Black Magic


Main articles: Magic and Spells and Sorcery or Magic

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Malleus Maleficarum, 1669 edition

Malleus Maleficarum, 1669 edition

During the Renaissance, many magical practices and rituals were considered evil or irreligious and by extension, “black magic” in the broad sense. Witchcraft and non-mainstream esoteric study were prohibited and targeted by the Inquisition.As a result, natural magic developed as a way for thinkers and intellectuals, like Marsilio Ficino, abbot Johannes Trithemius and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, to advance esoteric and ritualistic study (though still often in secret) without significant persecution.

See also: Renaissance magic

While “natural magic” became popular among the educated and upper classes of the 16th and 17th century, ritualistic magic and folk magic remained subject to persecution. 20th century author Montague Summers generally rejects the definitions of “white” and “black” magic as “contradictory”, though he highlights the extent to which magic in general, regardless of intent, was considered “black” and cites William Perkins posthumous 1608 instructions in that regard:


In particular, though, the term was most commonly reserved for those accused of invoking demons and other evil spirits, those hexing or cursing their neighbours, those using magic to destroy crops, and those capable of leaving their earthly bodies and travelling great distances in spirit (to which the Malleus Maleficarum “devotes one long and important chapter”), usually to engage in devil-worship. Summers also highlights the etymological development of the term nigromancer, in common use from 1200 to approximately 1500, (Latin: Niger, black; Greek: Manteia, divination), broadly “one skilled in the black arts”.

In a modern context, the line between “white magic” and “black magic” is somewhat clearer and most modern definitions focus on intent rather than practice.There is also an extent to which many modern Wicca and witchcraft practitioners have sought to distance themselves from those intent on practising black magic. Those who seek to do harm or evil are less likely to be accepted into mainstream Wiccan circles or covens in an era where benevolent magic is increasingly associated with new-age Gnosticism and self-help spiritualism.

Satanism and devil-worship

Main article: Satanism

Illustration by Martin van Maële, of a Witches' Sabbath,

Illustration by Martin van Maële, of a Witches’ Sabbath, in the 1911 edition of La Sorciere, by Jules Michelet.

The influence of popular culture has allowed other practices to be drawn in under the broad banner of “black magic“, including the concept of Satanism. While the invocation of demons or spirits is an accepted part of black magic, this practice is distinct from the worship or deification of such spiritual beings. The two are usually combined in medieval beliefs about witchcraft.

Those lines, though, continue to be blurred by the inclusion of spirit rituals from otherwise “white magicians” in compilations of work related to Satanism. John Dee’s sixteenth century rituals, for example, were included in Anton LaVey’s The Satanic Bible (1969) and so some of his practises, otherwise considered white magic, have since been associated with black magic. Dee’s rituals themselves were designed to contact spirits in general and angels in particular, which he claimed to have been able to do with the assistance of colleague Edward Kelley. LaVey’s Bible, however, is a “complete contradiction” of Dee’s intentions but offers the same rituals as a means of contact with evil spirits and demons. LaVey’s Church of Satan (with LaVey’s Bible at its centre), “officially denies the efficacy of occult ritual” but “affirms the subjective, psychological value of ritual practice”, drawing a clear distinction between. LaVey himself was more specific:

White magic is supposedly utilised only for good or unselfish purposes, and black magic, we are told, is used only for selfish or “evil” reasons. Satanism draws no such dividing line. Magic is magic, be it used to help or hinder. The Satanist, being the magician, should have the ability to decide what is just, and then apply the powers of magic to attain his goals.


The latter quote, though, seems to have been directed toward the growing trends of Wiccanism and neo-paganism at the time.


Main article: Shamanism

In some areas, there are purported malevolent sorcerers who masquerade as real shamans and who entice tourists to drink ayahuasca in their presence. Shamans believe one of the purposes for this is to steal one’s energy and/or power, of which they believe every person has a limited stockpile.


Main article: Louisiana Voodoo

A Voodoo doll.

A Voodoo doll.

Voodoo has been associated with modern “black magic“; drawn together in popular culture and fiction. However, while hexing or cursing may be accepted black magic practices, Voodoo has its own distinct history and traditions that have little to do with the traditions of modern witchcraft that developed with European practitioners like Gerald Gardner and Aleister Crowley.


Black magic and religion

Main article: Magic and Religion

See also: Prayers Against Spell and Magic

The links and interaction between black magic and religion are many and varied. Beyond black magic’s links to organised Satanism or its historical persecution by Christianity and its inquisitions, there are links between religious and black magic rituals. The Black Mass, for example, is a sacrilegious parody of the Catholic Mass. Likewise, a saining, though primarily a practice of white magic, is a Wiccan ritual analogous to a christening or baptism for an infant. In Islam, the Quran contains Surahs that are recited to protect against black magic.

See also: Christian Views on Magic

Seventeenth century priest, Étienne Guibourg, is said to have performed a series of black mass rituals with alleged witch Catherine Monvoisin for Madame de Montespan.


Main article: Spells and Sorcery or Magic

Black magic is condemned in Islam but Muslim thinkers are not clear on how to deal with this superstitious holdover from an earlier age. Sorcery or witchcraft (sihr) is often equated with trickery aimed at conflating falsehood with the rational association of causes and effects.

From the many Qurʾanic verses relating to magic (sixty-six, of which only three were revealed in Medina), one might conclude that the phenomenon of siḥr occurs in the revelation only in the form of a condemnation of pagan practices. In certain verses, however, magic appears as a fragment of a celestial knowledge that was given to humans by fallen angels such as Hārūt and Mārūt (sūrah 2:102). These angels revealed to humans secrets “that they ought not to have known” (Apocalypse of Enoch 64:10). Thus, “God decided, in his justice, that all the inhabitants of the world would die [by flood], for they knew all the secrets of the angels, and possessed the hateful power of the demons, the power of magic” (ibid., 64:6). Another group of verses, condemning this almost instinctive quest by humans to penetrate the will of God, connects magic with divination.

Practices and rituals

as difficult to plumb as it is arduous to scale
the heights of sanctity. The Grand Masters of
the witch covens are men of genius – a foul genius,
crooked, distorted, disturbed, and diseased.

Montague Summers
Witchcraft and Black Magic

During his period of scholarship, A. E. Waite provided a comprehensive account of black magic practices, rituals and traditions in The Book of Black Magic and Ceremonial Magic. Other practitioners have expanded on these ideas and offered their own comprehensive lists of rituals and concepts. Black magic practices and rituals include:

  • True name spells – the theory that knowing a person’s true name allows control over that person, making this wrong for the same reason. This can also be used as a connection to the other person, or to free them from another’s a compulsion, so it is in the grey area.
  • Immortality rituals – from a Taoist perspective, life is finite, and wishing to live beyond one’s natural span is not with the flow of nature. Beyond this, there is a major issue with immortality. Because of the need to test the results, the subjects must be killed. Even a spell to extend life may not be entirely good, especially if it draws life energy from another to sustain the spell.
  • Curses and hexes – a curse can be as simple as wishing something bad would happen to someone, or as complicated as performing a complex ritual to ensure that someone dies.

See also

Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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