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so, a lil while back my friend was talking about magick..."it all started when i saw she had crystals, and than i brought wicca"...So she said that magick was broken up into four catagories...There is good white magick, good black magick, bad black magick, and bad white magick...

Now i had never heard of this before, thinking all magick was seperated into white and black as good and evil. She tried to explain that the color was determined by when it was done, like black=night, or white=day. Which kinda made sence. So thats how she explained the color part, and the good and bad was the intentions. Good was for creation, growth, helping someone/something, basically all positive outcomes. Then bad was destruction, ill wishes, hurting something/someone, so that would be negetive out comes.

I again never heard of this, so i was wondering what you guys think of this. Is this true, or just some bull she got from maybe a unreliabal source. or am i just using the wrong phrases...?

also i would like to know if the destruction of something bad, like a bad habit, an adiction, i ill feeling, would those be good or bad magick?

post ur thoughts, blessed be...<3

This person doesn't appear to understand that creation and destruction are always paired processes. I'd steer clear. What this person is speaking of is classic dualism, a hangover from Zoroastrianism (and Christianity which it influenced) that many believe has no place in the Craft.

I'm not sure I've got this righ, but i'll donate my 2 cents anyway. *Puts two cents in the box*. I believe that there is good magick and bad magick, but I do not give it a color. It reminds be of race (i.e. 'black' people and 'white' people) and there are good black people and good white people. But that whole saying just confuzes my mind.

As has been said...magic is just magic. It is neither good, bad, black, white, purple, blue, green, etc...it just is.

What you choose to do with that magic is what determines the appropriateness of action you are taking. Realize too, that "good" and "bad" are all dependent on perspective. What is bad to one person, may be good to some else...it all can depend on the situation.



Banishing spells are often considered "dark" magic, but if it results in something good, then obviously it isn't bad.

You might also want to check out this other thread...
http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=3276743

I think the nature of a type of magic largely depends on the intentions and the results. For example, if I cast a binding spell on a friend who was trying to hurt themself, even though my intentions were good, it's still black magick as it deprives them of their free will. In the same way, as mentioned above, banishing spells can be considered black magick, but if I only intend to banish my finger-nail biting habit, then I made that choice, and the end result doesn't hurt anyone, so it's white magick. Again, if I were to cast this on someone else without their permission, or against their will, it would be black magick.

Essentially, something is regarded as black magick if it is harmful (epecially deliberately harmful) to anyone, or deprives someone of their free will.

Words like black and white are just stereotypes. Many people here (as you've already seen) will argue against giving magic a name, and that magic is too complicated to sum up in a singular definition. These help to make them easy to describe though, so its important to understand what people mean by them. Simultaneously though lots of people have different definitions for what constitutes "black" and "white" magic.


You say that you never want to do magic that is considered white magic. Why not? Technically anything that helps you or those around you is white magic most of the time. Most people will agree with that, I think. Haven't you ever seen a friend who was down and wanted to help them with their depression? You could cast a spell for them to make the feel better. Have a family member thats sick? Send some healing magic their way.

Some people would consider that black magic though if you haven't asked their permission, or say that if the person doesn't know then the spell won't work as well (turbulence caused by the unwilling receiver). I don't ever seem to have this problem, and don't consider it to be black magic if the intention is good. I don't make any life changing decisions like breaking up with a boyfriend or anything that makes a large impact. Usually it just has to do with helping them to recover from an experience or making them feel better, attracting success etc. Most people would be more than happy to have that kind of help, but telling them is out of the question due to misconceptions about spellcraft. What I usually do is put a little "failsafe" at the end of my spells so that if the help isn't wanted or my interference would lead to a negative result the spell is either completely canceled or the energy is redirected to something the recipient needs it for more.

I consider this "white" or at worst "gray" magic since theres the possibility of the manipulation of will. Some people may consider it black magic, and they're certainly entitled to that opinion.

I see it this way. You're living next door to a couple, and the husband's wife dies. The husband, struck with grief he's unable to cook anything and is fading away. As a concerned neighbor you cook him a meal and take it to his house. Most likely he's going to eat that food whether from guilt or otherwise.

Now maybe he wasn't cooking anything for himself due to a wish to starve himself and join his dead wife. By feeding him you've done something to interfere with that decision to waste away. But at the same time it was his decision to eat it. If you see people around you and they're suffering (at whatever level of intensity) and you're perfectly capable of helping, why would you hold back? Thats my philosophy.

I just thought sharing my perspective might change yours about what you may consider "white" magic and what you might consider "black," and hopefully encourage you to try it out, since it can be such a wonderful thing to be able to help people without fussing with social barriers.

As for the stuff with what time of day it is, I've never heard that. I think they may be a little confused from associating things with the God and Goddess, or some other source thats not very reliable. I'm not throwing out the possibility, perhaps thats how they referred to it in a certain part of Europe in the past. Who knows.

Some people do refer to certain kinds of magic as being of different color. I can't remember where I read it (I believe it was on this forum) but apparently some people call red magic "sex magic" or something, and then of course anything having to do with herbs and vegetation is "green" magic.

anything that has negative intentions or uses dark symbols or blood is black magic - don't touch it.

Anything with positive intentions is white magick.

I think that the intended outcome is what decides whether it is 'black' or 'white' and because of that, you can't really have good black magick, or bad white magick...

unless you think of it in the way that a spell is white because it has good intentions and bad because it goes wrong (has an unintended negative effect)... in which case you could have called that a bad white magick spell... but that's entirely situational...

we are not being literal. White magick is a way of referring to magick cast with good intentions... black being the obvious opposite. We are not suggesting that the magick necessarily has a colour, so much as using common terms.