Hey everyone. So I'm a fan of horror and the other night I was listening to one of those allegedly true horror stories and it was about a story the writer's great grandmother told him about an encounter with witches in Chile. Normally, I would have assumed it was purely fiction, but I remembered an episode of the Lore podcast about the history of witches in Chile and it got me interested in the actual history of witchcraft in the region.

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My main areas of interest are:

1. Is there any evidence of a secret society of witches that pulled the strings of society? The Lore podcast made it sound almost like a Freemason type conspiracy theory. I've also read a bit of speculation that the witches operated like an organized crime ring and used fear of their powers along with more mundane methods of maintaining control.
2. The horror story implied a bit of interaction with Christianity saying that the newly initialized witch had to wash off his Catholic baptism in water during the middle of the night and mentioned some rhyme to ward off witches if you hear their call. I can't remember the full quote but it was something like "fly on devil bird. You're too late because Jesus Christ has already won the race." That got me thinking about the history of what the Chilean beliefs about witchcraft would have been before the introduction of Christianity and how the new religion influenced local folk lore.

I know this is a bit of an odd question and this might not be the best forum for it, but if there are anyone could shed some light on the history surrounding these myths and recommend some reading, that would much appreciated.