- Baneful Magic or “Cursing”, Negative Consequences or Simply a Price Tag?
- Combative Magic in the Real World
I have a point to make but let me get a couple of disclaimers out of the way first. These probably are not what you are expecting, as it won’t be the standard “you shouldn’t use magic to hurt people” spill nor even the “don’t sue me if you fuck yourself or someone else over with this”.
There are just a couple of technical points I wish to make for the astute seeker.
I don’t really use the term baneful magic in my own vernacular, but it’s the contemporary phrase in common usage so I include it in the title and tags to connect with the right reader for this piece. Don’t get me wrong, the term baneful magic is fine; accurate enough and very descriptive. It’s just not my preferred slang.
The term “black magic” is acceptable, though dated, yet not ideal, as an entire aspect of magical lore and practice falling under the (true) category of black magic deals with far more than attacking or hurting someone through magical means. I’m talking about the domain of Saturn in his and her many forms and the dense, potent arcana governed by that sphere. Death and despair, destruction and so forth are part of the true Black, but only a part and not necessarily even the most important.
Just to be thorough I do want to take a moment to mock the folks who do subscribe to the black and white magic dichotomy, meaning they classify good operations as white magic and evil work as black magic. This disturbing and predictably prevalent school of thought states all (white) magic should be about personal development and spiritual growth and only aimed at the user. These New Age virtue-signalers will tell you any work towards affecting other living things, even if the intent is to heal, is indeed black magic. In some versions of this crap even the weather is off limits!
BULLSHIT.
That’s all I’ll say to that for now but we will certainly touch on this kind of magical religiosity and brainwash down the road. I promise.
Does Harmful Magic have a Place in your Practice?
See how I did that? I introduced my preferred term for what many call baneful and most still call black magic and at the same time led us deeper into the narrative. Yes sir that $997 course on blogging on the interwebs surely was worth it!
This is a question you and you alone can answer. It’s worth some thought and you must be honest with yourself, I will give said thought a quick snack but the rest is up to you.
Harmful Intentions
I call so-called “curses” and the like harmful magic simply because that is what it is; magic cast with the intent of doing some kind of harm, whether physical, financial, emotional, psychological, or whatever.
If you’re having a dilemma or using heavy terminology (cursing et al) for work that is just about protecting what’s yours or deflecting ill intent or something like this, chill out and move on because that kind of thing is NOT baneful or harmful. You could say it’s combative, and maybe you’re even using Mars, thus it becomes martial magic in truest form.
Harmful magic is usually, maybe always, combative but not all combative magic is harmful or at least not cast with hurtful intent. The intention makes the difference.
If I cast a spell or carry a stone to deflect hateful forces I am only protecting. If I do the same work but in order to return the bad intentions to the sender, I accept that harm could be done, but I may hope that doesn’t have to happen. I could even specify my wish or will to that end.
Regardless of that extra step, simply returning energy, even knowing it could harm, is not in the category as willfully sending hurt onto your adversaries. After all, it is quite appropriate to pace hateful energy back where it originated, and to do so is a more responsible act than simply swatting it away and letting it land where it may.
Only the work done with deliberate focus on and effort towards hurting another should be considered baneful, cursing, or however you wish to term the affair.
This is of course my opinion and to be honest I respect even the pansified nonsense peddled by neo-mystics ala the aforementioned black-and-white magical paradigm. Seriously I do respect their right to believe and promote those ideas, I just think the same ideas are total rubbish.
What About the Negative Consequences?
Finally I arrive at the point I claimed to be making at the start of this article. I’m sure you have heard, no doubt in authoritative tones, about all the ill that will befall you should you break the pretend magical law about using your skills and resources to harm an enemy.
The standard apologetics state that any use of magic or metaphysical abilities to hurt someone will result in a ricochet effect of detrimental energy flying back into your life and harming you, damaging your relationships, hurting loved ones and generally just tearing your life up. This is a disingenuous, or maybe just simple-minded portrayal of the dynamics being discussed.
Action and Reaction, Give and Receive
Every action yields a reaction. We know this from third grade science class. This is karma.
I realize that normally when we kick that term around we get all mystical and uppity and douse the word in patchouli and whatnot but if you study the Vedic texts and original written concepts of the term kara you will find that it is simply about action and reaction at the spiritual grade.
When I say spiritual I mean nothing religious nor am I talking morality. Spirit is an energy and substance finer than all other frequencies, that is thought to be either the source of all other energies or the conveyor of the source through the planes of existence. It’s a technical term.
From spirit emerge the energetic qualities we call the four elements and thus all else in the universe. Everything contains and conducts spirit, and spirit flows through all things, is the creator and destroyer of all that is. Spiritual development is the conditioning of your energetic matrix and the refinement of and attunement to your spirit-substance.
Dynamics of Duality
When you put intention and energy into anything, including magic, you will receive like energy in return. By like I mean of the same or similar quality and quantity.
There is a great deal in motion here. Many factors determine exactly how this reaction and your reception of it comes to be. We don’t have the space for an in-depth look nor am I an expert anyway, so I will just urge you to explore the matter on your own and continue with the topic at hand.
If you send malice and damage to your target, similar forces will carry the same kinds of energy back towards you. Unchecked, this return can manifest in a variety of undesirable ways.
- You or someone close to you could get sick or have an accident.
- Negative spiritual activity could initiate in your home, i.e. paranormal shit or a “haunting” in lay person terms.
- You could spiral into a depression or suffer emotional turmoil including uncontrolled anger, or someone in your life could experience this and direct it at you.
- Work, your social scene, your home, vehicle, or family could be subjected to inexplicable “bad luck” or strife, sadness, even confusion.
The manner and nature of your experience depends on your individual spiritual and energetic makeup and the circumstances of your life. All magic, including the karma of harmful work takes the path of least resistance and flow along the most obvious or opportune avenue.
Certainly if you feel guilt or remorse for what you have done you are signaling the very forces of justice and revenge you called forth and saying “Here I am. I’m a bad person. Didn’t I just tell you to trash the bad guys.”
Ignorance vs. Understanding
For the most part, the clueless and the keeper of a guilty conscious or the overtly wicked will inherit the worst-case scenarios. So will the fearful.
It is also of note that the more potent and charged your output, so will be the incoming.
In taking a mature posture, i.e. knowing the price – not the risk mind you as that implies your work will somehow not produce an energetic response, which is impossible – you can mitigate a great deal of suffering. Accepting what you are doing and being man or woman enough to pay the toll will free you from fear and probably destruction as well.
Most of the people overly worried about the backlash from curse, and surely those preaching the loudest against such methods, have never been in a fistfight in their lives.
It’s a simple statement but there is a profound truth to it. Contemplate.
If a thing is worth fighting for or over, victory and defeat are not the warrior’s concern. the only considerations are proper courage and form and aliveness to the moment that one might act at his or her beast and most diligent.
Enter a fistfight and you may get a bloody or broken nose. If you aren’t willing to pay that price in order for the opportunity to bloody or break your enemy’s nose, you have no business in that fight.
A little training, the right attitude, some knowledge of first aid, and an action plan for diverting as much hurt as you can will go a long way. You can possibly even avoid the majority of ill effects, but you must stand willing to meet the price and negotiate with the merchant.
I will make this post the first i a series so I ca follow up with more useful information. Anyone interested in more specific details before then can holler at me. honcho (at) bagofagates.com.
I’ve just had it on my heart to write this for a while now. As per usual the status quo has it ass backwards. The “negative repercussions” of harmful magic are an ill interpretation, due to the poor results of the sufficiently ignorant dabbler or lazy initiate, of a simple price tag.
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