These are "Dark" (Energy) Times

Sorry we haven’t posted in a while. Law school has us pretty busy! We have been seeing an increasing number of witches screaming about love and light and how negative energy is bad energy. This is simply not true.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GOOD, BAD, DARK, OR LIGHT ENERGY!!!

Energy is Energy. Energy comes in three forms: positive, negative, and neutral. Many witches associate positive energy as “good energy” and negative energy and “bad energy.” There are several reasons this line of thinking happens.

First, positive energy operates on a higher vibration than negative energy (we will talk a bit about vibes below), so naturally, as humans, we are more attuned to higher vibrations. Negative energy has lower vibrations, which if you remember anything from middle school: a negative plus a positive is still a negative. The same concept applies to energy alchemy. When our “love and light” positive energy interacts with a negative energy we naturally feel a lower vibration. You have likely experienced this when interacting with a depressed person, someone with a low vibrating negative energy in their aura. Sadness produces negative energy from initially neutral personal energy. There are three sources of energy: personal, divine, and universal/elemental.

In instances where you interact with a person with lower vibrations, your aura interacts with that negative energy, and since a negative plus a positive is a negative, your positive vibration in your aura naturally lowers. You feel this as a negative emotion, which is a type of personal energy.

Second, we tend to listen, even though it might not be the wisest thing to do, to randos on the internet or even people we think we can trust instead of following our own intuition. You’ve likely heard of the Wiccan Rede, which in short is, do what you will, but harm none. Many people misinterpret this understanding in assuming that negative workings will harm someone, but purely positive workings can do this too!

We are going to digress a little here, because it is important to understand the concept of free will in order for us to really dive into this particular line of thinking. Foremost, free will is an incredibly abstract concept in energy alchemy, so as usual, we will do our best to explain it. Free will is essentially someone’s ability to make a decision. Generally, MAGICK DOES NOT BIND SOMEONE’S FREE WILL. (More on that in a minute). When we do magick, we are essentially taking a persons biases and prejudices in relation to what we like to call the “decision scale”. The “decision scale” is a balance of personal energy. Biases and prejudices are also a type of personal energy.

To illustrate, suppose you want a raise, so you do a spell to get that raise, a purely positive energy working. That energy is sent across the universe to your boss or raise decision maker(s) in the exact way you manipulated that energy. It then interacts with that person’s personal energy by feeding into that person’s aura. When it comes to be decision time, that person now has the energy you sent to them and their “decision scale” will be positively affected in your favor. Think of magick as putting your finger on a person’s “decision scale.” When you put a finger on a scale, the side with your finger on it becomes heavier.

Similarly, in this instance and for simplicity’s sake there are two options: you and your friend, Brad. Brad has been there longer, is a great worker, has three beautiful children, and has a genuinely nice personality. He is the optimal candidate. However, when you did your working for a raise, you put your finger on your side of the scale, making you look more attractive than Brad. As your boss considers the two options he will naturally lean toward the most positive energy on his decision scale. However, your boss is still entitled to choose Brad over you. He, by no means, is magickally locked in to choosing you over Brad. He may have more logical reasons or strong prejudices for choosing Brad, but we digress. Let’s say your boss is persuaded by your spell, and gives you the raise over Brad. Your working directly affected Brad and HURT him, as he was the optimal candidate, but your spell tilted the decision scale in your favor away from his. This is exactly how a positive working can result in harm.

Thus, in energy alchemy no energy is bad and no energy is good. It is simply energy. Energy has varying degrees of vibrations. Some are lower and some are higher. As an example of how a negative working can be beneficial and “harm none”, suppose your vibration is low, and you do a spell to raise that vibration, say a confidence spell. In this confidence spell, you take that lower vibration negative energy from your aura, and transform it with a lower vibration energy that you pulled from another part of your aura that has to do with the blocks associated with your personal confidence. In this instance, you’ve done some more math (yay) and added a negative with a different negative which creates a positive energy of confidence to raise your vibration.

Then there are instances where bringing in negative energy can be useful and still “harm none”. For example, you may decide you would like to no longer be bothered by a certain lower vibration person. Perhaps they bully you at work. You can take the disdain (another emotion and thus a personal energy) you have for that person, and simply charge a crystal, like amber (absorbs negative energy) with that energy and keep it on your person when you expect that person might come around. Similarly, when a lower vibration person interacts with a more negative energy, his or her vibration is raised. When our vibrations raise or lower, it makes us uncomfortable. You’ve accomplished two things with the energy alchemy of this spell. First, you have made that person uncomfortable around you, so they will likely not want to be around you. Second, you’ve raised his or her vibration. Each time that person interacts with the energy from your negative energy crystal, his or her vibration will raise in relation to how that person feels about you.

Simply, energy alchemy is a magickal science and we, as a community, don’t know too much about it. But what we do know, is energy works in very specific ways. It can be manipulated, transformed, and even transported.

But what about the threefold law, karma, and the like? How do those play into workings that harm those around us whether intentional or not. The threefold law is a Wiccan rule that simply states that whatever working, whether it be positive or negative, will come back to you threefold. Karma is a little different in several ways. Karma theorizes that the universe has to maintain a balance, and since the universe is omnipresent and omnipotent, meaning it can do whatever the fuck it wants whenever the fuck it wants, it is Karma’s theory that those balances will occur whether a positive energy or negative energy affects the overall balance. We typically only relate Karma to negative things, but there is such a thing as positive Karma. The theory of Karma believes that when one does something “bad” the universe has to balance out that “badness” with more badness. Karma, theoretically, only affects the soul of the person doing the “bad” thing. Similarly, the more “good” you do, the more positive effects there will be on your soul. Both the threefold law and Karma are cut from the same cloth and are not necessarily wrong.

Consider four blind men trying to describe an elephant. The first blind man holding the trunk, describes the elephant as a great hose. The second, touching the side of the elephant, says “Oh no. That is completely incorrect. The elephant is like a great wall.” The third, holding the elephants leg, says “No. No. No. You are both wrong. The elephant is a great pillar.” But the fourth, holding the tail, says “All of you are wrong. The elephant is more like a rope.” This short story illustrates that everyone thinks they are right, and they are, but they are also wrong, because they are not looking at the whole. Similarly, Karma, the threefold law, and the like are all describing what they believe to be the whole, but are only describing parts of it.

Thus, if we think about how energy alchemy works, we can establish that if you create rules for yourself, you create personal energy relating to those rules. Therefore, if you act contrary to those rules you’ve made for yourself, the universe will correct the balance. Whether it require three times what energy that was to do it, or whether it affects you or someone else, the universe will balance that energy. Thus, if you produce negative energy because you broke your own moral code, the universe may balance it back out by directly affecting you, someone you know, or a complete stranger.

In summary, some key points to take away

• There is no such thing as “bad” or “good” energy

• Positive energy can hurt someone just as much, if not more as negative energy

• Energy is energy

• The threefold law, karma, and the like are not exhaustive

• The universe will always balance itself out. One way or the other.

Love and Learning.