Friday, October 5, 2012

Rule of Thumb for Magical Ethics

My personal rule of thumb for magical ethics is not to read half-baked blog posts on ethics.

Instead, I suggest taking a philosophy class on ethics or reading something about different ethics systems. Truthfully, living an ethical life is important to the way I practice witchcraft. My tradition often talks about the Witch as the person who will speak the uncomfortable truth or do the hard task that needs to be done. Essentially, a form of utilitarianism. A Witch's goal is use his or her magic (and hands, feed, head, heart and etc) to leave the world a little better than he or she found it.

I can't say that never means I never act selfishly. Of course I do, I'm a simple human being. But I aspire to making things a bit better than I left. I will still do magic own well-being. But I also try to use that well-being to support my family and friends, my neighbors and community, and the web of life as I know it.  It's probably cheezy, but there it is.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Teaching magic...

I'm just not sure it's actually possible to teach magic. It's very possible to learn magic, people do all the time.  But actually teach it?  At best, a teacher can share the tools, techniques and experiences of how they do magic.

But something has to click in the student.  If you're learning magic and you try a few things out of a book or from a blog, it may click immediately or it may not. Just keep trying. Read widely, take classes, and/or work with a mentor. Above all, practice. Eventually, magic will find you. Or it won't.  But I tend to think that magic is available to everyone.