Wednesday, July 27, 2011

A Question of Morality

Recently, I was told that good witches don’t curse or hex, and then the speaker started spouting the “Harm None” creed that so many Wiccans swear by.  And in the next breath, telling me my karma was going to get me if I did.

For my thoughts on karma, let me point you to a previous post so I don’t repeat myself:  http://heartsongscircle.blogspot.com/2011/06/three-fold-fib.html

So, karma aside, let’s explore morality for a bit.

In past dealings with the eclectic pagan community, people have stood up very righteously and criticized me for healing someone who was in a coma, trying to help their body repair itself so they’d recover – because I didn’t have “permission” to work magic on their behalf, so I was obviously a “black witch”.  Using a sleep spell on someone to get out of a difficult situation where they were pointing a gun at me was also met with criticism.  Both spells, by the way, worked.  My friend recovered, and the gunman got dizzy and passed out briefly enough for me to get away, thanks to my “evil magic”.  Apparently I was supposed to let the gunman do what he wanted, and let my friend die without having tried to help him.  He might have recovered on his own, maybe my spell didn’t change anything at all.  But isn’t trying the important part?

I personally detest when people categorize magic as “black” or “white”.  Frankly, it encourages racist thinking since it makes “black” the “bad” color.  Black is a perfectly fine color, whether it’s clothes, skin, or the night sky on a tall mountain, dappled with stars.  Magic is just a force, as neutral as a knife, which can be used for cooking, curing, or killing.  It’s all up to the intent of the wielder.

And yes Wanda Fae, sometimes it’s OK to curse.  At one time in my life, I didn’t think so.  Here’s what changed my mind...

Once upon a time, I was living in an apartment with a roommate.  One July evening in the middle of the week, about 1am we were awakened to yelling and then a loud crashing noise.  His bedroom was closer to the front door than mine, so he went out there while I grabbed the phone.  I heard him yell “Hey!” and then I heard the intruders yell “Where’s the money?”, followed by noises of flesh striking flesh.  I was on the phone with the police, while my other hand held my ritual sword, shaking.  I heard loud crashing noises and I told the dispatcher that they were hurting my roommate and I was going out there, when I heard someone coming down the hall.  I was prepared to shove the point of my sword through someone’s stomach.  Happily, it was my roommate and he was ok – they’d only shoved his bare chest with the palms of their hands, that’s what the noise was.  He wasn’t even bruised, thankfully.

After we assessed the damage, inventoried what was missing, the police had come and gone, and we’d shoved the couch in front of the shattered front door to hold it closed while we waited for the apartment maintenance folks to repair the door and change the locks, we were talking about how glad we were no one was hurt, and that we really needed to be more diligent about the warding on the apartment.  I still wasn’t ready to hex, at that point.

The following day, I saw someone walking around the apartment looking suspicious, so I committed his face to memory.  A few minutes later (I was on the phone with the credit card company canceling and ordering new cards, since they’d gotten my wallet) someone tried a key in the lock and was having trouble.  I looked through the peep hole, and saw the suspicious looking guy with my keys in his hand, trying the door.  I kind of lost it.  I told the person on the phone I had to hang up and call 9-1-1 because the robbers were back, then unlocked and opened the door to see him running away.  When I realized I wasn’t going to be able to catch him and pound his face into the sidewalk like I wanted to, I yelled “DIE!” at him and waited for the cops to show up.  And immediately cast a hex off the top of my head so that he’d be caught, arrested, and convicted.

A week later, I was out of town at a training class, and the power in the complex went out the night before I was due home.  When I got home, there were police everywhere, so I waited for my roommate to get home from work – he had no idea what had happened.  The day after that, I went and talked to the people in the management office to get the scoop.  The robbers had gone into someone else’s apartment during the blackout, robbed her, roughed her up, and she was found dead the next day.  She was 84 years old, a former teacher, and was volunteering at the elementary school down the street.

Ever since her death, I freely encourage people to hex robbers, rapists, highway snipers, and the like.  Get them caught, make their weapons misfire to hurt them, and get them away from innocent victims like that poor lady who died because someone thought it was easier to steal and injure than to get a job like the rest of us.  Those robbers went to jail for a loooong time, especially after I positively identified the one guy in a police photo lineup, and then again on the witness stand in the courtroom.

This doesn’t mean I go around cursing willy-nilly, because I’m not that kind of person.  I have to have a good reason to hex.  But to protect innocent people, the bad guys have to be stopped.  I don’t have super powers, I can’t fly around the city bouncing bullets off my chest, reading the minds of the wicked and bringing them to justice.  But I can sure as heck cast spells that work.

14 comments:

  1. Great blog. Honestly, I can't think of a more kooky concept in modern Witchcraft than this idea that we need permission to send healing. How absolutely ridiculous. LOL

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  2. I agree, that particular concept is ridiculous. And thanks :) People have asked me if I felt guilty about that poor woman's death, and of course I don't because I'm not the one who broke into her apartment and shoved her into a wall. My willingness to hex criminals though, is a tribute to her memory. So far, the gods don't disapprove.

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  3. Bravo, Alan.. BRAVO!! I can't agree more with you on this!

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  4. Yeah... I'm with Christian on that "permission to heal, please Mother May I?" concept. And Alan, you already know my stance on hexing. I thank the Gods every minute for the training I have. ;-)

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  5. I ardently believe in the adage, "A witch who cannot hex cannot heal", because you have to be responsible for your actions...and first and foremost to be willing to take action. That doesn't mean I cast a whammy on everyone who I think deserves it, because that's such an awesome responsibility that it has taught me discernment. However,if I am dealing with a known criminal, I would not hesitate to stop them using any means.

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  6. I have taken to explaining - I'm pagan not Wiccan...if you Eff with me or mine, I will Eff you back....

    Dorothy Morrison says, and I agree, Don't do on the magical plane what you wouldn't do on the physical...and that "harm none" is am impossible admonition.... So protect yourself!

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  7. I'm Wiccan in almost every aspect except the "harm none" obsession and the "3-fold law" myth. Aside from that, my beliefs and practices pretty much follow the standard Wiccan guidelines. I do think it's kind of mean/nasty to run around cursing in general, but sometimes to stop someone dangerous, a hex is called for, like with the DC40.net folks.

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  8. I'm hexy. But never frivolous.

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  9. I am an eclectic Wiccan, and frankly, I'm more than a little tired of the sudden 'fashion statement' in the Pagan community that being Wiccan is somehow less, or something to be ashamed of...and I have always questioned what Phyllis Currot refers to as " The Three-fold Boomerang Whammy Law" as just so much man-made dogma. I am slow to anger, and I try not to strike out in anger, but frankly, the truth is we are human beings first, and we are often at odds with our human proclivities.As a witch I will not stand by and allow myself to be abused-it's insulting to the gods who gave me the abilities I have to stand back and refuse to use them on the basis of what is essentially a dogmatic game of "Mother May I?" My Mother Goddess is not afraid to take action when discernment tells me there is no other option. I believe not acting when action is called for is as close to committing a sin as I can do as a Pagan. Our gods were not afraid to fight.

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  10. Sorry not wiccan here: WITCH! you can scream now. :)

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  11. I'm Christian and asking permission to send healing seems odd - be it a healing spell or prayer or simple good thoughts. From what I know of pagan beliefs from my pagan friends, the idea of curse or hex on someone would be bad if it was for selfish reasons - protecting oneself and others from criminals is not a selfish reason. I would think most people would want something unpleasant to happen to criminals to stop them - gun malfunction, trip, etc - and let the intended victim flee. or something to more permanently stop them. Someone else mentioned discernment, a key element in using this aspect of anyone's power.

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  12. I agree with Kate: "A Witch who cannot hex, cannot heal". There must be a balance in everything we do and as a Witch I work with that in mind. Three fold law?? Not so much, harm none?? Again not so much. Especially if I can prevent someone from being injured. Very well said!!

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  13. Well said. I'm Kemetic (ancient Egyptian recon,) and cursing those who truly deserve it is a well-established tradition. They cursed the enemies of Ra and the Servants of Apep three times a day in the major temples. As long as it's within Ma'at, it's fine.

    At least it's easier to say "that is totally outside my tradition" with the "threefold law".

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  14. WOW Alan you have got me thinking and I like that. Thanks for the help.

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