Ethics I: Good Witch / Bad Witch?
“Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?”
The False Frame
The moment someone asks whether you’re a good witch or a bad witch, they’ve already trapped you. The frame itself is poisoned. “Good” by whose standards? “Bad” by whose laws?
This binary is shallow, and it’s dangerous. It makes witches second-guess themselves, divide their practices into palatable and shameful halves, and chase approval from people who will never truly understand the Craft.
The Witch has never been purely good or purely bad. The Witch is cunning, sovereign, powerful, and therefore threatening to those who crave control.
When the Gods Test You
Here’s something the sugarcoated books rarely admit: your gods, spirits, and ancestors will test you. They will push you into the uncomfortable, the unglamorous, even the painful. They will strip away your illusions.
Why? Because they are shaping you into the Witch they need (the Witch that is born of the times, of necessity), not the Witch you imagined you’d be.
This means your ethics can’t just be slogans you recite. They have to be lived, wrestled with, torn open, and rebuilt when the spirits demand more of you than you thought you could give.
The Mundane-First Myth
A common bit of advice: “Always exhaust your mundane options before turning to magic.”
On the surface, it sounds sensible. Don’t leap to spells for every stubbed toe. But taken literally, it becomes absurd.
Should you try every possible job application before casting a prosperity spell? Should you suffer years of harassment before daring a protection? Should you wait for the doctor’s absolute last word before working healing magic?
The Witch doesn’t deny the mundane, we live in this world, after all. But we also don’t hobble ourselves by pretending that magic is a “last resort.” Magic is woven into the work from the start.
The Mask of Niceness
Ethics isn’t about whether you smile sweetly and sprinkle blessings on everyone. That’s performance. That’s PR.
Real ethics is what you do when no one is watching. How you respond when your spirit allies demand a sacrifice of time, energy, or truth. How you handle power when it’s uncomfortable.
The world has tried to force witches into mascots of “harmless spirituality.” But the Deviant Witch refuses that mask. We’re not here to convince the world we’re nice. We’re here to be real.
So, good witch, bad witch? Neither. Both. More.
The Witch doesn’t fit into boxes. The Witch doesn’t soften for comfort. The Witch doesn’t pander for approval.
Your ethics aren’t a label you wear. They are the lived agreements you make with your gods, your spirits, your craft, and yourself.
This is only the beginning of the conversation. Next, we’ll strip apart the Rede, the Threefold Law, and karma, the slogans that tried to domesticate Witchcraft into a declawed pet.
