So How Do I Know What's "Good" and "Bad" or "Light and Dark"? This is probably the most complex issue in magick that I have encountered... everybody's perspective on this seems to be different. For example, let's say that someone close to you is sick and you want to work some magick to heal them. How do you know that healing them is in their best interests? OK let me elaborate here: First, if you do a working for that person without asking their permission, or after they have said no, they don't want you to try to heal them, that is working against the will of another which in my book is a BIG no-no. Secondly, how do you know that healing is what they need? Yes I know that sounds like a stupid question, but stop and think a minute. What if that person's illness is a result of their actions and karma, and they have become ill in order to learn one of life's lessons? If you go ahead and work healing for that person, you are interfering with their karma and therefore setting yourself up for some almighty kickbacks, because you will be preventing them from learning something that they needed to learn, and therefore altering their karma and setting them up for more trouble later on, not to mention the trouble you will bring upon yourself! See what I mean about this one being complex? The only way around this issue is to sit down and again, THINK carefully about WHAT you want to do, and WHY, and the possible kickbacks to you if you go ahead. Examine your motives carefully and if you are not sure, ask your deities for help...if you are still not sure after you do this, then I would say thats a pretty good indication that what you are wanting to do is maybe not the best thing for all involved. Sometimes it can be very difficult, but we have to separate our own emotional leanings from what we want to do in order to get a clear picture (if Auntie Mabel is dying of cancer, for example, your overriding instinct is of course going to be to help her get better, but you have to separate your personal interest from the magickal ethics and the potential fallout from your actions for everyone). Light And Darkness I do not believe you can have one without the other...to achieve true balance, you MUST acknowledge, understand, and work with both. This is not to say that darkness equals evil. To me darkness encompasses such things as death, and all the things that are traditionally viewed as "negative" (which in itself is a very misleading term as it basically just means those things which are the opposite of light or "positive"), but that are also perfectly natural and necessary aspects of the cycle of life, and as such they cannot be "ignored" as seems to be the case with several Wiccans and "white-lighters" I have come across. These people to me seem to be afraid of darkness - I personally believe that it is a classic case of "what I do not know or understand, I fear". Nature does not pretend that darkness does not exist - in fact darkness is an integral part of life, and without it there would be no balance. To have no darkness would be like having day without night, light without shadow, life without death...the list goes on. My personal views on working with darkness are that I will work with it when I see that it is necessary...I do not try to work exclusively with one or the other, but with both as needed (hence the reason why I celebrate the Dark Moon as well as the full...this is the Goddess in her Crone Aspect, a phase when She has much to offer us if we listen). This is not to say that I go around causing people harm, either - whilst I do not strictly follow the Rede, I do try not to cause harm if I can avoid it, because the repercussions for me if I do cause harm are often too steep. However, I also recognise that regardless of my intent, there are times when no matter what I do, someone is going to get hurt, and there is little or nothing I can do about it. These are the times when I have to sit and think very carefully about whether I can accept the repercussions from my actions. I believe the key here is to do what you feel comfortable with, and if you are prepared to accept the consequences of your actions, then go ahead with your magick. |