Black Magic

Black magic, or commonly referred to as dark magic, is the
belief of practices of sorcery that draws on assumed

person's true name allows control over the other, making
this wrong for the same reason. This can also be used as a

malevolent powers. This type of magic is invoked when
wishing to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or

connection to the other person, or to free them from
another's compulsion, so it is in the grey area,

destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful
consequences to others. As a term, "black magic" is normally

* Immortalirituals - from a Taoist perspective, life is
finite, and wishing to live beyond one's natural span is not

used by those that do not approve of its uses, commonly in a
ritualistic setting. The argument of "magic having no

colour, and it is merely the application and use by its
user," backs the claim that not everything that is termed as

the subjects must be killed. Even a spell to extend life may
not be entirely good, especially if it draws life energy

"black magic" has malevolent intentions behind it, and some
would consider it to have beneficial and benevolent uses.

from another to sustain the spell.,
* Necromancy - for purposes of usage, this is defined

These uses would include the like of killing of diseases or

not as general black magic, but as any magic having to do
with death itself, either through divination of entrails, or

pests. Practitioners that utilise magic in this way argue
that the effect itself is malevolent by causing death (with

the above example) to insects, but as an indirect
consequence of black magic, good can be a result, such as in

* Curses/Hexes - a curse can be as as simple as wishing
something bad would happen to another, to a complex ritual.

the form of less pests around, etc. In this school of
thought, there is no separation between benevolent and

* Demon conjuring

malevolent magic because there is no universal morality
against which magic can be measured.

In fiction, black magic will quite frequently be synonymous

Many rituals done by black magic practitioners mentioned on
television are mentioned as having aspects similar to

with evil magic. Such is the case in Rosemary's Baby, J. K.
Rowling's Harry Potter series, and Shakespeare's Macbeth. In

Christianity, but a perverted form, and it appears to be
universally based upon a religion, but using perverted

many popular video games, such as Final Fantasy, white and
black magic is simply used to distinguish between

rituals to suit the needs of the user. For example, black
magic users might invert a pentacle just as Satanists invert

healing/defensive spells (such as a "cure") and
offensive/elemental spells (such as "fire") respectively,

a cross. Likewise, corrupted rites or sacrifice may
substitute blood or faeces for the water or wine. Seen from

and does not carry an inherent good or evil connotation.

this perspective, the distinction between black and white
magic would be simple,

* White magic would be the original rituals, which

Within common mainstream religion, such as Christianity
(even within modern Paganism to an extent), there are

embody the tenets of the religion in question. For Buddhism
or Hinduism, this might be long and complex prayer sutras.

certain taboos surrounding forms of magic. Although culture
may place certain forms of magic in one side or another of

Taoist and Shinto magic would largely be based upon
fertility and nature rituals, and

this spectrum, there are in fact some cultural universals
about conducfree will,

* Black magic would be a corruption or misuse of such
above rituals, turning the cultural morals of the religion

* True name spells - the theory is that knowing a

into self-serving or destructive. This could be something
such as making poppet doll to cause harm.