Reversing, Uncrossing and Banishing Magick; The Subtle Differences

Okay, so after my last post on the Ethics of Reversing Magick I got a few emails from people asking me to clarify the differences between Reversing Magick and those oh so similar yet subtly different magickal intentions Uncrossing and Banishing. It could be argued that the similarities are far more in number than the actual differences. The truth is, at least in my opinion, that the differences and similarities, much like beauty is in the eye of the beholder so to speak.

Reversing magick is designed to return to the sender any negative or otherwise unwanted energy and/or magick; this would also include any unintentional negative energy coming your way. Reversing can also be used to reverse a situation although this is a less common but certainly valid use of this type of working.

Uncrossing can be defined as curse or hex breaking. While I would be the first one to admit that 90% of the people who think that they have been “crossed” or cursed are in fact mistaken but occasionally it does happen. Hexes or crossings do not have to be actual spells in the way that we think of them they can also be a simple focused attack of hate, jealousy or some other malicious intent by someone with enough power to make it stick.

Banishing is used to ….well to banish something. Often banishings are used for getting rid of a nasty habit, removing obstacles or to get rid of unwanted visitors, corporeal or non, to leave your home or person.

Now some of you may have already come to the realization that all three of these types of magick might in fact be interchangeable which of course they are. In any given situation it is obviously up to the practitioner to decide which type of working to use to accomplish their goal. As with most things magickal I don’t believe that there is one universally right and only true way. The definitions I’ve used here are fairly generic and there are of course plenty of other ways in which all of these types of magick can be used. One could certainly use uncrossing magick to get rid of a bad habit and one could also most certainly use banishing to get rid of negative energy and one could definitely use reversing to send some nasty creature back to wherever it came from or whoever sent it to you. Then again there’s the issue of luck; bad luck can be reversed, uncrossed or banished. So with so many options how do you choose the right one for you and your specific situation? That is a question I can’t answer for you. With time and experience we all learn what works best for us in any given situation. 

Happy Crafting!

Raven Womack

Raven's Flight The Magickal Apothecary

www.ravensflight.net

The Ethics of Reversing Magick

“I’m rubber and you’re glue whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you!”

This childhood rhyme says it all. It’s a chant that perfectly illustrates the essence of many types of reversing magick; to reverse back to the sender any negative energy, curses or what have you.

The number of magickal people turning to reversing magick appears to be on the rise; or at least that how it seems to me since the sales of my reversing magickal products have been on the rise for a couple of years now. I suppose it’s only natural when there are economic downturns and when our politicians seem to be so nasty….I guess it’s kind of a domino effect.

Every now and again it so happens that someone will ask me if I think reversing magick is ethical. Then again sometimes I just have people inform me that it’s unethical and usually with lots of harumpfing. (Okay I know harumpfing is not a real word, but I think you get my drift). Being the Gemini that I am, I have of course thought about just that thing and argued with myself on both sides. As with so many things I can usually see both sides of an argument but seeing both sides doesn’t usually stop me from coming down on one side or the other. Since I sell products designed to aid in reversing magick, and I sell a lot of them, I guess it’s sort of obvious which side I came down on.

The arguments against this type of magickal work usually come with alternatives such as grounding out negative energy into the earth, transmuting the negative energy to positive or at least neutral energy and the ever popular sending it out into the universe to be used towards the greater good. For some these are good and viable alternatives but then again….. not good for everybody or every situation. Personally I think we already send too much negative energy into the earth so I am loath to send her any more than absolutely necessary, I’m really too busy to be transmuting every little bit of psychic sludge that I encounter and I have learned over the years that the “greater good” isn’t always that good; especially for us humans.

Someone who is against this form of magick might bring up the very real possibility that the negative energy was not sent intentionally so to reverse it back on the sender would be just plain mean and if it was sent intentionally sending it back makes me as culpable as the original sender. Then the obvious retort, or at least obvious to me, would be if people are not in control of the energy that they fling about that doesn’t mitigate their responsibility for doing so and perhaps being beset by their own bad juju might teach them a lesson or two. As for being as culpable as the original sender by returning the unwanted energy; well I simply disagree. It’s not mine, I don’t want it, take it back and stop creating such nasty stuff!

An old friend illustrated the point of intent versus responsibility beautifully once when she was helping me teach a Wicca 101 class which I will retell here as an example, albeit not with the same flair. If you’re at a friend’s home and you inadvertently knocked over and broke said friend’s favorite lamp while gesticulating expressively with your hands then is it your responsibility to deal with the carnage? Or since you didn’t mean to break the lamp are you absolved of any responsibility? (Be careful how you answer that question; not only will it say a lot about you and your ethics but it’ll also say a lot about the way you raised and it may restrict your invitations to parties in the future.)

In my opinion intent can certainly mitigate the extent of your responsibility but it does not negate it.  Of course you’re still responsible for repairing or replacing the lamp; if you think otherwise please don’t come to my house. So it goes to reason that if you are flinging about negative energy willy-nilly whether or not it’s intentional then you’re still responsible for it and if that means you get slapped back by your own crap then you have no one to blame but yourself.

Of course reversing isn’t always the way to go; one can use banishing or even uncrossing to rid oneself of negative energy and some preventative psychic self-defense never hurts either. Then again if what you are reversing is bad luck or simply a bad situation then you probably don’t have to worry about any ethical dilemmas anyway or do you?

Ultimately it is up to each of us to find our own ethical compass and to follow it but please........ I can do without the harumpfing!

Happy Crafting!

Raven Womack

Raven’s Flight

The Magickal Apothecary

www.ravensflight.net