What is the Difference Between 'Dark' and 'Light'?

[Napoli]

What are the differences between magical workings done with 'dark' and 'light' energies? How can one differentiate between the two? How true is the claim that dark magic is more powerful than white magic? Finally, what are the differences between spirits with dark and light spiritual beings?

[Desecrated]

Different traditions have different definitions of that so depending on who you ask you'll get different answers.

[Calicifer]

But they surely have same tendencies towards these two camps. Personally, I do not want now to type pages of differences. The major one is that darkness is far more free spirited. Ones who can hardly stand authority and rules are attracted to darkness. It's that makes evil, they are rebellious in nature and will try to do as they please. This was a main cause for civil war in the heaven according to Christianity and it's very true with my encounters with them. Creatures from the dark are dangerous not because they are evil, but that they are not restricted by morality and principles. Then there comes various types of them. One group has one tendency, other- another, but I will leave it to answer for people with more knowledge about this subject.

[Desecrated]

How true is the claim that dark side is more powerful than light side?

Your thinking of star wars.

Slightly more serious answer:
Who you are as a person will influence how far you can go. Your own will and desire will determine how far you are willing to go for power, Not what system or tradition you choose. A lazy magician will never be more powerful then a dedicated magician.

Your own personally type also matters. For some, certain kinds of magic just comes easier then other types. I don't want to stereotype the personality traits of the users, but I think that a god-fearing pious christian would have some difficulty working with curses and necromancy.

[Calicifer]

Indeed, but the problem is with way he is thinking and that kind energies he is used to utilize. For example pious priest can become feared magickian if he succumbs to rage and learns to utilize this precious resource. But without usually he is not used to think properly and to harness this power properly. It's not something which is set to stone, but rather something which you wish to use and be like.

[Haelos]

Some good posts on the matter so far.

As was said, the difference between "light" and "dark" is dependent on the person you're asking.

To me, "dark" magick would be any spells performed for selfish ends, or any spell utilizing pure emotional energy to perform.
"Darkness", however, is simply the opposite of physical light. It doesn't have any "qualities" as other energies do. Pure light contains darkness in it as well.


You are thinking a bit of Star Wars, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Lucas had it figured out pretty well.

The reason Sith are more powerful is because they rely on pure emotion, rather than discipline. If you took a Sith and tried to teach him The Force the proper way, he just wouldn't progress, because he doesn't have the skills and mental strength needed. Jedi do have this training, as most are taught to meditate from as young as 6 years old.


The true magician learns to contain and transmute their emotions. Anger is the quick path to power, and while you will progress further faster, all of your progress is purely physical, and dies with you when you die here. Training mental discipline will last you many lifetimes.


If you're being literal, the difference between light and darkness is something like 2000 hertz.

[Arzachel]

Firstly, the only difference is purely semantic, and it stems from the simple fact that humans are diurnal animals.
Secondly, dark magick is neither more nor less powerful as there is no such thing as 'dark' or 'light' magick, but being diurnal means that night or darkness has a feeling of mystery to you; as such, this statement becomes, in a sense, true - after all magick is about emotions to a great extent. Many religious holidays throughout the history of numerous civilisations were celebrated at night. Or, if you mean so-called 'black' and 'white' magick - it is completely unjustified artificial division without explicit rules, so I'd advise you to just ignore it.
Thirdly, it is up to you how you view a spirit. For example Christians recognise Lucifer as a spirit of dark, while his very name means Light-bringer.
(In the modern spiritualism of course, in the Bible Lucifer is just a regular human, but most of those who call themselves Christians have never read their holy scripture )

[Napoli]

Funny you should talk about 'Star Wars'. I had no idea about the series until I joined a few online occult forums [tongue] .

I have seen some people who practise white magic tout about its benevolence while those who practise dark magic brag about its power. I personally find such views clichéd and demarcating. I do agree with Desecrated that our dedication matters more and what we do with our powers ultimately boils down to our own morality.

[Desecrated]

Thirdly, it is up to you how you view a spirit. For example Christians recognise Lucifer as a spirit of dark, while his very name means Light-bringer.
(In the modern spiritualism of course, in the Bible Lucifer is just a regular human, but most of those who call themselves Christians have never read their holy scripture )

There is so many mistakes in this statement that it would take a day just to explain it all.
I really really recommend going back in your studies and researching lucifer, the devil, satan, and all of those characters and what role they play in the bible and in works outside the bible.

[ErebusNamtar]

Funny topic as I just had a conversation about this very topic. I'm not into the whole dark versus light shtick personally. I'd rather speak of personal morality and all human beings differ. What is evil to me is the highest good for another and vice versa.
I've seen some self proclaimed white-light witches cast the most horrible spells whilst they scoff at my 'evilness'. Usually people focus too much on the aesthetics and terminology of a ritual than the intent behind it. It's all about intent IMO

[Napoli]

Funny topic as I just had a conversation about this very topic. I'm not into the whole dark versus light shtick personally. I'd rather speak of personal morality and all human beings differ. What is evil to me is the highest good for another and vice versa.
I've seen some self proclaimed white-light witches cast the most horrible spells whilst they scoff at my 'evilness'. Usually people focus too much on the aesthetics and terminology of a ritual than the intent behind it. It's all about intent IMO

I know about a group of Demonolator priestesses who offers services of spellwork. But they specifically mentioned on their site that they won't do love spells targetting a specific person which they believe to be 'mind rape', curses and hexes. They claim that they perform their spellwork while consulting their demon lords. I think this will come as a huge surprise to many practitioners of the 'light side'.

[Hadit]

What are the differences between magical workings done with 'dark' and 'light' energies? How can one differentiate between the two? How true is the claim that dark magic is more powerful than white magic? Finally, what are the differences between spirits with dark and light spiritual beings?

Light refers to order and solar religion, dark refers to chaos and stellar religion.

[Napoli]

What are the differences between magical workings done with 'dark' and 'light' energies? How can one differentiate between the two? How true is the claim that dark magic is more powerful than white magic? Finally, what are the differences between spirits with dark and light spiritual beings?

Light refers to order and solar religion, dark refers to chaos and stellar religion.

Can you please elaborate a bit on the concepts of solar and stellar religions?

[Stukov]

In discussion of "which is more powerful" all I can say light + dark is more powerful than either/or.

[Hadit]

Light refers to order and solar religion, dark refers to chaos and stellar religion.

Can you please elaborate a bit on the concepts of solar and stellar religions?

The solar aspect of human spirituality and ideology begins with the orbit of the earth around the sun. Every night the sun sets, and every day it is reborn again. At the foundation of this is essentially the fear of the setting sun, and the fear of it never rising again. In this sense it represents stasis, a desire to have things never change again. The eternally shining light of a never setting sun can be seen in the vast majority of western religion. Christianity with their god of light who they want to rule eternally, the carrying of the sun the Luciferians stand in awe of and strive to spread over all humanity, and even the LaVeyan Satanists who rely on that very order to function. The goal is symbolic of the sun staying in the noon sky eternally, forever giving its light (whatever that subjectively means) to the people of earth, themselves included. In the ancient Egyptian religion, this ideology was represented by the deity known as Osiris, who was slain and reborn in the underworld, never to die again. After death, solar-based religious individuals hoped to become Osiris himself, as in the hope to become One with the deity, to become static, lose the Self.

Along with this comes the idea of order, which is tied to the solar aspect. Order itself is a double edged sword. In religion this usually appears in the form of a hierarchy. Priests listen to the bishops, the bishops listen to the pope, the pope listens to god. In this case order can be used as a mean of negative control to enslave individuals, holding the light over them while only offering little at a time. On the other hand, without order there could be no functioning society. Even the most libertarian society needs a State to ensure people remain free from each other. In Egyptian myth this was the deity known as Horus, originally a brother of Osiris and Set. Both a protector and war god, Horus represented the pharaoh of the gods, the one who both kept Ma’at in place and kept the solar religion of Osiris going, as well as to slay Egypt’s enemies. Again, today we can see this with government. We can also see it in each of ourselves. We all have standards we hold ourselves to, morals we follow, beliefs we think are true, …, the order of Horus. At the same time, we need to be able to change our morals, our standards, and our beliefs. What if we never learned that it was ok to go out front without asking? What if we reached our standards and goals, and never rose to others? What if you never stopped believing in the boogeyman under the bed? This is the flaw of Horus, his stasis.

Stellar religion was the original religion of Egypt, based around the worship of the circumpolar stars rather than the sun. Even in the pyramid texts of Unas we see that concept of the pharaoh rising to become a star in Ursa Major, rather than becoming Osiris. In solar religion we can see humans as the earth, surrounded by the erratic planets, circling a single star. In stellar religion you are that star, risen above the earth, with the “true source” to circle around. Rather than a simple journey of seeking light, it represents a journey that is as infinite as Ursa Major is far, and as eternal as the stars they point to (formerly being Ursa Minor pointing to alpha draconis). This eternal journey represents the exact opposite of stasis, the overcoming of both Osiris and Horus in this mythology. In fact, the constellation of Ursa Major was associated with Set, who was quite important in early Egyptian beliefs. The constant destruction of Osiris, and battle with Horus, is the key to what we occultists call “enlightenment, gnosis,” and so on. Without this eternal journey/battle of Set there would be no change at all, no growth.

I think this is something important that many occultists miss or overlook.

[ErebusNamtar]

Without this eternal journey/battle of Set there would be no change at all, no growth.

I think this is something important that many occultists miss or overlook.

Precisely why I believe chaos is the natural state of the universe, not something to be fought and eventually conquered/slain with order/stasis. So many terms have been 'charged' by uses that do not fit them. People always assume chaos/change equals anarchy/death. It is the opposite.
Those really old mythologies contained deep truth.

[Hadit]

Without this eternal journey/battle of Set there would be no change at all, no growth.

I think this is something important that many occultists miss or overlook.

Precisely why I believe chaos is the natural state of the universe, not something to be fought and eventually conquered/slain with order/stasis. So many terms have been 'charged' by uses that do not fit them. People always assume chaos/change equals anarchy/death. It is the opposite.
Those really old mythologies contained deep truth.

Indeed, today we see the seven paths of the big dipper, along with the eternal point of Polaris, separates by the serpent of Draco. The serpent is seen to keep us from truth, as seen from Christianity and the garden of Eden all the way to hermeticism and their Abyss. They ignore that when religion began it was the serpent who marked the eternal point of gnosis/enlightenment.

[Caerdon]

If you want to divide magick into light and dark, then perhaps its better to think of it this way...
There isn't a difference of strength between the two, just a difference in difficulty to mastering/accumulating the strength in the selected pathway.
Dark magick, or what is perceived as Dark Magick, is easier to gain progression, for many of the reasons listed here already. Dark Magick mastery can be seen as a descent downwards a mountain trail, where as Light Magick is more of an ascent upwards. And its always easier to go down than to climb up, as there's a pull downwards helping with the descent which has to be fought against to climb up. Dark magick generally needs less discipline to start with, where as Light Magick needs more when first starting out. However, to be sure you don't lose yourself or fall or endanger yourself on either pathway you do need discipline and caution.

[Hadit]

If you want to divide magick into light and dark, then perhaps its better to think of it this way...
There isn't a difference of strength between the two, just a difference in difficulty to mastering/accumulating the strength in the selected pathway.
Dark magick, or what is perceived as Dark Magick, is easier to gain progression, for many of the reasons listed here already. Dark Magick mastery can be seen as a descent downwards a mountain trail, where as Light Magick is more of an ascent upwards. And its always easier to go down than to climb up, as there's a pull downwards helping with the descent which has to be fought against to climb up. Dark magick generally needs less discipline to start with, where as Light Magick needs more when first starting out. However, to be sure you don't lose yourself or fall or endanger yourself on either pathway you do need discipline and caution.

This is incorrect. The path of light is simple and quick, the path of dark is advanced and eternal. Light is revealed, darkness must be sifted through. As I said, the light can be represented as standing on earth with the stars and planets revolving through the sky. Everything is close to home, erratically moving and dominating our loves. The dark would be standing on the sun, ascended beyond the cycles of the planets, stretching for the circumpolar stars. The journey of dark is an eternal one, based on the eternal pole star, whereas the the solar cycle is completed each day.

[Calicifer]

Or rather both paths are as difficult as you wish them to be. In the light, you can beg entities for favor, in the dark, you can sign pacts for power. They both are quite easy to achieve if you aim low and very difficult if you aim high.

[Napoli]

The way I see it the ones on the dark paths are not afraid to indulge in the ego while the practitioners of the light paths tend to lean more towards one's spiritual self.

A Vedic expert once gave his opinion about LHP and RHP. He gave a simple example to explain the difference. The Source is an ocean and we human beings are on a land on the ocean. The people there live on the inner parts of the land. If someone has to reach the land's coast and then the ocean itself one has to take two different paths. The path of the RHP is rather a smooth road with not much obstacles. The path of the LHP can be considered more dangerous for example there may be a deep forest on the way, full of dangerous animals, dacoits, etc. But both roads ultimately lead to the ocean or the Source. It is not a very accurate example but I hope you guys can get the point.

Many say that the dark paths are quicker way to power but more risky. On the other hand I believe that the light paths require more discipline.

[Caerdon]

If you want to divide magick into light and dark, then perhaps its better to think of it this way...
There isn't a difference of strength between the two, just a difference in difficulty to mastering/accumulating the strength in the selected pathway.
Dark magick, or what is perceived as Dark Magick, is easier to gain progression, for many of the reasons listed here already. Dark Magick mastery can be seen as a descent downwards a mountain trail, where as Light Magick is more of an ascent upwards. And its always easier to go down than to climb up, as there's a pull downwards helping with the descent which has to be fought against to climb up. Dark magick generally needs less discipline to start with, where as Light Magick needs more when first starting out. However, to be sure you don't lose yourself or fall or endanger yourself on either pathway you do need discipline and caution.

This is incorrect. The path of light is simple and quick, the path of dark is advanced and eternal. Light is revealed, darkness must be sifted through. As I said, the light can be represented as standing on earth with the stars and planets revolving through the sky. Everything is close to home, erratically moving and dominating our loves. The dark would be standing on the sun, ascended beyond the cycles of the planets, stretching for the circumpolar stars. The journey of dark is an eternal one, based on the eternal pole star, whereas the the solar cycle is completed each day.

I disagree there, though perhaps it's more dependent on the person as to what it more difficult or not. It's like (though this isn't meant to be a direct correlation) reacting to a negative situation. It's easier to repay kind with kind,negativity with negativity, rather than with kindness. Alot of people's natures, atleast in my experience, are more aimed towards Dark rather than light. This doesn't mean that they dont personally choose to follow light magick, it is a choice that you make, but rather if they decided to learn dark it would go easier for them.

A mistake to make though is thinking one is superior or vaster than the other. Rather it should be looked at as two sides to a coin, or different paths to the same destination.

[ErebusNamtar]

A mistake to make though is thinking one is superior or vaster than the other. Rather it should be looked at as two sides to a coin, or different paths to the same destination.

That's my belief as well. Whilst I think chaos and darkness (note that the original meaning of chaos is "void" or "chasm") is the core at everything we simply cannot escape the fact that light/order is part of our physical existence too. You cannot wholly embrace just one and forget the other.
You might lean more towards one side but I think we miss something very essential when we focus on only one side. It's why I do not really believe in two sides to begin with. I'm primarily LHP and find myself much more drawn to the 'dark' but I'll never fully exclude the 'other side'. I'm just not one for deities as I believe them to be manifestations of my own Will so that automatically excludes a lot of RHP paradigms which are more about 'they will be done' versus LHP 'my will be done'. Not all of them but quite a lot. I feel more drawn towards the RHP paradigms that revere nature/creation as is. Without any intelligent force in or behind it.

There is no darkness without light and vice versa. We need both for a full existence.

As for one being harder than the other I do agree that the LHP or dark path is harder. It might seem easier because negative emotions are easier to get by but to be fully in control of those emotions without them controlling you takes years of effort. I don't even think I'm half-way there myself!
You want to ride the waves and not let yourself be ridden by them. It's a trap I see many so-called 'dark' occultists fall in, they literally drown in their ego-mania and feelings of being 'darker than thou' spookiness.
Ego is fine but a massive, overblown ego makes you careless and unwilling to learn from others who might carry with them much needed wisdom. As in all things there's a balancing act. RHP and light paradigms are much easier and safer to learn. In my (not so? LOL) humble opinion of course. [wink2]

[Napoli]

A mistake to make though is thinking one is superior or vaster than the other. Rather it should be looked at as two sides to a coin, or different paths to the same destination.

That's my belief as well. Whilst I think chaos and darkness (note that the original meaning of chaos is "void" or "chasm") is the core at everything we simply cannot escape the fact that light/order is part of our physical existence too. You cannot wholly embrace just one and forget the other.
You might lean more towards one side but I think we miss something very essential when we focus on only one side. It's why I do not really believe in two sides to begin with. I'm primarily LHP and find myself much more drawn to the 'dark' but I'll never fully exclude the 'other side'. I'm just not one for deities as I believe them to be manifestations of my own Will so that automatically excludes a lot of RHP paradigms which are more about 'they will be done' versus LHP 'my will be done'. Not all of them but quite a lot. I feel more drawn towards the RHP paradigms that revere nature/creation as is. Without any intelligent force in or behind it.

There is no darkness without light and vice versa. We need both for a full existence.

As for one being harder than the other I do agree that the LHP or dark path is harder. It might seem easier because negative emotions are easier to get by but to be fully in control of those emotions without them controlling you takes years of effort. I don't even think I'm half-way there myself!
You want to ride the waves and not let yourself be ridden by them. It's a trap I see many so-called 'dark' occultists fall in, they literally drown in their ego-mania and feelings of being 'darker than thou' spookiness.
Ego is fine but a massive, overblown ego makes you careless and unwilling to learn from others who might carry with them much needed wisdom. As in all things there's a balancing act. RHP and light paradigms are much easier and safer to learn. In my (not so? LOL) humble opinion of course. [wink2]

Like you I prefer MHP too. I am not meant for a disciplined spiritual RHP, and I steer clear of worshipping Deities because the only difference between us and them is spiritual evolution (that's my personal belief). Instead I prefer to look at them as my allies. But like you I can't also deny my spiritual side. I want a balance of the two without which I feel that an individual cannot reach 'perfection'.