Over the years I have seen the eyes roll and judgement be cast upon me for how lame a Witch I must be, for not embracing baneful magic.  Of course, to be seen as that bad ass Witch that can curse you or bind you on a whim, must be very attractive to those poor folks who feel so disempowered in their world.  The very image of the Witch becomes the armour they don to face a hostile world they feel locked out of.  I think this process of revolution is something every Witch goes through in the beginning, as they don the 8-inch pentacle and raise the middle finger to the conformist would-be civilised world!  Actually many teens from all walks of life, feel this need to rebel against the norms, to emancipate themselves from the yoke of societal expectations being placed upon them.  To live with potential and the expectation of living up to it, is a terrible burden to bear.

Witches are contrary fellows.  Architects of change and yes, sometimes mayhem!  Aren’t all artists?  Are we not practitioners of the oldest of Artes, the Arte of Spirit, the Arte of Witchery?  And are we not the children of the Moon, our sinistral celestial mother, the architect of Lunacy and Mayhem?  Are we not then already scary creatures that make others uncomfortable as they sit in their normal little societal boxes, peeking through rose coloured windows?   We are one with the big scary unknown darkness, and they know it.  We challenge the things that normal folks accept for the sake of the status quo.  Often not even aware that such things are open to be questioned. 

When our identity is so enmeshed with the darkness, with the unknown and the ever so very scary scary creature of change, well of course we tend to lean into it and bemuse ourselves at how much we can make a knee quiver!  So, we wrap ourselves in the trappings of witchdom.  The clothing and baubles on the outside.  The witchy persona we adopt on the inside.  And thusly armed, we set off to rebel against the world of restrictive normality with a cackle and a glint in our eye.  Is this not the path of all Artists, Teens, Students, Philosophers, Scientists, and anyone else who sees that the bounds of reality are only defined by how far we can reach with our awareness?   That to expand the potential of our Humanity & our Divinity, we must question, challenge and push for ever deeper insights?

Our awareness evolves, and we move towards a deeper, wider understanding of reality around us.  The spell-crafting becomes part of a bigger practice of Witchery that begins to inform all aspects of our life.  We begin to shift from practicing the Craft to becoming the Craft.  It no longer is something we do, it is something we are!   Then, seeing the world outside of the box, the first thing we notice is the actual box itself, and how it shapes what and how the world is, when viewed from inside the various boxes.  The first thing I notice when something is presented to me, is the premise upon which it is based, as if that were a given. 

When a person tells me that witches worship other Gods than Christianity, I don’t think about which one is more valid, which God came first.  I am painfully aware that the premise presented is that I worship Gods in the same manner a Christian worships their God.  And the whole premise is wrong!  To start with, I do not worship any Gods.  I have a completely different relationship with Divine Spirit.  One that a Christian that is locked into their box, could not grasp.  I do not work within anything close to their Cosmology.  Not only is the statement of the identity of the Gods wrong, the foundational premise of context is wrong: I do not worship! 

So when a person wants to engage in Baneful Magic, the context of the situation is what I see before me.  When a person wants to draw another into a relationship of Love.  They make the focus about how to get that person into a relationship with themselves.  I see the actual problem has nothing to do with the person being sought, but the need for Love that the seeker is pleading for!  I can do magic to draw True Love to that person, but not to manipulate a specific person against their free will, into a relationship.  When presented with this, the response is, but I don’t want true love, I want that person I asked for! 

When a person comes looking for help because they feel attacked or have had bad magic done against them, the focus is on the person who is the aggressor and what can be done to stop them.  Rather than jump into finding a baneful magical solution against them, I stop and ask a few basic questions.  Is this person looking for a solution and a better life, or are they locked into a desire for revenge?  Being locked into revenge only binds you tighter to the person and passes that person more of your power.  You allow that person to dominate your thoughts and become the delivery device by which any negative act they may do could in truth become a curse.  Because you have made it a curse!

A lot of the old days magic was done by simple people who had little options to a solution.  It was quite literally about who held the power and how to shift that balance of power in your favour.  So because of ignorance and necessity such magic was done quite honestly by poor innocent but desperate people who had little choice.  And for that reason, such magics were seen as legitimate.  In today’s world, we have other choices.  We see other values in our lives.   And because of that, we need to be aware of the consequences of the world we empower and make manifest about us, by our free will and choices!  The reality we create is the one we get to live in.  We do not get to walk away.  What baneful magic we empower against others, is thereby empowered against us.  And that starts a reality of witchcraft wars of power, cursing and contra-cursing.  It creates high school drama on steroids as the foundation of your reality.  It does not enrich your life or your world. 

Do you want a solution, or do you want revenge?  There are times when baneful magic is the choice you need to take.  And in those cases, you need to know that the consequence of that choice means you will have to live in that damaged world.  Or suffer the blow upon your life as you enact it upon others.  And in certain circumstances, perhaps this is right and needed.  But knowing that makes it a rare occurrence.  One that comes with a cost that you are willing to pay. 

Bottom line: if the goal is a better life, then the objective is to disempower the aggressor and remove their influence from your head and your life!  You don’t do this by counterattacking.  You want them ineffective, and that means you have to stop giving them power!  Don’t even name them!  Make them a nothing in your eyes.  There are many ways to achieve your goals, once you know what your actual goals are!

And lastly, bindings.  A binding is a temporary solution to restrain a person or a situation while an actual solution is found.  If you bind as your solution and keep that person spirit-bound, then it is bound to you and it corrupts, and that becomes a curse.  A binding if held, will always become a curse that is bound to the one that casts it.  As is with all baneful magic.

I may not be bad ass in others’ eyes.  But I don’t live for what others think of me.  My Craft is about creating a better life quality for myself and my loved ones.  And that starts by not giving my power to others, be that to impress them, or to control them.