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23B What about the "Three-Fold Law of Return"? Don't curses and coercive spells somehow bounce back and punish you?




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This article is from the Spell/Hex FAQ, by cat cat@luckymojo.com with numerous contributions by others.

23B What about the "Three-Fold Law of Return"? Don't curses and coercive spells somehow bounce back and punish you?

While in many magical traditions there is a guide of some
kind against coercing a person, this rule is not culturally
universal.

"The three-fold law of return" (which hypothesizes that
whatever you do to others magically will come back to you
three-fold) -- is often cited by modern Neo-Pagans as a
warning against performing coercive spells. However, the
"three-fold law" is neither a law of nature (like gravity)
nor a world-wide law of magical practice, being found only
in those Neo-Pagan traditions that derive from or are allied
to Wicca. In Hindu magical practices, for instance, the "law
of karma" states that what you do will come back to you at
full force -- that is, it is a "one-fold law of return" --
not three-fold.

Both the Hindu and Wiccan rules of return can be
demonstrated to be false in a given person's lifetime.
That is, so many wicked people escape justice that no sane
observer would contend that it is a law of any kind that
punishment is certain for evil deeds. In order to support
their one-fold and three-fold "laws" of return, Wiccans and
Hindus rely on a secondary hypothesis, namely, reincarnation
of the individual soul. This is a matter of religious dogma.
Because reincarnation has never been satisfactorialy
demonstrated to occur, the majority of human beings neither
endorse reincarnation, nor a "law of karma" or "three-fold
law of return."

Most cultures in which magic is practiced have no stated
belief in a "rule of return" of any kind -- and it is
recommended that because discussions of such "laws," being
religious topics, are not of concern to the general
practitioner of magic, discussion about them should be
directed to an appropriate newsgroup in the soc.religion.*
or alt.religion.* hierarchies.

 

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