Feeling Vexed? Before You Hex, Do X
Art by J. Jeffrey Minzey minzeyart.com
Is hexing ever appropriate, or is it simply a misuse of power? With great power comes great responsibility. One important responsibility is self-development. This includes character development. Ultimately a person’s character is revealed by how they exercise the power they possess. Hexing once meant witchery in general, as in the adage, “a witch who can’t hex can’t heal.” Now it implies causing unpleasant, unlucky, or harmful things to happen to people, often as an act of revenge. However, hexing and healing are two sides of the same coin. A healing misapplied could bring evil consequences. A hex for the right reason could be used for good. This is very tricky territory, though.
Whether or not your witchcraft is a spiritual path for you, energies are being used. Those energies behave like ripples on a pond. Hexing can become a trap. It may create an energy entanglement that reaches far beyond the negative situation at hand, and yes, the energy affects the sender.
“Harm None” is an important Wiccan teaching, but not all witches are Wiccan. The “rule of three” is often taken literally to mean the effects of any act of magic returning to the magician three times. Three in this case is a symbolic place-holder for “as many times as is required to learn the lesson and become a responsible co-creator.”
Many new witches come to witchcraft because they had backgrounds of religious punishment. They often channel a negative rebel archetype (as opposed to a love-aligned, sacred rebellion). They may see karma or “harm none” as just another rule that must be followed–or else! It smacks of a punitive deity watching and judging. The concept of karma is misunderstood as a punishing force, but it is simply energetic cause and effect.
Is casting a spell ever an ethical way to deliver a karmic redress, even if someone “has it coming?” This is not an easy question with a blanket answer. If a hex is done to address an imbalance, especially regarding human rights or safety, the karmic effect will be different than someone who hexes their cheating lover...and the next. Rather than taking responsibility for dealing with life, the “petty hexer” attempts to delegate their dirty work to a spirit, etc.
Even for the most egregious of human offenses, a spell for justice, correcting an energy pattern, or strong protection is in order before considering a hexing spell. As in all spells, the physical plane must also be attended to. This could include removing oneself from a toxic environment, appealing to our justice system (for whatever it’s worth), voting for people who want to make positive change (again, for whatever it’s worth), or following your own call for sacred activism. In other words, hexing should be used as a last resort, and with respect to the energies being used. Hexing a situation or a thing, as opposed to a person, can be done without so many potential unintended consequences. That said, baneful magick should be avoided unless the practitioner believes it to be absolutely necessary and beneficial according to the big picture.
Although I do espouse the rule of three, I have to concede that, in very special cases, the one wronged may find no other recourse than a hex to right that wrong.