It has been said: "Magick is morally neutral; the actions and intent of the individual make the results positive or negative.”
I would like to agree with this, but I have a personal experience that indicates otherwise. According to how I work with magick (or Universal Life Force Energy) this statement should be true. I believe that the energy is morally neutral, and it should be the intent of the user that determines the result. However, I once performed a binding spell to prevent harm, which I judged to be a good intent, and it turned out badly.
In brief; several years ago, when my daughters were only aged 2 & 4, I made the difficult decision to separate from my husband. He took this badly, to say the least. He became verbally abusive to me in front of the children, and began to use the children as weapons of retaliation. Although the courts and psychologists told him that his actions were harming the children, he persisted in this behavior for several months.
I finally considered doing a Binding to prevent him from harming me or my girls. My morals are very clear on the subject of free will and bindings, so I agonized over this decision for several weeks. I sought the advice of other pagans and Wiccans in the pagan group I belonged to. I finally decided to proceed. I acted purely in self-defense, to prevent him from harming me or my children.
The Binding had immediate unintended repercussions. Within two days of the Binding Ritual, he had a sudden and complete break from reality. He experienced a psychotic delusional episode that included global conspiracies of "dark forces". His behavior became so scary that I had to have social services and the courts intervene on the behalf of my children. A year later, he was still experiencing delusional episodes, and has now been diagnosed as "Paranoid Schizophrenic".
I do not believe in coincidences. My belief in a "responsive universe" is fundamental to my belief in magick. Although I don't believe I was the primary cause of his mental illness (he has a family history of Schizophrenia), I do believe that my Binding was the trigger that sent him over the edge. I bound his energy, and it twisted back on him and ended his grip on sanity. It was an immediate, observable effect of my actions against him.
So now... here's the moral dilemma. My actions, although intended for good, ended with definite negative results. As a highly intelligent man, he's now irretrievely insane. Part of his illness is focused on me, as he sees me as the direct cause for all his problems in life, and his paranoid ideations paint me as the embodiment of ultimate evil. (He does not know about the Binding.) Forever more, I have to deal with an actively hostile man who is the father of my children. My children can only have supervised visits with him. He continues his verbal abuse about me in front of the children (now 7 & 9). I'd have to say that if I had the choice to do over again, I wouldn't do the Binding.
So although I like the "self-defense" exception to the "harm none" rule, it seems that the universe doesn't see the difference. Some lessons need to be learned the hard way. I learned mine. No bindings. Bindings BAD. *shakes head* I wish I'd listened to those who cautioned me against doing it.
~Flame RavenHawk
August 14, 2002