I've been doing a lot of reading as of late about different types of magic(k) and I've been seeing a lot of rules. I'm just wondering if anyone here has "broken" the rules and what has happened if they did.
there's only one rule to live by, "harm none." harming someone could be emotionally or physically. always remember karma will take care of you if you do something bad or good.
I respectfully disagree with basically everything Bumble said. First off; there is no 'one rule' to live by, because guess what ... There are no universal Pagan ethics! Having got out of neo-wicca alive, I personally do not believe in 'harm none' or 'karma' (and by extension 'the rule of three'); so have probably broken them. Shockingly my life has never been better. Ooh I haven't had a good snark about neo-wicca for ages, this'll be fun. All 'you's are general as standard... re: harm none "The only people that the Rede pertains to are those who ascribe to it, it is unique to Wiccans and some kinds of Witchcraft." To me 'harm none' is a bit like Communism. It sounds near flawless as a hypothetical, but deeply flawed once in practice. * Firstly let's be realistic about our definition of 'harm'. Even purely within the context of magical works mining for crystals damages the earth, plants/animals were killed for the ritual food we eat, breathing whilst meditating means you'll inhale bugs; but nobody is telling you to stop doing any of those things. So why the crazy paranoia about a single spell going awry? Seriously I have know people scared to do any magical work for fear the rule, and that's no way to live. If you can't hex you can't heal. * As for the unavoidables; there's no denying WWII has a high death toll, but I think most people are agree that Hitler had to be stopped. In every day life too it is necessary to take a stand for the good of others or yourself. Are we seriously supposed to be maryrs; putting every other need above our own? * I don't like the 'them and us' thing this rule sets up. 'Harm none' seems so reasonable to most that anyone questioning it is liable to be though amoral at best [which is odd as most people live by a greater number of guiding principles, but there you go]. * All I'm saying we should use common sense, not make outright dictats, and certainy don't try to force them on the warriors decendant because a row of shrunken heads would look great on my mantel piece. re: karma You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means. So let me get this straight [inverted commas because such things are subjective]... Do what it is 'right' and you'll be rewarded, do something 'wrong' and your existance won't be worth living? So who pray tell decided these criteria, and how do we discover the terms and conditions? 'faithful vs sinful', 'good karma vs bad karma', 'heaven vs hell', 'cushy rebirth vs shitty rebirth' ... same fucking diffrence. Might as well have stuck with Christianity then; at least their manifesto is free from all good hotels. Seriously though having studied Buddhism I have a reasonable idea of what karma actually is; and it's not the cosmic bogeyman of Silver Rabidfluffs latest tome. Of course there is cause & effect, in a more general sense. Which is just fine and dandy, no need to pillage eastern religions to soup it up. re: Rule of three To be honest Obsidian puts this far better than I could; http://www.obsidianmirror.net/Essays/three.html but in short ... # Everything has an equal and opposing force; we know that from physics*. Surely the 1:1 ratio of cause & effect is enough anyway. So the idea that we are the only ones getting a triple karmic screwing over is absurd really. # How can we be sure we're keeping the rules for honourable reasons [i.e. having the compassion not to hurt people] and not just out of fear of punishment? Again with the Christian thing. Now honestly I've no problem with Christianity, but that wasn't exactly what we signed up for, was it? My personal moral code I try to live by the Celtic virtues (Honor, Loyalty, Hospitality, Honesty, Justice and Courage). Have also researched the nine noble virtues [which pertain to Germanic/Norse Paganism] so am giving those some thought ... see this ancestoral reverence thing isn't all it's cracked up to be; I don't want to have favouritism. Obviously those are the ideals, rather than rules (see can't break them that way), and I don't always live up to them because well no one's perfect. When I slack, well life sucks a bit for a while, as it generally does when you fuck something up, but it's not as if some cosmic bogeyman comes to get me. Further reading on the general subject ... http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/vanthal/608/id45.htm (nice overview) http://davensjournal.com/DaWaC.xhtml (comparisons between Wicca and Druidry; first section is the relevant one. Offers further info on the Celtic virtues) http://www.obsidianmirror.net/Essays/redebgon.html (the source of Wiccan principles; with a side of good sense) http://www.friggasweb.org/nvirtues.html (as I mentioned them; and to further prove neo-wicca doesn't have the monopoly on morality) *Yes I have more faith in Einstein than anyone who's written for Llewelyn; bite me.
I agree with you to an extent. I believe that you can't take everything seriously because duh I will step on a bug without knowing and that will harm that bug. Of course I have to drive a car right now because I don't live in the city.i'm going to be carless when jan comes around when i move to the city. I believe karma is internally set. If you know it's wrong to do something, then it will come back to you in some form. What I ment by these concepts is that they shouldn't be intentional. In all honesty, rules are self-determined. These are just the rules I follow. I rarely use magick and when I do I couldn't use it to harm someone and this is what I was getting at for the OP.
