Thecontrast ofwhite andblack (light anddarkness,day andnight) has a long tradition ofmetaphorical usage, traceable to theAncient Near East, and explicitly in thePythagoreanTable of Opposites.InWestern culture as well as inConfucianism, the contrast symbolizes the moral dichotomy ofgood and evil.

Day, light, and good are often linked together, in opposition to night, darkness, and evil. These contrasting metaphors may go back as far as human history, and appear in many cultures, including both the ancient Chinese and the ancient Persians. The philosophy ofneoplatonism is strongly imbued with the metaphor of goodness as light.^[1]

• TheGenesis creation narrative has God "separate light from darkness" on the First Day.
• The Bible associates light with God, truth, and virtue; darkness is associated with sin and the Devil. Painters such asRembrandt portrayed divine light illuminating an otherwise dark world.^[1]
• War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, part of theDead Sea Scrolls.
• Theunderworld (Hades,Tartarus) was imagined as achthonic place of darkness, contrasting with thecelestial realm of thegods. Christian notions ofheaven andhell inherit this conception, as do the "dark angels" vs. the unfallenangels, often withaureola (halos), inChristian mythology.
• Day and night are personified as deities in variousmythologies (e.g.NorseDagr andNótt,GreekHemera andNyx, et cetera).
• Yin-yang
• Illiyin is the highest place and the resting place for thegood souls among thehighest angels, opposed toSijjin, the farest underworld and resting place for theevil souls amongthe fallen angel;Islamic literature.

• White often represents purity or innocence in Western culture,^[2] particularly as white clothing or objects, can be stained easily. In most Western countries white is the color worn by brides at weddings.Angels are typically depicted as clothed in white robes.
  • In manyHollywood Westerns, bad cowboys wearblack hats while the good ones wear white.
  • Melodrama villains are dressed in black and heroines in white dresses.
  • This can be reversed as a deliberate play on conventions, by having the evil character dress in white, as a symbol of their hypocrisy or arrogance. For example,Don Fanucci inThe Godfather, Part II is an evil character, but wears an expensive all-white suit as a sign of his esteem, power and prestige. Sometimes protagonists can wear black too, as inReturn of the Jedi, whereinLuke Skywalker wears black during the final battle. This may symbolize the danger of Luke turning to the dark side, but once he has prevailed (in the scene where he removesDarth Vader's helmet), his jacket has opened up to reveal that it has a lighter color in the inside, as if to indicate that Luke "on the inside" was always good. Darth Vader himself, while still in the grip of the dark side, dresses all in black and may be regarded as a science-fiction version of ablack knight. The chief antagonist of theStar Wars franchise, the evil EmperorPalpatine, wears a black cloak.
  • Incomputer security, ablack hat is an attacker with evil intentions, while awhite hat bears no such ill will (this is derived from the Western movie convention).

• Healing or "good" paranormal magic is calledWhite magic.Black magic is a destructive or evil form ofmagic.
  • A Treatise on White Magic is a book byAlice Bailey, aTheosophist.^[3]
  • White witch.
  • Evilwitches are stereotypically dressed in black and goodfairies in white.

• Thetopos of "light and darkness" is also reflected in numerous titles in popular culture, such asHeart of Darkness (1899),Light in My Darkness (1927),Darkness and the Light (1942),Creatures of Light and Darkness (1969),Darkness to Light (1973),Darkness and Light (1989),The Lord of the Light and of the Darkness (1993), theStar Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Darkness and the Light" (1997), theBabylon 5 episode "Between the Darkness and the Light" (1997), andOut of the Darkness, Into the Light (1998).
• In works offantasy fiction, the main antagonist is often called a "Dark Lord", for exampleSauron inThe Lord of the Rings.
• The space-opera franchiseStar Wars also depicts Light and Dark aspects in the form of the fictional energy field calledThe Force where there are two sides,light side anddark side wherein the protagonists, theJedi, practice and propagate the use of the former, and the antagonists, theSith, use the latter.
• George Orwell makes a bitterly ironic use of the "light and darkness" topos in hisNineteen Eighty Four. In the early part of the book the protagonist gets a promise that "We will meet in the place where there is no darkness" – which he interprets as referring to a place where the oppressive totalitarian state does not rule. But the man who made the promise was in fact an agent of theThought Police – and they eventually meet as prisoner and interrogator where there is indeed no darkness, in detention cells where the light remains on permanently, day and night, as an additional means of torturing detainees.
• The Dark Crystal explains the two split halves of a balanced whole, reflecting the impossibility of acknowledging any metaphorical divine balance without the combination of both the light (the Mystics) and the dark (the Skesis).
• All four ofOrphaned Land'sconcept albums deal with the theme of "light versus darkness," in some way, that the band refers to as "Thetango betweenGod andSatan".^[4]El Norra Alila can be translated as "God of Light, Evil of the Night,"Mabool is about theGenesis flood narrative, which is part of the Genesis Creation narrative,The Never Ending Way of ORWarriOR is about the battle between darkness, a place of questions, and light, a place of answers, andUnsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs utilizesPlato'sAllegory of the cave, describing how humanity is trapped in the darkness and refuses to embrace the light.

• TheDark Ages vs. theAge of Enlightenment.
• "Black and white thinking" is thefalse dichotomy of assuming anything not good is evil and vice versa.
• Black–white binary has often been conflated with the binary of good and evil.
• Freemasonry has a black-and-whitecheckerboard as a central symbol within the lodge and all rituals occur on or around this checkerboard. Also known as a Mosaic Pavement, it represents the floor of King Solomon's Temple and according toShakespeare, represents man's natural duality.
• In software policy, lists of items either allowed or disallowed are sometimes referred to as 'whitelists' and 'blacklists' respectively. This practice is sometimes criticised for invoking supposed racial connotations, despite the origins of black and white dualism being entirely separate from race, and 'allowlists' and 'blocklists/denylists' are used instead.

• Black and white thinking
• Dialectics of Nature
• Fantasy tropes and conventions
• Table of Opposites

• Armin Lange, Eric M. Meyers (eds.),Light Against Darkness: Dualism in Ancient Mediterranean Religion and the Contemporary World, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (2011).
• Fontaine, Petrus Franciscus Maria,The Light and the Dark: A Cultural History of Dualism, 21 volumes (1986).
• https://freemasoninformation.com/2015/06/mosaic-pavement-or-the-checkered-flooring/