Buddhism, Magic, and the Ethics of Spells

Integrating Karma, the Bodhisattva Vows, and the Dharma into Witchcraft

Jun 19, 2025

“What affects one thing, affects, in some way, all things: All is interwoven into the continuous fabric of being. Its warp and weft are energy, which is the energy of magic. -

Starhawk

I didn’t start practicing witchcraft up to feel powerful. I started practicing witchcraft to thrive, to manifest a fulfilling, nourishing life for myself—and to survive. To survive patriarchy, shame, empire, and late-stage capitalism. To survive the ache of knowing the world is burning, and the deeper ache of feeling powerless to stop it.

Magic, for me, is not cosplay or escapism. It’s an act of self-empowerment and creative expression.

And I hold it fiercely, tenderly, and uncompromisingly by Buddhist ethics.

Not “harm none.” Not “do what thou wilt.” But something older and more paradoxical:

Do what liberates. Practice with the wisdom of dependent co-arising. See the golden rule not as self-protection, but as non-duality.

✦ Occult Codes of Conduct

The occult world is full of slogans.

The Wiccan Rede says, “An it harm none, do what ye will.”
The Rule of Three warns that whatever energy you send out returns threefold.
Thelema, Aleister Crowley’s magical law, proclaims: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”

Each of these offers a moral orientation, but each also casts a shadow. The Rule of Three can become fear-based, more superstition than spirituality. Crowley’s exaltation of will is seductive, but easily weaponized to justify manipulation or domination. And “harm none” often collapses under the weight of real life, which is messy, complex, and ethically ambiguous. It lets us get away with simplification, rather than doing the harder work of awareness, mindfulness, and presence.

Sometimes harm is already happening. So the question isn’t whether we avoid it, but whether we interrupt it. The world is not made safer by passivity or spiritual bypassing dressed up as virtue.

As a Witch who has taken the Bodhisattva vows, I turn to those vows in my spell work. They are the guidelines I follow when choosing how and where I wield the power of magic.

✦ The Eightfold Path as Ritual Blueprint

The Eightfold Path is the Buddha’s map of liberation, not through belief, but through action. Through attention. Through careful, conscious living.

Every spell begins with intention. And every intention, if we’re honest, is entangled in karma.

Right View: I cast from a view of interdependence. I know what I do affects the whole.
Right Intention: Every spell asks: What am I really trying to do? Am I cultivating freedom or control?
Right Speech: All enchantment is speech. Language matters. Lying poisons the spell.
Right Action: I don’t let superstition or fear dictate what’s right. I take responsibility for the consequences of my magic and act with intentional clarity, not magical thinking.
Right Livelihood: If my magic depends on others’ oppression, it’s not magic. It’s domination.
Right Effort: Every spell takes energy. And sometimes, restraint is the greater effort.
Right Mindfulness: Presence makes the ritual sacred. Without it, it’s just theater.
Right Concentration: Stillness is the cauldron. Focus is the fire.

“Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
— Lao Tzu

✦ The Ten Precepts as Boundaries for Sacred Power

The Buddha loved a list. So nested within the Noble Eightfold Path under Right Action are the precepts, which are ethical commitments that protect both self and others from harm. They are not rigid commandments but invitations to live, act, and cast with integrity.

In my magical life, they function like a circle of protection: not to contain my power, but to consecrate it. Here’s how I practice with them:

1. Affirm life; do not kill.
Every spell must be rooted in reverence for life, not just human life, but animal, spirit, land, memory. Even when I cast to protect, I ask: Am I sustaining life, or severing it?

2. Be giving; do not steal.
I don’t take what isn’t offered, magically or materially. I don’t work with spirits who haven’t consented. I don’t borrow rituals I don’t understand. I try to give more than I take.

3. Honor the body; do not misuse sexuality.
I cast with care around sex, desire, and attraction. I never enchant to control another’s will. Sex magic is one of the most powerful forms of spellwork. Magic around intimacy must be mutual, consensual, and caring.

4. Manifest truth; do not lie.
Every spell is speech. And speech is power. I tell the truth in ritual, no manipulation, no illusion, no glamorizing what isn’t real. My magic doesn’t deceive.

5. Proceed clearly; do not cloud the mind.
I don’t cast in intoxication, literal or emotional. I don’t let rage, fantasy, or fear take the reins. I wait until I’m clear enough to see the karmic web I’m weaving into.

6. See the perfection; do not speak of others’ faults.
I don’t curse out of resentment. I don’t speak ill as a way of casting. I remember that even those I oppose are also bound by karma, suffering, and longing.

7. Realize self and other as one; do not elevate the self and blame others.
I’m not a good witch. I’m not the “pure one.” I don’t scapegoat or pedestal. I own my karma. I cast with humility, not superiority.

8. Give generously; do not be possessive of anything.
My altar isn’t a hoard. My spells aren’t proprietary. The Dharma can’t be trademarked. I give what I’ve been given, with gratitude.

9. Actualize harmony; do not harbor ill will.
I don’t hold grudges as ritual fuel. Even when I cast for justice, I work to release bitterness. Not to forget, but to free myself from its grip.

10. Experience the intimacy of things; do not defile the Three Treasures.
I hold the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha as sacred. My witchcraft is not separate from my Buddhist path. I don’t profane what holds me. I treat magic as part of my Bodhisattva vows, not outside them.

The precepts are not rules I obey. They are reflections I return to. They remind me that my magic is only as powerful as it is ethical.

They don’t make me less of a witch. They make me a witch who is accountable, awake, and bound by love.

✦ The Ten Perfections as Magical Guidelines

In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the ten pāramitās (Sanskrit for “perfections” or “transcendent practices”) are the virtues cultivated on the Bodhisattva path. They aren’t commandments, they’re living energies we train in, not to purify ourselves, but to liberate others. In my practice, they are the ethical backbone of my spellwork.

Each one is a vow. Each one is a spell.

1. Dāna (Generosity):
Begin with an offering. Magic isn’t about supply and demand, it’s about reciprocity. I offer flame, smoke, honey, breath, song. I open the field before I ask anything of it. I begin not with an ask, but with a gift.

2. Śīla (Ethical Conduct):
I don’t curse in confusion or cast from ego. I ask: Will this spell reduce harm or reinforce it? Is it rooted in truth, in care, in liberation for all beings?

3. Kṣānti (Patience / Forbearance):
I don’t rush results. Magic unfolds in its time. When urgency or anger cloud my intention, I wait. I let the fire cool. I choose clarity over reactivity.

4. Vīrya (Energy / Courageous Effort):
Magic takes stamina. I don’t just perform, I persist. I fuel my rituals with presence, practice, and bold-hearted will. I choose effort over apathy.

5. Dhyāna (Meditative Absorption):
Every spell is stronger when cast from presence. I start every magical act with steady breath, focused attention, and a calm body. I let stillness be my cauldron.

6. Prajñā (Wisdom):
Magic without discernment is just projection. I sharpen my seeing. I cast only when I see the web clearly. I root my work in emptiness, interdependence, and compassion.

7. Upāya (Skillful Means):
I don’t cast just because I can. I try to choose the right spell, the right form, the right timing, for the right reason. Power without wisdom causes harm. But power applied skillfully can transform everything.

8. Praṇidhāna (Vow / Aspiration):
I am not a casual caster. My magic is grounded in the Bodhisattva vow: to return again and again until all beings are free. I hold that vow like an anchor in stormy ritual waters.

9. Bala (Spiritual Power):
I cultivate inner strengt— not just magical potency, but the power to stay with discomfort, to act when afraid, to speak truth in silence. My strength is not domination. It’s depth.

10. Jñāna (Liberating Knowledge):
I don’t mistake spellwork for control. True magic is the insight that nothing is fixed, and everything can be liberated. My spells are not for ego, they’re for awakening.

These are not attainments, they are aspirations. They are the sacred forces I train in. They are the boundaries of my power. They are a blueprint for freedom.

✦ On Curses and Consent

Let’s talk about the shadows. Curses exist. They work. And sometimes they are what’s called for.

What makes them ethical or unethical isn’t about virtue, nor fear of karmic retribution. It’s the clarity and compassion of the caster. A curse is not automatically evil, just as a healing spell is not automatically pure.

Ethics in magic depend on the mind that casts and the web it touches. Is this curse an act of protection or punishment? Is it rooted in compassion for the harmed, or in vengeance for the ego? Is it necessary? Is it honest about its cost?

There’s a certain politics of purity that creeps into magical spaces. Calls to be “only light,” to cast “only love.” But I don’t call myself a white witch. I don’t play respectability politics with the unseen. I don’t bleach my practice to make it palatable. And I don’t believe neutrality is holiness.

But I don’t play god either.

I practice restraint as a form of power. I recognize that some spirits want offerings, not commands. That ancestors carry grief that should not be manipulated. That even well-intended spells can become acts of violation when done without consent.

Consent matters—in love, in ritual, in magic. And that includes consent from spirits, from ancestors, from the land, and from the people we’re trying to influence, whenever and wherever possible. A spell is not an imposition. It’s a negotiation. It’s a conversation across realms.

“Witches are not evil. We are healers, teachers, seekers, givers, and protectors. If you are truly wise, you will not judge us.” — Doreen Valiente

✦ Karma Applies to Magic, Too

I once heard an interpretation of Thích Quảng Đức, the Vietnamese monk who self-immolated in 1963 in protest of the Diệm regime. Some said it was the ultimate act of compassion—not only because he endured unthinkable physical pain in an effort to awaken the world—but because self-harm violates the Buddhist precepts. Specifically, the first precept to refrain from taking life, including one’s own.

By this interpretation, the monk didn’t just accept agony in the present; he knowingly took on the negative karmic consequences of breaking a foundational ethical vow. He sacrificed not only his body, but the his future births. Whether or not you agree with this theological interpretation, the point remains: true compassion is willing to suffer the consequences of its own moral action.

This is the measure I use when discerning whether a spell is ethical: karma, not as divine punishment, but as interdependence.

Karma (Pāli/Sanskrit: kamma) is not retribution from on high. It is cause and effect, shaped by intention. If a spell is cast from hatred, it perpetuates hatred. If a spell is cast from clarity, with the aim of stopping harm or restoring balance, then even if it causes pain, it may still be karmically sound.

“In this world, hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible.”
— The Dhammapada (3-5)

But love is not always soft. Sometimes love protects. Sometimes love draws a boundary. And sometimes love calls the storm.

Even fierce magic must be tethered to awareness. My Buddhist ethics don’t ask me to be passive. But they do ask me to be accountable. That means I do not cast lightly. I do not confuse justice with vengeance. And I do not outsource responsibility to the spell.

I can cast the spell. But I must also carry the karma.

✦ This Magic Is Not Mine

My witchcraft is bound to my vows. Vows to be of service. To cause less harm. To free all beings (including myself) from the cycles that bind us.

I’m not interested in magic that bypasses suffering. I’m interested in magic that meets it and transforms it. Because liberation isn’t a metaphor. It’s a path. It’s a fire. And every spell is a step.

In spiritual solidarity,
🧿 Constant Craving ✨