I’ve recently started going through the many Ask A Witch questions I’ve received over the late handful of months to try and find ones that I can blog about in-between bouts of writing and editing the tarot book.  In a few months I’ll be back to more in-depth blogging, but in the meantime I’m going to try and at least a couple of times a week I’ll try and reply to some of these long unanswered questions.

Today’s question comes from Elizabeth.  She writes…

hello,
I have been enjoying your blog, you are a wonderful and clear writer. My question is; is there a real distinction between black and white magic?
elizabeth

Hi!  Thanks for your question!

Personally I don’t feel that it’s really possible to divide magick into such simple and cut and dry things such as good or bad, black or white.  Magick really is a grey art; there are so many degrees of what we might call “black or white” that it can be hard to really say something is black or white magick.

First, there’s the issue of what black and white means.  In our culture and mindset we have come to see black to mean bad and white to mean good.  This can have some really negative connotations to begin with, this idea of divination by color.  This isn’t just a magickal issue but a cultural one.  I know a number of magickal practitioners that don’t like to use these terms because of how far reaching the idea of black as bad and good as white goes in our culture, including racial issues.  But even just looking at the idea of good and bad we have to question this a bit.

Black is a color that is used in magick to absorb energy and can be used for banishing things such as negative energy, unwanted habits, and to release anything no longer wanted.  White is used for all kinds of magick, but it most commonly used in work such as blessing, healing, purification, and cleansing.  By looking at the properties of each of the colors neither is necessarily good or bad.  The properties of black have a lot of positivity to them.  Who doesn’t want to banish a bad habit?  Looking at white you have the aspect of cleansing and sometimes that be a very painful process even though it might be necessary.

Now, considering that, let’s talk about white magick.  Healing is a form of magick that most who classify their work into such divisions they might call it white.  But unsolicited healing could, by some, be considered “black” because it would be done without permission and possibly go against their free will.  We might want to see a friend who is very sick be healed and get better, but your friend might be so worn down, so tired, and just so done with this existence and my be looking for this to be their exit.  This might be the time for them to go and your magick to make them well could keep them around longer than they really want to be here.

On the flipside, something that might be considered “black” magick could include a binding curse to stop someone from committing a violent crime that might befall you, a friend, or a relative.  You would work a spell to bind and prevent the actions of this person, something that many people would consider to be “black” or “bad” but the intention would be a positive one to actually stop something even worse from happening.  You might cast such a spell asking that this person be stopped or be caught before the bad thing happens in order to get them help, to heal whatever it is that would make them want to do these things, and so on.

So, is there a clear line between black and white magick?  No, definitely not.  Magick is truly a grey practice but it’s the intention of the Witch or the spell caster that makes the difference.  If you work from an ethical standpoint or from a place of justification then you are doing what is right for you.  It’s important to keep in mind that magickal ethics, even if they are your own personal ethics and you aren’t following something like the Wiccan Rede, become the gauge by which you determine what side of the line your intentions fall on.

And, just as a last note, my thoughts on Black Witches and White Witches are pretty much the same; there really is no such thing in my book.  We’re all Grey Witches and we often walk a very fine line between the two and, more often than not, we have one foot on one side of the line while dipping our toes in the other to test the waters.  Honestly, I think that’s how it should be.