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Concepts related to black magic or described as black magic are a regular feature of books, films and other popular culture. Examples include: The Devil Rides Out (1934) – a novel by Dennis Wheatley – made into a famous film by Hammer Studios in 1968. Rosemary's Baby (1968) – a horror novel in which black magic is a central theme.
The occult is a category of supernatural beliefs and practices, encompassing such phenomena as those involving mysticism, spirituality, and magic in terms of any otherworldly agency. It can also refer to other non-religious supernatural ideas like extra-sensory perception and parapsychology .
Black magic is the malicious counterpart of the benevolent white magic. There is no consensus as to what constitutes white, gray or black magic, as Phil Hine says, "like many other aspects of occultism, what is termed to be 'black magic' depends very much on who is doing the defining."
Herbert Stanley Redgrove claims necromancy as one of three chief branches of medieval ceremonial magic, alongside black magic and white magic. [30] This does not correspond to contemporary classifications, which often conflate "nigromancy" ("black-knowledge") with "necromancy" ("death-knowledge").
In Western esotericism, left-hand path and right-hand path are two opposing approaches to magic. Various groups engaged with the occult and ceremonial magic use the terminology to establish a dichotomy, broadly simplified as (malicious) black magic on the left and (benevolent) white magic on the right. [1]
Black magic as a category didn't exist in ancient Mesopotamia, and a person legitimately using magic to defend themselves against illegitimate magic would use exactly the same techniques. [4] The only major difference was the fact that curses were enacted in secret; [ 4 ] whereas a defense against sorcery was conducted in the open, in front of ...
Most societies that have believed in harmful witchcraft or 'black' magic have also believed in helpful or 'white' magic. [ 4 ] : 24-25 In these societies, practitioners of helpful magic provided services such as breaking the effects of witchcraft, healing , divination , finding lost or stolen goods, and love magic .< [ 4 ] : x-xi In Britain ...
Medical magic and protective magic were regarded as helpful, and called ‘white’, while sorcery was considered evil and ‘black’. Distinguishing between black magic and white magic often relied on perspective, for example, if a healer attempted to cure a patient and failed, some would accuse the healer of intentionally harming the patient.