This is a subject that has come up before in some groups I am on. There are witches who will not to any magick on another person without that person's consent even if it is in self-defense. For example: You have a person in your life who continually does harm to you. Could be a roommate, significant other, whatever. Obviously the fastest and most effective way to deal with someone like this is on the phsical plane, i.e. police reports, court orders, etc. However, sometimes these things take significant time and can be very hard to deal with. You may even feel your physical well being is being threatened, but until this person actually assaults you there is nothing that can be done.

In the cases listed above, I would have no problem working a binding spell against the offending party. However, there are some witches who will not as they see it as unethical to do any magick, even in self defense, against another without their permission. They also speak of the fact that there are always consequences for whatever you do, implying that you will suffer negative consequences for this action.

Any thoughts?

I don’t see any ethical difference between calling on physical energies to deal with it and calling on spiritual energies to deal with it. In fact, it almost seems that the spiritual means would be more “natural” and the physical means would be “artificial”.

Why would there be greater negative consequences from the use of natural forces as opposed to artificial forces? I would think that the use of natural forces would have less negative repercussions than would the use of artificial forces.

And from the perspective of personal responsibility, I personally would favor the use of magik over “calling the cops”. With magik, you are taking personal responsibility for handling the situation on your own, whereas with “calling the cops”, you’re simply giving the problem over to someone else to handle.

Just My (not so) Humble Opinion

Which is true, but positive things give positivity, same as with negative. I classify defense as a neutral action. However, I do speak of defense only. Retaliatory measures I frown upon.

If it's dealing with direct physical abuse, call the cops. If it's just somebody trying to mentally or emotionally degrade you, feel free to get creative. You don't have to put a binding spell on them. You could instead put one on yourself to be more confident and resistant to mal-aligned energies. Which is essentially, just defense. A strong spiritual immune system.

I totally agree Sky. This person told me they wouldn't use magick because it interefered with the other person's free will. I said that the cops interefere with people's free will everday. She said it's not the same.

I agree. I believe retaliatory magick is completely unethical and will only do more harm to the user than the person it is used against.

Sometimes the cops are ineffective. For example in cases of someone harassing and terrorizing someone else. If you do not have viable evidence they can't really do much depending on the laws of the state and city.

We resorted to doing a binding spell on a guy who was terrorizing his own mother, threatening to kill her and other family members. Obviously this person was very disturbed and dysfunctional, but all other means and counceling etc. had failed and until a crime is committed the law can't do much.

In order to have peace of mind, we did a binding spell to render him harmless and one that would return his causes (karma) directly back to him. It gave the person being harassed peace because her faith was in the spell and in the universe to protect her. Being a close nit group, we called upon our higher selves and spirits of our and her ancestors to participate in protecting her.

It worked. The terrorist turned his attention to someone else and while he could have turned his life around by changing his acts, he continued to cause terror in the life of his new girlfriend. His karma eventually came back to hit him in the butt because he is currently in prison.

Now I have no idea if that spell had anything to do with his personal karma or circumstances but I think it may have helped in changing the state of mind of his victim (his mother) because she found peace and let go of her fear, her state of state of mind changed and what she was attracting changed.

I don't think the spell effected the terrorist at all, he just put his attention elsewhere. His energy was drawn or guided in a different direction.

He put himself in prison by his own actions. It was inevitable. I am just glad he ended up there before he killed someone.

In the case above I would like to add that all other efforts to to deal with this terrorist had been exhausted. We had restraining orders, proof of threatening phone calls on tape etc. Still the police could not arrest him. It was not until he made a threatening call to his brother while his brother was talking to the police that they could arrest and charge him.

Because the police man witnessed and listened to the call himself, that was finally enough evidence to arrest him. But he simply bonded out of jail awaiting trial and once again he continued his terrorism. That is when we decided to do the binding spell. It was a last resort. If all it did was to give his mother peace of mind, it was worth doing.

You cannot vibrate for someone else, and you cannot create for them. You cannot walk in their shoes and live their life. They will create their own circumstances by how they think and feel and by the choices they make. All you can do is cease to attract them into your experience.

I think that is what happened here. We spoke to our higher minds and the universe and we said, we do not want this experience and this terror in our lives. Take it away. Direct it elsewhere. Then we put our faith that it was so.

So be it, so it is. We command it. We have faith that it is done. His energy after that, was attracted in a different direction.

Whether or not the spirits we called upon had an active part in putting him behind bars, well, we will never know. We were not at all involved in that outcome.

I think I would agree with Jeannie on this one. I felt she did the right thing here. The problem is that the legal system in this country seems specifically designed to deal with basic criminal offenses, like robbery or a theft of a business or something along those lines. If a person targets you for some obscure reason, it can be like pulling teeth to get any help from the authorities. They can not infringe upon someones' rights and they dont know what is happening. They dont care either and it is not their job to sort out domestic issues. So that means if a man (or a woman) targets you in a romantic dispute or a jealous rage, you are on your own. People get killed that way.

I think in the case of something like this, a binding spell is absolutely essential. It will also serve to comfort the victim in that span of time when they might be frantic or in a panic. It will help them to focus their energy on protecting themselves. It absolutely necessary in some cases.

In conjunction with whatever legal measures can be taken of course.

I have used binding spells for self defense. I also use protection magick. Both are useful and I don't see an ethical problem with either since they are used to keep someone from hurting me. The police are often very limited in what they can do to help people much of the time.

Besides, when a spell of that nature has to be done, it has to be done. That sounds like a foo foo Wiccan rule anyway.

I call them "fluffy bunny witches".

Well I wonder if those fluffy bunny witches would call the cops on some guy who was harassing her and have him arrested against his "free will?" I bet they would.

So what is the difference? Do they think that witchcraft or binding spells are not "playing fair?"

When it comes to someone trying to kill me, I don't much care about playing fair and I am sure they don't care either.

If someone was trying to harass or kill me wouldn't my trying to stop them (by defending myself) be against his "free will?"

When someone is trying to do me harm I will use anything at my disposal to prevent that ~~ including a binding spell.

Actions net consequences and letting someone harass or kill you because you don't want to step all over his "free will" is misguided thinking. It is victim thinking. It is like volunteering to be a victim.

I hadn't thought of it that way before but you're riight. It is very much a victim mentality.

I do not understand the point of separating physical and spiritual. It's all natural.

Self defense is one of the most natural reactions to being harmed and is justified to ensure ones well being.

It would be smart though to just go to the law first. However, if it is apparent that those will not work or that you are in serious trouble then there is really no justifiable reason why you shouldn't act in self defense, especially if its the last option.

I agree. Why separate the two? They are intricately the same thing. And self defense is self defense.

We are spiritual beings.

Most of us who have been practicing a long time don't use binding spells unless absolutely neccessary. Binding spells should only be done with elders that know how to protect the ones that need it and throw it to the one that needs to be bound. I've been practicing for over 25 years and I've only done one binding spell in that time. I've sent people away unbeknownst to them why they felt compelled to leave, but other than that it's better to use a group of elders to do binding. If you do a binding by yourself or with others that have some experience you could end up binding yourselves as well as the person you want to bind from doing harm.

The easiest way to make someone leave is a balloon spell and it works like a charm every time.

I would like to know more about that balloon spell. Can you tell us more? Or send me a private message?

Or, you could cast a spell on yourself to make you either less attractive to that person or even possibly a spell that makes you seem entirely too powerful to mess with.

Bindings and retaliatory do often tend to backfire. Karma Karma

A big stick by your front door works pretty well too.

The invisibility spell works wonders as well. You become invisible to the person you don't want attention from. They see you but don't realize it's you. It's similar to the attractive/unattractive except better when dealing with those that consistantly try to weasel their way into your life.

I don't have to do any of those things, I naturally repel most men with my 'don't give a crap' attitude.

But there are ways to deal with stalkers. If they are married, find out where they live and their phone number and threaten to tell their wife. Or find out where they work and threaten to tell their boss.

Usually a threat works, but be prepared to go through with it. I told a woman once who had a persistent boyfriend who would not go away and would not take 'no' for an answer to make a no-trespassing sign and put it on her gate and put his name on it. If he shows up knocking at your door, call the police.

You have to mean what you say when you say goodbye to a person and you need zero tolerance. Zero means zero. That means you don't take phone calls, you don't answer the door when they come over, and you are willing to call the police if they do.

But the problem I see in getting rid of a persistent EX-boyfriend (or girlfriend) is that if you still have feelings for them then some part of you is still attached to them. That attachment shows up loud and clear in how you handle the problem and it keeps them attached to you.

You don't do a spell unless you are serious and if you are serious then you let go of your own attachment. If you don't let go of your own attachment, the spell may not work in the way you think.

If the person is really bad for you spiritually, and you ask for his removal from your life, he may end up in jail or dead. I'm not saying that the spell caused it, but you might think it did and feel responsible.

The best advice for getting rid of an EX is to just decide that they are no longer part of your life and let go of any attachment or sympathy you have for them. Don't feel sorry for them, don't believe that their welfare is any of your concern, don't try to 'fix' their life.

It may be good for the ego to think someone wants you, but let them get over it. You are not doing them any service letting them think you care, it only gives them strings to pull you back into their pity party.

JB