{"id":329,"date":"2009-08-03T10:52:57","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T10:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/wiccans-and-opposing-evil.html"},"modified":"2009-08-03T10:52:57","modified_gmt":"2009-08-03T10:52:57","slug":"wiccans-and-opposing-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/wiccans-and-opposing-evil.html","title":{"rendered":"Wiccans and Opposing Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

David E. Oliver asked<\/a> whether Wiccans would cast a curse to ” stop
\nsomeone who is going to committ murder?  Sometimes doing harm is only
\nway to fight evil. Do pagans believe in evil?”  I promised him a thread, and here it is.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\nThis raises a number of interesting questions.  First, the Wiccan rede
\nsays “An ye harm none, do as ye will.” The rede is not a complete ethic.  It does
\nnot define “harm” and it does not say when harming is appropriate.  It’s
\na very good rule of thumb, one that humanity as a whole would benefit from
\nadopting, but it is not a guide in all situations.<\/p>\n

With that preamble, yes, I would use magick against a person planning
\nmurder.  Not a curse – that would not stop the murder.  A binding of
\nsome sort would be the appropriate method.<\/p>\n

Do these things work?  They can, but one done well takes considerable
\ndiscipline and focus and there are counter measures – and this kind of
\nthing can go on and on.  Interestingly, a firm disbelief in magick
\nprovides a shield against it because both are mental forces.  So a
\nbinding  is not as good as calling the police, which is almost always a
\nfar better approach.  <\/p>\n

As to “evil,” a great deal depends on how it’s defined.  I discussed this issue a lot in my book Pagans and Christians<\/a>, and to some degree in my part of Beyond the Burning Times<\/a>.  (Shameless plugs.)  <\/p>\n

Very briefly, most Pagans, and certainly this one, do not believe in
\nsome source of absolute evil, like a Christian Devil.  On the other
\nhand, there are malevolent actions by people that can be legitimately
\ndescribed as evil.  Not the people, the actions.  And there are in my
\nexperience pretty unpleasant entities on the spirit level that may or
\nmay not be evil, but certainly mean people harm.  <\/p>\n

I do not use “evil” as a synonym for ‘dangerous,’ or “a bad outcome” or “ill will” and I think the frequent conservative Christian
\nattitude that all unpleasantness is due to some ‘fall’ is a sign of
\nspiritual childishness.  On the other hand, there is nasty stuff out
\nthere on the spirit plane, and anyone who ignores basic safety issues
\nwhile messing with it is foolish.<\/p>\n

Happily, very few people, including Pagans, venture into those
\ndimensions or do things that bring themselves to the attention of what ‘s out
\nthere.  The analogy I use is hiking in grizzly country.  Not many
\nplaces where that’s an issue, but where it can be you should be
\nprepared.  And yes, I speak from experience.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David E. Oliver asked whether Wiccans would cast a curse to ” stop someone who is going to committ murder?  Sometimes doing harm is only way to fight evil. Do pagans believe in evil?”  I promised him a thread, and here it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,105,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-culture","category-pagan-spirituality","category-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nWiccans and Opposing Evil - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/wiccans-and-opposing-evil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wiccans and Opposing Evil - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David E. 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Do pagans believe in evil?”  I promised him a thread, and here it is.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/wiccans-and-opposing-evil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-03T10:52:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wiccans and Opposing Evil - A Pagan's Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/wiccans-and-opposing-evil.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wiccans and Opposing Evil - A Pagan's Blog","og_description":"David E. 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