ESTATUTOS DE OTRAS ASOCIACIONES GANADERAS

The shadow is darkness, and the darkest color of all is black. Simply said, the color black plays a role in shadow magick because of its embodiment of dark energies. It is primordial. Its very essence is ancient and mysterious, containing the entirety of the past and future, retaining memories in its cosmic space. But is it ultimately consuming; is there reason to fear it? Neither light nor darkness is inherently “evil.” I don’t believe anyone or anything is completely good or evil, completely this or that. Reality works through varying degrees: not in black or white, but instead in shades of grey.

Nothing fully embodies one end of the spectrum or the other. Similarly, the light would not exist without the dark, and vice versa.

Black forms a polarity with light. But this should not be confused with the polarity of good and evil: they are two separate things entirely. Polarities exist to depend on one another. Hot and cold, active and passive, sweet and bitter, male and female: one is a positive pole, the other a negative.

Obviously, this doesn’t mean that one is inherently evil or equatable with any other polarity. Each has its own individual essence. The Taoist yin-yang symbol exemplifies the philosophy that nothing can exist without its equal but opposite balance; each extreme is dependent on the other, including light and dark in all its forms. The examples are limitless and are directly reflected in nature.

Pagans of all types celebrate Deity in a variety of forms, and this is reflected in the Wheel of the Year. Each major Sabbat is equally important. As the wheel turns to its darker tide, death and rebirth of the season is respected and celebrated. If death did not happen, there would be no life. If life did not happen, there would be no death. The light and the dark are not separate entities but very much one whole, holding the equal balance that is necessary to sustain it.

Those who work with the shadow understand the need for negativity but don’t glorify it. At the same time, lightness is understood but we are not blinded by it. An abundance of light is just as consuming as an abundance of darkness; a balance between the two truly is the Middle Path. An important way to express the lightness is through our healing work and optimism. An important way to express the darkness, the other end of the spectrum, is through art and introspection. Both forces must operate to cultivate balance.

Most creation myths begin with darkness. Even the biblical “Let there be light” implies that, yes, darkness was prior … gasp! From the darkness, the light of spirituality—the light of life—springs forth. Black is the color of the cosmos whence we came and whither we go again upon death. The sun and other stars act as beacons in a vast expanse of black nothingness.

In occultism, black is most often associated with two things in addition to creation: energetic protection and the destruction of negativity. When banishing harmful influences, Witches burn black candles to vanquish the energy into the Abyss, and magicians of all types use black as a general protective shield. Black is the combination of all colors and is the lack of color. The same is true for white. Qabalists and other ceremonial magicians also use the color black when working with Binah on the Tree of Life, which is ruled by Saturn.

When black is worn on the body, it surrounds the person with a rampart of protection, a cloak from surrounding energies. Just as light is drawn to dark colors, black also absorbs such energies. Instead of letting them pass further (such as into the wearer’s sphere), it banishes them into its own darkness.

Nowadays, the color black is most often associated with death and dying, and it is the color of

preference worn at wakes and funeral services. It is certainly a color of mourning, as it draws on energies shrouded and obscured. Black can represent the unfathomable and unknowable, the Great Beyond, the infinite dreamscape entered upon death. It can also be associated with “blacking out” or the loss of consciousness. After the death of a close friend or relative, some people are naturally inclined to wear black clothing for therapeutic reasons, trying to cope with the reality of death.

Expressing one’s mourning in blackness can provide a deep-seated comfort.⁷

People who are depressed are often subconsciously drawn to the color because it can contain their energy, whereas extending energy outward could open them to potential harm. In magick, items intended to keep a very specific energy pattern are covered in black cloth and stored in the dark. This cloaks the item, not allowing adverse vibrations to penetrate.

Black represents no thing, nothingness … the Abyss or the void into which anything unwanted can be tossed (or drawn from). Black stones, candles, and fabric are best used in spells of banishment and releasing. Black is said to help remove hexes and also aid in binding or cursing when need be.

Black is associated with the womb of the earth in some cultures; it may be used for grounding and reconnecting with humankind’s roots by way of ancestral communication and past-life regression. Just like white, black is an all-purpose color. It is associated with the night, rebirth, divination, and the eternal journey of awakening to spiritual truth.

Black has different associations for every culture. For some, like most Western cultures, it’s a color of mourning, sorrow, and despair. For others, it’s the color of rebirth and coming back to the center of the soul. It is both a symbol of release and cultivation and may be seen as a neutral color.

Black not only represents nothing, but also paradoxically represents everything—all colors and energies—and is ideal when used for boosting the conduction of energy in a magick circle. Most Witches I know weave their magick under the cloak of night because of its calm and mysterious implications. Certainly, daylight has its own distinct vibration that should also be used.

We have a good idea about how Westerners commonly view the color black. What about other nations? Many spiritualists associate black with the darkness of the dreamscape as well as the starry, infinite night sky (Nuit). One very interesting association is seen in the traditional Egyptian viewpoint. Khem means black in Coptic and refers to the fertile soil on the banks of the Nile River.

Khem is also the root-word for alchemy. Egypt and its surrounding areas are often called Kemet, or

“the black land.” Because of this fertile soil’s wide-ranging yield of crops, black gained sacred associations with sustenance and abundance—a far cry from the Western associations with adverse energies!

While the general New Age community commonly links the color white with purity and transcendence, other cultures associate it directly with death. White is the color of bones and the paleness of a body before decomposition. White is a color of purity and the release of mundane ties upon death.

Many of these associations are widely held in many parts of Asia, particularly. Some Asian cultures, such as Chinese and Hindu, see death itself as tainting, or polluting. Thus, the color white is worn in mourning to purge the individual of these associative impurities, creating a rampart of reflective protection around the individual so that death energy cannot enter their space. Because the color white is not bound by any color on the light spectrum, it can esoterically disallow perceived

“impure” energies into the spirit of the individual in mourning. It may, along similar lines, prevent the soul of the departed from entering into another’s physical vehicle as well.

Another example of white as a death color: male members of the Masai peoples of Kenya and Tanzania cover themselves in white chalk at the point in their lives when they transit between warrior and eligible husband status. In this rite of passage, white represents their status as “socially dead,” in the liminal space between youth and man, being members of neither rank. In ritual, the men engage in ecstatic dance, heavy chant, trance, and spirit possession (invocation). Obviously, the group of men can still be seen by others but they are individually unidentifiable due to their ghostly appearance for the ceremony. In this case, white represents the realm between the death of old social status and the re - birth of a new role.

White also physically represents the semen of males and the maternal milk of females and has associations with fertility across many cultures, including Egypt. So, cross-culturally, both black and white are associated with death and birth! This is only appropriate because death is a form of life, as an entrance into the Otherworld, and life is a form of death, as we are all in a constant process of physically dying while incarnate. The processes of birth and death are really not as separate from one another as they may seem, and neither are the colors black and white.

1

Carl G. Jung, Psychology and Religion. London: Routledge, 1970, 93.

2

Carl G. Jung, The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, vol. 9ii: Aion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959, 8-9.

3

I use the term “spiritualist” synonymously with “spiritual seeker,” and occasionally use

“spiritualism” syn - onymously with “spirituality,” but neither refers to the nineteenth-century Spiritualism movement whose followers were called Spiritualists.

4

Blavatsky, Helena P. and Hillard, Katharine (editor), Abridgment of H.P. Blavatsky ’s Secret Doctrine. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 1996, 59.

5

Also called the Watcher on the Threshold, the Dweller on the Threshold represents the sum of the ma - gician’s delusions, fears, accumulated negative Karma, misunderstandings, limiting beliefs, and anything else that can possibly interfere with the magician’s path to enlightenment and spiritual attainment. Many psychologists recognize “the critic” as part of everyone’s unconscious mind; it is viewed as the portion of the psyche that concludes perceptions in favor of failure, acting as the absolute protagonist. The “Dweller in the Abyss” and the ultimate embodiment of antispiritual ego, Choronzon was originally recognized as a demonic figure by Edward Kelley and John Dee (Enochian magick), and later expounded on by Aleister Crowley. He (or “it”) is said to be the last thing the magician faces in his or her path towards enlightenment, and is quite often recognized as being an

aspect of the magician’s own mind, much like “the critic,” rather than being an entirely external force.

6

“Everything possible to be believed is an image of truth” comes from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

7

This also tends to draw upon psychological associations commonly expressed in the Gothic subculture.

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