In the wake of all that is going on with the world, the idea that we, as Pagans and Witches, have a responsibility to create change in the world, keeps coming up. And, for many people, this idea of bearing responsibility for change carries a lot of weight and brings up a lot of issues.
I think that the first thing we need to talk about, when we discuss creating real change in the world, is the idea of free will and how that applies to magic. As I have said before, I am not a follower of Harm None, but it is still quoted so often in our community, I feel like I need to touch on this.
When you think about it, the main idea of the tenant of Harm None is to not use magic for 'bad' reasons. But sometimes the choice isn't between good and bad it's between bad and worse. If we don't act, out of fear of harming someone, do we allow greater harm to come to us or someone we might have protected?
Where I think Harm None really falls apart is when it is taken to the "never cast a spell on someone else without their permission because you are infringing on their free will!!!!" In many ways, this is just one more way to shame and threaten people into being complacent and passive...to letting other people hurt them because they don't want to be loud or to fight back.
I feel like there is a very big difference between doing a spell to make someone break their leg because you are mad that they said your friend looked prettier than you did and doing a spell to get other people to understand a different perspective or even doing a spell to stop people from attacking and hurting others.
There is a trend, in many new-age circles, to keep our magic self-centered, to only work for one's self, for self-improvement. And even then, we are expected to keep our magics internal, to work on our inner issues, to not directly work to effect our physical world (because somehow that is interfering with other people's free will or creating harm to them).
And I have to say a little something about this. Because magic is something that is available to everyone. It isn't some kind of innate power that only some people have, that gives them a undefendable advantage over people who don't have it. It's not a form of privilege that you are born with. It is a skill that we work on, an ability that we cultivate and an action we can take...that anyone can take.
Trying to limit our magic usage to internal-only uses is like trying to tell someone, "It doesn't matter how many hours you spent working on learning how to play the violin, you can't ever play in public because someone else might feel bad that they can't play...and you definitely can't audition for a job by playing your best, because that's not fair to people who haven't practiced." It sounds a little ridiculous, doesn't it, when you put it in those terms.
Now, I titled this blog Magical responsibility, because I do feel that we have a responsibility to others and to the world. None of us live in a bubble, and no matter how self-centric your viewpoint is, helping other people is just good business. Every person on this earth (honestly, every thing and being on this earth...and in the universe), relies on the success of other beings to survive.
And as a society, the greater issues, the ones that we are struggling with right now...effect us all. We have a vested interest in how these things unfold and resolve. Now, I'm not going to tell you what you should think or feel or what causes you should get behind, because that's not my place. But I do think that, whatever you feel strongly about, you have a responsibility to try to make the world a better place.
One of my favorite memes lately was in relation to the protests, and it put things in an RPG slant. It pointed out that not everyone can physically attend a protest, but there are many ways to help the cause. You might be doing support stuff, helping with supplies or logistics. You might be emotional fuel, keeping up the spirits of those who are going out and doing the physical stuff. You might be doing the scholarly thing, doing research and finding ways to share the information. But if you care, there is something you can do.
And magic is one of those things. There are tons of ways to help magically, and direct casting is only one of them. Maybe you want to research ways that magic can help, different approaches (like using spells to create greater understanding and empathy instead of directly going after the end goal). Or you might want to signal boost, and share spellwork and coordinated casting events.
We are in this world, in this lifetime, and I think we owe it to ourselves (not to mention to our descendants), to make the most of it. When we see something that we feel is wrong, it is in our best interests to look for ways we can make it better. Sometimes this is as simple as picking up a piece of trash and throwing it away, or sometimes we feel this is our mission in this life and we tackle getting more people to be aware of how trash impacts our planet and finding new ways to handle the trash we do create.
As it has been said recently, silence is loud. Doing nothing is a choice and an action. Not getting involved is making a stand, and avoiding thinking about the hard topics is a decision to support what is going on. If you don't act, you are helping to create the world we live in today. So if you don't like parts of our world...do something to change it!
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