Unlike Christian statements, which claim that the Witch is an evil woman flying on a broomstick and serving the devil, in fact, the Witch from Old Church Slavonic is the Knowing Mother.
Slavic terms or names, such as: Witch, Witcher, Vedun, Vedunya have a common root "Veda", which means nothing else, but "to know or know".
Among the Slavs, this is not at all a designation of the dark essence of a person, and even more so not an abusive expression. It is customary to call a witch wise women and women who know how to handle magic.
The magic of the Slavs more often turned to the light forces and forces of Nature. So, if you found out about this for the first time, know that the Witch does not carry anything bad in herself. A witch can be called a midwife and fortune teller, or just a woman who occupies a certain position in society.
It is believed that in the ancient Slavic world, most or even all women possessed magic (to one degree or another). Someone, naturally, at the level of divination and rituals, others at a deeper and more powerful level. However, the majority of women, having become adults and wise, having learned all the hardships of life, having learned all the instructions and knowledge of their ancestors, became Witches. They know how to use the magical power of Nature, to communicate with the mysterious forces of the underworld and use it for good or bad purposes. Slavic Witches knew all the rituals, various spells, whisperings, conspiracies. If a person had an assumption that he was jinxed, then to whom, if not a witch, he was to turn !? Before sowing or before harvesting, the witch had to whisper over the field so that the spirits of the Earth would slightly lighten the hard work. Starting from the construction of a house and ending with weddings, most of the events in the life of the Slavs were accompanied by the presence of Leading Mothers or Veduns, who gave their strength and helped to evoke the necessary forces of nature, so that the pagan Slavs would always live with nature and other worlds one closely connected life and did not forget who they really are.
Of course, as a result of the wild persecution of the Witches in Europe (where they were subjected to inhuman torture and painful death), the active propaganda of the terrifying essence of all wise women and knowledgeable men, the very word Witch has undergone a strong conceptual change. Now the Witch is understood as a hunched-over old woman, whose companion is a black cat, and a broom is the means of transportation to the Sabbath. And yet, the more Russian people know the true meaning of this word, the sooner it will be forgotten as a bad dream and everything will finally fall into place.