Doing Negative Magick

Doing negative magic has always been controversial in the neopagan community. In other communities it is viewed as the norm. My views on the topic have changed over time.

I do not follow the rule of three. If you take that rule literally, that would mean that someone who shop lifts would have items stolen from them three times for every time they stole something from somebody else. Or, they would lose something three times the value. I have never seen any such literal mathematically precise result of magic. Even taken metaphorically or with some concept of karma I’m not sure the rule of three can be accurately applied. I do believe in what the concept is trying to teach.

Before I retired, I was a hothead at work. Having engaged in this behavior for many years it is understandable that some people were afraid to see me coming. Their resistance to my suggestions or activities came in large part from my behavior. Though I have to admit that people much nicer than myself also received this resistance but the response from people was always kinder. Basically, I created a flow of negativity that did impact my enjoyment of my work life. In one way because I allowed myself to get upset and in another way because my being upset created negative feelings towards me that were acted upon.

I feel the same way about doing negative magic. When the habit is to do negative magic towards everybody that causes some offense, trespasses upon one’s life, or that one simply doesn’t like, the practitioner walks into a flow of negativity within his or her own life. Living within that current is literally bathing in your own negativity, the negativity of others and one’s own false perceptions of negativity. Pretty soon the magick users is at war with everyone and everything. I have never seen this work out well. Normally, these people are cranky, speak negatively about everyone around them are usually unhappy with themselves.

That said, I do believe in doing the occasional negative magic. In a prior post, I mentioned doing some magic in the workplace to defend myself from people who wanted to fire me. That was quite easy for me to do because they had no legitimate reason for doing so. If they tried to fire me for being cranky, it would’ve been harder for me to do because I would’ve agreed with them. I also feel negative magic is necessary when you are encountering a particularly nasty sort of person. For example, a stalker, thief, or someone that continually creates unnecessary mischief because they are mean.

Such things should be relatively rare. If they are not, one should stop and ask oneself what one is doing in order to attract that sort of negativity on a continual basis. Chances are inner work is more necessary than tossing about a lot of negative magic. That inner work will heal you in the long term and make your life much more enjoyable