Hi, I'm new here and I'll try to keep my story and question as short as I can. I've been studying Witchcraft/Paganism for awhile now, and now I'm a new mommy. I worry though that if I choose to work a spell that the affects won't come back on my baby. There is a ig piece of my brain saying I'm being way paranoid, but it's a question i can't seem to shake.
-
-
Re: I just don't know
Welcome to the forum, first of all. Why do you believe any spell you cast would affect your child instead of you? You aren't casting the spell for your child in any way.my etsy store
My blog
"...leave me curled up in my ball,
surrounded by plush, downy things,
ill prepared, but willing,
to descend." -
Re: I just don't know
im not really wording it right...and no, no spells on my baby. see i'm a big believer in cause and affect, like say, i do a spell for a lil extra money, and then i find a twenty on the ground (yay for me) but that most likely fell from someones pocket. im just worried about the same type of cause and affect happening to my family. if that makes any sense.Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
Again, I don't see why the spell would "attack" your baby. It would probably backfire on you before it would backfire on the baby.my etsy store
My blog
"...leave me curled up in my ball,
surrounded by plush, downy things,
ill prepared, but willing,
to descend."Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
I think she's saying that she's afraid her happiness will cause her family misfortune, hence the money example. A more explicit example might be a wife wants to desperately move to another state, and in casting her spell the effect is her husband is fired from his job to make it possible to move. I think Serenity wants to avoid pulling resources from her family in order to make herself happy.Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
My point still stands. It doesn't matter who she thinks will suffer unless it's the person casting the spell or she's casting it on behalf of someone, from my perspective, because the Universe doesn't really work that way from my experience. Yes, some will cite that something must be lost in order to be gained, but that doesn't mean a scenario is created from the ether for that loss either. There's usually a circumstance where a loss is already happening.
Take, for example, the money scenario. Who's to say there wasn't a hole in the pocket and thus the twenty could slip out that way? Who's to say the person wasn't going to hand the recipient the twenty regardless? Who's to say that person didn't steal the twenty from a cash register and this is their "reward" for that? Not every scenario is "gain a bit of money from a family member dying" unless there's something set in motion for the family member to die and give you money. Then again, these are my experiences.my etsy store
My blog
"...leave me curled up in my ball,
surrounded by plush, downy things,
ill prepared, but willing,
to descend."Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
My personal ethic is that everything we do, whether we believe in magic or not, can potentially affect us and those around us. If I chose to move futher from my mother, that would affect her because she is very dependant on me since losing her job. If I had a family, and chose to take up smoking again, I would probably be harming their health, just as when I quit smoking, everyone benefitted from being exposed to less cigarette smoke around me. It's up to me to decide where I stand morally on the issue and what I can do to avoid or reduce harm to others.
The money scenario: if you find money on the street, and it doesn't get returned to the owner (not always even possible), then someone, somewhere, is upset that they lost it. That's as far as the affects will go though, and your child won't be affected by it, unless that 20 belonged to someone you know, who was going to use it to buy something nice for the child: unlikely. Your good mood having found the 20, is more likely going to impact on her.
Magic, in my experience, is not seperate from the ethical and physical laws that govern every other part of our lives. I consider nature sacred, so believing in SUPERnatural: ie, that things can exist outside of nature, just seems alien to me. We might not fully understand how magic works or what it is, but that's no reason to assume it is beyond science or above nature.
If I use a spell to get a job, or get it through some other advantage (I got my current position because I had contacts in the company), then I am STILL denying another person a job and prolonging their suffering of unemployment. That's no reason to prolong my own though, and I am not going to refuse a job because I don't feel it is fair I take it. I don't believe I'll be punished because of this.
All actions have reactions: good deeds can lead to negative events (a guy I worked with, once witnessed two colleagues die, when one fell in an industrial woodchipper, and the other tried to save his friend and fell in too), negative behaviours can lead to positive outcomes (like it or not corrupt politicians and bankers DO often get away with cheating and lying their way into super-rich status, and thieves or even ganglords, can and do get away with their crimes).
If you're gonna use spells, a protection spell for you and your family, is the magical equivalent of locking your door, looking both ways before you cross the street, and looking after your health. You can't always avoid bad things happening, but you can be selective about the precautions you take, and casting spells won't in itself, bring with it a greater likelyhood that bad things could happen to you. Best of luck.夕方に急なにわか雨は｢夕立」と呼ばれるなら、なぜ朝ににわか雨は｢朝立ち」と呼ばれないの？ ＾＾If a sudden rain shower in the evening is referred to as an 'evening stand', then why isn't a shower in the morning called 'morning stand'?Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
Thank you everyone for your replies. Adosia that is pretty much what i was trying to say, thank you for wording it better, I'm not much of a writer in the early hours. I'm in the middle of a spiritual crisis, between what I was taught as a kid, and what I've learned I'm no longer sure of what I believe.This is just one of the many questions in my head that I must answer before I can move forward.Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
A child until a certain age has not reached this age of accountability. So while it pains me to believe that actions of parents can effect the child that is unable to fend for their own, I fully believe this. When magical recoil happens it often happens in a way that will hurt, harming those things we cherish. So if you cherish your family it is quite possible the backlash will come to you indirectly by harming those around you. Whether the return be positive or negative, it can effect anyone around you that will effect your well being.Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
Out of curiosity djinn, what age would you consider a child to be accountable? That's a bit vague.Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
I dont believe there is a specific age. People mature at different rates. Some reach it faster than others. Some people with developmental disorders may never reach this age. Christian faith points it out as the age when they know right from wrong. I think its more than this. I think it has to be a time when they are able to choose right from wrong and understand what it is they are doing. To be able to identify good from bad. To know its more than "I better not do this cause mommy says so." More understanding that taking the something from someone will cause them pain. etc... Its a very abstract subject so I help that description helped a little =DOriginally posted by Dez View PostComment
-
Re: I just don't know
If you aren't attempting something foolish than your child should be safe. If you cast something with massive ripple effects then don't be overly surprised should your kid get caught in them. Your kid won't be directly targeted by a backlash under most conditions* but the law of unintended consequences can be a *****. Easiest way to avoid it is a bit of care in casting. Prosperity, protection, healing, a grand ****load of blessings are unlikely to ripple in strange and perverse ways. Summoning a blizzard for fun and profit, well... you've got a blizzard and it will behave just like any blizzard regardless of consequence to you and your kin.Originally posted by Serenity811 View Post
* There are a couple ways to theoretically craft a curse that if you're unwise enough to throw one at someone and it gets reflected, the curse will have a notable effect on your family.Life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.
Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
"But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."
John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper
"You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."
Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis
Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
My feelings exactly. I'd just add that I strongly believe this should be a rule of thumb whether or not your actions involve magic. I keep saying this but EVERYTHING we do causes ripples. No special rules apply just because your actions involve magic. It's simply that magic IS an action, so complies with Newton's Third Law of Motion.Originally posted by MaskedOne View Post夕方に急なにわか雨は｢夕立」と呼ばれるなら、なぜ朝ににわか雨は｢朝立ち」と呼ばれないの？ ＾＾If a sudden rain shower in the evening is referred to as an 'evening stand', then why isn't a shower in the morning called 'morning stand'?Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
Ahhh...makes sense!Originally posted by Djnn View Post
I think think no parent can shield their children completely from the choices that they as adults make. That's part of what makes being a parent so darn frightening sometimes, for anyone. I can see how someone like the OP might feel extra concern for something like magic. Personally, though, I don't see that as being any different from more mundane choices.
That has been a more recent development, though...I spent a long time before I identified as pagan fascinated but terrified of the idea. *Especially* with the way magic is presented in the media. What is still more comfortable for me is kitchen witch stuff, a lot of which I realized I was already doing intuatively after a series of conversations with Thalassa and some of the other ladies on here.Comment
-
Re: I just don't know
Ah, Serenity, it's guilt. Something you will hopefully leave behind on a pagan path, but early habits die hard. Listen, any deity or power is not worth acknowledging if they punish your child when your spells go wrong.
Spells rarely involve deities, unless you've set out to involve them and that traditionally happens more with certain types of hexes anyway. .
In fact, there's no reason why a spell should rebound on you at all, which is why so many people add the caveat, 'An it harm none.' I don't do that, but then I'm a witch rather than a wiccan and my views are a bit different anyway.
If doing a spell - and its possible side effects - really bothers you then address your deity directly, explain your problems and ask if they can see their way clear to help you. It tends to get around the problem quite neatly because whether or not to help you is entirely up to them. If you feel particularly drawn to classical Rome, you could even acknowledge any help received by writing VSLM on an offering (Votum Solvit Libens Merito) to your deity afterwards.
Best of luck!Comment
Comment