The Magickal Cottage

The subject of ethics in the practice of the Craft has been a topic of much debate. I am not thinking that I will in any way be able to voice the definitive code of ethics for all magickal practitioners in this post. Rather, I will just explore a few of the concerns that I have encountered in my practice in regards to ethical behavior.

It seems that a magickal code of ethics is very much a reflection of a person’s belief system. If there is no “karma”, no threefold law, then that is going to affect a person’s ethical behavior.   If we truly believe we can get away with murder, then there are some amongst us who would murder. Most of us have never really been pushed to our limit as far as what we can tolerate at the hands of another. It’s hard to know what we would do in the harshest of circumstances.

I generally only perform healing and abundance type magic. When I do, it is always asking for the highest good of all concerned. As I have gotten older I have come to realize that I can’t see every angle of a situation from where I am here down on Planet Earth. If someone is acting like a son-of-a-gun I generally just move on, assuming they aren’t being terribly abusive. In other words, I don’t react to every negative little thing that happens. I leave most of those things to the universe to take care of.

I do have my Achilles heel, though, and it was pointed out to me by Spirit in a recent situation that made me start thinking about the question of ethics. My failing is also my strength and that is that I am an empath. Being a healer, this is natural for me and it serves me well in my work, but sometimes I get to feeling sorry for others and I decide to “help them out” with some magick. These other people are often friends who are being “persecuted” by another person in some way and I decide to “rid them of their problems.” The most recent time I did this I was not feeling good about what I had done. I never cause bodily harm but have just steered the perpetrator in another direction for them to “learn their lesson”. Everybody will be better off, right?

When I was speaking with my friend and confidant, Celeste, about what I had done and how I wasn’t feeling so good about it, she very wisely pointed something out to me. She said that the “bad guy” who I was banishing was maybe put in my friend’s path to teach them a lesson, and that by removing them I was robbing my friend of an opportunity to learn and move further down their life path. This made sense to me because I believe we are on Earth to learn certain lessons and accomplish certain life goals so we can spiritually evolve.  Hopefully, lesson learned.

So how far can we take this? If I see someone being horribly abused am I just going to stand by and let the abuse happen so they can learn some cosmic lesson? No, I am not. I think you can take this whole practice of not interfering too far, and that’s where we as thinking, feeling beings need to make a call. People, especially magickal ones, need to step into their power and use it judiciously. There is that spark we all carry that can make us either devils or angels. Cultivating a relationship with Spirit and asking for guidance is often the key to controlling our actions and directing our thoughts for the highest good. No one ever said that this earthly path would be an easy one, but I believe we are all here because we chose to be. That is my belief, though, and that belief is what is going to shape my code of ethics.

As I change and learn, my beliefs evolve as well. That may also affect my code of ethics. I am learning to go a little easier on myself these days. I realize that when we think we have it all figured out, we still have SO much to learn!

Something to think about…

Blessings,

Sarina