FAQ

The witches council was very angry at Sabrina's mother for bearing a warlock's child. They decreed that if her mother ever saw Sabrina, her mother would be turned into a ball of wax. This is, apparently, a common ruling in the case of a mortal who has a child with a witch or warlock.

Sabrina CAN see her mother once she is 18, though. But I think there are limits on it then, as well.

When Sabrina is in college, she senses that someone is following her. She catches that person and it is her mother. They are shocked at first that her mother has not turned into a ball of wax, but speak to soon as her mother DOES turn into a ball of wax. Sabrina's aunts work to talk with the Witches Council about reversing it. The mother's face is still seen and she and Sabrina can still talk. Sabrina shows her mother all about her life and gets to spend some time with her. Later, Sabrina accidentally leaves her wax mother next to a hot iron and the ball melts. Sabrina is devastated and begins to cry. Her tears fall onto the melted wax and she folds the wax on itself. At that moment, her mother is turned back into a human form. Conveniently, Sabrina's aunts rush in saying that the cure to turning her ball of wax mother back into a human is to mix some of her own tears into the melted ball. They rush to turn Sabrina and her mother away so they can't see each other. They tell her that if Sabrina and her mother set eyes on each other, her mother will become a ball of wax permanently.

On the season finale, when Sabrina was preparing for her wedding, it was said that for Sabrina's mom to attend her wedding without turning into wax, that someone would have to turn into wax instead. So Zelda sacrificed herself.

Salem Saberhagen attempted to take over the world. As punishment, he and a number of his most loyal followers were turned into animals, for varying periods of time; Salem was sentenced to spend a hundred years as a cat.

Aunt Hilda was one of Salem's followers when he attempted world domination. Although she was not, herself, turned into an animal as punishment (unlike many of his other followers), her sentence instead was to take care of Salem during his century as a cat and, specifically, to make sure that he didn't try to take over the world again.