The Ethics of Spell-casting

If you have picked up a spell book, most common being The Element Encyclopaedia series, you probably have flipped through it and stopped at some love spells, or wealth spells.

“The universe wastes nothing. Everything is simply, transformed.”
This is a sentence, from the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, that sums up what spell casting is. Any Pagan who performs spells will tell you that when you cast a spell, you are exchanging energy with the universe.

This is not about how to cast spells. I believe that you can read the theory, but you never really learn how to cast spells until you try it.
This is about the ethics of spell casting.

When you flip through any spell book you will have spells that a majority of Pagans say will are “unethical” and “not worth the risk”. Well, this can be confusing. How do you know what would be ethical?

Most Pagan’s go by the three-fold rule which basically states that what you exchange with the universe will come back three times.
I can provide a simple example.
My cousin fell at hit her head. She could have died (but she is, thankfully, alright). I performed a simple distance healing spell. Meditation only. In response, the universe helped my cousin, and helped me perfect using eye liner.

This is an example of how the universe repays me. I sent my energy to my cousin, the universe replaced it with energy to do eye liner. As a makeup artist who was struggling with eye liner, this is a very positive thing. However, if you send your energy out in a bad way, such as cursing someone, the energy that will return to you will be negative.

The universe is like a cosmic mirror, you will put out your energy, be it negative or positive, and the universe will then amplify it, and send it back.

This is why in my Book of Shadows you will not find spells that are “negative”.
The obvious categories of hexes and curses are, of course, absent.

What about the more “grey areas”? These include spells like love spells and money spells.
These are special cases, where they can be both positive and negative. In these cases, you must read the spell fully, and understand its possible repercussions. Now, when studying my spell book, I read each of these. Let me tell you, it was a bit crazy.

I’ll talk about love spells. They are usually employed to make a specific person to fall on love with the caster. This counters ethics. As you are using magic to make someone fall in love, this interferes with the other person’s free will. However, there are love spells that don’t target a single person, but rather signal ones availably to the universe and allow romance to enter one’s life. This does not interfere with free will as there is no specific target.
Money spells work similarly. Some spells for money will bring you the opportunity to earn more money, which will require some work and quick thinking on your part. Do not expect the universe to give you everything you want.

But then, why did I include banishing spells?
This is another special case. In the case of banishing spells, you are using these against a person who is a serious threat to you. These are not spells for getting rid of the jerky boyfriend! These spells take careful consideration, and should not be used lightly. This is up to the spell caster’s discretion.

Spells are fickle things. You have to be able to really think ahead. It requires good decision-making skills. For younger witches, doing their first sort of spells, you should look for spells like a protection spell. These spells will help you learn how to do spells while still learning how your spells affect the universe. This is especially good for teenage witches, who may still lack the foresight to make a good decision. I know you hate to hear it, but I was a teenager once (I’m only 19 now!) and trust me, we don’t know everything. Spells can help with basic decision making, if you know your ethics.

It’s a good idea to do a bit of Googling “Pagan Ethics” and learn a bit of general ethics, then apply them to spell casting.