All of Black magic is not harmful. As we all are aware, black is a beautiful color. If it was not for the black night, would we have welcomed the sun every morning? What happens when we sleep at night? We wake up refreshed and alert. Of course black is not the opposite of white either. Some of us associate white with “purity”. However, think deeply and you will realize that white is not “pure” in any way. It is composed of ALL the colors of the rainbow.
So colors are just colors. They are like the different colors in a crayon box. To make a perfect picture, we will need all of the colors!

However, the color black was used by colonists to depict anything they didn’t like. And of course there were many things that they didn’t like when they went on their blood-thirsty conquests.

They called the beautiful womb of civilization, Africa, the “Dark Continent” when the real darkness was in their own hearts. We know that Africa was a magickal continent that taught the world how to respect nature and live off it while taking care not to destroy it.

When the Colonists and others like them decided to take over part of the beautiful land of Africa, they didn’t like the customs of the cultures there. They were the ones who coined the word “Black magic”. And that wasn’t enough. They also made sure that most people around the world believed that Africa was “bad” and practiced evil rituals.

As religions progressed in many parts of the world, people forgot to think for themselves. As a result, the beautiful witchcraft that originated from Africa became something that people feared and detested.

Black magic is not essentially hurtful or evil. It is just regular magick. However, just as in regular magick, there are some rules that need to be followed so that we don’t get hurt in the process.

Most of us are aware that the only rule in Wicca is that we live in accordance with the Wiccan Rede. The only requirement is that we don’t harm others with our spells or rituals.

The same rule applies to Black Magick or African Witchcraft. To put it simply – If you harm anyone using your magick, “all hell will break loose” for YOU.

So how do you find out if you are hurting someone with your magic? There are many ways:

1. During the planning stage of a spell, while you come up with the exact reason for it and the words that you will use, take the time to rule out any references to any other entity, even if they are hurting you.
Here is a not so obvious reason – You cannot do a spell that will affect others unless you already have their permission. This means that if your mother is ill and you want to work on a spell to heal her, you’d better ask your mother if its okay before you work on the spell.
Here is an obvious reason – If you love someone and that someone is in love with another person, you cannot work on romancing the one you love. Why? Because s/he is already in love with another. So you will be hurting two people, actually three, including you.

Witchcraft is like helping someone cross the road. Just because you think you can help someone, you don’t drag them across the road. It is best to ask them if they really want to cross the road and if it is okay for you to help them.

Just like the Wiccan Rede, all witchcraft traditions have similar rules where we may create negative consequences by acting willfully but without proper planning and perspective.