Not all witches and sorcerers were created equal. A distinction was made between "born" sorcerers, that is those who were born with their powers, and those who acquired their powers later, by some magical means. Usually (but not always), "born" sorcerers were believed to be weaker than “made” sorcerers.

Another distinction was made, among the “made” sorcerers, between “willing” and “unwilling” sorcerers. All of them, however, were believed to be in league with the dark forces and doomed to damnation.

"Unwilling" sorcerers acquired their powers by touching or accepting something carelessly from a dying practitioner. For them, salvation was possible through special church rituals or seclusion in a monastery.

"Willing" sorcerers, on the other hand, acquired powers through a pact with the devil (performed, as such rituals usually were, at a crossroads or in a bathhouse). It involved removing one’s cross, stomping on an icon placed face-down, and renouncing God, one’s mother, father, and sometimes the earth, the sun, and the moon.

Note: An icon is a blessed object, a window through which the “heavens look down on earth.” Placing it face-down and stomping on it is the symbolic equivalent of spitting in the face of holiness, an action that is sacrilegious and offensive.

Note: Calling on (or as here, renouncing) God, one’s parents, the earth, are common practices in magic and in spell-casting.

Sorcerers often had helpers: minor devils, or sometimes the unclean dead. These could appear as: black cats, black dogs, toads, frogs, snakes, even rams. As with the devil himself, a sorcerer’s helper will avoid likenesses that are symbolic of the power of light, such as the rooster or the donkey.