlin, Boyd Loughlin, Gideon Loughlin and Rowena
12.13 Family Feud	Rowena
12.20 Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes	Max Banes, Tasha Banes and Miss Beverly
13.07 War of the Worlds	Daniela
13.12 Various & Sundry Villains	Jamie Plum, Jennie Plum and Rowena
13.19 Funeralia	Rowena
13.21 Beat the Devil	Rowena
13.22 Exodus	Rowena
14.03 The Scar	"Broom-Hilda"
14.07 Unhuman Nature	Rowena
14.14 Ouroboros	Rowena
14.18 Absence	Rowena
15.02 Raising Hell	Rowena
15.03 The Rupture	Rowena, Sam
15.06 Golden Time	Sam, Jacinda, Emily and Witch Mother
15.08 Our Father, Who Aren't in Heaven	Rowena (Soul)
15.16 Drag Me Away (From You)	Baba Yaga

Witches in real life and lore

The term witch in its broadest sense refers to a person who claims to tap into some form of supernatural power. These people exists in cultures around the world, and may take the role of a healer or wise person in a community. Their powers could be used for either good or harm. The modern use of the term and its associations are rooted in the pogroms of the Middle Ages, against people, particularly women, who practiced any form of belief or healing that could be deemed anti-Christian. During these witch hunts in Europe and later North America, tens of thousands of people were tortured and killed based on the justification that they were in league with Satan.

Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as The Hammer of Witches in Latin, was the title of a fifteenth century treatise on witches. It was used to support and argue the nature of witchcraft; it proclaimed that women were more susceptible to the influence of evil, and therefore more likely to become witches, due to their weak moral character and insatiable sexual desire. The treatise proved popular and became the de facto handbook for the persecution and murder of women accused of witchcraft across Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, despite the fact that the work was not officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church. The Church in fact refused to support it and said it was inaccurate.

In the 20th and 21st century, people who follow a form of Neopaganism may refer to themselves as witches. The most well known of these is Wicca, which originated in the 1930s, although its beliefs are formed on older pagan cultures such as those of the Celts and the Greeks. The religion involves the ritual practice of magic.