Riding along in the car recently, my husband and I passed an SUV with a bumper sticker that read, “karma will handle it.” I looked at my husband and said, “Sure, karma will handle it, and karma’s name is Jessica.” I believe in the importance of hexing for the same reason I believe Batman sucks as a superhero in the movie “The Dark Knight.” Sometimes you have to do the difficult thing in order to limit and prevent harm. While some might applaud Batman for refusing to kill the Joker, and point out that it keeps him from becoming a murderer himself, I would argue that he enabled the Joker to murder significantly more people because of his unwillingness to take the difficult yet necessary action against him.
Hexes are a hot topic within the witch community, with some adamantly against hexing and some who make hexing a regular part of their practice. The ideas of witchcraft as “black and white” are unhelpful at best, and deeply harmful at worst. Witches who are in their power are balance keepers, able to work with both hands. There’s a lot of fear-mongering around hexing, and that fear does what it’s meant to do: disempower.
The False Ideal of Harm None
The proclivity to avoid hexing in an effort to harm none is a lovely ideal, but unfortunately, it does not have much of a footing in the real world. We can’t completely avoid harming others to some degree in our everyday actions. The same can be said for magickal work as well.
Let me give you a rather concrete example. If you do a spell to get a job, invariably that means another person does not get that job. This could be considered harmful because someone else loses out so that you get hired. Even if you didn’t do a spell and were simply hired for a job for which others were applying, the same principle applies. Our actions necessarily result in benefiting some while negatively affecting others.
I won’t dive any further into the philosophy behind this, nor the caveats (such as a better suited opportunity arriving for the other people) because this post is not about the streams of possible outcomes, but about the reality that every single one of our actions has consequences that are better for some and worse for others.
Suffice it to say “harm none” is unfortunately not the way the world operates. None of us can eat without causing harm to plant or animal. Harm none is a very human ideal that flies in the face of what we not only experience personally, but also observe in nature. “Reduce harm” may be a better philosophy than “harm none,” as it recognizes that harm will happen but seeks to limit it. And sometimes, hexing is a way to reduce harm.
Karma
Not all witches are Wiccan (I am not Wiccan), and not all witches adhere to the Wiccan "Rule of Three” which states that what you put out will come back to you threefold. I don’t adhere to this rule because it’s demonstrably false (I’ve never had any spell I did returned to me times three), and because it’s a bastardization of the original rule of three.
The original rule of three states that what you do to a witch will be returned upon you with three times the power and force of which it was sent. It was a warning to others, not a restriction on witchcraft.
I don’t recognize karma as a universal payback system for the same reason stated above (it’s demonstrably false). If these checks and balances actually existed, our world would be much different. Justice would be cut and dry. And it wouldn’t be acceptable to say “karma will get them” with a hint of self-satisfaction and glee in your voice because that would result in karma coming to get you for wishing it upon another.
Using “karma” as a reason to limit actions is just a way to hinder the power of witches, and of people in general. It’s fine and dandy to believe someone may “get their comeuppance one day,” but we can’t count on that actually happening. We have no idea if it will. And since I don’t believe in heaven and hell or the theology around it, I’m deeply unmoved by promises about what will happen when we die. Not only that, I find the concept of eternal punishment horrifically unjust.
Each of us must decide how we will respond to the people and situations we face. If you decide that someone is not worth your energy, that is an empowered decision. If you decide to not take a particular action because you don’t want to be be shaped by how you respond to that person, again, that is an empowered decision. But if you feel you must not take any action because of “karma,” that’s a fearful decision.
When we are oppressed and harmed by others, it can feel comforting to think that one day there will be justice. It can feel empowering to hold onto that and sometimes that’s all a person has. As witches, there is always another action we can take to move that along.
What Karma Is
I understand karma as a state of being. Karma is what happens to me (or to you) internally when we commit an action, and when we decide what to do with what we receive from others. We either reinforce who we are and become more, or we are diminished. We either contribute to our sense of peace, or we perpetuate discord within.
When someone cuts you off in traffic and you decide to let it go, you’re likely choosing peace. However, consider a situation where a woman has been continuously told she’s a “better person” for “turning the other cheek.” She’s swallowing her rage, she’s not enforcing boundaries, or using her voice. This is a karmic situation as well, one in which she is victimized and disempowered and being told she’s better for it. There is undeniable discord within.
A person who is mean and terrible to be around is, internally, in a hell of their own making (state of karma) and attempting to perpetuate it outside of themselves by how they treat others. They can change this by taking actions to heal themselves and their relationship with others. Witches can limit the harm these people do through magick. This brings me to the third pillar.
Justice
Hexes are one of the ways that witches can help get justice in an unjust world and corrupt system. We do not need to wait and let the gods sort things out. Hexing, binding, protection, banishing--these are active ways to reduce harm right here and now for ourselves and our communities. I believe that we have an obligation to use our power for the benefit of ourselves and others. Sometimes that means hexing.
It can mean doing a freezer spell to get someone who is harassing you to leave you alone. It can be a spell to influence the courts in favor of a victim. Or it can be a spell to bind someone from doing harm. It can be a spell to erode the power and wealth of someone who is abusing people and bringing their actions to light. It can be protection work to keep harmful people away. Sometimes, it’s a spell to shut someone’s mouth or a spell. And so on and so forth.
Magick doesn’t have clear lines. We have to set those lines ourselves. Sometimes you need to do something that is good for you, that is for your protection, that forces amends by limiting their actions. This will have a negative impact on the person or being that doesn’t have good intentions for you. That shouldn’t be seen as an ethical dilemma.
I once performed a very effective truth spell on someone who I knew was hiding things from me that could cause me harm. However, when this person’s secrets started spilling out from their mouth and the mouths of those around them, I doubt this person would have felt that the spell was beneficial to them.
This spell I did could technically be considered baneful magick because of the way it affected the other person, even though truth spells don’t fall under the category of baneful magick to most witches. Doing this spell helped me verify what I knew, gain the pieces of the puzzle that were missing, and avoid a situation that would have caused me much more harm than good in the long run.
Know How to Hex in Order to Break a Hex
We are powerful, we are sovereign. We have the right to protect ourselves and others. Baneful magick is an essential for the witch, and it's something to be familiar with whether or not you agree with using it. Without understanding of how baneful magick works, reversing it when it’s sent your way unjustly (and this does happen sometimes) is impossible.
When it comes to hexing, one of the questions that keeps me in check is, “will this action help me be the kind of person I want to be?” In the case of petty situations, the answer is no (regrettably, for my ego, though I may mundanely dazzle when someone razzles). Another action that helps me ensure I’m making the right decision, is communing with my ancestors and spirit team. I get their input on the best course of action, and whether or not they support it. They’re not going to support me hexing someone if it’s not the right thing to do, so it’s helpful to get their opinion.
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