Why Real Magic isn’t simply black or white…
Back in the old days (I mean, REALLY old — hundreds of years ago) Witches were solitary women, living in the woods, doing their thing. They were who you went to if you were sick, or broken hearted, or cursed, or needed advice, or a potion… whatever.
They weren’t considered “Black” or “White”. They were just Witches. They were respected, and served an essential purpose in society.
Then along came Christianity and the Church.
The Church was run by rich and powerful men. By-and-large it didn’t like the idea of these unmarried women having so much influence over their villagers. If these women were able to heal the sick, and help people find happiness, what was the point of the Church? Nothing! And so all over the world the Church set about telling everyone that Witches were actually “evil”. They were in league with the devil. They ate small children for breakfast. They carried diseases. They were responsible for every bad thing that had ever happened to you.
But it didn’t work.
People still went to their local Witch whenever they had a problem that needed to be sorted.
So the Church upped its game and started rounding up anyone they suspected of Witchcraft, and putting them to death…
(Something to consider the next time you’re sitting in Church on Sunday morning and your listening to a Priest talking about “love and acceptance.”)
Finally the Church’s message started to get through.
Witches were evil and to be avoided. Not least because knowing a Witch could get you burnt alive.
The image of the “evil” Witch is still with us today. She wears mainly black. She has a hooked nose. She plucks eyes out of newts when preparing her spells and curses.
But then in 1939, MGM made the movie The Wizard of Oz.
Fairly early on in this film, the character of Glinda appears. She’s a “good” Witch. She’s dressed mainly in White… whilst the “Wicked Witch” wears mainly black (and a lot of green makeup).
These ideas went down well with cinema audiences; which in turn led to the idea of White Magic, and White Witches… and by extension their polar opposites; Black Witches and Black Magic.
And here we are, eighty something years later, and the first thing anyone asks when they find out that I’m a Witch is whether I practice Black Magick or White Magick.
In reality, there is no such thing as Black Magick or White Magick or even “dark” Magick… there is JUST magick. (Correctly spelt with a K)
Now then, there are spells that *some* spell-casters WON’T touch: Love Spells, Curses, Obsession Spells, etc, etc… these spells are controversial and sometimes get labelled as “Black Magick” or “Dark Magick”. Hell, I’ve even used the term myself.
And then there are people like me who might describe themselves as “Black Witches”… but we use the term to mean a ‘solitary Witch’ that doesn’t belong to a coven, and has less of a problem working with those controversial spells.
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Until next time…
Blessed be
Raven
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