This is my last essay from English last semester, explaining the morality of darkness in the form of hexing and cursing, A+... Plaigurism will get a nice big tasty chunk eaten out of your soul.
Evil Shall With Evil Be Expelled
The Manifesto of a (Very) Good Witch
by Zell Nocturna (Coraluca Soleil)
Witchcraft is controversial. Indeed, it is probably the most controversial thing one could choose to advocate. And within these pages, fellow witches are being addressed, as the argument against non-pagans in favor of simply practicing the Craft is an entirely different discussion altogether. This is not a defense of our religious choices. This is the minority’s side of a debate which has been taking place within the pagan community since Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente established Wicca in 1952.
However, paganism and witchcraft are far older. Evidence of priestesses practicing magick has been found in Greece, Rome, Egypt, and on every continent in the world. The artifacts discovered date back as far as the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras (Eisler 3). Many ancient tribes worshipped the great Mother Goddess. The symbolic art and rituals have aided the formation of many different belief systems to this day. It is from our recovered ancient sacred knowledge that we have created thousands of unique, cohesive spiritual paths within a greater religious framework. I shudder to use the term “religious,” for it invokes images of preachers and docile congregations, and concepts of dogma and infallible rulebooks. But witches do not have one of those, which may very well be the core issue here (that is not to say we should create one however).
Although witches agree on most things (for example, the fact that we are not Satanists and do not worship the Devil) we do not always see eye to eye. It is highly refreshing to have true religious freedom. With no book of rules and demands for blind faith, witches are allowed – even encouraged – to question everything and adapt practices according to our own requirements and preferences.
But there is one aspect of the Craft most witches seem completely against, and allow little to no room for speculation: Hexing and Cursing. Perhaps it is to help break society’s anti-witch conditioning, but there are better ways of doing so than attempting to shirk one of our greatest responsibilities.
Witches are like superheroes. When Spiderman swoops in and beats someone up for mugging an innocent pedestrian, no one calls him evil. He is human, but he has “super” human powers. With these powers comes the discernment to know who the villains are and when to attack them. In the real world, witches can be defined the same way. We are human, but we have the “super” human power to alter reality. We can do things which seem to have no logical explanation. Although in truth, it is significantly more complicated than that.
Everything we do can be logically defined. However (since this is hypothetically primarily intended to address other witches) I will refrain from repeating the mechanics of magick.
It is said that “with great power comes great responsibility.” In fact, if I remember correctly, Spiderman himself was told this. Witches do have great power, but they seem rather unaware of their responsibility.
Most witches believe hexing and cursing is Evil. I have said before this that Evil can be defined as something which is fundamentally immoral and has scientifically measurable negative effects. This is still true. But now I would like to take this concept to a new level, and present another version of Evil: that which fights for Good.
When a corrupt, evil dictator is assassinated, does that make the murderer evil as well? Or is the person a vigilante, risking his or her own life and freedom in an attempt to rid the world of someone who is contributing nothing but oppression and violence to the population?
Witches have two “rules,” which are meant to be used as ethical guidelines. The first: “If it harms none, do as you will.” This is rather self-explanatory and is also used as a basis for inaction against evil-doers. The second, the Rule of Three, states that any magickal energy sent out is returned threefold (Currott 82). At first, this sounds like expediency (I won’t do something bad because something worse will happen to me). Most witches experience this guideline as a model of deterrence, rather than a truly ethical basis for their behavior. Quite simply, they are afraid.
For a moment, let us examine the typical witch. She is formerly Christian, raised in a home where going to church and praying before meals were not optional. She was taught at a very young age that if you commit a “sin,” God will punish you with damnation and Hell. Because our subconscious is in charge of our consciousness during childhood, this concept is very difficult to eradicate once it becomes engraved on the psyche. However, it is typical for people raised in such stringency to rebel and seek another path, often one as different as possible from that of their parents. Thus, for Raven Everywitch, the Craft becomes the natural next step. There is no dogma, no rulebook, no clergy standing between the devotee and that which is sacred… not to mention all the fun shock value of casting spells and performing rituals. There are only a few simply guidelines. Unfortunately, one of these (the most well-known), can be directly interpreted as the very concept which caused their feelings of dissatisfaction and enslavement in the first place: the fear of cosmic, and karmic, retribution.
I have realized that pagans seem to fear karma as Christians fear hell. It is most likely residual Christian conditioning that keeps them subconsciously dependent on having something to fear, but it is extremely disempowering. They are so terrified of “upsetting the balance” that they do not realize they themselves have become imbalanced, and are now content to sit still and watch villains get away with evil, rather than step in and use the very power given to us by the universe to make it right.
Our hearts and spirits are fully capable of showing us right from wrong. In this case, discernment is the ability to know whether a curse is truly in order. There is a difference between someone who is inherently evil and habitually hurts innocent people, and someone whose ignorance or immaturity causes them to offend you. Some people are evil at heart, and completely deserve to be dealt the repercussions of their actions.
A Witch who cannot hex, cannot heal. If you cannot curse, you cannot cure. What this means is: how are we supposed to use our magick to change things for the better if we cannot step up and defend ourselves when someone harms us… if we cannot magickally petition our own form of vengeance?
I am not advocating cursing everyone who says something behind your back, or who does not like you, or offends you in some way. That isn't enough. But we must not allow people to cause truly severe emotional and spiritual detriment to ourselves and other innocents with no consequences. The universe allows us to experience being wounded by evil people so we will have the strength to be the one who steps up and does something about such cruelty, refusing to allow the harm of innocent people to continue.
The trick to hexing and cursing, (and staying within moral, ethical, and legal guidelines) is simple. First of all, the punishment should fit the crime. For example, I am not going to cast a spell that would severely physically harm someone’s family. That would be too extreme. Second, although I may not plan on extreme measures (or even actually casting a spell), the victim does not need to know that. As long as they are told that they are cursed, they will be. This is almost better than a spell itself, because fear is indeed its own curse. The deeper that thought burrows into their subconscious, the more likely it becomes that they will be the instrument of their own demise, subconsciously attracting the very things they are so afraid of, without me having to do a thing.
Lastly, cursing and hexing are legal. If someone calls the police and, terrified, tells them “This girl says I’m cursed and she’s going to cast a spell on me!” Law enforcement is going to laugh in their face. It simply is not something that is legally recognized as a threat or violation of the law. Although it is entirely valid, and will most assuredly have observable consequences for the offender, proof or evidence against the caster is simply impossible to produce in court. Therefore, it seems only logical to resort to a curse rather than slashing someone’s tires or throwing a brick through their window, which will almost certainly place you directly in jail, along with causing you to pay financially what the offender should be paying spiritually.
After thinking about this for a substantial amount of time, I have come to see that Evil is relative. Although I have a consistent definition of True Evil, society has a very different view. The phrase “Evil Shall With Evil Be Expelled” is meant to illustrate the point that True Evil can be dealt with using methods society might define as “evil,” when in truth, it is the intentions behind the action taken which causes it to be morally acceptable. The end justifies the means, if you will. Ultimately, there is a conflict between Good and Evil, but when fighting for Good, it is sometimes necessary to do things which the world may view as “evil.” This is the difference between the two definitions of this concept (between which society has no capacity to discern). The first, True Evil, is someone or something which is irrefutably, fundamentally immoral. For example, the Holocaust. The second “evil” is Hitler’s hypothetical assassin. Yes, murder is wrong. But when done to save countless innocents from a fate worse than death, it is a method of fighting for Good. I am not advocating murder. I am advocating the responsible use of dark magick by those who practice it against those who are causing only harm, sorrow, and pain to a large number of innocent people. I am proposing this be done as a way of fulfilling our responsibility to the universe. When we chose this path, we chose to renounce society’s worldview and create our own, always fighting for what is right.
Therefore, witches have a responsibility to fight True Evil with the only thing it is capable of understanding: something which society’s misguided perception calls “evil” as well.
