Witchcraft has but one law,

Do what you will but harm no one

The law is simple the implementation of it is far from simple. You have to think about the effects of your actions, and take responsibility for them. 

• You could make someone fall in love with you, but do they have a partner that you will harm.
• You could make a share price change so as to create a profit, but will this harm others, remember some people are into spread bets and therefore current knowledge says the price will drop and they have taken a  position based on this.
• Could you make it fine for a period, but will that stop a farmers crops from growing.
• Suppose you could turn pebbles from sea shores into gold, would you be able to feed the starving of the world or would the gold price just collapse and mess up the economies of many more states.

Sometimes the effects you intended will not come in exactly the way you intended, and you have to be very careful therefore, both what you ask for, and how you go about it.

Suppose for example you cast a simple spell that you never wanted to work another day in your life, then this could be made to come true in many ways, for example your death, an accident that paralyzed you, the collapse of your employer and unemployment for many people. 

The way we get over this in the formation of spells, is to have safeguards or guide requests built in, and this we will show you how to do. These in effect all the harm none element to your spells or magic. 

This does not however mean that you don't need to think through your actions in advance.

The sting in the tail

Any harm you do to others is returned to you three times, and also any harm others do to you is likewise returned to them three times. 

Later you can change this to 9 or 27 times if you wish, but don't even think about this at this stage, the consequences of any mistake is far too great.

You may say this is not a problem as you can use more magic, to overcome the problem and you can, but how many balls can you juggle with at the same time?

Optional rules

Some traditions and most fiction presents two other rules one that you cannot benefit from your magic and the second that you cannot make someone do anything that they had no chosen to do.

Most traditions don't have these as rules and see no reason why you should not be rewarded indirectly, by this we mean it would be wrong to sell magic, or offer to cast spells for a fee, or agreed donation. However many traditions have authors who sell books, or people who put on courses for a fee, although I and other traditional witches don't I am tolerant of others who decide to. Just about all witches do use magic to enrich their lives in many ways. Many of us are no longer interested in money when we can get the same effects other was without it.

Making people make choices is a more difficult area, we all do this, from school teachers, through career officers, through friends fixing up blind dates, to people within your workplace pushing you into a promotion or an affair. Is it wrong if t does not harm them, does it mater if there is no long term effect. 

I suppose the best you can do is to imagine yourself in the persons position and see how you would feel about it.  Generally the action you take is never as effective as a fraction of the problem you get, if they find out what you have done, either by you telling them or because you have told someone else, and they have told them.

Outside a coven it is generally not a good idea to discuss magic you are working, as you may find people make fun of you or you get blamed for other things happening, that had nothing to do with you.

Outside your control

If you do absolutely nothing, everyone alive today would eventually die, many disasters will occur,  wars will go on all over, and eventually life on this planet will stop, just so far into the future hopefully that you don't need to worry about it.

The relevance of this is that many things will happen, with or without your magic. So never get into a position where you start to blame yourself for things that you were not involved directly with occurring, or other things than you have made happen, happening to people around you. You cannot protect every person or foresee every situation that can occur or protect every person all the time.

Fear of the unknown

Most people are frightened of what they do not understand. Once you have some powers, generally its best to keep it to yourself, or you frighten people. 

If you have a specific friend or other person you want to involve, then involve them from the beginning, when to them it either just sounds like daft idea, a bit of fun or they want to join you in your quest.

Eventually for many, the day arises when they feel they have to tell someone with no knowledge or background in the craft, that they have magical powers, and you never know exactly what reaction you will get. 

I would suggest that you don't threaten anyone with magic unless its a last resort and they are threatening you, and if you do decide to then make sure they really believe that you can do it.

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