Magicians, witches and legendary figures

The wise woman, the sorcerer, the legendary mage: Merlin, Baba Yaga, Circe and their kin.

An open hand with an eye: the hamsa, or hand of Fatima, a protective sign in Jewish, Muslim and wider North African and Middle Eastern custom.

Magical figures are the people, real and legendary, who stand for magic: Merlin, Baba Yaga, Circe, Hermes Trismegistus, Dr John Dee, Madame Blavatsky, the sorcerer in a village story, the Bulgarian seer Baba Vanga, and the performers Houdini and Chung Ling Soo. Some lived, some are composite, and some are pure myth. This page looks at who becomes a magic figure, and why. They are described here as stories and as history, and kept apart.

Who becomes a figure

Figures often sit at the edge of society. In many stories the witch is an older woman living alone, the sorcerer a foreigner or a rival tribe, the wise man a hermit. Real figures include John Dee, adviser to Elizabeth I, and Agrippa, whose De occulta philosophia (1533) shaped European occultism. Others are legend: Merlin appears in Welsh and French tales, and Baba Yaga is a Slavic folk figure who both helps and threatens.

Gender and reputation

The witch figure has been mostly female in Europe, where trials in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries killed tens of thousands of people, most of them women. In other places accusation falls on men, on the old, on the poor or on the outsider. The learned magician, by contrast, was often male, literate and protected by rank, a division that shows how class shaped who was punished. Not every figure carries a stigma: Chinese immortals, Indian rishis and Irish saints are honoured, and the line between holy person and magician depends on who is telling the story.

Colonial and modern use

Missionary and colonial writers often cast African and Indigenous healers as the witch-doctor, a term most communities reject. The word covers healers, diviners and rulers who had very different roles. Today, figures are re-used in fantasy and branding. The Merlin of modern fantasy films is a long way from the Welsh Myrddin, and the name of a real tradition may be turned into a costume. Their stories have also been tools of politics: rulers have claimed legendary magicians as ancestors, and enemies have painted rivals as sorcerers to justify their removal.

Scholars and the real person

Historians separate documented people from legend and warn that many reports of magicians were written by their enemies. Evidence for some famous names, including Hermes Trismegistus, who was long thought to be an Egyptian sage, turned out to be later Greek-language writings. Treating a figure as legend rather than biography is no insult to those who revere them. A figure who may be a real person with a name, a date and a grave belongs in a different category from a legend, even when popular memory blends them, and the entries here try to keep them separate.

Figure on EveryJaadu

The entries written up so far, best known first.

RegionSouth Asia Southeast Asia East Asia Central Asia and the Caucasus Middle East North Africa Sub-Saharan Africa Europe North America Latin America and the Caribbean Oceania

PurposeProtection Healing Seeing and foretelling Luck and prosperity Love and attraction Cursing and harm Cleansing and purification Speaking with spirits and the dead Change and initiation Binding and oaths Power and authority Wonder and entertainment

WhoShamans Folk healers Priests and ritual specialists Witches, sorcerers and cunning folk Diviners and readers Mediums and the possessed Ceremonial magicians and alchemists Households and ordinary people Stage magicians Scholars and sceptics

BeliefHindu and Tantric Buddhist Jain Muslim and Sufi Jewish Christian Sikh Zoroastrian Shinto and Taoist Indigenous and shamanic African and Afro-diasporic Pagan and Neopagan Esoteric and occult Folk and village custom Secular and stage Other traditions

OccasionWeddings and betrothal Festivals Birth and childhood Death and remembrance Harvest, farming and weather New year Initiation and coming of age Illness and misfortune Journeys and voyages Everyday use

StandingLiving Revived Fading Historical Legendary Performed

OrderBest known A to Z Newest Living first

🇷🇸 Serbia and 5 moreVampire An undead creature from folklore that feeds on the blood or life force of the livingBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Legendary

🇫🇷 France and 5 moreWerewolf A mythical shapeshifter that turns into a wolf, central to European witch-hunts and Gothic horror.Being · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreLilithלִילִית A feminine figure from Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, often depicted as a night demon or spirit.Being · Cursing and harm Legendary 🇬🇷 GreeceEpimenides of CreteἘπιμενίδης A semi-mythical Greek prophet and purifier from KnossosFigure · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇲🇽 Mexico and 5 moreLa Llorona A vengeful ghost in Hispanic American folklore who mourns drowned children near water.Figure · Cursing and harm Living

🇬🇧 United KingdomMatthew Hopkins The English witch-hunter who led the deadliest wave of executions in Britain.Figure · Cursing and harm Historical

🇩🇪 GermanyPied Piper of Hamelinder Rattenfänger von Hameln A medieval legend about a piper who leads children away from the town of HamelinFigure · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Legendary

🇮🇩 IndonesiaRangdaᬭᬗ᭄ᬤ A Balinese demon queen who leads witches in an eternal battle against good.Figure · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇷🇺 Russia and 5 moreBaba YagaБаба Яга A Slavic witch who lives in a turning hut and flies in a mortarFigure · Cursing and harm · Protection Legendary

🇧🇷 Brazil and 5 moreWhite Lady A female ghost in white clothing linked to tragedy and omens across many culturesFigure · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Legendary

🇮🇳 India and 1 moreYoginiयोगिनी A female master of yoga and tantra, or a fierce goddess aspect in Indian temples.Tradition · Power and authority · Protection Historical

🇯🇵 Japan and 2 moreTamamo-no-Mae玉藻前 A nine-tailed fox spirit from Japanese legend who possessed emperors and concubines across Asia.Figure · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Legendary

🇨🇳 China and 2 moreJiang Ziya姜子牙 A historical strategist and war god who helped establish the Zhou dynastyFigure · Power and authority · Cursing and harm Historical 🇯🇵 JapanKamo no Yasunori賀茂保憲 A Heian-era onmyōji and teacher of Abe no Seimei in Japanese esoteric artsFigure · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Historical

🇯🇵 JapanAshiya Dōman蘆屋道満 A legendary Heian onmyōji known for his rivalry with Abe no Seimei and his use of cursesFigure · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Legendary

🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreJannes and Jambresיניס וימבריס Named Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses in biblical traditionFigure · Cursing and harm Historical 🇮🇹 Italy and 1 moreAradia A figure of Italian folklore and modern pagan witchcraft, seen as a teacher of magic and liberation.Figure · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Revived

🇬🇷 GreeceMedeaΜήδεια A sorceress and princess of Colchis who aids Jason and uses magic for revenge.Figure · Cursing and harm · Healing Legendary

🇻🇪 Venezuela and 1 moreEl Silbón A Venezuelan and Colombian legend of a cursed spirit who carries his father's bones.Figure · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Legendary 🇨🇴 Colombia and 1 moreTunda A shapeshifting entity from the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador that lures people into the forest.Figure · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇵🇹 Portugal and 5 moreCocoCoca A monster used to frighten children into obedience across the Iberian world and Latin America.Figure · Cursing and harm · Binding and oaths Living 🇮🇪 IrelandBodach A Gaelic trickster figure used to frighten children and warn of deathFigure · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Historical 🇮🇪 IrelandThe MorríganMórrígan An Irish goddess of war, fate, and sovereignty who appears as a crow or shape-shifter.Figure · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇮🇹 Italy and 5 moreBogeyman A mythical creature used across cultures to frighten children into obedienceFigure · Cursing and harm Living

🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreMedusaΜέδουσα A mortal Greek monster whose gaze turns onlookers to stoneFigure · Cursing and harm Legendary 🇷🇴 Romania and 1 moreMoroi A Romanian phantom that drains the living, linked to strigoi and unbaptised infants.Figure · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇪🇬 EgyptLucifer A Latin name for the planet Venus that became an epithet for the Devil in Christian traditionFigure · Cursing and harm Historical

🇮🇱 Israel and 1 moreAzazelעזאזל A desert place and fallen angel linked to the Yom Kippur scapegoat ritualFigure · Cursing and harm · Cleansing and purification Historical 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreBugbear A medieval English creature used to frighten children into obedienceFigure · Cursing and harm Legendary 🇨🇳 ChinaNian年兽 (Nián shòu) A mythical creature linked to Chinese New Year customs and the lion danceFigure · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇨🇳 ChinaTaotie饕餮 A zoomorphic mask on ancient Chinese bronzes and a mythological creature of gluttonyFigure · Protection · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇫🇷 FranceLady of the LakeDame du Lac A water spirit who raises knights and captures wizards in Arthurian talesFigure · Protection · Cursing and harm Legendary

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Taotie: anonymous, CC0, source
Lady of the Lake: Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, source
Werewolf: Mont Sudbury, Public domain, source
La Llorona: Melvin Callejas, Public domain, source
Matthew Hopkins: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
Lilith: Photographs by Ardon Bar Hama, author of original document is unknown., Public domain, source
Vampire: Edvard Munch, Public domain, source
Pied Piper of Hamelin: Edmund Evans, Public domain, source
Rangda: Boy Lawson, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Baba Yaga: Ivan Bilibin, Public domain, source
White Lady: engraved by Ames of Bristol (according to Fincham, Artists and engrave, Public domain, source
Yogini: Soumendra Barik, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Tamamo-no-Mae: ウィキ太郎 Wiki Taro, Public domain, source
Jiang Ziya: Wang Qi, Public domain, source
Ashiya Dōman: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Jannes and Jambres: Gerard Hoet, Public domain, source
Medea: Frederick Sandys, Public domain, source
El Silbón: María Auxiliadora Ramírez Prato, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Coco: Francisco de Goya, CC0, source
Bogeyman: Francisco Goya, Public domain, source
Medusa: Caravaggio, Public domain, source
Lucifer: Gustave Doré, Public domain, source
Azazel: Louis Le Breton, Public domain, source