Path: typhoon.sonic.net!not-for-mail Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.witchcraft,alt.religion.wicca,alt.pagan.magick Subject: Re: Black Magic and 'Rebounds' (was love spell to make someone ...) References: <3C8D3A29.3BA7@luckymojo.com> <3C9045FF.9090600@bookofshadows.org> From: nagasiva Reply-To: spam@yronwode.com User-Agent: nn/6.6.0 Lines: 84 Message-ID: <2Kak8.4178$44.32098@typhoon.sonic.net> Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 23:53:34 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.201.242.18 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sonic.net X-Trace: typhoon.sonic.net 1016150014 208.201.242.18 (Thu, 14 Mar 2002 15:53:34 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 15:53:34 PST Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick.tyagi:31411 alt.magick:291945 alt.witchcraft:39123 alt.religion.wicca:518621 alt.pagan.magick:32051 50020314 VI ren the bastion of rationality: > Black Magick, White Magick, awe man, can't we all just get along? These > are very dated terms that have little to no meaning within the occult > community anymore. apparently they still command some attention. look how often they are utilized for the purposes of alarm and dismissal. > Most texts define Black Magick is that magick which the practitioner > works for selfish goals. What the fuck does that mean? not-societally-constrained. > Doesn't everything that we do have some implication of selfish desire? generally, yes. the exceptions aren't really worth our attention right now. > No. I say that we get rid of the terms Black and White all together. valiant. > Many of us that practice the Occult aren't even Christians such as > myself so we don't even subscribe to Angelic and Demonic systems of > magick. sure, but you'll run into a variety who are fond of such systems, many of whom believe it as their New Dogma. what can you say? it supposedly 'works' (whatever this may mean) for them. > Therefore, for that reason our magick can't be defined as Black > or White. it can be, just not convincingly. > Now is Black Magick that magick which is used to control the free will > of another person? Well in this sense I suppose that there are forms of > Black Magick. Magick used to hurt or kill another can also be called > Black. But I believe it is better to call the heart of the practitioner > black rather than the magick used. Poison is not good or evil. In > nature, poison just is. Is poison really Black Magick? 'black magic' is just a label that people use to dismiss and demonize. usually they are afraid of being out of control, hurting or affecting what they hadn't intended, etc. the 'black/white' categorizations are a way of differentiating those mages who are outside the control of the chosen group of the speaker (thereby offering what could be a valuable sounding on 'dangerous' individuals). when the groups are small and there are lots of solitaries around who aren't as dangerous as the group-members imagine, then this differentiation expresses the dogmatic biases of the speaker. when there is little difference of authority or variation of background, such indications can be helpful to the group-members who wish to achieve security through domination. > In some healing systems small amounts of poison are actually good > in order to stimulate an immune response. The blood of a poisonous > snake though containing poison also contains the antidote. wonderful examples. the issue of doctors and 'temporary harm for the overall good' is an important counter-argument to Wiccan fearfulness. > So magick itself is not good or evil. Like medicine or poison, magick > just is. And the title of Black Magick it shifts the blame to the true > source of that which is good and bad, the person. the issue then becomes whether anything anyone castigates as 'black' is truly harmful ('evil' if you like). examining the criteria for the assessment isn't too hard. if you challenge the judgmental and they bluster, chances are they haven't bothered to do their basic studies and are just interested in one-upsmanship. those who use dualistic terms and cast aspersions and calumnies are valuably considered extreme. lovely post. nice topic modifier (poisons). thanks. n a B g l b a e e s s a i s s v e t a d ! @yronwode.com