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THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC:
Getting Specific about Magical Ethics


     Sometimes a cliche just wears out. It loses meaning or, worse, begins tosay things we never meant. I think it's time to retire the phrase "blackmagic."

     Saying "black" when we mean "evil" is nasty nonsense. In the first place,it reinforces the racist stereotypes that corrupt our society. And that's notall. Whenever we say "black" instead of "bad," we repeat again the big lie thatdarkness is wrong. It isn't, as people who profess to love Nature should know.

     Darkness can mean the inside of the womb, and the seed germinating withinthe Earth, and the chaos that gives rise to all truly new beginnings. In ourmyths, the one who goes down to the underworld returns with the treasure. Evendeath, to the Wiccan understanding, is well-earned rest and comfort, and apreparation for new birth. Using "black" to mean "bad" is a blasphemy againstthe Crone.

     But even if we no longer speak of magic as "black" or "white," we stillneed to think and speak about the ethics of magic. Although black is not evil,some actions are evil. It simply is not true that anything a person is strongenough or skilled enough to do is OK, nor should doing what we will ever be thewhole of the law for us. We need a clear and specific vocabulary that enablesus to choose wisely what we will do.

     We need to replace the word "black," not simply to drop it. Some Paganshave tried using "negative" as their substitute, but that turned out to beconfusing. For some people, "negative" means any spell to diminish or banishanything. Some things - tumors, depression, bigotry - are harmful. There'snothing wrong with a working to get rid of bad stuff. "Left-handed" is anothercommon term for wrongful practice, very traditional, but just as ignorant,superstitious and potentially harmful as the phrase "black magic" itself. So inProteus we tried using the word "unethical."  That's a lot better - free ofextraneous and false implications - but still too vague.

     Gradually, I began to wonder whether using any one word, "black" or"unethical" or whatever, might just be too general and too subjective. Perhapsall I really tell a student that way is "Judy doesn't like that."

     I won't settle for blind obedience. If ethical principles are going tosurvive the twin tests of time and temptation, people need to understand justwhat to avoid, and why. Even more important, they need a basis for figuring outwhat to do instead. Especially when it comes to projective magic.

     Projective magic means active workings, the kind in which we project ourwill out into the world to make some kind of change.  This is what most peoplethink of when they use the word magic at all. Quite clearly, magic that mayaffect other people is magic that can harm. This is the basis of the proverb "aWitch who can't hex can't heal." Either you can raise and direct power, or youcan't. Your strength and skill can be used for blessing or for bane. The choice- and the karma - are yours.

     Just as some people feel that strength and skill are their ownjustification, others feel that any projective magic is always wrong - that itis a distraction from our one true goal of union with the Divine or a willfulavoidance of the judgements of Karma. I think these attitudes are equallyinconsistent with basic Wiccan philosophy.

     We are taught that we will find the Lady within ourselves or not at all,that the Mother of All has been with us from the beginning. We can't nowestablish a union that was always there. All we can do, all we need to do, isbecome aware. Knowing what it feels like to heal and empower, again and againtill you can't dismiss it as coincidence, is one of the most powerful methodsfor awakening that awareness. It makes no sense to say that the directexperience and exercise of our indwelling divinity distracts from the GreatWork.

     Indeed, it is this intimate connection between our magic and ourself-realization that our ethics protect. Wrongful use of magic will choke thechannel. No short term gain could ever compensate for that.

     The karmic argument against practical workings seems to me to arise from aparanoid and defeatist world view. Even if we assume that the hardships in thislife were put there by the Gods for a reason, how can we be so sure that thereason was punishment? Perhaps instead of penance to be endured, ourdifficulties are challenges to be met. Coping and dealing with our problems,learning magical and mundane skills, changing ourselves and our world for thebetter - in short, growing up - is that not what the Gods of joy and freedomwant from us?

     One of the most radically different things about a polytheistic beliefsystem is that each one of us has the right, and the need, to choose whichGod/desses will be the focus of our worship. We make these choices knowingthat whatever energies we invoke most often in ritual will shape our ownfurther growth. Spiritual practices are a means of self-programming. So we areresponsible for what we worship in a way that people who take their One God asa given are not.

     Think about this: what kind of Power actively wants us to submit andsuffer, and objects when we develop skills to improve our own lives? Not aBeing I'd want to invite around too often!

     So it will not work for us to rule out projective magic completely; norshould we. Total prohibitions are as thoughtless as total permissiveness orblind obedience. Ethical and spiritual adults ought to be able to makedistinctions and well-reasoned choices. I offer here a start toward analysingwhat kinds of magic are not ethical for us.


     B�a�n�e�f�u�l� magic is magic done for the explicit purpose of causing harm toanother person. Usually the reason for it is revenge, and the rationalizationis justice. People who defend the practice of baneful magic often ask "butwouldn't you join in cursing another Hitler?"

     For adults there is no rule without exceptions. If you think you wouldnever torture somebody, consider this scenario: in just half an hour the bombwill go off, killing everybody in the city, and this terrorist knows where itis hidden.... 

     It's a bad mistake to base your ethics on wildly unlikely cases, sincenone of us honestly knows how we would react in that kind of extreme.Reasonable ethical statements are statements about the behaviors we expect ofourselves under normally predictable circumstances.

     We all get really angry on occasion, and sometimes with good cause. Thenrevenge can seem like no more than simple justice. The anger is a normal,healthy human reaction, and should not be repressed. But there's no more needto act it out in magic than in physical violence. Instead of going for revenge- and invoking the karmic consequences of baneful magic - identify what youreally need. For example, if your anger comes from a feeling that you havebeen attacked or violated, what you need is protection and safe space. Workfor the positive goal, it's both more effective and safer.

     The  consequences of baneful magic are simply the logical, natural andinevitable psychological effects. Even in that rare and extreme situation whenyou may decide you really do have to use magic to give Hitler a heart attack,it means you are choosing by the same choice to accept the act's karma. Magicalattack hurts the attacker first.

     The only way I know how to do magic is by use of my imagination, byvisualizing or otherwise actively imagining the end I want, and then projectingthat goal with the energy of emotional/physiological arousal. All thetechniques I know either help me to imagine more specifically or to projectmore strongly. So the only way I can send out harm is by first e�x�p�e�r�i�e�n�c�i�n�g�that harm within my own imagination. Instant and absolute karma - the natural,logical and inevitable outcomes of our own choices.

     I would think, also, that somebody dumb enough to do such workings oftenwould soon lose the ability to imagine specifically, as their sensitivitydulled in sheer self-defense. That callusing effect is the reality behind thepious proverb that says "if you abuse it, She'll take it away." 

     But not every other magician is ethical. Psychic attacks do happen. Shouldwe not defend ourselves? Of course we should. Leaving ourselves open to psychicattack is no good example of the autonomy and assertiveness our chosen Godsexpect. But first, how can we be sure what we are experiencing really ispsychic attack?

     The fantasy of psychic attack is often a convenient excuse that allows usto avoid looking at our own shortcomings. When lack of rest or impropernutrition is the cause of illness, or a project isn't completed on time becauseof distraction, it's a real temptation to put the blame outside ourselves.Doing this too easily betrays our autonomy just as badly as meek submission toattack does. Then, to compound matters, projected blame becomes an excuse forunjust revenge -- and that is baneful magic without excuse.

     Once in a rare while, some fool really does try to throw a whammy. It'shard to predict when you might be targeted. Passive shields are always a goodidea. Like a mirror, these are totally inactive until somebody sends unwelcomeenergy. Then a shield will protect you completely and bounce back whatever isbeing thrown. You may not even know consciously when your shield is working,but the result is perfect justice.

     Perfect justice; elegant and efficient. You won't hurt anybody out ofparanoia or by mistake. And perfect protection, even though we do not haveperfect knowledge.

     Bindings, according to some, are completely defensive. They do not harm,only restrain. But imagine yourself being bound - perhaps by someone whobelieves themselves justified - and notice the feeling of impotence andfrustration. Binding is bane from the viewpoint of the bound.

     Even if restraint were truly not harm, bindings are just plain poorprotection. They target a particular person or group. What if you suspect thewrong person? Somebody harmless is bound and your actual attacker is not bound.Shields, which cover you, not your supposed enemy, will cover you againstany enemy, known or unknown.

     So, baneful magic, besides being painful in the short run and crippling inthe long run, is n�e�v�e�r� necessary. There are better ways of self protection,and retribution is the business of the Gods.


     C�o�e�r�c�i�v�e� magic is magic that targets another person to make them give ussomething we want or need. When most people think of the "Magic Power ofWitchcraft," this is what they have in mind.

     The spell to make the teacher give you a good grade, or the supervisorgive you a good evaluation, the spell to make the personnel officer or rentingagent choose you, the spell to attract that cute guy, all are examples ofcoercive magic.

     So, what's wrong with high grades, a good job, a raise, a nice apartmentand a sexy lover? There's nothing at all wrong with those goals.  An it harmnone, do what ye will. As long as nobody is hurt, go for it! But don't strivetoward good ends by coercive means.

     Although there is no deliberate intent to do harm or cause pain incoercive workings, other people are treated as pawns. Their autonomy and theirinterests are ignored.

     For Pagans, to do this is total hypocrisy. We profess to follow a religionof immanence, one that places ultimate meaning and value in this life on thisEarth, here and now. We claim to see every living thing, humans included, as asacred manifestation. To do honor to this indwelling divinity, we place greatvalue on our own personal autonomy. How can we then justify treating otherpeople as objects for our use?

     Nor is it harmless. Forcing the will, controlling the independentjudgement of another human being, is harm. Once again, empathy leads tounderstanding. Just imagine you are the person whose will and judgement isbeing externally controlled. How does puppethood feel? From the viewpoint ofthe target, the harm is palpable.

     The Pagan and Wiccan community as a whole is also hurt by coercive magic.One of the main reasons people fear and hate Witches is our reputation forcontrolling others. This is an old, dirty lie, created by the invading religionin an attempt to discredit the indigenous competition. Today, that reputationis mostly perpetuated by people who claim to be "our own," who teach unethicalcoercive magic by mail order to strangers whose ethical sensitivity cannot beevaluated long distance. May the Gods preserve the Craft!

     People who are connected to the situation, but invisible to us, may alsobe seriously hurt: the cute guy's fiancee, the other applicant for that job.What you think of as a working designed only to bring good to yourself canbring serious harm to innocent third parties, and the karma of their pain willbe on you.

     That isn't the only way an incomplete view of the situation can backfire.There's a traditional saying that goes, "be careful about what you ask for,because that's exactly what you will get." What if he is gorgeous, but abusive?What if the apartment house is structurally unsound? Better to state yourlegitimate needs (love in my life, a nice place to live) and let the Gods dealwith the details.

     Finally, remember this: asking specifically limits us to what we now knowor what we can now imagine. But I remember a time when I could not haveimagined being a priestess. What if the cute guy in the office is perfectly OK,but your absolutely perfect soul-mate will be in the A+P next Wednesday? Themore specifically targeted your magic is, the more you limit yourself to a lifeof tautology and missed chances.

     And beyond all the scenario spinning lies the instant karma, the natural,logical and inevitable consequence of the act. It's more subtle than in thecase of baneful magic, since you are not trying to imagine and project pain,but the damage is still real.

     Every time you treat another human being as a thing to be pushed andpulled around for your convenience and pleasure, you are reinforcing your ownalienation. The attitude of being removed from and superior to other peopletakes you out of community. As the attitude strengthens, so will the behaviorit engenders. The long term result of coercive magic, as with mundane forms ofcoercion, is isolation and loneliness.

     Are you beginning to think that magic is useless? Did I just rule out allthe good stuff: love charms, job magic, spells for good grades? Not at all. Itis not only ethical but good for you to do lots of magic to improve your ownlife. Whenever it works you will get more than you asked for - because alongwith whatever you asked for comes one more experience of your owneffectiveness, your power-from-within.

     Work on yourself and your own needs and desires without targeting otherpeople. Then feel free! Ask for what you want. Visualize it and raise power forit and act in accordance on the material plane. "I need a caring and hornylover with a good sense of humor." "I want an affordable apartment near wheremy coven meets with a tree outside my window." "I need to be at my best when Itake that exam next week." Fulfill your dreams, and sometimes let the Godssurprise you with gifts beyond your dreams.


     M�a�n�i�p�u�l�a�t�i�v�e� magic is magic that targets another person for what we thinkis "their own good," without regard for their opinions in the matter. In thegeneral culture around us, this is normal. As you read this, you may have somefriend or relative praying for you to be "saved" from your evil Pagan ways andreturned to the fold of their preference. These people mean you well. By theirown lights, they are attempting to heal you. We work from a very differentthealogical base.

     As polytheists, we affirm the diversity of the divine and the divinity ofdiversity. If there is no one, true, right and only way in general, do we dareto assume that there is one obvious right choice for a person in any givensituation? If more than one choice may be "right," how can one person presumethey know what another person would want without asking them first?

     No life situation ever looks the same from outside as it does to theperson who is experiencing it. Are you sure you even have all the facts? Areyou fully aware of all the emotional entanglements involved? Perhaps thatillness is the only way they have of getting rest or getting attention. Perhapsthey stay in that dead end job because it leaves them more energy toconcentrate on their music. How do you know till you ask?

     And, to further complicate the analysis, it's possible that the person youare trying to help would agree with you about the most desirable outcome, butfears and hates the very idea of magic. They have as much of a right to keepmagic out of their own life, as you have to make it part of yours!

     Our religion teaches that the sacred lives within each person, that we canhear the Lady's voice for ourselves if we only learn to listen. "... If thatwhich you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without."In behavioral terms, when you take another person's opinion about their ownlife seriously, you are reinforcing them in thinking and choosing forthemselves. The more you do this, the more you encourage them to listen for thesacred inner voice.

     Conversely, whenever you ignore or override a person's feelings abouttheir own life, you are discounting those feelings and discouraging the kind ofinternal attention that can keep the channels to wisdom open. Althoughwell-intentioned meddling may actually help somebody in the short run, in thelonger run it trains them to dependency and indecision. Few intentional banesdamage as severely. This is especially true because even the untrained andunaware will instinctively resist overt ill-will, but in our culture we aretrained to receive "expert" interference with gratitude.

     Check by asking yourself, "who's in charge here?" The answer to that willtell you whether you are basically empowering or undermining the person youintend to help.

     And, as usual, the effects go both ways. The same uninvited interventionthat fosters passivity in the recipient will foster arrogance in the "rescuer."It's control and ego-inflation masked as generosity. It's very seductive.

     If you make this a habit, you will come to believe that other people areincompetent and powerless. Then what happens when you need help? Your contemptwill make it impossible for you to see what resources surround you.Manipulative magic is ultimately just as alienating as coercive magic - andit's a much prettier trap!

     The way to avoid the trap is to do no working affecting another personwithout that person's explicit permission. Proteans are pledged to this, and Ithink it's a good idea for anybody.

     You don't need to wait passively for the person to ask. It's perfectly allright to offer, as long as you are willing to sometimes accept "no" for youranswer. For the person who believes s/he is unworthy or who is simply too shy,offering help is itself a gift. Taking their opinion seriously is an evengreater gift: respect.

     The rule is that whenever it is in any way physically possible to ask, youmust ask. If it's not important enough to pay long distance charges, itcertainly isn't important enough to violate a friend's autonomy. If asking isliterally not possible, then and only then, here are a few exceptions:

     Sometimes an illness or injury happens very suddenly, and the person isunconscious or in a coma before you could possibly ask them. If you know thatthis person is generally comfortable with magic, you may do workings to keeptheir basic body systems working and allow the normal healing process the timeit needs. If they are opposed to magic, for whatever reason, back off!

     Traditionally, an unconscious person is understood to be temporarily outof their body. Maintaining their body in habitable condition is preservingtheir option, not choosing for them. Doing maintenance magic requires a lot ofsensitivity. At some point, the time may come when you should stop and let theperson go on. Be sure to use some kind of divination to help you stay aware.

     This is a hard road. It may be your lover, your child, lying therehelpless. Any normal human being would be tempted to drag them back, to forcethem to stay regardless of what is truly best for them, regardless of what theywant. Don't repress these feelings, they do no harm, even though your actionsmight. It takes great strength and non-possessive love to recognize that yourloved one knows their own need. You may be calling them back to a crippledbody, to a life of pain. You may be calling them back from the ecstasy of theGoddess. And this is no more your right than it would be to murder them.

     If a person is temporarily not reachable, you may charge up a physicalobject, such as an appropriate talisman or some incense. When you present itto them, give them a full explanation. It is their choice whether to keep oruse your gift. By interposing an object between the magic and the target inthis way, you can work the magic in Circle, with the coven's power to draw on,and still get the person's permission before the magic is triggered.

     With all these rules about permission, perhaps it would be safer to workonly on ourselves? Safer, yes, but not nearly as good. If you have permission,you may do any working for another person that you might do for yourself.Coercive magic is just as unacceptable when somebody else asks for it, and youmay not do manipulative magic on your friend's mother, even at your friend'srequest. The permission must come from the magic's intended target and fromnobody else. With proper permission, working magic for others is good for allconcerned.

     Every act of magic has two effects. One is the direct effect, the healingor prosperity working or whatever was intended. The other is a minute change inthe mind and the heart of the person who does the working. Everything weexperience, and especially everything that we do in a wholehearted and focusedway - the only way effective magic can be done - changes us. Each experienceleaves its tiny trace, but the traces are cumulative. They mold the person wewill become. Our karma is our choice.

     Instant karma can also be good karma. Logical, natural and inevitableoutcomes can be desirable. When you send out good, what you send it with islove. Love is the driving force. When you let love flow freely, the channeldown to love's wellspring stays clear and open. When you send out good, youdirect it along the web of person-to-person connection, and awareness of thatweb is reinforced. The totality of that web is the basis of community.

     When you send out good it feels good. In the same way that sending outbane requires imagining pain, sending out blessing requires imagining pleasure,strongly and specifically. And, when you send out good, just the same as whenyou call it to yourself, you reinforce your sense of effectiveness in theworld. Blessings grow in the fertile ground of mutuality, to the benefit ofall.


     A pattern is becoming visible. In baneful magic, the magician intends toharm the target. In coercive magic, the intent toward the target is neutral. Inmanipulative magic, the magician actually means the target well. But no matterhow different the intent may be, in all three cases magic is done to affectanother person without that person's permission. In all three cases, thetarget, the practitioner and ultimately the community are all hurt. And in allthree cases, there are safer and more effective ways to reach the valid goalsthat we mean to aim for.

     So, perhaps there is a descriptive word that covers all wrongful magicalworkings after all.  How about "non-consensual" or "invasive" magic?


     There's one thing left to examine: the paradox of making rules to protectpersonal autonomy.

     If we make some of our choices as a community, by discussing thingstogether and arriving at a common understanding about what magical behaviorsare acceptable among us, then we choose and shape the kind of community webecome.

     Or we could give up our right to choose, because we feel we shouldn't telleach other what to do. Some people believe that a refusal to set communitystandards promotes personal autonomy. It never has before.

     Appeals to individual rights can be real seductive. None of us wants BigBrother looking over our shoulders, telling us what to do "for our own good."For Witches in particular - members of a religious minority with bad imageproblems - this is a very legitimate fear. But make sure when somebody talksabout "rights" without specifying something like "religious practice rights" or"the right to consensual sex," that you find out just what "rights" they mean.

     Rhetoric about "rugged individualism" has been used in recent history tofast talk us into letting the rich or strong dominate all our lives. Withoutanything to stop them, they can destroy the forestland, or deny jobs orapartments to "cultists." Personal autonomy for most of us is diminished whenwe allow that.

     Magic can be used for dominance, just the same as muscle or money. Thereis no difference, ethically, between the magical and the mundane. We are notobligated to tolerate power trippers among us. We are not obligated to run ourown community by the slogans and groundrules of the dominator culture.

     Thinking about "rights," or about "laws" for that matter, in the abstractleads to "all or nothing" thinking - immature and slogan driven. I don't thinkwe should ever "just say" anything. We need a deeper and more mature analysis.We need to ask questions like "right to do what?" and "law against what?" Weneed to get away from absolutes and to look in practical terms at theadvantages or disadvantages of our choices.

     Once more, our religion itself shows us the way to steer between the falsechoices. "A�n� i�t� h�a�r�m� n�o�n�e�, do what you will."  What a person does that affectsonly herself - magical or mundane - is truly nobody's business but her own. Forexample, consensual sexual behavior affects only the participants. But toxicwaste dumping affects everybody in the watershed.

     As long as we look at behavior in terms of private choices or individualwill, we obscure the distinction that really makes a difference. If we'reserious about wanting to give each of us the most possible control over our ownlives, then decisions should be made by all the people affected by the behavior- not just by the people acting.

     As soon as another person is magically targeted, that other person isaffected. If we allow such targeting without consent, we are not supportingpersonal autonomy, we are subverting it!

     When the behavior begins to affect us all - for example when real estatedevelopment threatens the salt marshes, and ultimately the air supply - or,very specifically, when invasive magic erodes the trust we need to worktogether - then we have a right to protect ourselves as a community. Noideology should turn us into passive victims when something we hold preciousstands to be destroyed.

     Invasive magic hurts the target first, and soon the actor, but in the longrun it hurts all of us. It's been so long since we've been able to meettogether, share our knowledge, help one another in need. Pagan community isvery new, and still very fragile. It can only grow in safe space.

     The People of this Land forbade skirmishes around the pipestone quarries,keeping that sacred source open to all. Otherwise, no sane person would gothere, and the Old Ways would wither. For much the same reason, we cannottolerate poppets in our council meetings.

     An atmosphere of coercion and manipulation and magical duels does notnurture community. Eventually, for self protection, the gentle will eitherchange or go away. We could lose what we have misguidedly refused to protect.

      As within, so without: our karma is our choice.


                              Judy Harrow