Magic and Ethics: Are Spells for Personal Gain Wrong?

Every now and then, I come across someone espousing the notion that magic is not for personal gain. With dire warnings of karmic backlash, this Wiccan warns you that doing spells for personal gain is "black" magic. It's evil and selfish and just plain wrong, she claims. Wiccans (or Witches) must never use magic for personal gain! She usually knows this, of course, because she is some lineaged 3^rd Degree High Priestess Elder, who is usually all of 14 years old. With all of her worldly experience and magical training, how could we doubt her.

With all due respect, I disagree, and I must admit, I think that most of these people's training in Wicca came from growing up watching Charmed.

Let's go back to the beginning. Our earliest ancestors had needs. The world, though it is beautiful and they were intimately connected to it, could be a scary place. Food could be hard to come by. People got hurt or sick. Weather phenomena could destroy a tribe or village.

Out of these small groups of people eventually arose the wise ones. The ones who discovered how to manipulate energy and improve their chances for a successful hunt. The ones who learned that picking certain plants or mixing certain components from the earth could help heal people more quickly and thoroughly. The ones who discovered that dancing and chanting could actually have an effect on the weather patterns, and bring rain in a parched season, or ward off a storm.

Tell one of these ancient wise people that they are forbidden to do magic for personal gain, and they'd probably laugh in your face. Our magic-using ancestors were, above all things, practical people.

Why else do magic? Parlor tricks?

Or is it just supposed to be more noble to ensure that our neighbors are prosperous, healthy and protected, while we wallow in poverty, illness and face the dangers threatening us.

Magic has always been used for personal gain. Magic is just one way of helping us fulfill our needs, whatever those needs might be.

Of course, in this modern day and age, our needs have changed slightly. We still have a lot of the basic needs, but how we obtain them is different. Most of us no longer need to cast spells over crops or for a successful hunt in order to ensure our prosperity, but we do need an income. We need currency, we need to find a job, we need to get an education and pay off student loans. We may have more medicine and technology at our disposal to help us stay healthy, but anything else at our disposal, including magic, is just another way to ensure it. We have shelters now to protect us from weather or wild animal attacks, but there are still threats out there, such as crime and accidents.

Magic is energy, like electricity. We use electricity for our personal gain all the time- we keep our fridges running to keep our food sanitary, we use it to create light so that we can see better when we work at night, we charge our cell phones so we can call 911 in case of emergency. We even use it for more frivolous yet enjoyable pursuits, such as watching television, listening to music, or surfing the internet. If someone told you that using electricity for personal gain was unethical, you'd probably scoff at them. So why is using another type of energy- magic- any more selfish or immoral?

Of course, we could use magic for personal gain in an unethical manner. We could try to manipulate someone else's free will with magic, to make them fall in love with us. We could use magic to try and get revenge on our enemies because we are angry at them- just for the satisfaction. We could use magic to help us pull off a successful crime. But this would be the same thing as using electricity to shock someone. It is wrong, simply, to try and hurt other people for selfish and petty reasons, but that doesn't make casting any spells for yourself wrong.

And what about those frivolous uses? Is it okay to use magic to help us make money for some concert tickets, to try and make ourselves more attractive, to give us energy to clean our homes, or to bring luck in gambling next time we're vacationing in Vegas? In my opinion, absolutely. For one thing, doing these things is not hurting anyone else. Even more importantly, however, is the fact that you need to practice magic to become adept at it. Why wait around for life-and-death situations in order to perform magic? Isn't it better to practice for smaller things first, regularly, to improve our skills and abilities, so that when that life-and-death situation does occur, we will have more mastery?

Another consideration is that the best way to help others is to help ourselves first. Help yourself become a strong, happy, well-protected, fulfilled person, and you will be in a better position to help other people. Exactly how good a prosperity spell can you cast for your neighbor when you are exhausted from sleepless nights of tossing and turning because you can't cover your own bills?

The universe is imbued with magic. It is in every thing, including ourselves, there at our disposal. There is absolutely no good reason to ignore this useful resource. Use it well- practice it, become better at it, use it to improve your life, as well as the life of others. We just need, like with all other resources, to remember to use it responsibly.