The Dark Side of Witchcraft: Does It Exist?

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There’s a lot of controversy in the witch community over the topic of “black magick” and “curses”.

I’ve wanted to discuss this for a while, but haven’t had the time to get into it as deeply as I’d like. I have a couple spells that I’d like to write about, and thought that this needed to come first to explain my own opinion about the “big, bad side of witchcraft”.

Is there a Dark Side of Magick?

Definitions of Magick and Witch

Magick, for me, is the manipulation of energy through intent. A Witch is a person who uses magick purposefully.

I’ve said this before, I know (here and here).

I’ve seen many over-complicated and semantically argued definitions, but I like to keep things as simple and encompassing as possible. Witches come in all different shapes, sizes, capacities, and practices; but boiled down, we all practice a purposeful manipulation of energy through intent.

Magick, in itself, exists without purposeful manipulation; hence the idea that we are all capable of being witches (without need of ceremony or initiation).

The Separation of Humanity

We, as humans, have a wonderful but deliberate habit of categorizing and separating all things into neat little labels; this more than likely stems from our primal ancestors’ survival instincts of labeling things as dangerous or not.

In the modern era, as survival has become less an independent task and more a societal one, we’ve begun labeling each other– using categories to deny and demoralize others for the sake of our own superiority.

In the witch community, the words “black magick”, “white magick”, and “bunny magick” have all surfaced as slurs to separate.

Bunny Magick? Really?

In my opinion, labeling anyone’s craft but your own is a sign of serious insecurity. Those who have power are not afraid of those who don’t; so why are you concerned by that which you feel beneath you?

The Lady doth protest too much, me thinks.

Therefore, to be concerned, to feel the need to gatekeep means you recognize its power and you fear it– placing you as weaker in this scenario. Who the hell put you in charge of the gate then? I want to speak to their manager.

Boom! Solved it. Let’s go home, boys.

There is enough room in this universe for all our ideas to co-exist; no need to trivialize one over the other to make yourself feel better. And, definitely, don’t do it if you’re wearing a really large pointed hat to compensate for an itty-bitty… mindset.

So, let’s begin with the labels, shall we?

The Labels of Black and White Magick

In the modern post-Puritan Christian era that we live, we have an inherent and conditioned need to see things as polar opposites. However, nature doesn’t work that way.

The Sea, seen as the opposite of Land, still has sand and living vegetation beneath its surface. The Land, opposite of the Sea, still has rivers, lakes, and streams coursing through its body. Night is but a continuation of day, as the sun does not disappear but shines its rays as the world turns. Even death is another step in the existence of life, for many, as there are numerous tales and myths of what happens after we die.

“In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang is a concept of dualism in ancient Chinese philosophy, describing how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.” -Wikipedia

These gray areas are reflections of a mirror, where things might be on the other side, but it still the same pieces of a whole.

Unfortunately, most witches don’t realize this. Therefore, the definitions of Black Magick, and White Magick are opposite.

Black Magick, in instances others have defined, is the practice of “evil”, or harmful magick; White Magick is pure.

How an imperfect human can be pure is beyond me, but I don’t subscribe to these label so I can’t explain it for you.

Why These Labels Aren’t Accurate

I label myself as a witch. If I had to choose a color, I’d be gray. The inbetween, where individual moralism is better than current cancel culture. I choose for myself what I deem to be appropriate, not a societal norm based on mob mentality. I sometimes kill spiders instead of releasing them, I use intention to inflict my will on energy, and I don’t ever know how my actions will influence the world.

You know the butterfly effect right? Ray Bradbury’s short story called “A Sound of Thunder” inspired it. In the story, a future time travel company allows you to go back in time. A customer of this trip steps on a butterfly in the past, thinking nothing of it, he comes back to his present. Everything has changed.

These tidal effects can’t be measured until they’ve already taken place. They cannot be traced until after they’ve happened. As intuitive as I believe myself to be, I have no clue if my innate actions have ever caused harm. I know that I have, through either direct action or inaction, even if it wasn’t intentional– therefore, it would only be logical to assume my craft is capable as well.

I’m a realist, both in practice and in my craft. Pure magick doesn’t exist on this plane. While “evil” can, and assuredly does, it’s mostly at the hands of other people– not magick.

The only “color magick” I believe in is that of actual color- not label specific. There is no such thing as black magick, or white magick, just magick.

What The Hell Is Bunny Magick?

Which leads me to the term Bunny Magick.

Like in Harry Potter, when Malfoy called Hermione a Mud-Blood, “Bunny Magick” is a foul and pretentious name used by weak-ass witches who think burning sage somehow forges a long lost blood line. W

We all know you’re faking it, Samantha. Your mom works at Home Depot and thinks you’re a disappointment. She’s never even seen ‘The Craft‘. Get over yourself.

It means “fake witch”, or in more recent times, a witch who doesn’t curse or practice some ancient lineage of witchcraft.

For anyone who uses this term to demean others, well, like I said– it speaks volumes of your craft and personal power. It speaks volumes about the person you’ve judged as well.

Just remember, if the witch using these derogatory idiocies isn’t someone whose life you’d like to have, rest assured that their label isn’t one you need to wear. Only those you want to emulate should be of any consequence, everyone else is just a loud mouth compensating for their inadequacies.

Not to mention, it’s disgusting to demean other witches, especially when others are chomping at the bit to tear us down from the outside. I don’t want any part of anyone who is comfortable witch-hunting– even if they claim to be a witch themselves.

This is the only acceptable form of the term bunny magick- one that involves adorable little bunnies

Which brings me to cursing…

Cursing is the New Devil

To arrive at the conclusion that White and Black were opposites in the craft, and Bunny Magick coined, witches had to somehow arrive that cursing was an opposition to healing. White Witches heal, Black Witches curse. Opposites, right?

Not even close.

Cursing has a long and sordid history in witchcraft, and unfortunately for most Modern Witches, it doesn’t come on the side of our witchy ancestors. Instead, it begins in the tales and histories of Christian Imperialists wishing to expunge the earth of our ancestors’ existence. Even the etymology of the word “curse” is Old English, and didn’t exist prior to the 13th Century (during the end of the Crusades).

Christianity, in its history, has always needed a fall-guy to make itself seem the better choice.

The Church, in its sanctimonious struggle of power over others, created The Devil; imposing the idea that without constant adoration and visitation of its services, Christians everywhere would rot in eternal pits of hellfire and brimstone.

The Devil, ironically, didn’t exist in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), but a creation of the Ultimate Evil for the New Testament. Though I’m not a Historian, I find it odd that during that time The Church was having a very difficult time conquering folklore and ingrained traditions.

When the Church came to destroy the Pagans, which meant common, or country, folk they had a lengthy battle on their hands. They began to label Pagans as Heathens (noticing a pattern) and created the appearance of opposites. You were either a Good Christian, or a Dirty Bastardizing Heathen.

When that didn’t take root, they needed another Devil. “Witch” was now evil, and cursing was their armament.

Witches were the bad guys…

The Conversion of Faith Into Power

To turn the healed against the healers, The Church terrified their followers with lies. That old priest and priestess, who used herbs and chanted? Well, you desperate fool, didn’t you know they were actually to blame for the ails that sent you to them in the first place?

Ignorant and illiterate common-folk were weaponized against these Shamans. Fear ran rampant as The Church, in its confident manner, was able to explain to the people how and why these disasters were happening to them. Even if those explanations were nothing more than The Church fearing the power of those who practiced without their permission.

Through fear and manipulation, many were murdered in the name of this lie, and many more were tortured for it. All the while, The Church was able to reap the benefits. Fear converted the ignorant easily, and continued fear kept them coming back.

Modern Witches Doing The Churches Dirty Work

Finding now that Modern Witches are embracing this idea of cursing, crafted by The Church to crucify ancient practitioners is astounding. Using labels, as The Church did, to vilify another as “fake” or “too-soft” is excruciating to witness.

No longer does The Church have to send the village people in with pitchforks and torches, our own people are carrying the flames for them.

Before the Crusade, and the burning of our ancestors (as in witches, no hereditary relations), witches were natural healers. Sages, wise-ones, Hags, known by many names, they were the doctors, mid-wives, and professors of their time. There was no white or black, but moral and amoral practices that each witch decided for herself.

And, unsurprisingly, most of what they were burned for curing Science began to prove as true centuries later.

The Dirt of It All

While the idea that cursing is opposite to healing isn’t a new idea, as I just mentioned, it’s not one I thought we’d perpetuate on our own. Especially for many of us who’ve come from traumatic Christian backgrounds.

I’ve seen the argument that we “hex” disease, therefore we curse to heal, but that to me seems a strange argument of semantics. I don’t “hex” a disease, I cure it. I find it odd to create a sentience in things like bacterium and viruses. Therefore, I cannot maliciously heal anything. Scientifically, an antibiotic has no ill intent– therefore, I feel like this is just a straw argument to allow bigoted witches to keep yelling.

The best example I can think of is dirt. I don’t hex it to remove it from my home. I simply vacuum it from the floor, and its gone. While the intention is to clean, I’m not viciously targeting the dirt like I would an enemy– and it seems as if a lot of people have forgotten that necessary element in the definition of cursing.

To curse, you need malicious intent. I don’t see healing as malicious, nor is the eradication of disease malevolent. Even thinking that some out there could make that argument makes me feel like I’m living in the Dark Ages.

We all have a path we must walk…

Which will lead me into the next argument, the Patriarchy.

The Patriarchal Conditioning

Patriarchal Conditioning is the indoctrination of our society to believe that men are superior to women.

It’s so subtly laced into our every thought that until we’re made aware of it, we don’t even know it’s there– sort of like breathing.

(Read A Skeptical Feminist by Barbara G. Walker– her work does more for this topic than I could ever attempt to. See my Amazon Associate Disclosure Here)

Even in a free country like America, we represent a Patriarchal Society that tells women, or femininity, that it’s inferior to men, or masculinity.

However, as I said before, those in power don’t fear those who aren’t.

In this conditioning, we’re lead to believe women or the representation of feminine, are only affected. It is an ideology that centers on opposites as being completely separate. While femininity is shunned, masculinity becomes toxic. This has created monsters out of humans who cannot feel without being subjugated to abuse. It has ruined the basic instinct to nurture and commune with one another.

Like how the sea bed is a continuation of land, not an opposite, feminine and masculine are mirrorred reflections of the same thing. Without one, the other must compensate. And with compensation comes fear.

There are great books on this topic, and since I’m but an amateur in the science of Patriarchal conditioning, I’ll let you do your own research, but I will use the premise here in my limited capacity.

The Patriarchy Created Witchcraft

Witchcraft has gained popularity over the years, and when asked why, in my opinion, it boils down to a swinging of a pendulum.

The Feminine Aspects of our humanity are tired of living under the oppressive thumb of their Masculine counterparts.

And, this doesn’t just apply toward women, or those who identify as women, but to men, and those who identify as men, as well.

It is us, as a whole. The Masculine, in its extremism, has no place for the Feminine; yet, we all contain equal parts of both. To deny a piece of ourselves for so long can only end in two ways– explosion or implosion.

Balance, not opposites…

Explosions and Implosions

Explosion

Explosion is the Masculine who projects the Feminine onto everyone and everything, hating with such rage and menace that no one is safe.

It is the Man who rapes, taking the power of others away in his desperate attempt to gain his own.

In the Feminine, the explosion radicalizes anything unpure.

It is the women who judges others for their sexuality and individuality because she herself was denied those things; slut and body-shaming her sisters in an effort to reclaim her own stolen energy.

Without being able to express the Feminine, both– though extreme and different in their grasps of power- explode outwardly at others’ expressions of feminine.

Implosion

The Implosion is self hatred, and usually turns into projection and Explosion if not dealt with.

It is the Man who is afraid to cry and cannot stand his own son to cry, ridiculing him and calling him sissy; projecting his own self-hatred of his feminine onto his child.

It is the Woman who is afraid to be seen as weak and cannot bond with her own daughter, causing a disconnect and coldness between the two; projecting her own self-hatred of her feminine onto her child.

Growth

Luckily, as we’ve grown as a society, both in connection and intelligence we’ve started to see these conditions in ourselves and in others– and we’ve begun to rectify them.

In doing so, we’ve craved a new and different view. For a lot of us, the freedom of Witchcraft has provided it.

Witches in just the generation before mine had to hide their practices, in fear of ridicule or worse; whereas we, now, can flaunt them wide open and live (mostly) without fear.

However, that conditioning, the Patriarchal thumb, is so strong in our lives, that we’re now projecting it onto each other without even realizing it.

The Patriarchy Still Lives in Us

The Feminine aspect of witchery is healing and love.

That doesn’t mean that the Masculine is cursing and hate- that’s conditioning telling you that it must be opposite to prove one superior to the other!

They are not opposites, they are flowing continuations of one another.

If Feminine is healing and love, Masculine is protection and passion. If Feminine is pregnancy and the moon, Masculine is strength and the sun.

It is the pregnant Feminine being held by her loving Masculine, it is the Feminine who cares for the sick child as the Masculine makes sure the bills are paid. It is the Masculine who goes to work while the Feminine stays home to clean, and all of the wonderful grays in between. There are no genders to these roles but the ones we’ve been conditioned to believe exist. We are all equally capable of both, but only one is touted as superior in our society.

Interconnected energies of masculine and feminine create balance…

Witches Doing the Patriarch’s Dirty Work

Calling a witch a “Bunny Witch”, or a “Black Witch”, for practicing differently than you is the same as a another woman judging what you wear and calling you a “Slut”.

Slut is a patriarchal term used to keep women pure for men– as it doesn’t apply to the masculine archetype at all. Any woman who uses the word slut as a bad word is perpetuating an idea that isn’t even her own, simply because she’s been indoctrinated to hate the feminine aspect of herself. The same concept applies to any derogatory term used to negate another witch’s practice.

Why, then, would we create that stigma in our own community?

Why indoctrinate future generations of witches to see feminine aspects as soft and reflections of wholes as opposites?

We do it out of hubris and arrogance- and, in reality, fear.

We’re so scared we’re wrong, that our path isn’t the one that will lead to salvation, that we project that fear onto others. As if the numbers of followers we convert will lead to validation of our inner beliefs… (sound familiar??)

I don’t curse. I believe that curses exist, but I don’t believe their powerful on their own. However, I believe that every witch has the power to harm simply because they’re human.

But, my own opinions will never lead me to label another witch something they haven’t labeled themselves. I am not bothered by others power because I’m confident in my own.

Besides, there’s enough people doing that outside our community, no need to make it a thing inside.

Which leads me to my final point:

Why I Don’t Curse…

“If you knew that every ill action against you came from a place of pain, and not hate, would you react with healing or anger?”

This question was asked of me a long time ago by someone who is no longer in this world.

Back then, I was young and naive and I answered with some smart ass comment about how in a perfect world I would know every intention of every person and act accordingly, but until then it didn’t matter– I treated people exactly as I thought they deserved.

I don’t feel that way any more.

We are All Shadow

In my Shadow Work, I’ve come to realize that even those who’ve hurt me the worst aren’t without their own demons. I’ve also come to realize that we’re all one mass consciousness underneath the surface- connect by more than will ever separate us.

As hard as it is for us to fathom, every single human being on this planet is living as vivid and complex a life as we are. They have feelings, rooted and vast, that mimic the oceans of our own, and those feelings are just as fragile and easily broken as our own.

And, no matter how intentional we live our lives, and how kind we are purposefully, we will end up hurting someone’s heart. We will cause scars, invisible to the naked eye, on someone else’s life; and even if we don’t notice them, for them– they may run deep and never heal.

In Shadow Work, I’ve begun accepting a glaringly obvious truth about myself: I am not perfect. There are times when I’ve been rude, arrogant, dismissive, unfriendly, and many other negative things; even if I’ve not been intentional in those actions they’ve still echoed across the cosmos.

I am both light and dark all the time

We Are All Karma

All those times I’ve been less than a perfectly empathetic human, I’ve caused harm.

The time I was short with the cashier, because I was cranky, could have been the icing on the cake of a very bad day for her.

Those terrible words I spouted to my husband during a manic episode might still burn when he thinks of them.

The person I cut out of my life, due to their toxic behavior, might be in desperate need of unconditional love.

That’s not to mention our impacts on our planet and society as a whole.

Any time we judge, we’re causing harm.

Any time we choose not to help, we’re causing harm.

Even if we do each one of those unintentionally, it still can affect someone else– and it’s not our call as to how much or how little it’s allowed to bother them.

That’s not to say we should allow ourselves to be harmed to keep from harming others, but we must accept that hurt is a reality of life.

Opposites or Reflections of the Same

We’ve become this narcissistic society that believes in an US versus THEM mentality (again with the opposites), and we don’t usually see our own roles in the damages our race has inflicted on the world.

We’re not the individual or corporation deforesting the Amazon Rainforest, so we see ourselves as better. Yet, our consumerism, greed, and neglect of our planet has allowed corporations and individuals to see the potential dollar signs in deforesting a place like the Amazon.

We’re all guilty indirectly, just as much as we believe others are directly guilty.

If we were to imagine our entire life on a scale, judged by a third party, would it always tip in favor of good?

We’d like to think so, but as someone who is very self-aware of her shortcomings, I know where mine would fall.

I intentionally try to be a good person. However, even in doing so, I can and have hurt people.

In my dedication to my husband and son, I’ve neglected friendships. Through my enjoyment of quiet time, I’ve declined invitations. In my haste to accomplish goals, I’ve ignored others.

Reality is not Opposite

An example that still haunts me of indirect hurt.

I was in a search party for a four year old boy with autism a few years ago. His body was found less than 100ft from where I’d been searching. He drowned while we were looking elsewhere. As helpful as I’d intended to be, a little boy lost his life. A family was forever changed, and I’d been within grasp of him for several minutes before moving in another direction.

It wasn’t my fault, I know this– but that doesn’t change the harm I unintentionally caused that family. If only I’d gone left instead of right that night. It doesn’t change the harm of those who didn’t help, for more eyes may have saved him. Even inaction is an action.

Even though that was something I’ve done unintentionally, I’ve still committed “pains” intentionally. Judging and gossiping, anger and spite, etc.

I am not a terrible person, but I am not a ball of freaking sunshine either. I am not black and white, but a muddy mix of gray that tries its best to live in acceptance of both sides.

As we all are, when we’re honest with ourselves.

Shadow, Karma, Patriarchy, and Labels

Therefore, if we are all Shadow– we are all mistakes, whether intentional or not, what right do we have to curse another for their “sins”?

I use the term sin, not in the biblical sense, but more in an ironic sense. Sins were punishable, and we’ve chosen– individually and socially– to act as judge, jury, and executioner in many instances of our every day.

Everyone has a story, and most intentional and unintentional harm is sent by way of pain.

It’s a hard reality to accept, but if I look at myself and my own actions, I can see how true it must be for others. I might be more aware of myself than some people, but I don’t deem myself special; I am like others, and others are like me.

Our entire lives are not made up of truths and lies, or black and white facts, but experiences viewed through lenses. And if we’re not seeing what we’re meant to see, in the way it was meant to be seen, the intentions of whomever placed it before us don’t matter.

Conclusion

And that’s why I don’t curse. When judged by the Feather of Truth, I want my heart to be lighter because I accepted that we are all one and the same. Until I completely understand someone, and have viewed everything through their eyes and experiences, I cannot presume to know why they do what they do.

For me, I do not have the hubris or arrogance to believe I’m in any way better than they, or that I cause less harm than they simply because I walk with intention.

And it’s also why you’ll never hear me use the terms “white magick”, “black magick”, or anything in between. My magick comes with my intention, not a label of good or bad.

It is me, and I am it.

There are no opposites, only the whole.

Until next time, my friends…

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