Hedge Magic
In English history, the cunning man or cunning woman is a professional or semi-professional folk magic user up until the 20th century and, to a lesser degree, to the present day. Such people were also frequently known as wizards, wise men, wise women, witch doctors or conjurers. The term white witch was infrequently used for cunning folk until recent times, except in the county of Devon.
Cunning Folk and Witches
The relationship between cunning-craft and witchcraft is controversial. Historian Ronald Hutton claims there is a sharp distinction between the two, since he considers the latter to have been purely a popular fantasy of the great European witch-hunts; he uses the term “cunning folk” for folk magicians in the British Isles, as well as Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Other historians such as E. William Monter, Éva Pócs, Carlo Ginzburg and Gustav Henningsen claim that witches did exist, to the extent that many individuals had beliefs and practices largely conforming to the witchcraft stereotype, minus some Christianised diabolical elements. Monter in particular identifies striking parallels between the methods of cunning folk in England and white witches in France, and finds it likely that they originate from a common belief system.
Like many other European magic-workers, cunning folk sometimes took the role of witchfinder, identifying a witch as responsible for a client’s affliction; throughout Europe there is little to differentiate “anti-witch” from “witch” though; the local trusted magician was considered an anti-witch while others outside the community were more often than not “witches”.