What is Sympathetic contagious magic and whitchcraft?

Answer 1

Sympathetic Magic is a term which is used to describe magic of "likes". ie. you want to pay a debt, you use a cheque in your spell, made out in the full amount of the debt or you use seeds to "grow" a wish.

I have never encountered contagious magic.

Witchcraft is in part, but not exclusively, the practice of magic in its many and varied forms.

Second Answer

These terms are classifications of historical magical practices made by Sir James Frazer in his book The Golden Bough. The term Sympathetic magic is an umbrella term for the principles of Similarity and Contagion. Similarity being the principle in magic which likes cause likes. So as an example would be a certain Jewish love charm was created with the names of the desired recipients and along with other rituals in scripted with a phrase that asks the angels to burn the heart of a certain man then later also saying the eyes of the woman to be lighted like a candle. After finished the amulet was to be burned in a fire. The law of Contagion says that once a person has touch or owned something it creates a bond, which can be used magically, that can never be broken. An example would be using someone's fingernails in a curse. A voodoo doll is a perfect example of both principles. You need the victim's hair to cast the curse and the action of sticking in pins creates the pain or misfortune. These forms of classification are cross cultural and purely historical.

Answer 2

Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence. Imitation involves using effigies to affect the environment of people, or occasionally people themselves. Correspondence is based on the idea that one can influence something based on its relationship to another thing.

Contagious magic comes from the belief that after a person has had contact with certain things, they will continue to influence that person. Common examples of contagious magic involve things like fingernails or hair that someone has lost. If you damage a person's fingernail, the person who lost the fingernail should be affected.