Whitelighters

**Whitelighters** are immortal, magical advisers who protect and guide witches that are new to the craft.

## Description

Whitelighters are magical beings that are attributed by the Elders, a group of senior powerful witches, to new witches in need of protection and guidance. Celeste was the one who invented the method of transferring magic to dead mortals and transform them into Whitelighters and made two copies of the formula.

The Whitelighters only stay with their charges as long as they are needed. They possess multiple powers in order to do their jobs, such as teleportation through orbing, healing and memory erasure. According to Tessa Flores-Cohen, Whitelighters derive their powers from a singular source, and are thus connected — Tessa claimed she felt Harry Greenwood be stripped of his powers as a result of this connection and later used their connection to ascertain his location.

The process of becoming a Whitelighter is seemingly not difficult, but at a great cost. If during life, a human is worthy of the attention of the Elders, these witches will reward them in death by granting them powers and eternal life, in exchange for their servitude and undying loyalty. For this reason, Whitelighters are technically dead. By creating a Whitelighter, an evil version known as a Darklighter is seemingly created as a consequence, thus Whitelighters are rare and only created once every century. The first Whitelighter to be made was Helen McGantry in 1693 during the Salem witch trials.

In "*The Source Awakens*", it is revealed that, in retirement, Whitelighters are able to go to a vault containing a fountain with a potion that will restore their lost memories. The complete process of retirement for Whitelighters is currently unknown.

In "*Safe Space*", it is revealed that all Whitelighters died around three weeks after the Elders were completely massacred. Harry survived because he was no longer tied to them when it happened. However, the death of his fellow Whitelighters has reduced Harry to being the last of his kind. Also, according to Harry, when Whitelighters die, they are returned to the grave of their original self.

In "*Deconstructing Harry*", Harry found a page in the Book of Elders that detailed Whitelighters, and that they were created at great cost. He later accidentally used a Password Spell to reveal a hidden safe that contained documents from the Tulipe Institute, and travelled there to talk to the patient they described. The patient, Helen McGantry, is in a catatonic state, but violently attacked Harry when he mentioned the Elders. When Harry explained he was not an Elder, Helen calmed down and healed the cut she had placed on his cheek, revealing that she is a Whitelighter. Harry's investigation through Helen's personal belongings led him to discover that she is actually the *first* Whitelighter, and that she has a 'sister', who is much more violent than she is - her Darklighter; the 'great cost' for creating Whitelighters.

In "*The Storm Before the Calm*", Harry completed his transformation into a mortal, losing his immortality and his Whitelighter powers.

In "*I Dreamed a Dream…*", after Macy Vaughn was fatally injured while vanquishing the Whispering Evil, Harry desperately had Celeste perform the ritual to make him a Whitelighter again with help from Jordan Chase. To avoid creating another Darklighter, Celeste refrained from separating Harry's negative part of his soul. Despite effectively restoring Harry's status as a Whitelighter, he was unable to heal Macy's bodily damage and she soon died. Also, it was revealed that Jordan was accidentally effected by the ritual and unexpectedly developed the ability to heal, using it for the first time to unwittingly heal Maggie's cut which she disregarded.

In "*Not That Girl*", Jordan was shown to have learned to actively channel his newly acquired healing abilities. During and after Annie's disastrous Pixie Fledging Ceremony, Jordan bonded with Chloe and agreed to become the "Whitelighter" for other creatures.

Thanks to Roxie in "*Unlucky Charmed*", Harry disappeared in an unknown direction and, upon returning in "*The Tallyman Cometh*", reported that he had given up his Whitelighter powers in order to talk to the dead in a desperate attempt to reach Macy and became a Necrolighter.

In "*Hashing It Out*", Harry runs into Diana in the Veil. She brings him to Infinite Home Video, where she reveals herself as a Whitelighter who had somehow been sent to the spiritual world eleven years prior to the series' beginning.

## Powers and Abilities

*Active Powers*
* **Orbing:** Whitelighters can teleport through a process known as orbing. They can also take others with them. According to Harry Greenwood, teleporting other people can massively deplete their magical energy. Whitelighters also cannot orb between realities, as seen when Harry was not able to orb with Macy Vaughn out of the Heaven's Vice reality.
* **Healing:** Whitelighters have the power to restore an individual to full health and prestine condition as long as the wound is not magically protected. Jada, a half-Whitelighter, couldn't heal a magical arrow wound on herself, so this is presumably true for all Whitelighters.
* **Memory Erasure:** Whitelighters can erase the memories of others to protect the secret of magic from the mortal world.
* **Conjuration:** Whitelighters can materialize imaginary objects.
* **Telekinesis:** Whitelighters have Telekinetic abilities and can move objects with their mind.

*Passive Powers*
* **Immortality:** Whitelighters are unaging and have a potentially limitless lifespan.
	+ **Enhanced Durability:** A Whitelighter's immortality means they can survive otherwise lethal injuries, as witnessed when Harry was tossed from the Vera Manor's attic window and immediately woke up upon impact with below. However, their durability doesn't protect them from powerful magical attacks.
	+ **Self-Resurrection:** The ability to come back to life upon being killed. Just as Harry did when the Darklighter killed him, Harry Greenwood's Darklighter woke up from his grave after being killed by his good counterpart. This power only works if the Darklighter or Whitelighter try to kill the other.
* **Sensing:** Whitelighters have the power to determine the location and status of other beings by concentrating on them. This power won’t work if the initial connection has been severed by another being, or if the charges have lost their powers.
	+ **Remote Hearing:** Whitelighters have the power to hear their name being spoken by their charges, regardless of distance. They also know where the charge speaking their name is and can teleport directly to that location.

## Weaknesses

* **Emotional Imbalance:** Like witches, their powers are tied to their emotions. If the Whitelighter has internal problems, then this can block his/her powers (or said powers begin to work incorrectly). For example, Harry couldn't use his powers properly for a time, because he was tormented by the consequences of torture in Tartarus. This is why Whitelighters have their memories erased, to prevent distractions in their duties as Whitelighters.
* **Darklighter Poison:** Darklighter poison has a severe effect on Whitelighters when healing someone afflicted with it. The poison greatly depletes their magical strength leaving them unable to orb or heal properly for a period of time.
* **Magic:** Whitelighters are susceptible to the effects of magic, and can be killed by wounds that caused by powerful magical means, as witnessed when Tessa was mortally wounded by Fiona Callahan with a powerful electrokinetic blast. Whitelighters also can be at risk of having their powers stripped by the Elders through the use of a spell.
* **Pixie Dust:** Whitelighter can be zombified by any pixie.
* **Life Link:** As Whitelighters were created by the magic of the Elders, most Whitelighters, except Helen McGaintry, and Harry Greenwood, were bound to them in life. Thus, once the Elders died, all of the Whitelighters (except for Harry, and Helen) ceased to exist. Also, Whitelighters were connected to their Darklighter counterparts. One cannot kill the other, but can be killed by other people. If the Whitelighter dies, the Darklighter dies along and vice versa.

## Known Whitelighters

* Harry Greenwood (formerly)
* Tessa Flores-Cohen †
* Angus Glohr †
* Helen McGantry †
* Unnamed Whitelighter †
* Jordan Chase (partially)

## Trivia

* There are many differences between Whitelighters from the original series and the reboot:
	+ In the original, Whitelighters traveled in a series of blue and white lights or 'orbs' that usually rose either upward or downward in the direction that they were going. The new type of Whitelighters teleport in a similar fashion as the wizards of Harry Potter do via Disapparition, however, it is still referred to as 'orbing'.
	+ Whitelighters in the reboot series can reveal themselves to their charges. In the original, the Charmed Ones' Whitelighter, Leo Wyatt, hid his abilities and his purpose from the girls until Phoebe accidentally walked in on him levitating to replace a lightbulb. This could, however, have been a plot point as fans of the original show may have been able to figure Harry out quickly, meaning keeping his nature secret from the Charmed Ones was pointless.
* In the reboot, Whitelighters have Memory Erasure as an individual power, while in the original they could only do it with a special powder.
	+ Unlike in the original series, Whitelighters do not keep any memory from their life as humans, so they would have no distraction from doing their jobs properly.
	+ In the original series, Whitelighters could only heal human beings (humans and witches alike) and other Whitelighters. However, in this series, they can also heal other beings, as Harry was able to heal a Satyr.
	+ The Whitelighters in the original show aged at a mortal rate if they were stripped of their powers, referred to as having their wings clipped. In the rebooted first season, they age rapidly to their true age if they had lived a long time. However, in the third season, this problem somehow disappeared, since Harry temporarily becoming a mortal did not become a very old man.
	+ Unlike the original series, Whitelighters live on Earth rather than the Upper Regions.
	+ Whitelighters in this series are seemingly much easier to kill than in the original series, where Whitelighters can heal themselves from most wounds unless they were inflicted by Darklighter Poisoned Arrows or higher beings. The new incarnation of Whitelighters, however, seemingly do not possess regenerative capabilities (or, if they do, it is much weaker than it was in the original series). However, unlike their original counterparts, Whitelighters in the reboot can come back to life after being killed by their Darklighters, but not any other being.
	+ Unlike their original counterparts, Whitelighters in the reboot are bound to the Elders that created them, and all but two, that weren't connected to the Elders, died out after the all of Elders were killed.
	+ In the reboot, Whitelighters are only a half of what they were as humans. The other half is separated from them and becomes a Darklighter. Darklighters share the physical appearances of the Whitelighters they were created from, however their personality is mostly the opposite.
	+ In the original series, Whitelighters are granted a new body that is identical to their original, minus any major injuries. In the reboot, Whitelighters are resurrected and granted powers in their original bodies, and Harry states that the chances of becoming a Whitelighter are better if the original body has little to no cellular damage.
	+ In the reboot, a death by motal hands is a requirement to becoming a Whitelighter . In the original series, so long as the person has fulfilled the good they were destined to do, they are given the choice to become a Whitelighter, regardless of what being kills them.
* When a Whitelighter is stripped of their powers in the reboot, it is referred to as having their light extinguished. The same phrase also refers to Whitelighters when they die.
* In *Hashing It Out*, Harry meets Diana, a Whitelighter from an alternate reality. However, in this world, full Whitelighters are extinct with Jordan Chase having gained the ability to heal others, but no other Whitelighter abilities.

## See Also

* Whitelighter-Witches
* Whitelighter Resurrection Ritual

## References

1. ↑ Mentioned only in *Safe Space*
2. ↑ *Search Party'*s flashback
3. ↑ As Harry explained to Jordan in *I Dreamed a Dream…*