In conjunction with my other essay about curses, I decided to touch a bit on what I feel about magickal ethics. I don't believe in hard-and-fast rules in magick, mostly because real life situations - magickal or not - don't always fall under a specific category of right or wrong. Also, people don't always know enough about a situation to know how to act upon it perfectly - thus, we are left with our limited knowledge and personal instincts to decide what to do about life's various problems. Magick is merely another tool in dealing with life, and I don't feel it should have any special set of ethics alone. I feel that people should treat magick as they would their own behavior. Sometimes, using a certain style of magick is appropriate for one situation, but not appropriate for another.
Magick, in my opinion, is a tool an individual uses to invest their energy into things they want to see happen. If an individual is a petty ignorant, their magick will be spent on petty things and situations. If an individual is smart, their magick will be spent on substantial things and situations. The only difference is the level of maturity and intelligence of the practitioner. What style you use your magick is inconsequential. If you are wasting your energy trying to heal an abuser who needs therapy, then doing "healing spells" does not make you a "good witch healer." Conversely, doing self-centered spells does not make you a selfish "bad witch" either. It's all in the thought and careful application that makes someone a competent witch worthy of respect.
Magick is also like food - a practitioner needs a well balanced magickal practice to stay mentally fit. Using curses all day is obviously a bad idea, but so is using any kind of spell on a repetitive basis. Constant use of one kind of spell has it's own shortcomings, even if the kind of spell seems okay to do all the time (such as healing or love). I'm not talking about the threefold law, but I am talking about mental states. Being in one constant mental state all the time doesn't allow for any growth in other areas of life that are important.
The issue of right or wrong doesn't cover these aspects of magick use. Therefore, in using magick, I feel that your own conscience should be your guide. Sometimes standing the moral highground isn't the best course of action in a situation, magickal or not. Often, it's best to gather as much information as you can, then use your own judgement to decide what is necessary. A set of commandments or moral rules cannot do that for you.
Also, I don't agree with treating magick as though it deserves it's own ethics. It leaves the door open to acceptable hypocrisy to insinuate that magick is somehow differently valued than other human activities, and should have special guidelines or laws. I think this comes from the popular misconception that magick users are somehow more "gifted" or "spiritual" than others of different or mundane talents. In reality, someone may be a natural at magick - but someone else might be a natural at fixing cars or dealing with the written law. Who is to say that magick is more important than the latter two?
I'm not saying that it's not okay to have your own idea of what is right or wrong - only that having specific ethics should be well thought out and should apply to both physical and spiritual behavior. If not, then people are going to make the same mistakes as they have done for centuries. I feel that magickal practitioners should have the same responsibility as anyone else - to avoid being a hypocritical twit. Once an individual learns that, the rest sort of falls into place, no matter who you are and what your chosen hobby or profession is.