巫術、巫术（英語：witchcraft）是一種基於聯想的原始神秘儀式。[1][2]
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关于名为“巫术”的電子角色扮演遊戲系列，请见「
巫术系列」。
巫術是迄今為止人類所知的最早的神秘儀式。原始時代的人類在宗教儀式誕生前所使用的便是巫術。最古老的巫術又被稱作交感巫術，本質上巫術來源於聯想，有著相似律和接觸律兩大基本原則，而這也是後續的宗教儀式及各類神秘誕生的基礎。
最晚在八萬年前左右的尼安德塔人已經開始安葬死者，並擁有靈魂的意識及信仰前，人類已有巫術儀式
交感巫術分為兩種，一種是遵循同類相生原則由結果逆推得到原因的順勢巫術，另一種則是舉凡曾經接觸過的兩種東西，以後即使分開了，也能夠互相影响，這叫做接觸巫術。
順勢巫術又稱模擬巫術，是基於相似律的巫術。
相似律是指，相似的結果來自相似的原因，相似的原因會造成相似的結果，這樣的巫術規律。
顺势巫术是模擬结果得到原因，模拟原因得到结果，这样操纵因果律的巫术。
像是在古代巫師通過模擬慶祝新生兒誕生的過程來幫助生產就是一種順勢巫術。
接觸巫術是基於接觸律的巫術。
接觸律又稱感染律，是指一度接觸的事物分離後依舊能互相影響的巫術規律。
接觸巫術是用曾發生過接觸的物品去干涉另外的事物的巫術。
因此施術於腳印、衣物，這些腳印、衣物能與人體互相感應，從而影響受害者，這就屬於是接觸巫術。
作為古老巫術儀式的使用者，巫師可大致分為女巫和男巫。
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...
