by Shez

The ethics of magical practice — when to act and when to refrain — formed a persistent concern in the practical Wiccan community. Shez was one of the most experienced and forthright voices on alt.religion.wicca.moderated, a practitioner who had been working magic for decades and who had little patience for spell-book shortcuts or ethical shortcuts alike.

This essay was prompted by another request for binding magic, and addresses one of the most contentious areas of Wiccan ethics: the use of magic to influence another person's will. Shez's argument is grounded not in rule-following but in practical consequence — what actually happens when you try to override another person's free will through magical means.

Having another person ask for a spell to use on someone to bind them, made me start to think again about what advice we give to those who have never used magick who think that magick will solve all their problems.

The number of requests we get on this group is not as high as the number on the unmediated group, but its still fairly often we get asked to give spells or suggest magick as a quick fix for problems that can not be fixed quickly.

Magick doesn't make people love you, nor can it change someone's basic personality. So called love spells are in fact nothing more than bindings and they are nothing to do with love. You don't bind people you love. They are about lust... and that is all they produce, sexual lust. You cant force someone to fall in love with you by magick, and as the spell wears off and it will wear off, then your left with someone who not only doesn't sexually fancy you (if they did you wouldn't have needed to use a lust spell), but now has an underlying hatred for you, because they realise in some way they have been used against their will.

Personal relationships are not a place where magick should be used. Yet so often you get people who want magick to fix a personal relationship. You get books by the dozen of so called love spells, and their is no love in them. People want spells that will bring an ex partner or lover back to them when the affair is over, and they will not accept that you cant drag back someone who doesn't want to come back... the harder you chase the faster they run. How do you tell someone who has never used magick, and has no idea of how or why magick works, that it is not the answer to everything, that if they get all the words right and do all the actions, wear the right clothes, and use the right colour candle it will all be great.

Magick is in the mind, the ritual the spells the candles and the colour are simply reinforcements for the mind, that the mind creates the magick, and as we all know the mind is not a very precise tool when it comes to such things as love. With magick you have to cover all the bases, you have to be sure what your using the magic for will not rebound on you, or come up with side effects that are dangerous to you or others.

An old story among witches is the woman who desperately wanted to have enough money to pay off her debts and to be comfortable, who used magick to bring that money into her life. She got the money but lost her mother. The mother's insurance and will left her with the money she had asked for, but the price wasn't worth it. You cant replace or bring back someone you love.

It is just a story, but it does in fact point out a very obvious fact: you have to specify what you want, and that it doesn't hurt anyone else, in any way. Magick doesn't stop to think out the ethics, it just does. Its straight forward, and as most of us have learned to our cost, it douse work... but not always in the way you intended.

The more experienced I get the less I do anything without a great deal of thought, The more I think the more I realise how seldom I need to use magick for anything. I am not saying don't use it, but I am saying don't use it as a first response.

Learning to use magick is really learning to know yourself, and the more you know yourself the less need you have to use it on others... The more you know yourself the better you can direct the magick the better focused it is... but the most important thing you learn about magick is that it is a tool. Not a cure all or a miracle worker.

I know that if someone comes to me and asks for help from the group I will look for a mundane solution first, and if there isn't one, I will use a spell that does not involve tampering with the will of another person. Healing spells, sending positive energies, a spell to attract your hearts desire or for general good luck are one thing. Binding someone to you or trying to force another human being to do your will is another thing entirely.

When you cast a spell to interfere with the will of another person, you are casting a spell that means you have decided that another person has no right to their own will and free choice. You are saying that what you want is more important than their right to choose and to be who they are.

I understand why people who are in the grip of obsessive need ask for this type of spell, I have been at the sort of obsessive need that blinds all reason... It is not a nice place to be in and sometimes is so powerful that it does cloud all judgement. But the answer to that is not to use magick on the object of your obsession, the answer to that is to look at why you are so obsessed, what is it in yourself that is out of kilter. If you are in the state that you would use magick to override another person's will then you need to be working on yourself, not on them.

Given that most of the people on this group are or try to be ethical, you can imagine how difficult it must be for those who have never had teachers and have had to learn on their own.

I don't give spells to people who want to bind others, because I don't believe that bindings are something that should be used on people. They do wear off, and your back where you started, and with someone who is going to be pissed as hell at you. If someone is violent then get the police, if you fall in love and they don't love you, then get over it. If you fancy someone and they don't fancy you, too bad.... the whole point is we have free will and we have a choice. I know how I would feel if someone tried to bind me. Yet people talk about binding as if it were a good thing. Basically its a form of rape... and their is no other word for it.

Binding is forcing someone else to conform to your will... if it rebounds and it can — some people have natural shields — then you have bound yourself. If you want someone to love you, then use a spell that will attract those people to you who would like or love you for yourself. You might end up with a lover, or with a friend, both are well worth having, and they would be with you because they wanted to be, not because you used magic to make them want or need you against their natural inclinations and their natural will.

Magick is dangerous, and the older I get the less I use it, simply because most of the time its not only easier and simpler to do things without magick, its also often quicker. Magick is not like instant coffee it can take a long time sometimes to work.

When not to use magick... never use it when your emotionally upset, never use it on others to force them to your will... and never use it if you can do it the mundane way. If you do use magick, then use it with great care, really think about what you want the magic to do, think through all the consequences, and then think again... and make it as simple as possible, the more complicated it gets the more chances their are of going wrong.

Colophon

Written by Shez and posted to alt.religion.wicca.moderated, January 2004. Shez was among the most experienced and practically-minded voices on the group, a long-standing practitioner who consistently brought ethical grounding to discussions of magical practice.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected]

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