White witchcraft, also known as benevolent witchcraft or wicca, is a term used to describe witchcraft practices that are generally considered harmless and can be seen as a form of spirituality or nature-based religion. While some people may argue that all forms of witchcraft are inherently harmful or dangerous, this is not necessarily the case with white witchcraft. White witchcraft often involves practices such as herbalism, divination, and spellwork, with the intention of promoting healing, positivity, and personal growth. Unlike black witchcraft or dark magic, which seeks to harm or manipulate others for personal gain, white witchcraft focuses on using magic and spirituality for the greater good and to connect with nature and the divine. One of the main principles of white witchcraft is the Wiccan Rede, which states, "An it harm none, do what ye will." This principle emphasizes the importance of ethical and responsible behavior, ensuring that no harm is caused to oneself or others through the practice of witchcraft.
Ward says one of the most fascinating aspects of non-Western healing practices is its focus on the holistic aspect. These ideas are starting to gain traction in the U.S. with more emphasis on social relationships, community and spirituality.
With its mystical aspect, witchcraft fills that gap, providing the causal link and explaining why it happened at that particular place and time and to that particular individual. Given this, perhaps it s OK to make a living from magic so long as spiritual healers don t encourage conflict, don t overcharge and make it clear that belief-based systems are an addition to, rather than a substitute for rational thinking and scientific medicine.
" This principle emphasizes the importance of ethical and responsible behavior, ensuring that no harm is caused to oneself or others through the practice of witchcraft. White witches believe in the power of intention and karma, understanding that their actions and spells will have consequences that should align with positive outcomes. It is important to note that while white witchcraft is generally considered benign, it can still have unintended negative consequences if not practiced responsibly or with proper knowledge.
The trouble with witchcraft today
The scariest witchcraft stories are the ones that are true, like the tale of a mother and her adult son who thought a spell-casting neighbour was making them ill. For months they retaliated with curses and evil prayers, chanting “death by fire” through the walls during the small hours and calling on God to kill the “witch”. They even told the poor woman’s seven-year-old daughter that her mother was evil.
The worst thing about that case of “witch” harassment is that it didn’t occur in the remote annals of British history. It happened last year, in London.
Vilest of all is the idea that children can be witches or be possessed by devils
Just the deranged behaviour of a couple of paranoid Christian fundamentalists, you might retort. Well, yes. But also no. Today, beliefs about witchcraft, curses and black magic regularly cause real harm. Reporting is patchy but it appears that, in recent decades, harmful magic has become more common in the UK.
“He is a very dangerous man, taking money and telling families they must cut ties with each other.” The words of a Leicester woman, who in 2018 wrote to her local paper to denounce an unscrupulous faith healer. He specialised in diagnosing and curing black magic. Evil spells, he claimed, caused his client’s misfortunes, from business failures to marital breakdowns, cancer and depression.
Breaking spells is lucrative. It paid well enough for the faith healer, who was from India, to regularly fly to the UK to work for British families living in Leicester, Birmingham and elsewhere. As well as being expensive, his therapies were destructive. The man sometimes broke up families by accusing one member of being the source of an evil that was apparently poisoning their lives.
In case you’re wondering, believing in curses and black magic isn’t just a problem for deeply religious people or folks from minority backgrounds. Anyone can get suckered in, if things are going badly and they’re feeling desperate. This was how, in 2005, a woman from Leicester ended up getting conned out of £56,000 by a psychic calling herself Sister Grace. It started with what seemed like an innocent tarot reading but ended with Sister Grace insisting that a curse would kill her client’s son and husband if she refused to pay.
Beliefs about curses and witchcraft are responsible for huge numbers of smaller scams. In 2006, for example, an estimated 170,000 Britons were taken in by junk mail from fake clairvoyants, urging them to buy powerful items that would attract good luck and repel evil. Most of the victims were elderly or vulnerable, losing on average £240 each. If you don’t hear much about these cons, it’s probably because the victims are too embarrassed to come forward. Witchcraft is also an eerie, secretive subject that people don’t like to discuss.
Vilest of all is the idea, found in some Pentecostal churches and among some Islamic jinn-removers, that children can be witches or be possessed by devils, such that they emit evil powers. This idea inspired the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié in London in 2000, along with another five other children of African heritage between then and 2010.
Horrifyingly, the problem of child spiritual abuse goes much deeper and wider. The Department of Education now collects figures: in 2017-18 alone, it recorded 1,630 reports of “faith-based abuse” against children in England. This probably understates the problem. If you dig down into the figures, you’ll find that some local authorities don’t record any cases whatsoever, suggesting they’re basically unaware of the existence of child spiritual abuse. As a society, we’re barely scratching the surface of this deeply serious problem.
I think history shows us how we can deal with harmful magical beliefs. I’m not talking about the “witch craze” period of the Tudors and Stuarts – the late 1400s, 1500s and 1600s, when witchcraft was a crime that could get you executed. Witchcraft stopped being illegal in Britain in 1736 but throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, huge numbers of people continued to sincerely believe in it.
You probably don’t picture the Georgians and Victorians as being afraid of witches. But many of them were. The newspapers from the period report hundreds of cases of supposed witches being mobbed, beaten, stabbed, spat at, bullied, abused and, in a few dreadful instances, murdered.
It didn’t just happen to country bumpkins either. Alleged witches were attacked in industrial cities like Sheffield in 1802, Manchester in 1826, Leeds in 1828 and Warrington in 1876. Across Britain, thousands of fortune-tellers and magicians known as “cunning folk” also made their living by selling anti-witchcraft charms and rituals. Leeds, in the 1850s, was home to at least three white wizards. Durham, despite its cathedral and university, possessed four witchcraft-curing wise women.
This weird culture of witchcraft declined markedly during the late 1800s and early 1900s. It wasn’t that Britons suddenly became more intelligent or educated. The real change was in policing, which became more professional and widespread. First, policing stopped the abuse of supposed witches. Then the authorities cracked down on the various esoteric healers who taught ordinary people what witchcraft was and how to believe in it.
There’s a lesson here. With enough policing and regulation, perhaps with some undercover work, we really can diminish harmful magical beliefs, if not eradicate them altogether. We might also consider making it illegal to accuse someone of practising harmful witchcraft, following the example of countries from Malawi to India, which did so in 2018.
Although witchcraft today inspires fraud, abuse and violence, I don’t think it’s all bad. Tens of thousands of British people currently identify as witches – whether as Wiccans, hedge witches, traditional witches or other variants. They’re overwhelmingly good sorts – environmentally conscious, socially progressive and feminist. Like some of their counterparts in America, they might sometimes cast hexes or binding spells on politicians they dislike. But, not being a believer in the reality of magic, I don’t think that sort of thing does much harm.
It’s harder to know what to think about the various spiritual healers who earn their living by offering all sorts of magical services, from fortune telling to house cleansing and curse removal. There are probably tens of thousands of them working in the UK today, advertising their shadowy business on the internet or in some papers’ classified ads. According to one estimate, Britain has more spiritual healers and complementary therapists than it does GPs.
Modern spiritual healers come from every creed and background you can imagine: Hindu vaids, Muslim hakims, Christian exorcists, obeah therapists, aura readers and energy cleansers. And there are white witches, who’ve selectively revived the cunning craft – a tradition of white magic that I mentioned earlier that existed in Britain between as long ago as the Anglo-Saxon period and the mid-twentieth century.
What should we make of their work? Obviously it’s wrong to frighten people into paying many thousands of pounds to have a supposed curse lifted. And it’s appalling to spread conflict and cause discord by saying that a curse has been laid by another (innocent) person. It’s also unacceptable for magicians to make ridiculous claims about having a “100 per cent success rate” in curing everything from witchcraft to depression, like a clairvoyant from Chorlton, Manchester, did in 2010. (Thankfully, the Advertising Standards Agency banned her from doing so in the future.)
But what about an energy cleanser or white witch who doesn’t make inflated claims, and who charges £100 for a couple of curse removal rituals? Or a spiritual healer who sells curse removal incense, herbal tea or bath bombs (yes, really) over the internet for £20 a pop?
Faith is powerful. The placebo effect is real. Belief and positive thinking can work if not magic, then wonders. Some people find magical rituals psychologically therapeutic, as anthropologists studying foreign cultures have observed. The same is true in modern Britain. Given this, perhaps it’s OK to make a living from magic – so long as spiritual healers don’t encourage conflict, don’t overcharge and make it clear that belief-based systems are an addition to, rather than a substitute for rational thinking and scientific medicine.
Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times, by Thomas Waters, is published by Yale (hardback £25)
Photo: “Old Sorceress with Distaff”, illustration by Hans Holbein the Younger, Augsburg 1537 (Alamy)
Perched on a shelf in Thomas Ward’s home office is a set of Vodou dolls.
Like any spiritual or religious practice, it is crucial for practitioners to educate themselves, seek proper guidance, and approach their craft with respect and caution. Critics of white witchcraft argue that any form of witchcraft, regardless of its intentions, can open the door to unseen forces and invite negative energies into one's life. However, many white witches believe in the power of protection spells, energy cleansing, and the use of spiritual tools to safeguard themselves and their practice. Overall, whether white witchcraft is harmful or not depends on the intentions and actions of the practitioner. If practiced responsibly and with good intentions, white witchcraft can be a positive and empowering spiritual path. It is up to the individual to harness the energy and power of white witchcraft in a way that promotes healing, harmony, and personal growth..
Reviews for "White Witchcraft and the Law: Legal Ramifications and Controversies"
1. Samantha - 2 stars - The book "Is white witchcraft harmful" did not meet my expectations. I was hoping for a more in-depth analysis of the potential harms of white witchcraft and the ethical considerations. However, I found the book to be superficial and lacking critical analysis. It seemed more like a promotional piece for white witchcraft rather than a balanced examination of its potential harms. Overall, I was disappointed and would not recommend it to those seeking a comprehensive perspective on the subject.
2. Michael - 1 star - I found "Is white witchcraft harmful" to be misleading and misleading. The book did not adequately address the potential dangers and negative consequences of engaging in white witchcraft practices. Instead, it portrayed white witchcraft as harmless and beneficial without acknowledging the potential risks involved. As someone who was genuinely seeking a balanced perspective, I felt let down and misinformed by this book. I would caution anyone looking to learn about white witchcraft to seek other sources that provide a more comprehensive and unbiased view.
3. Emily - 2 stars - "Is white witchcraft harmful" was not the insightful read I was hoping for. The book primarily focused on the positive aspects of white witchcraft, ignoring any potential negative impacts or harm that may arise from its practice. I believe it's important to have a balanced understanding of any belief system or spiritual practice, and this book failed to provide that. While it may be a useful introduction for someone completely new to white witchcraft, I found it lacking depth and critical analysis. I would recommend supplementing this book with other resources for a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.
4. John - 1 star - I found "Is white witchcraft harmful" to be nothing more than a glorified advertisement for white witchcraft practices. The author failed to explore the potential harm that can arise from engaging in these practices, dismissing any negative experiences as personal faults rather than acknowledging any systemic issues. Furthermore, the book lacked scholarly rigor and relied heavily on personal anecdotes rather than empirical evidence. As someone seeking a balanced and objective examination of white witchcraft, I was thoroughly disappointed with this book.