Magical Theory Ethics in Magic Welcome to the Jungle When I first thought about ethics in magick, my reaction was

one of "to each the ir own." I assume that I have no place dictating what others believe or why they believe them, or why they act accordingly. As I thought about it though, ideas of people such as David Koresh or Charles Manson floated into my head. These men , did they think they were wrong? Did they follow societal standards of ethics? And do I want them running around free simply because it was decided that since their ethics are different - so they weren't wrong? Clearly, I had more thinking to do. It's almost impossible to look at ethics in an objective light. There is no such thing as black and white, Good and Bad. Everyone has a subjective viewpoint. Th ese viewpoints are created by the way we're brought up, our environment, the che micals in our brains, and our current situation. Many people would be first in l ine to say that killing is wrong - but those same people, placed in a "kill or b e killed" situation, would also be first in line to defend killing as a method o f self-defence. It's all subjective to the moment we're living in. From this statement, we can argue that ethics therefore has no place in magick. That because no one single "code of honor" will ever be adopted, that ethics can not possibly be included. I will disagree with this as well. Simply because ther e are specifics that change from moment to moment in our lives involving our per sonal ethical code, this does not mean that we have no guidelines or rules our c onduct should follow. Guidelines is probably a better term for them, since many will cry out that magick has not one solid set of rules. So how do we define the guidelines that most magick users follow? It's another q uestion of the personal ethics of each user, for the most part. Mostly, what I s ee are magick users invoking the "Law of the Jungle" which truly is a kill or be killed mentality. When broken down though, it becomes it's own form of ethics w ithin itself. Killing is meant for survival; hurting is meant to ward off danger ; running is not shameful. This seems to be a pretty set ethical standard. Most creatures in the jungles are animals which don't plot for revenge or reach for s piritual evolution. This makes ethics easy in that respect. So, overall, where do ethics stand within magick? Ethics stand with the user. No one can assume anything about another person's ethics or morals, and no one can presume to attempt to change them. Law of the Jungle, the laws of man, the Thre efold Law, the Commandments, Kosher laws - all of these are held differently in people's hearts. They all make up a person's ethics and define how they act and react in situations. There's nothing wrong with that. The only thing that needs to be kept in mind is that not everyone follows the same code of conduct - and t hat can make all the difference.