Magick……
Magick is an art form. Despite the best efforts of Ritual Magicians and Techno-pagans, it remains as unpredictable and powerful as the weather unless you are highly skilled and focused. Scientists studying weather prediction in the 1970’s discovered something amazing. Weather, they found, is as unstable as to be impossible to predict more than a day or two in advance. In fact, computer models suggested something they called the Butterfly Theory. It seems that the air disturbed by a butterfly taking off from a cactus in Mexico, if it happened at the right time and place, could in theory cause devastating storms and tornadoes in the U. S. Midwest. Magick is very similar. Each action we take, magickal or mundane, has consequences that spread out from it like the ripples in a pond.
They spread out, touching everything – and reflect back to converge on the source. Be very sure, then, before you work magick, exactly what the consequences may be. Ask yourself, “If this spell backfires on me, and affects me instead of the intended target, can I live with the result?” Thus I tend to use magick only in direst need, and then must the cause be just.
Some Wiccans counsel about how rain on your fields could cause drought elsewhere. This might be true, if you are trying with your own personal power to squeeze the rain clouds as they pass over. But asking the Lady and Lord for the blessing of rain for everybody’s crops is a different thing entirely. Selfish magick has negative consequences: Loving, giving magick only positive ones. For Selfishness is the true root of all evil. “I want it! Destroy the world, let Chaos take the universe as long as I get what I want!” Be careful of what you ask, you just may get it….
Power corrupts:
So, you’ve studied hard, learned all about Witchcraft and now you find you can really do things. All the powers of the Elements is yours to command. Love, money, power, respect – all these are yours. You are special. You are powerful.
It is always important to remember that the gift of magickal power is just that – a gift from the Lady and Lord. It must never be abused. And glorifying yourself because of something lent to you is like showing up at your class reunion in a borrowed suit and a rented Jaguar.
What’s The WOTC Talkin’ Bout?