The Matter of the Grey Witch

What is a grey witch you wonder? It must be some sort of mythical being living between Light and Dark. A person astray from the true path of magic, black or white.

To me anyone who still divides magic, life, people into black and white has not yet fulfilled their growth phase. I am aware that there are decades worth of practitioners out there that stick to one “side”, but even the decades can’t make up for what you decided to believe at some point.

To start from the beginning; most old cultures have never insisted on the world being divided. The old Gods used to be way more human-like in their habits and traits than what we know now, while we romanticize everything from the past (looking at Zeus <.< ).

The division into light and dark, good and evil, came mostly with the introduction of Christianity and other Abrahamic religions into every day life. The notion that we are clean while others are dirty and unworthy has given a sense of belonging, of being elite in religions which proclaim that everyone’s equal and a brother as long as they follow their shepherd’s will. While calling out others you get to be just a bit “more equal” than the rest. Obedience is rewarded, any independent thought is a heresy. Nothing left to stand up against.

During my journey I’ve seen both and all sides of the magick. My naive thought that I’m the light and love and rainbows has kicked me hard in the rear. It seemed the more I was oriented to do only good, heal, give, worse I got in life. More chaos happened, people drained and abused me. I’ve met and dealt with people claiming to be of stars same like the people claiming they are demons in human form. I might have cringed here and there (oh, I cringe waaay more now fyi!) but at some point I saw them for who they were. Let’s not call names, but I’ll just use hypocrite as the mildest…

There is no such thing as pure white or black out there. There just isn’t. As much as you’d like to fight me now, it’s all right, I’ve been there. Let’s say a person comes to you, they are amazing, their life is full of some rumbling and they come for help. You should heal them, bless them, set some things straight. It works, you’re happy, they are grateful. A perfect image anyone should strive for. Now let’s say you learn more about that person, that they are a sociopath who destroys their family, they are vindictive and go to practitioners of black magic to manipulate their loved ones. Let’s imagine how you feel finding out that you, in all your light and goodness have probably helped a bad person and manipulated other members of their family in a bad way by helping them.

Doing black magic for someone and helping a psychopath (and trust me, you can’t tell unless you lived with them for a long time) turns out to be the same thing. We can decide where our energy is focused and how we intend to use it, but the outcome is far from our reach and we don’t have the full picture to make a sober decision.

Being grey is a compliment. It identifies you as a person who realized the nature of humans and doesn’t have illusions about angels or devils being out there. Now this doesn’t mean that you’ll start doing blood magic or start calling in angels, depending on what side you decided you belong, it means that you’ll be more aware of people you deal with and you’ll know what to do and what NOT to do for them. Protecting a rape victim who still lives with their abuser by blessing them won’t help as much as you returning all the bad energy to the rapist. You doing baneful magic will surely help more than invoking divine light to clear one’s trauma. It’s all flowers and shiny stars unless something really bad happens to someone and you feel like you’re wielding a plastic magic wand reciting cute verses while mayhem is happening around you.

Grey magick requires you to be responsible in your decisions. You matter as much as the person you’re helping, you can’t let them drain you, and you don’t do it only for profit, if at all.

The main scare about this topic comes from the three-fold-law. In my experience many beginner practitioners decide to take it as is without giving it a second thought. The idea of the three-fold-law is widely spread in Wicca. This is a misconception of karma.

Karma plays a role through our and others’ lifetimes, it doesn’t happen right now because we hexed someone or returned a spell. More than anything the three-fold-law should inspire you to think. Think about your life, decisions, morals and what kind of person you want to be. And then it’s ok to readjust your belief if it sounds too naive, or stick to it if you found yourself there.

Magic has no color. If you intend to do a spell for everyone’s best interest and people involved are a predator and a victim, the best that can happen is nothing. Truly nothing. Sending a predator to jail is not in his best interest, it’s the victim’s. To hex and to heal is the same thing. It’s the same energy. It’s intention that colors magic black or white, and only depending on who is watching. Saying that we’re doing something because we’re white means we’re limiting ourselves, our magic and the possible outcome. After all, you invite same entities to help you heal and curse. Does that make them good or bad depending on who is invoking them?

As a human being and part of nature and this planet we are made of interwoven strings of dark/the matter and light/the energy. Yin and Yang. Every good deed we do is bad for someone else. Every bad thing we do benefits someone else. Denying that we have that dark or light part in us is calling bs on us being witches. One can’t possibly be a witch without accepting their whole self. This is where shadow work comes to shine (shine, he heh).

Meeting your shadow self can be traumatic. All the stuff you’ve neatly put away throughout your life surfaces all at once. You realize that was wrong. You can’t cover up stuff with light, you can only work through it, accept it, transform it. Your deceiving or lying self from the shadow can help you recognize this in others. It makes you make better decisions and use your magick where it counts and how it counts best. It also makes you use the full power of your magic. Being white, a light worker, or being black and hexing the sh** out of everyone is merely chickenpox age in your growth progress as a witch. Teen years at best.

Being a grey witch is a superpower. It is the most beautiful evolved form of a human being. The one without illusions and lies or masks. It’s just you, the whole you, a raw force and undeniable spirit that captures and commands everything around you.

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