It’s been forever since I’ve done an Ask A Witch segment so I’ve been wading through some of the emails that I’ve received to find some that would be good to dive back into.  This was one that I thought was some what apropos given some things going on these days and, while it’s a topic that I’ve talked about a handful of times before I thought I would do a quick reply and try and make things as simple as possible to answer this question from my perspective.   So let’s talk about black and white magick again. I honestly start to have moments of not knowing how to answer this question without getting really wordy and all over the place, so this time I’m trying to approach it from as simple as an angle that I can.  Hopefully this works!  🙂

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

Honestly, the simple answer. No.

Now the more complicated answer…
Magick is all about intention.  The intention in the heart of the person that casts it is where the “black or white” resides.  There is also the issue of personal ethics and the ethics of the magickal tradition that a person practices.  What might be labeled as black magick to some might be perfectly find for others.  Frankly I feel that all magick is a grey area until we put our intentions behind it.

So what would be “black magick”?  To many practitioners it would be something that is designed to intentionally cause harm, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual, to another person.  It can also be something that is meant to take away someone’s free will.  Basically we’re talking here about magick that would make someone specific fall in love with you, magick that would cause someone to lose a job or get evicted from their home, anything that would change someone’s life situation for the worse.

“White magick”, as you would imagine, is going to be something that is meant to help heal someone or improve their lives or situation.  Spells and magick for sending love to someone who is in need or support, spells for finding a new job, to find new friends, and to help bring peace to a difficult situation might all be seen as white or positive magick.

But here’s where things are tricky.  For many people one of the big things that makes the difference is: Are you casting the spell for another person, and if you are, did you ask them for permission to do it?  This is where the freewill comes in.  It doesn’t matter if you have the best intentions behind it, but if you haven’t asked them if you can cast this spell for them then you’re violating their ability to make decisions about how their lives will go.  Healing is an example I use a lot to explain this.  We tend to have this idea that all healing magick is OK and positive and so people will cast healing spells for anyone in their lives who is dealing with a health issue without asking for permission.  Sometimes we might want to do a healing spell for someone that is dealing with a serious illness because we want them to get better because we don’t want to deal with the possibility of losing them.  In these situations we tend to not stop and think about the fact that this just might be an experience they need to go through and it might be their time to move on to the next part of their soul’s journey. It’s not up to us to decide that for them.

I think some people take this a bit too far though.  I know some people feel that all magick that would improve your life, especially in any sort of material way (like spells for money) are wrong because there might be someone else that needs it more than you. Frankly I think that’s silly.  The Universe provides for everyone who wants to be provided for.  There’s no reason that you shouldn’t do work for what you need and what you want to create the life you wish to live.

Ethics are the other thing that play into the black and white magick issue and these will vary from one practitioner to the other based on the tradition they practice.  For example someone who’s Wiccan will have the Wiccan Rede and the Threefold Law to consider.  Someone else might just keep into mind the idea of Karmic Return.  And others, like myself, have their own personal ethics that they have formed over the life of their practice that are their own.  What might be white for me will quite likely seem black to someone else.

So, is there a clear way to define black and white magick?  Not really.  But it’s not hard to know which side of things your on if you have your personal ethics defined and you stop to think about your true intentions behind your magick when you cast it.

You might also want to check out this post from a while back…Of Hexing and Cursing.