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Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999], at sacred-texts.com
Karma, The Three Fold Law, & Grace
"As you sew, so shall ye reap". "What goes around, comes around".
"Whatever you send out returns three times". These are all sayings
very familiar to all of us, all of them examples of a supposedly
Universal Law of cause and effect, action and reaction. Of course
many of the religious systems try to furnish us with some sort of
"escape clause" that will allow man to either alleviate suffering fo
past misdeeds, or to escape responsibility totally. Let us take a
little closer look at these three ideas and ther inter-reationship.
It seems that, on one level, we do live ina mechanistic uni-
verse, one pretty much ruled by cause-and-efect. This Newtonian
universe seems to react in a very mechanical fashion, i.e. every
action "produces an equal and opposite reaction". A good analogy for
this is the example of one billiard ball striking another. The energy
from the striking billiard ball is transfered to the one struck and is
used to push against the first, imparting motion in the same direc-
tion. This brings the second law into play, i.e. an object in motion
tends to stay in motion untill acted upon by an outside force.
The principle of Karma basically says the same thing; i.e. any
negative or positive action or thought remains that way, until it
expends its energy by acting upon the originator. Of course this also
makes implicit the idea that thoughts or mental energy have a reality
of their own, one that interacts with the physical universe. If this
idea is accepted, it then implies the existence of at least one more
"world" or order of the universe, one with a non physical "reality",
and one where the basic fundamental rules of physics (as we know them)
may not truly apply.
The magician can bedescribed as one who "walksbetween" these
two worlds. "Walking between two worlds" implies that an individal is
connected with both and can move between them at will. The purpose of
magic is to manipulate one world for the benefit of the other, i.e. to
manipulate the unseen world for the express purpose of influencing
events in the physical. Unfortunately there does not seem to be a
"free ride" anywhere in the universe, and when an individual acquires
the power to do this, they also aquire a great deal of responsibility!
By accepting the power to exert "leverage" in the unseen world,
an individual seems to also accept a multiplied succeptibility to
influences initiated in that world. This is why negative workings are
so dangerous! This may also be the reasoning behind the "law of three
fold return".
Now comesthe hard part! Ifall of this causeand effect stuff
is absolute, how can any individual ever hope to "pay off" the debts
for all of the "stupid" things they have done not only in this life-
time, but in many others? Must we "pay off" all past transgressions
on a one for one basis? Is there no ecape clause in this "contract"
we seem to have for living in the universe?
This "escape clause" is called Grace by the Christians and by
other names in other systems, but it does exist in all. Basically,
the idea is this: "Once a lesson is completely learned and one grows
beyond a need for this lesson, it need not be repeated, even if the
'books' are not balanced". This is the "Enlightenment" sought by the
Buddhist that allows the "breaking" of the wheel.
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