Its about being awere of the potential consequenses of everything you create in your magical world. The consequences can be both good and bad. You can always protect yourself against backfire. I have done this and it works great. Before, I could be damaged very easily and therefore I could not do so many rituals. Today I can do several rituals in one day. And most things I do for my own profit.
Nothing is impossible.
actually historically, magick was used by the oppressed of society(yes i know the elite practiced it too)
there was no concept of the law of three (because wicca hadnt been invented yet)
and the whole personal gain thing also sprung about the same time as the law of three, its a new age belief, but not an intrinsical magickal law.
the belief that if you do magick to gain for yourself it will backfire is a very new belief, and one that is not historically supported, that also goes for the law of three, generally only wicca, and some new age sub-groups believe in the instant karma of the law of three, besides that i know hinduism and a few other eastern religions believe that what you do causes karma, but not in this life, instead it affects in how "advantageous" you will be born in the next life
so to answer your question, the law of three (instant karma) is a wiccan concept, so if your not wiccan, it doesnt apply.
the personal gain thing is a new age concept popularized on the t.v. show "Charmed" and has no historical basis, almost all ancient magick was used for personal gain.
no, you can cast spells for personal gain. just as long as you dont hurt anyone and it desont mess with free will. the only place ive heard of "personal gain" is a tv show called charmed. this is not hollywood people!!! this is real life!!
blessed be!
None of these are against magic laws seeing as there are no magic laws..religious ones maybe...but that depends on your religious beliefs. These things are just frowned on.
My work is energy channeling so... as i see it..
Energy flows. The more bad energy you put out there the more bad energy that will eventually flow back to you. (:
This is how i see it. But the x3 thing is a wiccan belief and... as others said the rest is from TV.
There are many religions and theologies that have some form of karma, rule of three, reap what you sow, etc. It is up to the caster to acknowledge that their actions have repercussions and what those repercussions might be. If you do not acknowledge this that is your choice but do not claim you are cursed at the same time. Being on the side of what is just is another key to karma
Similar to what Zeizie999 said, it has to do with potential consequences.
I'm not personally of the karma or "threefold rule" schooling, but I do believe in cause and effect. It really depends on *what* you're doing for "personal gain". Magic, in my opinion, follows its own form of physics (for lack of a better term).
Example comparison:
In this plane (good old meat space, so to speak), a person enters a convenience store and steals something from the shelves. Let's hypothesize that they get caught: the owner of the convenience store presses charges, shoplifter is found guilty, sentencing declares the shoplifter serve, oh, 30 days of community service or somesuch.
Clear case of: steal for personal gain, get caught, personal repercussion, pay price.
Say the shoplifter doesn't get caught: they've still violated a rule of society and have caused the shop owner to lose money. If the shoplifter continues, they will likely get caught at some point and pay the price. If the shoplifter believes that shoplifting is wrong, then they are also living with their reaction to doing something that is counter to their belief system. Effects on that vary wildly so I won't try to speculate on that score, but there are still tangible effects.
In the magical plane (pick one), a person decides to steal energy from another entity (forcibly taking the energy without permission or agreement). Hypothesize that they get caught immediately by the intended target: reaction by target varies depending on nature of the target, but there is likely to be *some* reaction and consequence usually ranging from a mental slap on the wrist to anywhere from equal stripping of power of the potential thief to (in my opinion) over reaction of stripping full powers/abilities from the would-be thief. Hypothesis: Thief gets caught by a third party force: varied reactions, again, (we all have different motives and varied ethics, reactions, etc.) but usually within the same range as the previous hypothesis although if the third party entity happens to know the thief in meat space, then there might be reactional consequences to pay there as well.
In social and magical settings, the physical physics rule, "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction," doesn't necessarily hold true. Humans, souls, spirits, entities, etc. are not (usually) as predictable as physical physics. However, there are usually reactions to actions.
Thinking through what the possible effects of your actions are and making allowances for mitigating the worst of the possible effects is generally a good practice. Having an idea of what you're willing to live with in terms of potential consequences of your actions is a good way to problem solve for what you are and are not okay with doing in your magical practice.
