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

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

🇨🇳 China and 1 moreYue Lao月下老人 The Chinese deity of marriage who binds destined couples with red cordsBeing · Love and attraction · Binding and oaths Legendary

🇨🇳 ChinaZhang Guolao张果老 A Taoist immortal known for his white donkey and fish drum, said to be a bat spirit.Figure · Protection · Luck and prosperity Legendary

🇯🇵 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

🇨🇳 ChinaCao Guojiu曹國舅 A Taoist immortal who abandoned his court career to help the poor and learn magic.Figure · Power and authority Legendary

🇨🇳 ChinaHe Xiangu何仙姑 A female immortal from Chinese Taoist legend known for divination and lotus magicFigure · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Legendary

🇯🇵 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

🇨🇳 ChinaNüwa女媧 A Chinese mother goddess who created humanity and repaired the skyFigure · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇯🇵 JapanAbe no Seimei安倍晴明 A historical court official turned legendary Japanese onmyōji and folk heroFigure · Protection · Seeing and foretelling 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

🇯🇵 JapanUchide no kozuchi打ち出の小槌 A legendary Japanese magic hammer that taps out desired items from thin airFigure · Luck and prosperity · Power and authority Legendary

🇨🇳 ChinaYeren野人 A Chinese cryptid apeman reported in remote mountains since ancient timesBelief · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇯🇵 JapanShikome黄泉醜女 (Yomotsu-shikome) A hag from the Japanese underworld who pursued Izanagi after he shamed Izanami.Figure · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇨🇳 ChinaKui夔 (kuí) A one-legged mountain spirit and ancient music master from Chinese mythologyBeing · Power and authority · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇨🇳 China and 1 moreFengli风狸 / 風狸 A legendary flying mammal from Chinese lore, said to carry a magic wand and resist death.Figure · Wonder and entertainment Legendary 🇨🇳 ChinaPanhu盤瓠 A dragon-dog origin myth of the Yao and She peoples in ChinaFigure · Speaking with spirits and the dead Legendary 🇰🇷 South KoreaGangcheori강철이 A fire-breathing dragon from Korean folklore that scorches the land in its wakeFigure · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇯🇵 JapanAmabieアマビエ A prophetic sea creature from Japan that wards off disease with its imageFigure · Protection · Seeing and foretelling Legendary 🇰🇷 South KoreaMago Halmi마고할미 A giant creator goddess in Korean mythology associated with hemp weaving and the separation of heaven and earth.Figure · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇨🇳 ChinaInterconnected-arm gibbon通臂猿 A mythical primate with linked arms that can extend one limb by pulling in the other.Figure · Power and authority Legendary

🇯🇵 JapanKiyohime清姫 A Japanese folktale about a woman who becomes a serpent after being rejected by a monkFigure · Cursing and harm Legendary 🇯🇵 JapanAmorōnagu天降女子 A celestial maiden from Japanese folklore who descends to Earth for love or soulsFigure · Love and attraction Legendary

🇯🇵 JapanKuzunoha葛の葉 A kitsune spirit and mother of the famous onmyōji Abe no Seimei in Japanese folkloreFigure · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇯🇵 JapanBanchō Sarayashiki番町皿屋敷 A Japanese ghost story about a servant who dies unjustly and haunts her murderer by counting plates.Figure · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇨🇳 China and 2 moreThree-legged crow三足烏 A mythological bird representing the sun in East Asian traditionsFigure · Power and authority · Luck and prosperity Legendary

Photo credits on this page

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

Fengli: Anonymous (1603), Public domain, source
Three-legged crow: Jinsha Site Museum. Original author: ancient Shu people., Public domain, source
Onmyōdō: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Zhang Guolao: Hong Zicheng, Public domain, source
Cao Guojiu: Zhang Lu, Public domain, source
He Xiangu: Zhang Lu, Public domain, source
Ashiya Dōman: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Nüwa: 山胖z, CC BY 3.0, source
Uchide no kozuchi: Yashima Gakutei, CC0, source
Kiyohime: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Yeren: Rolf Müller, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Shikome: Raita Futo, CC BY 2.0, source
Kui: Dave Pape, Public domain, source
Banchō Sarayashiki: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Okiku ,, Public domain, source
Amabie: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Taotie: anonymous, CC0, source
Interconnected-arm gibbon: Xuande Emperor, Public domain, source
Tamamo-no-Mae: ウィキ太郎 Wiki Taro, Public domain, source
Kuzunoha: Print artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) Print artist: Utagawa Hiroshige, Public domain, source
Yue Lao: 仔仔好帥, CC BY-SA 4.0, source