Gray magic

Gray magic

Gray Magic is a term for magic (or magick) not performed entirely for beneficial, ethical or spiritual purposes, yet not malevolent either. [Smoley, R. & Kinney, J. (2006) "Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions". Quest Books. p. 121.] Cicero, Chic & Cicero, Sandra Tabatha () "The Essential Golden Dawn: An Introduction to High Magic". Llewellyn Books. p. 87.] It is seen as falling in a continuum between white and black magic. Practitioners see magic, itself, as neither good nor bad, but a neutral process employed towards positive or negative ends.

According to D. J. Conway, practitioners of white magic avoid causing any form of harm, even for positive outcomes, such as in stopping evil people, energies or entities; gray magic incorporates all the beneficial purposes of white magic, but also works towards ridding the world of evils. [Conway, D. J. () "Wicca: The Complete Craft". p. 43.] Still, Ann Finnin states that many practitioners of gray magic employ the term because of its vagueness, to avoiding having to consider ethical questions. [Finnin, Ann () "The Forge of Tubal Cain". p. 100.]

A rather different meaning to the term 'grey magic' was given by Roy Bowers an influential British witch of the 1960s. For him it was a technique of baffling, bewildering and mystifying everyone he met in order to gain power over them, since by doing so he was always more sure about them than they were about him: [Hutton, Ronald (1999) "Triumph of the Moon" p. 315] :"One basic tenet of witch psychological grey magic is that your opponent should never be allowed to confirm an opinion about you but should always remain undecided. This gives you a greater power over him, because the undecided is always the weaker. From this attitude much confusion has probably sprung in the long path of history."Bowers, Roy (1963) "Genuine Witchcraft is Defended" in "Psychic News", 8 Nov 1963, p. 8. http://members.aol.com/CTubalCain/genuine.html]

:"Nothing about witchcraft is ever stated definitely. It is always left to inference and your judgement. Consequently nothing written about witchcraft can ever solve it or confirm or deny its existence."

References

ee also

*Witchcraft
*Neopaganism
*gray witch


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