A folk healer is an unlicensed person who practices the art of healing using traditional practices, herbal remedies and even the power of suggestion. A folk healer may be a highly trained person who pursues their specialties, learning by study, observation and imitation. In some cultures a healer might be considered to be a person who has inherited the "gift" of healing from his or her parent. The ability to set bones or the power to stop bleeding may be thought of as hereditary powers.
Granny women
Granny women are purported to be healers and midwives in Southern Appalachia and the Ozarks, claimed by a few academics as practicing from the 1880s to the 1930s. They are theorized to be usually elder women in the community and may have been the only practitioners of health care in the poor rural areas of Southern Appalachia. They are often thought not to have expected or received payment, and were respected as authorities on herbal healing and childbirth. They are mentioned by John C. Campbell in The Southern Highlander and His Homeland:
White witch
White witch,healing witch, and good witch are qualifying terms in English used to distinguish practitioners of folk magic for benevolent purposes from practitioners of malevolent witchcraft or black magic. Related terms are "cunning-folk", "witch doctor", and the French devins-guérisseurs, "seer-healers". During the witch trials of Early Modern Europe, many practitioners of folk magic who did not see themselves as witches, but as healers or seers, were convicted of witchcraft : many English "witches" convicted of consorting with demons seem to have been cunning folk whose fairy familiars had been demonised, and over half the accused witches in Hungary seem to have been healers. Some of the healers and diviners historically accused of witchcraft have considered themselves mediators between the mundane and spiritual worlds, roughly equivalent to shamans. Such people described their contacts with fairies, spirits, or the dead, often involving out-of-body experiences and travelling through the realms of an "other-world". Beliefs of this nature are implied in the folklore of much of Europe, and were explicitly described by accused witches in central and southern Europe. Repeated themes include participation in processions of the dead or large feasts, often presided over by a female divinity who teaches magic and gives prophecies; and participation in battles against evil spirits, "vampires", or "witches" to win fertility and prosperity for the community.
Popular culture
Sir Walter Scott spoke of a "white witch" in his novel Kenilworth
C.S. Lewis inverted the image of "white" witchcraft as "good" in his children's book seriesThe Chronicles of Narnia, naming one of his primary villains The White Witch, although this may be more a reference to her power over snow and winter.
Terry Pratchett featured white witches as protagonists in many of his Discworld novels. He also depicted them as fairy godmothers and de facto royal wizards.
The third season of American Horror Story, subtitled "", uses the term for Stevie Nicks as Misty Day describes her as one.
In the second season of Outlander, protagonist Claire Fraser is given the name "La Dame Blanche" by the people of 18th-century Paris. She professes to be a "White Witch" and practitioner of "white magic" in the episode "Faith".
