Black Magic and the Nature of Language

Questions and Answers for where to begin on the Darker Spiritual Paths.

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So, this has been a discussion that's come up on two different discord servers I'm a member of, and I realized that it might be good to post my thoughts here.

The topic is basically why you shouldn't use color to describe a magickal practice, for one, and for two, why you shouldn't call any type of magick evil.

So let's start with the origins of the term "black magic."

"Black" magic(k) is used universally to describe magic(k) that the user of the terms defines as bad/evil/baneful (even when that magic(k) is not actually any such thing), BUT...

There's this thing called MEDIA.

What media is, is the associations built upon a word.

So like, the word knife... immediately, you think of dozens of images and associations with that word. Knife just doesn't mean slab of metal with sharp edge... but all the uses for that slab of metal.

Then you add context, and suddenly, KNIFE becomes KITCHEN knife. Or Soldier's Knife. Or Steak Knife. Or Butter knife.

Each one of those words brings up new images, new media.

When we use color in magick... we HAVE to remember that in our current society, color has media attached. Now, there are quite a few people who, with greater knowledge than I, have explained that the term "black magic" comes from a shamanic root, which associates darkness, night time, with evil things. "The Night is Dark and Full of Terrors." So, since bad things lept out of the dark to eat you, suddenly calling spirits and spells that did the same was easy. "Dark/black magic." Simple.

However... in about the 16th century, there was a shift in social dynamics. The European powers found that the idea that we're all human made it difficult for the average person to support the conquering and subjugation of other peoples. I don't have links to the historical moment, but there was a decision made to, using propaganda, basically say white skin meant superior. Anyone not white was not human, they were animals, barbarians, they were ignorant savages. So it was totally ok to steal their gold and resources and turn them into slaves. Adopting them into our culture was doing them a favor!

So now black means stupid. Less than. Lower.

Eventually, this attitude, combined with the idea that the dark is where the bad things hide, leads to black and evil meaning that the color of your skin makes you evil.

It's important to ask yourself: "Why is black associated with evil, selfishness, and sin” and “why is white associated with purity, innocence, virginity, etc.”

Black Magick is a racist term. The change in our media, the change in our language, starts at home.

I can't change the books. I can't change all the people who use the term "black magic" to denote "evil." But I can decide for myself that I'm not going to use the word black to denote anything negative, because using the word black to denote anything negative is like using the word gay to do the same. "Dude, that's so gay. OMG."

Yes, black is a color used to describe darkness, night. Yes, the night is dark and full of terrors. But we don't live in caves anymore. We instead live in a society where the night is NOT full of dark and full of terror. We live in a society where we decide collectively what we WILL fear... and right now one of our fears is brown and black people... and one of their fears is us, white people.

So it's my choice to start changing black from meaning fear/bad in my personal lexicon. To stop using those words in that manner.

Even though the original dualistic perception wasn't based in colorism... what we have, here, is called Social Moral Drift. So let's talk about that.

The world is very, very grey. It's a complex world where dualism doesn't really do anything for us except help us to avoid reality.

Good and evil are personal perspective judgments. There's this whole Chinese proverb - the horse farmer. He goes out into the wild and finds some wild horses, and manages to capture them. The villagers all tell him how lucky he is, what a good thing that is. He is... noncommittal. The next day, his son is trying to break one of the horses to the saddle, and gets thrown, and breaks his leg. Everyone says, "that's bad." The farmer just shrugs. The next day, the army comes through and conscripts all the young men... except his son, who has a broken leg.

Good and bad are purely subjective judgments... and honestly what you judge in the moment to be bad... might turn out later to be actually a very good, helpful thing for you.

I mean, culturally, we've decided certain activities have a negative impact on our society, our civilization, and so we call those activities evil... but even then, the definition of behavior that harms society has shifted over time.

At one time, raping your significant other wasn't considered wrong. At one time, what we now call "war crimes" weren't a big deal.

Social moral drift happens. So good and evil have to come from a personal place, ultimately... and even then...

If you judge an experience to be negative in the moment, you might look back ten years from now and not view it that way, because of what you eventually got out of the experience, which made the "negative" of it worth it.
Calling anything evil is VERY subjective.

It's my personal perspective that a lot of people who call certain magickal actions "black magic" are... really judgmental and ignorant people. They're cristopagans at BEST.



Now let's look at the actual practice of baneful magic.

I'm gonna start with this - magic is magic. There's no color. There's no limiting verbiage. Magic is a force, like gravity or magnetism. And like those, it has no moral or ethical subjectivity. It just IS.

However, just like using gravity or magnetism as a tool, when humans use magic, what they DO with it, their intent AND the outcome (even if the two are oppositional) is what causes people to begin labeling magick as "good" or "bad." And remember - those terms are temporary and highly subjective.

When you use magick, you are altering yourself, and the world around you. This means that you WILL affect other people. And how you deal with that comes down to a personal moral judgment. Why personal? Because this is the LHP. Your actions are solely your own. The consequences likewise. Other people's reactions to your actions and the consequences are THEIR OWN, and not your responsibility. Magick is amoral. Not immoral, but Amoral. Without.

It's only the result that gets judged... and it all depends on which side of the result you're on as to how it's judged.

So if you're going to do magick, you just have to accept that there are going to be people who judge what you've done as negative. Right or wrong, that's going to be their judgment... and their choice to judge positively or negatively isn't your responsibility.

"Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys."

If you do something that, consequentially, affects someone else's life... it's still their life to deal with... and really, it's how they perceive it all that you're fighting, not actual reality. But that thought is their choice. So when you do magick that affects someone else's life... good? Bad? In that moment? Or later? It's all just their personal perspective. It's all interpretation. And you cannot stop people from thinking about their lives the way they do. You can't fix people, you can't change them, you can't change their minds, their perspectives. Remember, just because they choose to perceive an experience as suffering, that's not your fault, and that choice doesn't make the situation your responsibility.
> "Say unto thine own heart, 'I am mine own redeemer'."
> "Stop the way of them who would persecute you. Let those who devise thine undoing be hurled back to confusion and infamy. Let them be as chaff before the cyclone and after they have fallen rejoice in thine own salvation."
> "Then all thy bones shall say pridefully, 'Who is like unto me? Have I not been too strong for mine adversaries? Have I not delivered MYSELF by mine own brain and body?' "
> **- The Satanic Bible, Book of Satan, Chapter 4, Verses 3-5**
There are going to be times in your life when baneful magic is not only called for, but necessary, in your perspective. While we here don't advocate the cursing/hexing of everyone for every reason, in Demonolatry, we firmly recognize the right for each practitioner to set boundaries in their lives, and to choose how to both enforce those boundaries, and defend themselves when those boundaries are crossed.

I have helped more than one person to cast a baneful spell, because I felt the situation they were addressing deserved my knowledge. That's MY choice. If someone comes to me asking for help on a baneful spell and I don't agree with it from my personal moral or ethical perspectives, I'm not going to judge them for wanting to do what they want to do... I'm just not going to help, either. That's how the LHP works - you do you. If I don't agree, I don't tell you that you're wrong, I leave you be... I simply don't do what you do. And if you don't agree with me, then the expectation that you will simply let me be who I am, do what I do, without interference... but if you do agree, then we help each other.

However, any action I take, the consequences are my responsibility. The consequence of me helping someone else with a baneful spell by providing the knowledge to them necessary to the work is that the knowledge is now out there... and someday, someone might use it against me, or someone I care about. I own this every time I teach anyone ANYTHING... not just this topic.







SO - TL:DR - 1) Using the word Black to describe "evil" magick is a racist term, and I hope that you will stop doing it, and start calling such magick "baneful," instead. 2) Magic has no alignment or intention - it is a force, a tool. It is the intention of the practitioner, and the results of their spells, that determines whether magick is baneful or not. 3) Deciding if a magickal result or intent is baneful is a personal thing - all morals and ethics judging good and evil are personal and subjective and change over time as perceptions of intentions, actions, and consequences change. 4) You are walking the LHP - judge yourself, and no others, own the consequences for your actions and your judgments and do not seek to own the consequences or actions of others or to have others own yours.
"She’s all the unsung heroes who... never quit." ― R. A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
― H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: First Series
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Thank you for this important and well thought out post. I have been musing over these ideas for the last couple years and you've articulated it so well.

:devilclap:
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