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To: alt.religion.wicca,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.magick.ethics,alt.satanism
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva)
Subject: Mariposa: Light/Dark Magick (was Night Magick)
Date: 17 Nov 1996 03:55:20 -0800

[from alt.pagan: Mariposa ]

Marjorie Rosen wrote:
> 
> 2. I'm sorry, but there is *no* such thing as "white" or "dark" magick.
> Magick *is*! It is a tool to be used, based on the ethics of the person
> using it. If a drunk driver gets behind the wheel of a car and kills a
> family of four in an accident, do we punish the car? Of course not. The
> car was only a tool with the force of its working coming from the drunk
> driver.
> 
> I am a sincere advocate of the Ethic. I have seen it in action (even
> against myself purely by accident!) and uphold it. It provides safety and
> guidelines in the use of magick. However, "those who cannot hex, cannot
> heal" is a truism, as well.
> 
> BB
> 
> Marjorie

I completely disagree with your statement that there is no such thing as
white or black 'magick'.  From a very, very strict wiccan point of view
where magick is only the manipulation of energy, then yes, there isn't
really white or black save for what is filtered through the individual.

However, the Universe is a really big place and not everything,
everyone, believes or exists within that very strict framework.  And,
there was a Time before this reality was even created where
exist/existed essence quite beyond our imaginations.


Is there 'Evil'? Yes.  Is there 'Good'? Yes.  In terms of the unfolding
creation of this reality, assuming that there is a plan to this
creation, then anything that works against this plan would be evil,
anything working for this plan is Good.

If there is no plan, then good and evil is relative to the filter of the
object/person who is acting and the response of the other that is
observing or reacting to the first.

But, does this mean there is no black and white magick?

That, ultimately depends on the world view one experiences and adheres
to.  In your case, the world view has not black and white magick.

In my world view, there is black and white magick..but not in the
classic sense of white=good and black=evil.

White magick is any and all magickal acts or actions or reactions that
aid in the unfolding of the Universe _or_ in th dissolution of the
existence of the Self/Reality _within_ the framing work of this
realities Creation/Creators.

Black, or Shadow, Magick is any act or action or reaction that
harnesses, uses, 'invokes', those essences that exist outside this
reality.  Recal, for instance, the creation stories of, lets say Egypt. 
Before there was the Primal Mound, there was only the Waters of
Unformlessness.  There in the Waters existed/non-existed beings and
creatures.  One of those creatures is A'apep, the Serpent of Chaos who
seeks to Destroy the Self Created.  But, in those same waters were other
creatures, snake and frog headed beings who served Djehuti and Aided in
the creation of this Reality and with Re.

To extend this example.  A person who is working with Mayet is working
white or light magick due to the fact that the forces, essence, of that
Netjer is rooted in the Act of this creation and how things are supposed
to unfold as creation moves on through Time.  A person working with
Neith, Primal Waters or Tem would be working in 'shadow' magicks because
these beings existed _before_ the creation of this Universe.

As another example, working with the Sidhe Folk is considered, by some
and probably in an arbritary matter, to be working with the Shadow or
Dark Magick.   The beings of the Sidhe are not, per se, associated with
the 'Light' due to thier capricious natures, war like behaviors, living
below ground, kidnapping and various wars.

Also, Magick itself can be and is often seen to be, an expression of the
natural forces of the Earth.  Therefore, Magick has its own 'function'
and 'nature'.  If one believes that the earth is alive and, in some
alien way, conscious, then, its forces would be conscious expressions of
the collective whole.  If we look atthe Biosphere called earth, we see
that it does respond to dynamic changes and seeks a sort of global
homeostasis.  Some playing with the weather in one area, damages the
weather in another area..ei, rain in one places takes it from another as
the water has to come from somewhere on this planet.  Also, rememebr
that this planet is a closed system which means that it has a limited
amount of resources and the distrubition of those resources is vital to
the functioning of the whole.

Then there is the discussion of the relationship between Diety and
Magick, Diety and the Individual and how working with Diety effects the
Individuals magick.

Just me thoughts...

Mariposa
http://www.tezcat.com/~mariposa/
a gay pagan place