Maleficium

Maleficium Black Magic

Maleficium is a Latin term meaning "wrongdoing" or "mischief"and is used to describe malevolent, dangerous, or harmful magic, "evildoing" or "malevolent sorcery". In general, the term applies to any magical act intended to cause harm or death to people or property.

The term appears in several historically important texts, notably the Formicarius, and the Malleus Maleficarum.

The Knights Templar were also accused of maleficium. The Trial of the Knights Templar set a social standard for the popular belief in maleficium and witchcraft which contributed to the great European witch hunt.

In modern Papua New Guinea and the Torres Strait area it is called puripuri.

Snakes are cold blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. There are also several species of legless lizard which superficially resemble snakes, but are not otherwise related to them. A love of snakes is called ophiophilia, a fear of snakes is called ophidiophobia (or snakephobia). A specialist in snakes is an ophiologist. An old synonym for snake is serpent; in modern usage this usually refers to a mythic or symbolic snake.