Are you a White Witch?

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that line over the years when people come to know that I am a witch. Sure there are also those who just think I’m nuts and those who are fascinated, but by far the most common reaction is the one above.

‘But you ARE a white witch right?’ Let’s first talk about the general idea of white and black magick. I usually say that this is a definition invented for tourists, amplified by popular culture and fairytales.

Glinda of Oz vs. The Wicked Witch in the 1938 movie ‘The Wizard of Oz’

It is supposed to simply define what witches do and put it into two entirely separate categories. One practice acceptable, love and light, no ill intend, blessings only, healing vibes…the whole shebang, the other side hidden, better not talked about, dangerous, terrible, scary, hexes, curses, demons, Satan and the lot. Which is interestingly also the side more people believe in! I have to point out this study again about how deep the believe in magick actually runs: The Belief in Magic in the Age of Science

But where do these definitions actually come from? The idea of black magick gained real traction in the western world not too long ago and originated, no surprise there, in Christianity. Black or as it was then called dark magick had a proper definition in Christian law. The seven arts prohibited by canon law, laid out by Johannes Hartlieb in 1456 were: Necromancy (demonic magic concerning the dead, including communication with them) Geomancy ( casting of sand stone or dirt and interpreting the  shapes for divinatory purposes)

Hydromancy ( a divination form using water, typically for scrying) Aeromancy (tossing dirt or seeds into the air and studying the cloud patterns formed by them) Pyromancy (divination through the study of shapes in the fire) Chiromancy (Palmistry with aspects of astrology) Scapulimancy (divination using animal shoulder blade bones, by heating and breaking them) And that’s it, those were the dark magick practices the Christian church explicitly banned. Nothing about hexes, curses etc. to start with, it was all about secret knowledge and a glimpse into the future that bothered them the most. Obviously the idea of devil worship, the unease around witches and those holding sacred knowledge has been around way longer, but the active split to certain aspects of magick came in the 14 hundreds. It didn’t take long, historically speaking, before all magick was considered dark and evil and all form of ritualistic magick became devil worship, because that’s how a dominant religion and its attached culture erradicates any other practices and beliefs they do not want. The direct consequences were the terrible witch hunts and trials, that saw between 40,000 and 60,000 people killed, most of them women well into the 18th century.

‘Dunking’ was a form of torture to extract a confession from a witch. The alleged witch would either confess, pass out or die in the process. Artist unknown.

That’s summing up a lot of history in a very short amount of space up there, I know, plus this is western, mainly European, history. I don’t feel qualified to talk about other practices, which are often considered dark and dangerous by outsiders like Voodoo or ‘black shamanism’, to name only two. But I should definitely mention that they exist and have incredible and rich facets in their own rights. After the trials and witch hunts, I think witchcraft and magick have never fully recovered from their place in the shadows. Wherever Abrahamic religions dominate the religious structure, witchcraft, paganism, magick and the like suffered and were pushed underground and considered evil. Just as recent as the 80s we saw the Satanic Panic sweeping through America and other parts of the world, resulting in over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse being brought to trial! Popular culture obviously had a huge part to play in this in much more recent history too. Another subject for yet another time as I am straying off course again. The original question was: Am I a white witch? The short answer: No I am not, but that doesn’t mean I practice ‘black’ magick either.

The long answer: No, because I don’t see it quite like that.

Magick isn’t black or white, magick simply IS. As I mentioned in another blog post before, magick for me is the transference of energy. Being aware that everything is interrelated and actions, even mental actions change and shape the world around us, the positive and the negative. We know better than to expect the world around us to be black and white. It’s not as simple as good or evil, nice or naughty, peace or violence etc. All those things co-exist and one does not exist without the other. That wonderful purring kitten on your lap is also a weapon on legs and wouldn’t hesitate at all to tear a mouse to bits, with no regrets. We say pagans worship nature, well then we worship the purring kitten at the same time as the mouse killing cat. Two aspects of the same thing.

Cute or dangerous? Or maybe both? Actually just an excuse to show you our fabulous cat Prince again.

Most of nature has no shame, the dark and light exist at the same time. If magick comes directly from nature or even IS nature, it has to follow the exact same idea. Humans are no different! We are capable of the most amazingly beautiful things, like love, joy, selfless acts, generosity, care, at the same time as being full of anger, violence, sadness, resentment, jealousy and more. If we deny our own darkness we are only looking at half the picture. It’s all part of the human experience! To deny these or trying to suppress them even ‘heal them away’ is not very human at all.

But what about if you wilfully use these energies to manipulate the world around you? Wouldn’t you inevitably be ‘overwhelmed’ by the darkness and start being evil? Wouldn’t the darkness corrupt you?

Evil is afoot! Or maybe it’s just Halloween decoration?

Why would they? You get angry sometimes, right? You can get loud to get a point across, yes? So you are using your anger to project your point and hopefully create a desired outcome? Have you turned full Darth Vader or Freddie Kruger yet? No, of course not!

Maybe a decent moral compass is generally a good idea, wouldn’t you say?

We already established that we all have darkness and light inside us, but that does absolutely not mean that one side has to be overbearing or defining. Neither dark nor light. Balance, as so often, is key.

While I think magick itself isn’t black or white, we should probably be considerate about what we use it for, if not for others, then at least for our own sake.

Imagine hating something so much that you want to utterly destroy it. I am talking about destroying in the mundane way, not magickally.

What does that really do to your head? To your mood? To your mental health?

Do you think actually destroying it will give that hate a rest?

Maybe it will, difficulty to say, but the consequences will set in.

Was it yours to destroy? Did you hurt yourself more than anything else? Did whatever you tried to destroy bite back? Did it actually not matter as much as you think it would? Do you now feel stupid? Do you now feel angry? Do you now feel sad or ashamed? Do you feel guilty? Is it going to haunt you?

All this and more should be considered when using magick to destroy too or lets give it the name we all know it has, when you hex or curse.

I am not waving some high-horse morality at you, not the three fold law or any version of Karma. I am simply asking:

Are you are prepared for the personal consequences resulting from the curse or hex you are doing? If you are, go ahead. If not, maybe it’s a good idea to deal with your grievance in a mundane way.

Sometimes telling someone to ‘f*ck off’ is way easier than raising all that energy to curse them!

Bottom line is, magick isn’t black or white, good or evil. That bit lies entirely with the intend of the practitioner.

So I leave you with a wonderful quote from one of my favourite ever sci-fi shows Babylon 5, which incidentally also answers the original question at the beginning:

“I am Grey.

I stand between the candle and the star.

We are Grey.

We stand between the darkness and the light.” 

Satai Delenn of the Grey Councilin ‘Babylon 5’ (played by Mira Furlan)A sci-fi packed with spirituality.I quote it often!

Blessings to you all