[Shard] - Sosaria
[Type] - Arcane
[Book] - Purple - 40 Pages

[Title] - Views Over White And Black Magic

[Author] - Annatar



[Page 1]
The history of the
distinction between
White and Black magic
is exceedingly
obscure, but there can
be no question that in
its main aspect it is
modern, that is to say,

[Page 2]
in so far as it
depends upon a sharp
contrast between Good
and Evil Spirits. In
ancient times there
was no dealing with
devils in today’s sense
of the expression;

[Page 3]
there were no gods
less divine then
others and all the
offices of gods were
sacred.
Each of the occult
sciences was,
however, liable to

[Page 4]
that species of abuse
which is technically
known as Black
Magic. Astrology, or
the appreciation of the
celestial influences in
their operation upon the
nature and life of

[Page 5]
man, could be
perverted in the
composition of malefic
talismans by means of
those influences.
Esoteric Medicine,
which consisted in the
application of occult

[Page 6]
forces to the healing
of disease in man, and
included a traditional
knowledge of the
medicinal
properties resident in
some substances
disregarded by

[Page 7]
ordinary pharmacy,
produced in its
malpractice the secret
science of poisoning,
and the destruction of
health, reason or life
by unseen forces. The
transmutation of


[Page 8]
metals by alchemy
resulted in their
sophistication. In like
manner, Divination, or
the processes by
which lucidity was
supposed to be induced,
became debased into

[Page 9]
witchcraft, and
Ceremonial Magic into
dealing with devils.
White Ceremonial
Magic is, by the
terms of its
definition, an attempt
to communicate with

[Page 10]
Good Spirits for a good,
or at least an innocent,
purpose. Black Magic
is the attempt to
communicate with
Evil Spirits for an evil
purpose.
The contrasts here

[Page 11]
established seem on
the surface perfectly
clear. When we come,
however, to compare
the ceremonial
literature of the two
classes, we shall find
that the distinction is

[Page 12]
by no means so sharp
as might be inferred
from the definitions.
In the first place
Theurgic Ceremonial,
under the pretence of
White Magic, usually
includes the Rites for

[Page 13]
the invocation of Evil
Spirits. Supposing that
they are so invoked
for the enforced
performance of works
contrary to their
nature, the issue
becomes complicated at

[Page 14]
once, and white Magic
must then be defined
as the attempt to
communicate with
Good or Evil Spirits
for a good, or at least
innocent purpose.
This, of course, still

[Page 15]
leaves a tolerably clear
distinction. Yet the
alternative between a
good and a innocent
object contains all the
material for a further
confusion. It will be
made clear as we


[Page 16]
proceed that the
purposes and
ambitions of Magic
are commonly very
childish, so that we
must distinguish
really between Black
and White Magic, not

[Page 17]
as between the
essentially good and
evil, but as between
that which is
certainly evil and
that which may only
be foolish. Nor does
this exhaust the

[Page 18]
difficulty. As we also
be made evident in
proceeding, White
Ceremonial Magic
seems to admit of a
number of intentions
which are
objectionable, as well s

[Page 19]
many that are
frivolous. Hence it
must be inferred that
there is no very sharp
distinction between
the two branches of
the Art. It cannot be
said, even, that Black

[Page 20]
Magic is invariably,
and White Magic
occasionally evil. What
is called Black Magic
is by no means black
invariably; it is almost
as much concerned
with harmless and

[Page 21]
stupid processes as
the White variety
with those of an
objectionable kind.
Thus, the most which
can be stated is that
the literature falls
chiefly into two

[Page 22]
classes, one of which
usually terms itself
black, but that they
overlap one another.
In what perhaps it
may be permissible to
term the mind of
Magic, as distinct

[Page 23]
from the
effects which are
proposed by the
Rituals, there has
always been a clear
contrast between the
two branches
corresponding to


[Page 24]
Magus and Sorcerer,
and the fact that the
ceremonial literature
tends to the confusion
of the distinction
stamps it immediately
as garbled. But this is
not to say that it has

[Page 25]
been tampered with in
the sense of having
been perverted by
writers. White Magic
has not usually been
written down into
Black; Sorcery Rituals
have not been written

[Page 26]
up in celestial terms.
They are for the most
part, naturally
composite, and it would
be impossible to
separate their
elements without
modifying their

[Page 27]
structure.
Modern occultism
has taken up the
distinction and
developed it. Appealing
to the secret
traditional knowledge
behind the written

[Page 28]
word of Magic, to that
unmanifested science
which it believes to
exist behind all
science, and to the
religion behind all
religions, it affirms
that the spiritual life

[Page 29]
has been entered by
two classes of adepts,
sometimes somewhat
fantastically
distinguished as the
Brothers of the Rights
and the Brothers of
the Left,

[Page 30]
transcendental good
and transcendental
evil being their
respective ends, and
in each case something
altogether different
from what is
understood by either

[Page 31]
White or Black Magic.