Magic Is Not "Subjective" and There Are "Rules" To Practicing It ... The Real Question Is: Whose Rules Are You Following?

I've heard it said a million times that “Magic can be anything, it’s so subjective” … “There are no laws in witchcraft and everything that I and every other witch says is merely a suggestion and nothing more”. But in literally no school of thought, tradition, or training- and at literally no point in history, ever- has the practice of magic ever been so unbelievably “subjective” that it could actually be literally anything that you want it to be or mean.

That’s not being “gatekeepy” or anything, it’s just a fact- much like gravity: All magic, in every system in existence, exists and acts according to some kind of rules. Which means that there are, in fact, plenty of "laws" when it comes to magic.

Even your modern New-Age “intent is all you need” line of nonsense is, in and of itself, still technically a rule or law of some kind ... Albeit an incredibly simplistic one that was born out of a bastardized hypersimplification and misunderstanding of another, different, set of rules that are much more traditional in nature.

The real question, as noted in the title, is this: Whose rules are you following? In other words, what tradition are you a member of? What ideologies inform your practice? Etc ... Because everyone is following someone's. And that will always determine the rules under which your magic behaves and operates, and whether or not it'll be bound by any additional things (like moral and ethical codes, and so on).

And yeah ... We do typically still say that people will have different paths. Yes, do typically still advise people not to let others comment on their path. Yes it is still right to get upset when someone imposes their own rules on you especially when you are not a member of their tradition. Quotes like these exist for a reason:

Even two people within the same system, practicing the same craft, will have deviations within their craft, simply on account of them being different people with different interests and focuses, preferences, and so on. Which means that no two peoples’ path will ever look exactly the same or contain the same exact elements, even within the same traditions. Thus: Do not compare your craft to another’s unwarrantedly- and do not take unwarranted opinions from another on how to conduct yourself along your own path (within reason).

But quotes like these were never an invitation to do whatever you wanted willy-nilly with complete disregard to the traditions whose boundaries you are supposed to be operating within. Nor were they intended to be permission to completely disregard the boundaries of those other traditions which exist, of which you are not members. Likewise, it wasn't permission to ignore the fact that traditions do indeed exist in the first place- and that there are, in fact, practical boundaries inherent in Witchcraft and Magic, the Occult, Paganism, etc, everywhere you turn.

The rules of magic are different per tradition and belief- and what is a rule / law in one tradition isn’t always a rule or law in another ... But just because you haven’t been taught the rules of a specific system (likely because you are not an active member of that system, which is absolutely fine)- or you don’t understand them because you haven’t bothered to appropriately take the time to do so (or worse, you just want to shove your fingers in your ears and play the la-la game)? It doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

It just means you don't know them. That is all.