巫术、巫术（英语：witchcraft）是一种基于联想的原始神秘仪式。[1][2]
| 此条目 需要补充更多来源。 (2009年3月15日) |
关于名为“巫术”的电子角色扮演游戏系列，请见“
巫术系列”。
巫术是迄今为止人类所知的最早的神秘仪式。原始时代的人类在宗教仪式诞生前所使用的便是巫术。最古老的巫术又被称作交感巫术，本质上巫术来源于联想，有着相似律和接触律两大基本原则，而这也是后续的宗教仪式及各类神秘诞生的基础。
最晚在八万年前左右的尼安德塔人已经开始安葬死者，并拥有灵魂的意识及信仰前，人类已有巫术仪式
交感巫术分为两种，一种是遵循同类相生原则由结果逆推得到原因的顺势巫术，另一种则是举凡曾经接触过的两种东西，以后即使分开了，也能够互相影响，这叫做接触巫术。
顺势巫术又称模拟巫术，是基于相似律的巫术。
相似律是指，相似的结果来自相似的原因，相似的原因会造成相似的结果，这样的巫术规律。
顺势巫术是模拟结果得到原因，模拟原因得到结果，这样操纵因果律的巫术。
像是在古代巫师通过模拟庆祝新生儿诞生的过程来帮助生产就是一种顺势巫术。
接触巫术是基于接触律的巫术。
接触律又称感染律，是指一度接触的事物分离后依旧能互相影响的巫术规律。
接触巫术是用曾发生过接触的物品去干涉另外的事物的巫术。
因此施术于脚印、衣物，这些脚印、衣物能与人体互相感应，从而影响受害者，这就属于是接触巫术。
作为古老巫术仪式的使用者，巫师可大致分为女巫和男巫。
Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 1997: 519. ISBN 978-0-297-00220-8. 'At this day', wrote Reginald Scot in 1584, 'it is indifferent to say in the English tongue, "she is a witch" or "she is a wise woman".' Nevertheless, it is possible to isolate that kind of 'witchcraft' which involved the employment (or presumed employment) of some occult means of doing harm to other people in a way which was generally disapproved of. In this sense the belief in witchcraft can be defined as the attribution of misfortune to occult human agency. A witch was a person of either sex (but more often female) who could mysteriously injure other people.
Hutton, Ronald. The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present. Yale University Press. 2017: ix. What is a witch? The standard scholarly definition of one was summed up in 1978 by a leading expert in the anthropology of religion, Rodney Needham, as 'someone who causes harm to others by mystical means'. In stating this, he was self-consciously not providing a personal view of the matter, but summing up an established scholarly consensus [...] When the only historian of the European trials to set them systematically in a global context in recent years, Wolfgang Behringer, undertook his task, he termed witchcraft 'a generic term for all kinds of evil magic and sorcery, as perceived by contemporaries'. Again, in doing so he was self-consciously perpetuating a scholarly norm. That usage has persisted till the present among anthropologists and historians...
