I was listening to a podcast called The Witch Wave yesterday, and an interesting point was raised. Both the podcaster and her guest are people who make a point of being as inclusive as possible to people of every race, every ethnicity, every sexual orientation, every gender, etc. Well, I'm paraphrasing here, but when a question regarding WA and BA came up, the guest on the show said that she didn't prefer to assign specific colors to magic, as in human history, making that kind of value judgment based on colors has led the human race into some pretty terrible places.

I thought, "She has a point." The Hollywood stereotype of "White Arts good, Black Arts evil" runs rampant, and is likely to have been deeply imprinted on the psyches of most people before they ever come to practicing magic themselves, and understand that there are also infinite shades of grey in between the two opposite extremes.

But in human history, making judgments on HUMANS who are white or black has resulted in some of the ugliest actions that our species has been capable of committing. So I can see how there could be people for whom applying "white" as a shorthand for good, and "black" as a shorthand for evil, would be an emotionally painful concept.

So, I thought I would bring this point up here, and see if anyone has ideas on OTHER ways to phrase ourselves without resorting to colors. Who has some ideas of what we could say instead?

I know that BA magick has also been referred to as "baneful" magick, so my first thought is that we have already got a term that is in use, and that people will understand because they are already familiar with it. Baneful magick. But what is the opposite of baneful? Beneficial? Would we want to say "Beneficial magick" for the workings that heal, build, and create, and "Baneful magick" for the workings that harm, sicken, and destroy?

I'm just tossing some ideas out there to see how folks feel about it. If you have other ideas, I would love to see them.

well if u dun wan use colour why dont say good,neutral or bad? or classify based on it type atk, def, and etc

I thought that positive magic and negative magic were already in use. And you could always add neutral.

To most people, Dark Arts = Black Arts

I would prefer to use Lisa Hankin's way -White Arts, Grey Arts, Dark Arts

conxtion wrote:To most people, Dark Arts = Black Arts

I would prefer to use Lisa Hankin's way -White Arts, Grey Arts, Dark Arts

Leaving aside the avoiding of using "white" or "black" for a moment, if I had my way, the terms we use here would be "White Arts, Grey Arts, Black Arts". That, to me, gives a clearer picture of the full spectrum of the Arts.

Come to think of it, the opposite of White is Black, and the opposite of Dark is Light; so yeah, it should be:
a) White Arts, Grey Arts, Black Arts
or
b) Light Arts, Grey Arts, Dark Arts.

Likes2Read wrote:

conxtion wrote:To most people, Dark Arts = Black Arts

I would prefer to use Lisa Hankin's way -White Arts, Grey Arts, Dark Arts

Leaving aside the avoiding of using "white" or "black" for a moment, if I had my way, the terms we use here would be "White Arts, Grey Arts, Black Arts". That, to me, gives a clearer picture of the full spectrum of the Arts.

I was raised in an Asian tradition and never believed that morality was so black and white. I don't buy into the system at all, and most of the sellers that I buy from don't use it either.

LilyCake wrote:I was raised in an Asian tradition and never believed that morality was so black and white. I don't buy into the system at all, and most of the sellers that I buy from don't use it either.

Is there a different system those traditions use instead that is similar in function to the Western approach? Or do Asian-tradition practitioners who are encountering the Western school of thought for the first time tend to wonder "What on earth are these people talking about, making differentiations along those arbitrary lines?"

Neutral vs Malevolent vs Benevolent.

Likes2Read wrote:

LilyCake wrote:I was raised in an Asian tradition and never believed that morality was so black and white. I don't buy into the system at all, and most of the sellers that I buy from don't use it either.

Is there a different system those traditions use instead that is similar in function to the Western approach? Or do Asian-tradition practitioners who are encountering the Western school of thought for the first time tend to wonder "What on earth are these people talking about, making differentiations along those arbitrary lines?"

My mother isn't a spirit keeper or anything like that. She just taught me that morality was much more complicated than black and white. Most of the sellers I buy from (who are westerners) simply describe their spirits' morality in their descriptions, which gives a fuller picture of who the spirits are.