In France, the witch is called sorcière [fem.], sorcier [masc.]. As we brought up the infamous Malleus Malleficarum to the world, needless to say we had a particular problem with the figure, which was always perceived as profoundly disturbing and negative. A witch does evil. That much is clear. A witch is evil. It’s a fundamental aspect of how these individuals were perceived. They targeted crops, livestock and people. While the witch was mostly human, it is also pretty obvious that the witch was considered « other » due to the supernatural relationships a witch entertained with a variety of beings and entities. Spirits were much feared in rural France. On the other hand, there existed a very complex social hierarchy of healers and magical practionners who were known to use their powers for good, each with their own intricate specificity, albeit there occasionally were some local overlap and variance of course - from the sourcier (the one who finds water, from the french « source », a spring or well) to the voyant (who can divine and see magical attacks as well as the cause without generally being able to do anything about it, from « voir », to see), from the toucheur (who heals warts, snake bites, bee stings and other conditions generally linked to skin improvement, from « toucher », to touch) to the cerneur (who can bestow protection and blessing from ill and harm, especially on a specific place but also on people and cattle, from « cerner », to corner or circle), from the magnétiseur (who manipulates subtle energies around the afflicted patient and heals through their own inner force, hugely investing themselves in the process, from « magnétisme », magnetism) to the rebouteux (who seals wounds, ties broken bones and joints back together, cures sprains and « cuts fire », from « rebouter » which literally translates as mending a broken limb). We have a variety of what can be identified as « cunning folks » dedicated to be in service of their community and do good, but no generally equivalent term to describe them all in one go. This division in categories or class depending on what talent you cultivate is; as far as I know, quite unique to France. Some of these practionners did not even have the remotest link with any form of witchcraft, at all. In fact, only the désenvoûteur explicitely dealed with witchcraft, invested as they were of the power to recognize/diagnose bewitchment and remove/dispel sorcery. All of them powers are passed down secretly from individual to individual, almost exclusively orally, and it is generally believed power taught is power lost, so techniques of healing are inherited from one person to another on the former’s deathbed, or through family legacy when cultivation, use and employment of such powers relied on external magical artefacts such as the pierre de serpent for example (adder stone or hagstone, thought to hold great virtues). Magicians, alchemists and astrologers, of course, were considered an entirely separate class - privileged literate magical practionners constituting an elite essentially moving about in higher spheres - courts, noble families, aristocracy. They often practiced equal parts magic, astrology/astronomy and medicine, the boundaries behind each discipline being particularly blurry the farther you go back, and were equally interested in science and philosophy. It should be noted that although a witch can be both male or female, magicians were, in their vast majority, naturally men.
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