9.3 - Categories

All power comes from God. This applies to all types of magic, no matter what symbol system the operator uses. There is only One Source, although there may be a perception of multiple sources. How this power is used falls into five basic categories: Black, White, Gray, Silver, and Gold. What category is being used is dependent on the motivations of the operator. (How encompassing or inclusive are the operator's perceptions and desires.) When the desire is to be manifested, what are the predominant forces being used -- Creative or destructive?

Black Magic
In black magic, the perceptions and desires of the operator are limited in scope and focus. The operator's motivations are usually centered on the self while manipulating destructive forces. It should be mentioned at this point that black magic and Satanism are not the same thing. Satanism is a form of paganism that revolves around immediate desire gratification while in the act of worship.

Black magic is a manipulation of destructive forces to produce a desired effect without any worship of these destructive forces. A Catholic exorcism is an excellent example of a black magic ritual.

Only from the safety of God's protection, and only with His authority, will the destructive forces (demons)²³ even listen to what the operator has to say. When the operator is dealing in black magic without the power and authority of God, 'demons' will not listen. Unless the operator has God on their side, the 'demons' will laugh and ask, "Who the hell are you?" (Roughly speaking.) The 'demons' are not going to recognize the operator's authority. This makes it a gilt-edged priority for the black magician to seek union with God. A Satanist avoids this.

This brings up a number of interesting paradoxes around black magic. As stated earlier, study of magic is full of ironies and paradoxes. Black magic has more bizarre paradoxes than the others do.

A. E. Waite pretty much hits the nail on the head in his book Black Ceremonial Magic.²⁴ In his book, there is a black grimoire attributed to Paracelsus or Hermes Trigamestos (I forget whom, and loaned the book to somebody). The first chapter of this grimoire is called: Concerning the Preparation of the Operator. The first section of that chapter is entitled Concerning the Love of God. The content of the chapter is pretty much what I have already said here. Waite has a number of footnotes to that chapter, and in those footnotes he concludes: "The first paradox the black magician must overcome is that he must be absolutely good to do evil. He must love his neighbor before he can bewitch them."

The ritual to manifest Satan in that book is like something out of the Catholic liturgy. The operator is extolling God and crossing him/herself while trying to command Satan. The irony in all this is: if the operator has to initially go to the Source, the primary Creative force, why bother dealing with secondary destructive forces? What is wrong with this picture?

Since intent is a key here, there is a lot more black magic in the world than one would first imagine. To hit someone over the head with a 2x4 is just as much an act of black magic as a 'whammy' that produces the same results. Black magic is the category of the fool or the initiate, or the foolish initiate.

Is that like saying, to wish somebody ill is similar or the same as doing...?

No, not just wishing it. Focusing on that wish and trying to make it real; to work on a destructive/exclusive perception is Black magic. However, just having the thought does have an effect on you through choice and the mirror; while choosing to correct that thought also has an effect. A Course in Miracles refers to them as killing thoughts; the thoughts of destruction and murder.

All self-centered mental/emotional sets boil down to some kind of thought of destruction of something. The motivation is the same. What changes is the vector you are using to accomplish your motives.

The energy is the same.

Right. The energy is the same.

White Magic
In white magic, the perceptions and desires of the operator are relatively inclusive in scope and focus. The operator's motivations are usually healing and relatively altruistic while manipulating constructive forces. It recognizes some kind of one almighty source and endeavors to work with it to manipulate desire into matter. As black magic revolves around desires toward self and gratification of self, white magic revolves around the concept of a whole and unity with the whole, selflessly. Sublimation of the self is co-joined with the recognition of an all-powerful deity. The perceptional lens of the operator is focused on that deity and whatever matrices, pantheons, philosophies, rites, etc., is implied with this deity.

Most rites of world religions have an aspect of white magic in them. The Catholic mass starts being a devotional ritual between a group of individuals and the Creator. With the invocation of the sacrament and the petition of prayers, it becomes a white magic ritual because it involves a desire to affect physical form.

White magic has deity recognition conjoined with some desire. Something the operator wants on earth, whether it's for crops, health, peace for all, etc. White magic tends to be the magic of most healers. It's less dramatic than black. It's the difference between growing a tree and using a stick of dynamite to blow the tree up. It's subtler than the black. Both are still manifesting a desire through the use of will. With both, the operator is using God's Will within him/her. The operator is aligning their will -- their matrix -- with God and with the One Truth or the Truth Matrix. White magic is the magic of harmlessness. It is the category of the priest and the priestess.

Gray Magic
Grey magic is a mixture of the two previous categories. The perceptions and desires of the operator are limited and may be beginning to expand. This is the usual category of the early student or novice in magic. It is where the students are first learning to do magic and at the same time, they have not conquered their baser selves.

A novice may have some altruistic aspirations, and yet, because he/she does not have a grasp on their own motivations, desires, or perceptions, he or she can do some nasty stuff while learning. Some of the mechanics they have learned is towards themselves and some of the mechanics they use is towards the whole.

Both black and white recognizes a supreme deity. Gray can use the physical and metaphysical mechanics behind form with a minimum of active deity recognition. If there is no recognition of a supreme deity, then the magic tends to stay in the gray level realm.

Many forms of shamanism, witchcraft, and paganism fall into this category. Someone just exploring their own being -- who is experimenting inside their head with exercises and disciplines -- is playing with gray magic.

Gray magic is the magic of the mundane, an example of which is the architect building a house. Part of the act of building is just for the person; individual shelter. Part of the act involves the individual working with the whole. The destructive self-centered desires accompanying the act may be relatively low. Making a house gives the individual a base in order to work with the whole. It is a form of gray magic.

Question. How does an architect or engineer use rituals to produce gray magic?

Referring back to before there were computers, before we were using CAD programs. I will start with the simple draftsman techniques. Ritual number one: put your T-square down and put the paper on the edge of the T-square so it's 'true'. The draftsperson tapes up the corners and starts to make the frames and borders. Many of their rituals are drafting techniques and preparations.

Silver Magic
Silver magic is another mixture of the first two categories. The perceptions and desires (motivations) of the operator are relatively inclusive in scope and focus, more so than with gray. The operator's motivations are relatively altruistic. Yet, because the operator sees everything in physical form as a combination of dualities (creative and destructive forces), the operator uses both.

As stated earlier, with a gray magic operation, there can be little or no recognition of a deity, a supreme deity, or one source. In a silver magic operation, the operator may have mixed desires, but there is definitely deity recognition. Deity recognition involves something other than the individual. Be it the nameless desert God, for the whole, for Vishnu, for the Great Turtle, or "Use the Force, Luke". It does not make any difference. Silver magic involves recognition of something greater than the magus in it.

As you can see, silver magic can evolve from gray. As the operator becomes more altruistic with magic and wants to do more for the whole, the magic tends to grow into silver. The difference between gray magic and silver magic is equivalent to the difference between early man's perceptions of the world and man today. We grew up from a stone age culture and evolved into a hi-tech culture. At one time, we had pantheons of gods to explain the unseen. The pantheon construct used by our technical expertise today is math and physics; instead of gods it is laws of form.

Silver magic is much more controlled than gray. By controlled, I mean the operator has more control of self (coordinated). Instead of just doing blind rituals or ceremonies in order to produce an effect, the operator puts archetypes in their head and depends less on external symbolic items to remind the operator of the archetypes - ritual magic (more on this later).

This is the category of the high thaumaturge, devote Wicca, or shaman; a magic initiate.

Gold Magic
In gold magic, the perceptions and desires of the operator are even more inclusive than white or silver magic (if not Absolutely inclusive). The motivation of the operator is to be an instrument of God's Love. The major difference between gold magic and the other categories of magic is this: In the other categories of magic there involves some perception of a lack. There is usually a sense of urgency around that perceived lack. Furthermore, the other categories attempt to rectify that perceived lack by filling it. Gold magic perceives no lack. There is nothing wrong. "God is in His heaven and all is right with the world."

Because the gold magus does not perceive any lack or need, there is no conscious effort on the part of the operator to fill a lack. However, because the gold magus's human matrix has many points in common with the Eternal Matrix, and because the magus's motivations are centered on the Source, form (through the mirror) starts arranging itself around their individual BTR in such a way to reflect the individual's mind (and the Mind). This is not unusual; the mirror is constantly doing this. What is unusual, is that the matrix of their bubble of temporal reference is relatively close to the Creator's Eternal matrix in structure, and wonders start to happen around them automatically. The Eternal Moment of Creation is reflected out into the world through their eyes.

When other bubbles of temporal reference (human matrixes/BTRs) enter the vicinity of a BTR of a gold magus (same temporal/spatial reference), those people can become more aware of the presence of God. The mystic's bubble of temporal reference is reflecting back what is his/her mind -- God. Form itself is reflecting God. This happens with no effort on the operator's part (other than remembering God). The Eternal Creative moment is working with and through the individual, without conscious effort. Any perceived lack brought to the gold magus is filled.

People would walk into a grove where the Buddha was and they could feel he was there before they could see him. They could feel the Presence. They could feel the energy; the higher energy happening.

Where gold magic ends, miracles begin. This is the category of an adept, master, or a saint.