A woman stands in a circle of symbols with a goat, she pours a substance from a goat horn into a cauldron on an open fire; goat worshipping and dancing are taking place in the background; a woman on a goat and a man on a trident fly overhead. Witchcraft is the use of magical faculties, most commonly for religious, divinatory or medicinal purposes. This may take many forms depending on cultural context. The belief in and the practice of magic has been present since the earliest human cultures and continues to have an important religious and medicinal role in many cultures today. A witch is a person, usually a woman, who professes or is supposed to practice magic, especially black magic or the black art.