Last week I came across a YouTube video from Ivy Corvus titled Witchcraft & The Occult Aren’t Safe – And That’s The Point. It runs a bit under 12 minutes and it’s worth your time to watch it. It’s a follow-up to a previous video where she encouraged people to not be afraid of magic and working with spirits.
I’ve written on this theme before, with posts like Our Gods Are Not Safe in 2015 and Stealing Fire From The Gods in 2017.
I’m inspired by Ivy’s video, but I want to take this post in a somewhat different direction. I think most of us understand that magic and witchcraft and signing up to serve a Battle Goddess carry some danger. We accept the risk because we want what’s on the other side of the danger. Or at least, sometimes we do. Other times we pass on dangerous magic because we fear what might go wrong – or because we fear what it would mean if the magic actually worked.
Let’s face it – a lot of us are scared right now. Even if we aren’t in any immediate personal danger, we’re concerned about the direction of the country and the world, and what that’s going to mean for us in the future. And some of our friends are in immediate personal danger.
Here’s why now is the time to start working dangerous magic.
A witch who cannot hex cannot heal
This is an old cliché in the magic and witchcraft communities, but it’s still true. And relevant. Magic, like all forms of power, is neither good nor evil. What makes it good or evil is how it’s used.
If you cannot do harm, you are not good or kind or enlightened or anything of the sort. You are simply weak. That doesn’t make you a bad person – some people are born weak, either literally or metaphorically or both. But there is no inherent virtue in weakness.
More virtuous are those who are capable of causing great harm, but who choose otherwise.
Until it becomes necessary.
If you can’t harm anyone with your magic, then your magic is weak and will likely be ineffective when you attempt to use it to meet a real need.
Dangerous magic is challenging magic
If your magic is weak – or weaker than you would prefer – what can you do?
Practice, practice, practice.
And not just any practice. While the basics of spiritual practice form our foundation and are always necessary and helpful, if we never move beyond the basics our magic will never be more than basic.
Ordinary exercise will keep you healthy, but if you want to get strong you have to lift heavy weights. Running a few miles a couple days a week is good, but if you want to run a marathon you have to start running longer distances once a week or so.
One of the reasons we tend to avoid dangerous magic is that it’s usually difficult. It’s more than lighting a candle or drawing and charging a sigil. It’s collecting hard-to-find ingredients. It’s finding the time when the stars and planets present the most favorable conditions and then doing the spell at that precise time, even if you have to get up and go to work the next morning.
It’s obligating yourself to Gods and other spirits who expect real reciprocity and not just a glass of cheap wine poured on the ground.
Not all challenging magic is dangerous – some of it is just a lot of work. But most dangerous magic is challenging, and so if you need to raise your overall skill level, working dangerous spells is a good way to do that.
Desperate times call for desperate measures
Are these truly desperate times? That depends on who you are. If you’re a straight white middle class person with a secure job, these times may be chaotic and offensive to your values, but they probably aren’t desperate. If you’re a trans person whose very existence is being challenged by those in power, that’s a different situation.
And of course, bad things shouldn’t have to happen to you to get you to care about the fact that they’re happening to other people.
Just because things aren’t desperate for you at the moment doesn’t mean they won’t get desperate in the future. Tower Time is a long way from being over. Who knows how far this new crusade against “anti-Christian bias” will go.
One of the benefits of magic is that it’s always available. Even if you appear to have no options left in the realm of the mundane, magic can still shift the odds in your favor.
You can wait until things get truly desperate and then start working magic. Necessity is the mother of invention and nothing provides the kind of deep emotional connection to a spell like dire need.
Or you can start now, before things get too desperate, and while you still have time to build some magical capabilities under circumstances that aren’t yet do or die.
Dangerous magic: magic that can leave you worse off than you started
In most cases, the worst that can happen with magic is that a spell simply won’t work and you’re left where you were before – no better but also no worse. Dangerous spells have a significant chance of leaving you worse off than you started.
This is what can happen if you summon a demon without the skills to banish said demon when you’re done. It’s what can happen when you brew a potion using ingredients that can be toxic in certain dosages and combinations, either medically or spiritually.
But it’s also what can happen when you work magic to get rid of your abusive boss… only to see him replaced by someone even worse.
Or, as the old adage goes, be careful what you wish for – you just might get it.
In many cases it’s not the technique that makes magic dangerous. It’s the target.
Sometimes you have to roll the dice
On the other hand, if you have an abusive boss, the worst thing you can do is nothing.
You can – and should – try mundane approaches. Talk to him, talk to HR, file a formal complaint. Get your union involved. If there’s not one, maybe you should start one. Look for another job. Work magic to enhance your chances that any and all of those actions will bring what you need, and work protective magic to minimize the damage until it does.
But maybe the best solution (i.e. – the approach mostly likely to bring the desired result) is simply to get rid of him. That doesn’t have to be a curse. You don’t want him harmed, you just want him out of your life. So you work a spell for him to find a better job – in another state. Or maybe he’s done enough bad stuff you really do want to curse him. Regardless of your approach, though, you can’t be sure that whoever replaces him won’t be just as bad or worse.
But also, his replacement might be better. Sometimes you have to do the work, roll the dice, and hope for the best.
And be ready with Plan B – and C and D and E – in case it doesn’t work.
What dangerous magic will you work?
What magical skills do you need to build, even though they’re a ton of work?
What deity do you need to ally yourself with, even though they’re likely to ask you to do something difficult, unpleasant, or both?
What power do you need to grow, understanding that you may need use it to heal and you may need to use it to hex?
Where are things so bad that you need to roll the dice and hope the number you need comes up?
None of us are powerful enough to stop a hurricane. All of us can become powerful enough to weather a hurricane, whether meteorological or metaphorical.
Sometimes that requires mundane work. Most times it requires careful planning and persistent action. Oftentimes you need a bit of luck.
And sometimes you need dangerous magic.
May we all have the courage to do what must be done.
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