"Two kinds of trouble in this world;
Living, Dying
I lost my power in this world,
And the rumors are flying."
--LINDSAY BUCKINGHAM, "Go Insane"--

Dark wizardry has long been the bane of the Wizard soul race.  In actuality, the only way that dark wizardry and "light" wizardry, to buy into the duality a bit, differs, is in the way that it is performed.  A divine Wizard makes an alignment with his higher self and pulls divine energy through that alignment, through his mental, astral, and physical equipment, to render conscious creation in his world of affairs.  A dark adept seeks to create within his world of affairs; however, his creation comes from the separative will aspect instead of from an alignment with the Creative Love force.  A dark adept will never pull divine energies through his equipment; and therefore, creates outside of himself or herself. 

Because a dark wizard cannot create consciously (with divine Will impulse), s/he must appropriate energy from some other mechanism other than the divine.  Much of the atrocities spoken about "witchcraft" in the Biblical sense (and I don't mean modern "craft" work, which is wizardry applied to the realm of Earth), comes from the misappropriation of energy that is not "legally" the wizard's.  I speak of "legally" in the sense of divine law.  There are several ways a dark adept can misappropriate energy:
  

1. Use of drugs.  Although moderated drug use can be used to enhance an effect or to break through a barrier that is preventing the initiate from reaching the Creative Love force (such as its use in Native American religious ceremonies), quite often dark wizards take the "quick and easy" method to "enlightenment" (strictly artificial and momentary) with the use of narcotics and hallucinogens.  By altering the brain/mind wavelength, these drugs create an artificial situation in which the dark wizard may appropriate energy from the astral plane for use in their ceremonies.  Wizards following the divine path can appropriate energy through exalted states; but their states are not artificial and are gained by mental discipline and training.  The use of drugs eventually takes its toll upon the subtle and physical bodies of the wizard, and it becomes consistently harder and harder for them to appropriate energy in this manner. 
    
2. Psychic Vampirism. Some dark wizards have become particularly adept at siphoning off energy from others whose wills are negative and weak, and who have no barriers to prevent the dark ones from doing so. Many such wizards seek to form "cults" or followings consisting of several of these individuals, who because of their weak wills are easy prey for their vampirism.  Such wizards stay away from people with strong wills and powerful barriers to vampirism, as trying to appropriate any psychic energy from them would prove futile and draining to the wizard himself.  In "Psychic Self-Defense," the wizard Dion Fortune proposes that the best defense to psychic vampirism is a strengthening of the personal magnetic field (Aura) by mental focusing and concentration, and by developing character and strengthening one's personal resolve. 
    
3. Use of perverted sexual acts. There is a powerful astral energy inherent in the sex act; one intensely connected to the creative process through the reproductive faculties.  When this is directed through a loving relationship between two consenting parties, the energy invoked is either used to create another living being, or is channeled into the earth by one or the other individuals.  If the individuals are of opposite sexes, the process of grounding is done automatically because of the completed circuit created between the "yang" and "yin" forces.  Energy resulting from sexual activity between members of the same sex has to be consciously grounded by one or both of the members; otherwise, it does not return to its source and hangs, ungrounded, in the immediate vicinity.  If pain, torture, or abnormal sexual activity is included, the astral field is heightened and the amount of energy increases geometrically with each new activity.  Often, dark wizards have resorted to sado-masochistic sexual activity, intercourse among members of the same gender, ingestion of excrement, unnatural sexual acts such as rape, pedophilia and bestiality, and the inflicting of pain, torture, or other such actions upon their victims in order to appropriate energy for their ceremonies.  I want to make it perfectly clear that anyone who engages in such activities is NOT automatically a "dark wizard."  However, the likelihood that such activities may be used for the misappropriation of energy by a dark wizard is very strong, and those who engage in such activities must guard against being used for just such a purpose. 
    
4. Bloodletting and/or sacrifice.  There is an immense spiritual power in blood, the physical representation of the life force.  Blood has been shown to be part gaseous in form; the gaseous portion representing nephesh or spirit; the container of great spiritual energy.  Use of bloodletting rituals by dark adepts to appropriate energy for their uses has a long history.  At one time, after the fall of Atlantis, bloodletting was the only way that enough energy could be appropriated for a magic-working ritual; thus, you even have biblical patriarchs such as Abraham sacrificing a ram (male sheep) onto the altar of God to raise energy for the spiritual invocation.  Other societies used human sacrifice; a much more powerful manifestation of energy, both through the letting of blood and the pain and fear involved.  At one time, long ago, this was necessary and appropriate.  Because of the lifting of the astral veil and the raising of the Earth's vibratory frequency, this is no longer necessary in order to appropriate energy.  Many believe that it was through the actions of the master wizard Jesus and his bloodletting on the cross that enabled the rest of humanity to "punch a hole" through to the Creative Love Force, thus negating the need for blood sacrifice to accomplish the appropriation of energy.  In order to do this, though, the wizard must make a divine alignment with his or her soul and align his or her will with the Divine Creative Love Force.  Such an alignment negates creation through the separative (self-ish) will aspect.  A dark wizard either has not learned to make, or shuns making, such an alignment; thus, s/he may resort to appropriating energy using the old mechanism of bloodletting and/or sacrifice.
   
   
5. Necromantic methods.  Of all the methods of misappropriating energy, none is quite so heinous as the act of necromancy, or enslavement of the dead, in order to raise energy for magic-working.  There was never a point in time during the history of this planet where such a mechanism was required for raising energy.  Much of the biblical injunctions against witchcraft and sorcery was actually aimed at necromancy; much being lost in the translation.  A necromancer seeks to entrap and enslave the spirits of the departed in order to appropriate and drain their astral force for his or her selfish ends.  Because such spirits are virtually defenseless, abiding solely in the astral realm, having no physical form or brain by which to protect themselves, necromantic action is an abomination against nature and the Universe.  There is no justification for such actions, ever. 
   
   
6. Bargaining with Devas and other noncorporeal beings. Certainly not the most common technique of appropriating energy through non-divine sources, still, mages throughout time have bargained with and even enslaved devas and elementals in order to tap their energy fields or invoke their aid to garner energy from others.  Most often the summoned deva was Satan or one of the diabolic hosts.  Classical literature is rife with examples of this type of energy-gathering mechanism; Marlowe's Dr. Faustus with Mephistopheles (and, later, Goethe's "Faust" of the same basis), Shakespeare's Prospero and Ariel in "The Tempest," Aladdin and the Djinni, Daniel Webster and the Devil, etc.  Quite often, the bargain is slanted in favor of the deva or elemental with the wizard in question being outwitted in the final deal. 
   

There are seven planes of conscious manifestation, from lowest to highest: the Physical (Etheric), the Astral, the Mental, the Buddhic, the Atmic, the Monadic, and the Logoic.  Within each plane exist seven subplanes. The fourth subplane of each plane of conscious manifestation is the "heart" plane, and it is from this subplane that energy is appropriated and channeled from the higher 3 to the lower 3, and back again.  The 4th subplane of the 4th plane, that of the Buddhic, is the home plane of the Human Soul; the neck of the hourglass wherein stands the true adept, the master Wizard, channeling Divine energy from the higher 3 planes of manifestation into the lower 3 planes of embodiment in the great Creative process. 

Because of the nature of dark wizardry, a dark adept can reach the 4th subplanes of the Physical and Astral realms, but can accede no higher than the 3rd subplane of the Mental realm.  Between the 3rd and 4th subplanes of the Mental realm is a cosmic chasm of which only those who have created a Divine Alignment may cross. This is shown in the illustration below: 

As humanity continues to uplift and redeem matter, transmuting it to Light (Light being Matter given Divine Purpose and Intent), the vibrational activity of the Earth increases in like turn.  In the new energy, humanity will be operating at the 4th subplane of the Mental, then the Buddhic.  Dark adeptship will have no sphere of reference in this type of environment.  Those who have been practicing wizardry outside of the Divine Plan will have to either make a Divine alignment in order to proceed, or lose their ability to make manifestations in the world of affairs.  There are no other alternatives.