How Can a Black Magician Be Known?

William Quan Judge · Black versus White Magic Series · 6 pages

A question sent in to The Theosophical Forum from America, and Judge's answer, which begins by declining the premise. The question is premature, he says, and very much in the nature of crossing a bridge before you reach it — indicating either a loose use of the term black magician or a total ignorance of what such a being actually is.

The second half of the enquiry was whether such a person should still be treated as part of the Universal Brotherhood, and that is where the piece earns its place. The brotherhood the Theosophical Society professed was unconditional, at least in its first object, and the questioner had spotted the difficulty: if it extends to everyone, it extends to the sorcerer too. Judge's handling is characteristically deflating — he is more interested in what the questioner imagines a black magician to be than in adjudicating the case — but the answer he gives is a serious one about the limits of the doctrine. Six pages, from the second volume of Echoes of the Orient.

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