Talk:White magic

White Magic and Shamanistic Magic
This is what the 8th Slayers Special novel atogaki says about White magic:
 * じのある魔法を勝手に「白魔法」って呼んでるだけで、実際は、精霊魔法だよ.

Translated, it more or less reads "what people have choose to call White Magic, is actually Shamanistic Magic". Besides saying that White Magic doesn't come from the Gods, that's all Kanzaka have ever said about the true nature of it. I guess the mistake comes from confusing the terms 精霊 (seirei) and 精神 (seishin), which for any non-japanese could mean just the same, since they are very similar. Both can be translated as either "spirit" or "soul", although seirei can mean also "ghost", while seishin can be "mind".

精霊魔法 (seirei mahou) is the category that has been called in English Shamanistic Magic, while 精神魔法 (seishin mahou) is part of the seirei mahou, since it's what's been called Astral Magic. So, Kanzaka said that White Magic belongs to Shamanistic Magic, not that it is Astral Magic nor that it has any relationship with it. --shansito (talk) 23:29, January 11, 2013 (UTC)
 * Looks like the confusion comes from a rather poor choice of words from Tokitama when translating the afterword:

(Author) Yep. .....But, it will take a long time till people notice it, and go across the desert or develop the magic by Gods' power and make it fit for practical use. So, "White Magic" Lina and other people use in that world isn't the magic by Gods' power. (L) .....Then, what in the hell is that? (Author) In short, people living in that area just call magic to recover, purify, etc. as "White Magic". So, it's Spirit Magic in reality. (http://tokitama.net78.net/slayers-etc/some-special.html#8p229)
 * Shamanistic magic was translated as "spirit magic", which many people (including me) interpreted as astral shamanistic magic. I'm going to note this in all the references which point to this translation in order to clear the misunderstanding.
 * I'd like to put back some of the deleted material here though, since the the reason why people call it white magic ("people living in that area just call magic to recover, purify, etc. as white magic") and the apparent contradictions that arise from this definition are all well-sourced from this afterword and the first novel arc. (I can add some novel page numbers, should we deem it necessary.) --Pip25 (talk) 19:51, January 15, 2013 (UTC)