Black Magic Practices
Within common mainstream religion, such as Christianity, there are certain taboos surrounding forms of magic. Although culture may place certain forms in one side or another of this spectrum, there are in fact some cultural universals about free will.
- 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 compulsion, so it is in the grey area.
- Immortality - 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.
- Necromancy - for purposes of usage, this is defined not as general black magic, but as any magic having to do with death itself, either through divination of entrails, or the act of raising the dead body, as opposed to resurrection or CPR.
- Curses/Hexes - a curse can be as simple as wishing something bad would happen to another, to a complex ritual.
Read more about this topic: Black Magic
Famous quotes containing the words black, magic and/or practices:
“A black pall, you know, with a silver cross on it, or R.I.P.—requiescat in pace—you know. That seems to me the most beautiful expression—I like it much better than ‘He is a jolly good fellow,’ which is simply rowdy.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“The most refined skills of color printing, the intricate techniques of wide-angle photography, provide us pictures of trivia bigger and more real than life. We forget that we see trivia and notice only that the reproduction is so good. Man fulfils his dream and by photographic magic produces a precise image of the Grand Canyon. The result is not that he adores nature or beauty the more. Instead he adores his camera—and himself.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“Money made through dishonest practices will not last long.”
—Chinese proverb.