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In his 2009 book, Magic and Alchemy, Robert M. Place provides a broad modern definition of both black and white magic, preferring instead to refer to them as "high magic" (white) and "low magic" (black) based primarily on intentions of the practitioner employing them. [6]
Unlike white magic, in which Place sees parallels with primitive shamanistic efforts to achieve closeness with spiritual beings, the rituals that developed into modern black magic were designed to evoke those same spirits to produce beneficial outcomes for the practitioner.
In Western esotericism, left-hand path and right-hand path are two opposing approaches to magic. Various groups engaged with the occult and ceremonial magic use the terminology to establish a dichotomy, broadly simplified as (malicious) black magic on the left and (benevolent) white magic on the right. [1]
Healing or "good" paranormal magic is called White magic. Black magic is a destructive or evil form of magic. A Treatise on White Magic is a book by Alice Bailey, a Theosophist. [3] White witch. Evil witches are stereotypically dressed in black and good fairies in white.
LaVey refused any division between black magic and white magic, [9] attributing this dichotomy purely to the "smug hypocrisy and self-deceit" of those who called themselves "white magicians". [10] Such neutrality correlates with LaVey's philosophical view of an impersonal, and therefore amoral, universe. [11]
Distinguishing between black magic and white magic often relied on perspective, for example, if a healer attempted to cure a patient and failed, some would accuse the healer of intentionally harming the patient. In this era, magic was only punished if it was deemed to be ‘black’, meaning it was the practice of a sorcerer with harmful intention.
Gray magic, also called neutral magic, is magic that is not performed for specifically beneficial reasons, but is also not focused on completely hostile practices. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] It is seen as falling into a continuum between white and black magic .
White magic is understood as the use of magic for selfless or helpful purposes, while black magic was used for selfish, harmful or evil purposes. [22] Black magic is the malicious counterpart of the benevolent white magic.