And It Harm None

by Isobel Bird

  The girls looked at one another nervously.

  “There’s a little bit of money missing,” said Sasha. “Mallory bought some food. But I’ll pay you back.”

  Sophia waved a hand at her. “That’s the last thing I’m worried about,” she said. “I’m just glad that she’s okay. That you’re okay,” she added. “If there’s any kind of trouble around, you guys sure seem to find it.”

  “Yeah,” Cooper said, nodding. “We’re pretty talented that way.”

  “Now, about this ritual you did,” Sophia continued. “The Kali one?”

  Again the girls looked anxiously at one another. Was Sophia going to scold them for doing a ritual they had no business doing?

  “We thought—” Annie began, trying to head her off. But Sophia held up a hand to silence her. Annie stopped speaking and fidgeted with her braid.

  “It sounds wonderful,” Sophia said after a moment.

  “Really?” said Kate.

  “Really,” replied Sophia. “I love the way you cast the circle, drawing on the power of fire. Elemental circles can be amazing tools of magic.”

  “That was my idea,” Annie said brightly.

  “And I love the idea of incorporating Kali into the ritual,” Sophia continued, again making Annie smile happily.

  “My idea, too,” she said, earning friendly glares from the others.

  “But,” Sophia said.

  Annie’s happy smile faded.

  “But?” she said.

  “Thea was right,” said Sophia. “As well-intentioned as the ritual was, it wasn’t exactly kosher, if I may be allowed to mix my traditions for a moment. Asking a goddess to enact what you see as justice isn’t something I recommend. Yes, it can work, but ultimately it’s not the most positive use of your energies.”

  “But why?” asked Cooper. “That jerk really does deserve to get a good kick in the can.”

  Sophia and Thea laughed. “Yes, he does,” said Sophia. “And it sounds like you gave him one. However—” She paused again, looking at them. “Who were you doing this ritual for?” she asked.

  “For Mallory,” Kate said instantly.

  “Really?” asked Sophia, raising an eyebrow.

  “Sure,” Annie replied. “Who else would we be doing it for?”

  “You’ve all seen news reports about death penalty cases, right?” said Sophia.

  The girls nodded.

  “Most of the time, the people being interviewed who are for the execution of a particular criminal say that they want to see it happen because they want to see justice for the victim, right?”

  “Sure,” Cooper replied. “They’re angry that somebody killed one of their family members or friends or something. That makes sense.”

  “Yes,” said Sophia. “Anger makes sense. But have you ever heard those same people interviewed after the execution? A huge percentage of them say that they actually don’t feel any sense of justice, any sense of relief or closure.”

  “I don’t get it,” said Annie. “What does this have to do with our ritual?”

  “Yeah,” Kate said. “We weren’t trying to kill anyone. We would never do that.”

  “I know,” Sophia said. “I wasn’t trying to equate the two things exactly. I was talking about what you hoped would happen as opposed to the reality of what happened. Your ritual was based on your love for Mallory. But it was also based on your anger at Ray. Energy raised out of anger can be very powerful, but it can also be very destructive, both to the target of that energy and to the originators of the energy. Much like those people who demand the so-called justice of the death penalty, you were doing something you truly believed was right, but it didn’t have the outcome you wanted.”

  “Yeah,” Cooper said defensively, “but just because Ray didn’t get his. If he had, we’d be thrilled.”

  “No, we wouldn’t,” Kate said. The others looked at her, surprised by her statement. “Sophia’s right,” she said. “I didn’t want to admit it before, because I really thought we were doing something that was right, but we were just doing what I did when I made Scott fall for me last year. We were trying to get results we wanted, not results that were necessarily right for Ray or Mallory.”

  Cooper sighed in exasperation. “But it would be good for him to be stopped.”

  “Maybe,” said Sophia. “Maybe not.”

  “How can you say that?” asked Annie. “How could it be good for him not to get caught?”

  “You’re looking at this through the eyes of someone who cares about a friend,” Sophia replied. “Do you remember when we talked in class about what it means when we don’t get something we’ve asked for in a spell, like when we do magic to help a sick person and that person gets worse, or even dies?”

  Annie nodded. “It’s not because the spell didn’t work,” she said. “It’s because the person’s path needed to take her in a different direction.”

  “That’s right,” Sophia said. “It’s always okay to ask for something, but we have to accept when what we’ve asked for isn’t what the universe thinks we need.”

  “Okay,” Cooper said. “I get that maybe we tried to force something to happen that we didn’t have a right to force. Maybe we stretched the whole ‘and it harm none’ thing a little. But what should we have done?”

  “That’s why we’re here,” Thea said. She turned to Sophia. “I thought maybe we could show them how to adapt the ritual they came up with a little bit.”

  “I think maybe that could be arranged,” said Sophia. She looked at the girls. “Do you remember everything you said and did?”

  Annie nodded. “I remember my parts.”

  “I remember the Kali invocation,” Kate replied.

  “And I remember the chant,” Cooper added.

  “Good,” said Sophia. “Write down the words. We’ll go set up the circle.”

  As Sasha, Thea, and Sophia prepared the back room for the ritual, the three girls wrote out the words of their ritual. It didn’t take long, and after five minutes, when Sophia came back to check on them, they were done.

  “Thanks,” she said, taking the papers. “Let Thea and me look at these for a few minutes. You guys go get ready.”

  They walked into the back room, where a circle of candles was waiting for them. Sasha was already seated inside the circle, her hands in her lap and her eyes closed.

  “Sophia said I should meditate and imagine that I’m sitting in a ring of fire,” she said.

  The others joined her, sitting across from one another so that they were at the four compass points of the circle. They all sat quietly, waiting for Thea and Sophia.

  About ten minutes later, Sophia and Thea entered the room and stepped inside the circle with the girls. Thea was holding a drum, and Sophia a cauldron, which she placed in the center, just as the girls had done. Then Sophia motioned for them to stand up, which they did. She stepped outside the ring of candles and, as Annie had done in the original ritual, picked up a candle and began walking around the circle.

  “One time ’round I cast the circle with the fire of protection,” she said, using Annie’s words. “May this circle be a place of safety and refuge. Two times ’round I cast the circle with the fire of change. May this circle be a place of cleansing and renewal,” she continued, changing Annie’s original wording slightly. “Three times ’round I cast the circle with the fire of truth. May this circle be a place of healing and understanding.”

  She returned to the circle. “We are in the circle of fire,” she said. “Here all illusion is stripped away and we stand surrounded by the cleansing flames of truth. The circle is powered by our desire for renewal and change.”

  Sophia raised her hands and closed her eyes. “Into this circle of fire we invite you, Mother Kali. You who sweep clean the illusions of the world so that we may see it anew. You who devour the darkness and give birth to stars. Be with us here. Help us in our magic.”

  When she was done she motioned for everyone to sit down. Then she leaned
forward, struck a match, and dropped it into the cauldron, which sprang to life with fire. The girls had seen this particular trick before, and knew that the cauldron contained a little bit of rubbing alcohol, which burned brightly without smoking.

  “Kali does indeed bring justice,” Sophia said as the flames snapped and popped. “But more important, she clears the paths. She rids them of obstacles and illusions that might hinder our journeys. Tonight we are asking her to do that, both for Mallory and for Ray. We might not understand Ray’s path, but that is not our job,” she added, noting the bewildered looks on the faces of the girls.

  “Look into the cauldron,” Sophia instructed them. “As we chant, imagine the fire in Kali’s cauldron burning away the illusions that prevent us from seeing things as they really are. Imagine it lighting the way, showing us a path that before lay shrouded in darkness.”

  Thea began to drum. After a moment, she began to chant.

  In the belly of the cauldron,

  in this circle made of flame,

  call we up the burning power,

  conjure it in Kali’s name.

  Burn away the old illusions,

  show us what is true and right.

  Set our feet upon the pathway,

  lead us through the dark of night.

  Crackling, sparking, never fading,

  fire pure and fire wild,

  go and do our magic bidding,

  light the way for Mother’s child.

  The girls sang with her, the words old and new at the same time. “Picture Kali walking ahead of us,” Sophia told them. “She is carrying her cauldron, and the light of it shows us the way. Others walk beside us, behind us. Mallory and Ray. Maybe they stay on our path, or maybe they turn to follow other paths, following their own fires. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are all walking, seeing one step at a time.”

  They sang the chant through perhaps a dozen times while Thea drummed. Then her drumming slowed and their voices faded out. As Thea tapped out a steady, simple beat, Sophia spoke some more.

  “There is danger in the darkness,” she said. “But Mother Kali’s fire protects us as long as we remain on the path. We don’t fear the shadows or the strange sounds. We know that the fire in her cauldron shows us the truth. We know, too, that those who don’t follow truth she will deal with in her own way. But that is for her to decide.”

  She stopped talking and just let Thea drum. Each of the girls, listening, was lost in her own image of Kali, and of the path she revealed to them. When the drumming finally stopped, they all looked around at one another.

  “Wow,” said Cooper. “That was intense.”

  “It’s amazing,” Annie said. “It was a lot like our original ritual, but those few changes made it completely different. I feel relaxed and peaceful now, where before I felt all worked up.”

  “Your ritual was beautiful,” Sophia said. “This is just a different way of harnessing that same energy. This time you turned the energy inward instead of directing it at Ray. You empowered yourselves instead of giving it away.”

  “I still don’t like him, though,” Cooper admitted.

  “You don’t have to,” said Sophia. “I don’t like him, either. But don’t let your hatred of Ray take away from your own power. Leave him to his own path while you walk yours. I guarantee you, he’ll get what’s coming to him when it’s time. It’s when we try to change things before it’s time for them to change that we become frustrated. Now, let’s join hands.”

  The six of them linked hands. “We’re going to open the circle now,” Sophia said. “But I want to do it a little differently. I want you each to imagine taking some of the fire into yourselves. I don’t care how you do it. Drink it like water. Breathe it in. Let it soak through your skin. But take some of the fire—some of Kali’s fire—into yourselves.”

  There was silence as each of them imagined taking the fire into her body in her own way. Then Sophia intoned, “The circle is open but unbroken. Carry it with you. Let it fuel you and light your way. Let it bind us together like a golden chain.”

  They all squeezed hands and then let go. The ritual was over.

  “We should get back to the hospital,” Sasha said as they cleaned up. “Derek and Mallory will probably be wondering what happened to us.”

  They said good-night to Sophia and got back in Thea’s car. As they drove to the hospital, they talked about the ritual they’d just done.

  “There’s something that’s been bothering me a little,” Annie said. “I understand that magic doesn’t always work the way we want it to or the way we expect it to. But if we always say that it’s because maybe things are supposed to go another way, isn’t that just an excuse for it not working? I mean, how do we know if magic is real at all if when it doesn’t work we say, ‘Well, that’s what was supposed to happen’?”

  “Good point,” said Thea. “You could very well ask the same question about people who pray for something to happen and get the opposite result. Does that mean that prayer doesn’t work or that God doesn’t exist?”

  “I think it’s a matter of why you’re praying or why you’re doing the magic,” said Kate after a moment. “It’s like Sophia said—if you’re doing those things to try to change something because you want it to be changed, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the change you want is the thing that needs to happen. Sure, it seems to make sense that praying for someone not to die is the best thing. But maybe it isn’t.”

  “Okay,” Cooper said. “But then what’s the point of doing magic at all if the thing that’s supposed to happen is going to happen anyway? Why not just say that everything that happens is what’s supposed to happen and there’s nothing you can do about it?”

  Nobody spoke for a long time. Then Sasha said, “I do think everything happens for a reason. But I think, too, that it’s up to us how to use what happens in the most productive way possible. I mean, it would be easy for me to look at what has happened to me in my life and just say, ‘Clearly, I’m supposed to be on the streets getting into trouble, so I might as well just get used to it because there’s nothing I can do about it.’ But I didn’t do that. I tried to change things. I did change things. I took the path with the light ahead of me instead of staying in the darkness.”

  “I think that’s what this year has really been about,” Annie said. “Doing magic is only a small part of Wicca—and of life. What we’re really learning is how to use our gifts to make every opportunity and challenge we’re given make us stronger people.”

  Cooper sighed. “This all sounds great,” she said. “And I agree. So why do I still want someone to crack Ray over the head?”

  They all laughed. “No one ever said this stuff was easy,” Thea reminded her.

  They arrived at the hospital, parked, and went inside. When they exited the elevator at the fourth floor, they were surprised to see a police officer standing by the nurses’ station.

  “Oh, no,” said Sasha.

  They ran down the hall toward Mallory’s room, where they saw a police officer positioned outside the closed door. The girls tried to go into the room but were stopped by the cop.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” she asked.

  “Our friend—” said Sasha.

  “We have—” Cooper added adamantly.

  “But—” Kate and Annie said.

  The door opened and Detective Stern looked out. “What’s all this noise?” he asked irritably. Then he saw the girls. “Oh,” he said. “It’s you.”

  “What’s wrong?” Cooper asked. “Why are all these cops here?”

  Detective Stern opened the door. “Come on in,” he said.

  The girls rushed in. When they saw Mallory sitting up, happily talking to Derek, they breathed a collective sigh of relief.

  “What’s the big deal?” Sasha demanded.

  Detective Stern nodded at Mallory. “I was just telling Miss Lowell and her brother the good news,” he said.

  “Good news?” Coo
per asked suspiciously.

  “We caught that Ray fellow,” the detective said. “About an hour ago. Picked him up trying to buy a gun at a pawnshop downtown.”

  The girls all looked at one another. “You’re sure it’s him?” asked Cooper.

  Detective Stern gave her a sharp look. “Would you please have some faith in me?” he said. “I know you’re the big crime fighter and all, but give me a little credit, okay?”

  Cooper grinned. “I’ll give you more than that,” she said. She went over and gave the detective a hug. “Thanks,” she said.

  “Turns out this guy has warrants out for his arrest all over the place,” the detective told them when Cooper let go. “He’s not going anywhere for a long, long time.”

  “We are, though,” Mallory said from the bed.

  Everyone turned to look at her.

  “We’re going home,” she said, looking at her brother, who took her hand and held it tightly. “As soon as they say I can leave.”

  “I can’t thank you all enough for what you’ve done,” Derek said to the girls. “If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know what might have happened.”

  “Yeah, well, it all works out the way it’s supposed to, right?” said Cooper, grinning at her friends.

  Later, after saying good-night to Mallory and Detective Stern, the girls headed for home. As they walked out of the hospital, Annie said, “Well, one more challenge met and conquered.”

  “Two,” Cooper said, thinking about her mother.

  “Yeah, but what’s next?” asked Kate.

  “For me it’s going to be meeting my sister next month,” said Annie. “Mardi Gras, here I come.”

  “Lucky you,” Kate remarked. “I’d love to go to New Orleans.”

  “Me, too,” said Cooper. “I’d love to see all that voodoo stuff.”

  “And see the parade,” Sasha commented.

  There was silence for a moment. Then Kate said slowly, “You know, we do all have a week off from school.”

  They stopped and looked at one another.