Black magic

For other uses, see Black magic (disambiguation).

"Dark magic" redirects here. For other uses, see Dark magic (disambiguation).

Black magic has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers for evil and selfish purposes. In modern times, some find that the definition of "black magic" has been convoluted by people who define practices that they disapprove of as "black magic".

Black magic practices

Within common mainstream religion, such as Christianity, there are certain taboos surrounding forms of magic. Although culture may place certain forms in one side or another of this spectrum, there are in fact some cultural universals about free will.

• True name spells - the theory that knowing a person's true name allows control over that person, making this wrong for the same reason. This can also be used as a connection to the other person, or to free them from another's compulsion, so it is in the grey area.
• Immortality - from a Taoist perspective, life is finite, and wishing to live beyond one's natural span is not with the flow of nature. Beyond this, there is a major issue with immortality. Because of the need to test the results, the subjects must be killed. Even a spell to extend life may not be entirely good, especially if it draws life energy from another to sustain the spell.
• Necromancy - for purposes of usage, this is defined not as general black magic, but as any magic having to do with death itself, either through divination of entrails, or the act of raising the dead body, as opposed to resurrection or CPR.
• Curses/Hexes - a curse can be as simple as wishing something bad would happen to another, to a complex ritual.

Black magic as part of religion

Many rituals performed by black magic practitioners mentioned on television are mentioned, and it appears to be universally based upon a religion, but using perverted rituals to suit the needs of the user. For example, black magic users might invert a pentacle. Likewise, corrupted rites or sacrifice may substitute blood or feces for the water or wine. Seen from this perspective, the distinction between black and white magic would be simple,

• White magic would be the original rituals, which embody the tenets of the religion in question. For Buddhism or Hinduism, this might be long and complex prayer sutras. Taoist and Shinto magic would largely be based upon fertility and nature rituals.
• Black magic would be a corruption or misuse of such above rituals, using them to self-serving or destructive ends without regard for the cultural morals of the religion. This could be something such as making poppets to cause harm.
• In a certain context, even devotional forms of ritual such as prayer can be regarded as a form of black magic, if the intended purpose of the prayer is to cause harm or injury to another. Prayers such as those that evoke the destruction of enemies and so on that produce negative results fall within the realm of ill intent. Some argue instead that in the form of devotional ritual, the responsibility of morality falls on the Deity in question, instead of the aspirant.

In chaos magic

A rather different view of Black Magic is used in the system of Chaos magic. In this branch of occult practice, spells sometimes correspond to colors, depending on the supposed effect (e.g., red magic, which is magic concerned with combat, such as low-level curses). Black magic, in Chaos magic, corresponds to magic that is performed around the themes of death, separation, severance and entropy. This can refer to powerful curses meant to bring the strongest effect, spells to sever emotional ties to objects or people, and so on.

In fiction

In fiction, black magic will quite frequently be synonymous with evil, such is the case in Rosemary's Baby, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series (referred to as the dark arts in the novels), and Shakespeare's Macbeth, with many other examples existing. In many popular video games, such as Final Fantasy, white and black magic is simply used to distinguish between healing/defensive spells (such as a "cure") and offensive/elemental spells (such as "fire") respectively, and does not carry an inherent good or evil connotation.

See also

• Necromancy
• Maleficium (sorcery)
• Demonology
• Gray magic
• Left-hand path and right-hand path
• Witchcraft
• Ya sang
• Seiðr