The ethics of magic

Within the world of magical practice there is a tremendous debate about the morals and ethics of magical practice. For me this debate starts with a personal decision on how magic is viewed. There are generally two schools of thought, people who believe that magic is essentially a placebo effect, and people who believe that magic is an external force that can be accessed to effect a change in the World. It should be noted that defining magic as a placebo effect is in no suggesting that magic is not real. There is clear evidence of the reality of the placebo effect in medical studies, but this belief system with regard to magic does have implications for me on the question of ethics.

If we think of magic as a placebo we are considering it as a set of techniques that are specifically designed to effect an internal change be that physically or psychologically, potentially leading to a change in the external world as a consequence. To use an example, one could decide to work magic to encourage wealth, the magical process effecting a psychological transformation making one more aware of money making opportunities. To compare this to magic as an external force, we would be considering the possibility that the same magical working to attract wealth would have a more direct impact on the external world taking money from someone else to increase the magic users personal wealth.

Clearly there are implications in each of these cases, but personally I see a far clearer ethical dilemma with the latter case whereby the magic user, unless they are extremely careful, appears to have limited control over where the wealth comes from. I believe that this may have been a thought that occured to the early pioneers of the revival in magical practice in the late 19th and early 20th Century, and can be seem expressed most clearly in the Wiccan Rede written by Gerald Gardiner and modified by Doreen Valiente, particularly in the final line "These words the Wiccan Rede fulfill, an' it harm none do what ye will". This also echoes the rather less ethical injunction favoured earlier by Crowley encapsulated by his epithet "Love is the law, love under will" and further "The overwhelming first principle of magical practice requires an understanding of ones true will and the strength to act upon it".

The idea of magic as an external force requires a practitioner to consider the ramifications of their actions in far closer detail than if magic is simply a placebo in my opinion, and in so doing forces that magical practitioner to hold themselves responsible for their actions if they are to take any morally acceptable position. Therefor I would argue that it is intrinsic to the pagan mindset that magic, if it is considered at all within Paganism, is considered to be an external force which may be tapped and utilised as any other tool might, and accorded a similar level of respect. It is only be thinking in this way that the necessary mental discipline will be achieved.