🖤Disclaimer: I do not believe in the 3-fold law or the Wiccan rede. These methods are things I use in my own practice and am choosing to share. Please do your own research!
Many people confuse the term "black magic" with baneful magic. The term "black magic" is actually a racist term and should not be used to describe baneful workings. This is also the same for the term "white magic" being used to describe healing magic.
Baneful magic is magic cast against someone or something with menacing or harmful intent. Baneful magic can be used to speed up the consequences of someone actions towards you or they can be used to block people from benefiting from their work. In my practice, I believe that if baneful work is not warranted (i.e there is no real reason for it to be done), it will not work. This means that I never cast a baneful spell unless I believe it to be truly worth the time and effort.
Baneful rituals can be very simple and low energy or they can be very intense and complex. This honestly depends on what kind of spell work you are doing and what you are doing it for. For example, a baneful ward is something that I would consider to be low energy because you set it up once and as long as it remains intact, it continues to work. However for me, a higher energy baneful spell would be a "stop gossiping" spell because the ingredients I would use are harder to find. Baneful works also depend on the amount of correlations you want to include. For example, do you want the spell to coincide with a specific day of the week, moon phase or month. Maybe you want to perform it during a specific season or ask for help from a specific entity, all these factors should be taken into account when performing these workings.
Some of my Favourite Methods:
Hex water- this is method that is commonly used by aragingwitch (on TikTok) and it is a method that I really enjoy as well. Adding names to hex water can be a really low energy way of ensuring that someone must deal with the consequences of their actions (I use this as more of a "karma" insurance but it can be used as a full on hex).
Freezer spells- some people may argue that this isn’t very baneful but it's one of my favourite and most used methods. Freezer spells can be used to essentially "freeze" people’s influence over you or block them from being able to reach you. You can do this with items as well (when I was quitting smoking, this is how I did it). You can freeze names with regular water or you can bind them first and freeze them in hex water.
Return-to-senders- another one of my favourite spells, this spells is used to return unwanted or harmful energy back to the source that cast it (which is why people always say to tether your hexes to something other than yourself). You can also add a bit of a kickback to these spells or return them with 3 times the energy if you are feeling a little vengeful.
Mirror spells- again one that might not be considered baneful but can be adjusted. The way I use these spells is to make the recipient "look in the mirror" and take an objective look at their actions. This often involves ensuring that they can't run from their problems and must deal with the consequences of their actions. Other variations of this exist as well, you are only limited by your imagination with this one.
Sending a spirit- depending on your relationship with specific spirits, you can petition them to do the work for you. This usually works best if you already have a close working relationship with the spirit you are petitioning but you can also contact spirits you don't normally work with as well. I have seen this work using house spirits, familiars, the dead, deities and many more. It's important to for me to stress that how you go about this and the results achieved will depend on the spirit you ask and your relationship with that spirit.
Witchcraft in general does not have a standard or set guidelines for what is ethical and what is not. Many witches may come to a consensus on what they believe to be ethical based on shared morals or opinions but in reality, it's all fair game. Just because I believe or follow one thing, doesn't mean you have to or will.
It is important for you to determine your own ethical guidelines before practicing baneful magic. I say this because it is very easy, when things go wrong or you are feeling hurt, to just cast magic against whatever or whoever you want but it is not always helpful or necessary. Having guidelines and sticking to them is an important part of baneful practices (they can always change and evolve but the most important thing is that you don't compromise on them when you are emotional). Here are a few guidelines I stick to, feel free to use them if they resonate with you.
Never cast without reason- I will only spend my time and energy on things that are really important to me. If the person I am casting against is already a waste of space in my life, they will also probably be a waste of time.
Never cast emotionally- I will wait several weeks before I decide to cast against someone. If what they did is really bad enough to warrant my energy and time then it's probably something I'll still be upset about weeks or months later.
Never cast against someone you live with or cannot cut out of your life- this one is kind of self explanatory but casting against someone you live with is bad news. You will be affected by your own working and will end up having to reverse it.
Know how to reverse your workings- things can always go wrong so make sure you have a back up plan and a really good uncrossing spell on hand.
Know yourself- it's important to do some reflecting before you hex. Ask yourself how you may have contributed to the situation. Are upset or are you projecting past traumas onto someone? What would you have done if the roles were reversed? Questions like these are tough to answer but help determine if a hex is really warranted or not.
Protect then hex- if you are casting against someone who lives with children or pets, you may choose to do a protection working on them before performing your hex. The energy a hex has often affects other people around the recipient and children/animals do not deserve to be negatively affected by the actions of someone else.
*All images are from Pinterest*
🖤I have a feeling that people may have questions regarding this post so instead of commenting them, please use the questions feature on my profile so that I can actually respond :)
