Fate or Fix?

When it comes to magic and ethics, there is a big debate on what we have a right to do, as witches and Pagans.  Do we have the right to use magic that will effect people without their permission?  Do we have a right to try to effect the world in general, things like climate or weather?  Are things that are happening happening for a reason?

I definitely feel that modern practitioners have more worries about these kind of things than our ancestors would have.  Which is sort of amusing to me, as we are less likely to think that certain events (like a big storm, or an animal stampede) are directly caused by the gods and more likely to look for scientific or natural explanations.  Even when we work with nature deities, we don't tend to think in terms of "Gaia made the snowstorm happen, it must be her will!"  And yet, our ancestors definitely worked magic to fight back against the things that they felt the gods were inflicting on them.

Regular and rituals might be made to appease the gods and keep things flowing normally, but when things got out of wack, that meant it was time to work more, not work less.  I feel like we've lost a bit of this, caught up in our thoughts on whether or not we 'should' be influencing things.

 

Now, my personal opinion is pretty much always, "Yes, we should work towards what we want."  And this includes when our work directly pushes back against other people (and their free will).  Because I believe we all have the right to work for what we want and believe in.  And I fully support the right of people who believe in the exact opposite to work for what they believe in.

 

In fact, that is part of what I think the problem is.  The less than ethical people in the world will use everything in their power to make sure that what they want to happen...happens.  That includes very shady if not down right wrong actions.  They will lie, cheat, steal, bribe, and yes, even kill to get their way.  If we decide that pushing back is somehow infringing on their freedoms and rights, then we are giving away our power.

 

Now, I am not suggesting we start going out and doing the same kinds of things they are...because of course if you fight evil with evil...well then everyone's evil.  We all have to decide what we are and are not willing to do for what we believe in.

But there are many ways to approach a problem, and with a bit of creativity you can use beneficial means to handle less than savory people.  The wonderful thing is that there is a wide variety of practitioners out there, and so we can all do what we feel comfortable with and that creates a very big push against the things in this world that we find unbearable.  Whether that means a curse, a binding or a blessing, it is all work being done to correct a bad situation.

And I know that the question that is often asked is, "What gives ME the right to pass judgement on other people?"  But that is something we do, all day long, every day.  If someone cuts me off on the road, I judge them.  If I see someone stealing at the grocery store, I judge them.  If I see someone punching another person, I judge them.  In all of those situations, I might also take action against them.  Whether it is just honking my horn or actually wading into a fist fight, I have decided that I want the other person to know that I don't agree with what they are doing.

I don't think we can continue to sit idly by.  I think we are waking up to the notion that the evils of the world are going to continue unless we start fighting back.  I think that we have come to the slow, creeping realization that we have watched things get bad for a while, that we have 'minded our own business' and now the people in power have amassed SO much power it is going to be a fight to get things back to acceptable.

And we are seeing examples in the physical world of this very exact thing.  People have been keeping their eyes down and ignoring the small signs and slights for ages.  They have been repeating the mantra of "it's not happening to me, I need to mind my own business," and they have been turning a deaf ear to the cries of the victims.  But they are starting to find those cries deafening, and realizing that it is their business and it does effect them.  And even if it doesn't effect them directly, it hurts the people around them, and that hurts them indirectly.

I don't believe in fate or that we should simply accept what is thrown our way.  I believe we are given tools and our free will so that we can fight for what is important to us.  So that we can fight for what we believe in.  And I think that we need to wake up and realize that we can't wait for the fight to reach us...we need to look for all the small ways that our enemies are getting those little toe holds and roots sunk into the ground.  Because if we wait, they will have built this foundation that we will then have to breach.  We need to stop letting the little things slide, because that is how avalanches start, and it is much easier to stop a small pebble from rolling down a hill than it is to survive a ton of falling rocks.