Witches have been a subject of pop culture fascination for literal centuries. Seem like an overstatement? Don’t forget famous witches in mythology, like Morgan Le Fay — the sorceress who first appears in Arthurian legend in 1150 — and Circe, the witch in the The Odyssey, believed to have been written in the 8th or 7th century BC. (The archetypal inspiration for Circe may be even older, for the record.) We’ve always been bewitched by witches, from the casters of spells in childhood fairytales right up to the modern witches next door of American Horror Story: Coven.
Of course, real witches today are totally different from the fairytales. There is no singular path to being a witch; it can look like practicing paganism, focusing on specific ancestral or folk traditions, or finding meaning in things like astrology, tarot, and candle rituals. No matter your method, setting intentions and staying connected — to ourselves, to nature, and to each other — often play roles in witchcraft. Rather than being bound up by gender or fixed rules, for many practitioners, it’s simply about reclaiming personal and collective power — black cats and whimsical wardrobes optional. (Though let’s be real, the aesthetic is half the fun!)
With the witching season upon us, we figured it was only right to tip our (pointed) hats to pop culture’s most famous witches in history. From notable witches in literature to cinema’s iconic crones and famous modern witches on TV, they’ve cast their magic across generations — shaping how we see power, rebellion, and a little well-placed chaos. So keep your wands at the ready, because something wonderfully wicked this way comes.
