Old World Witchcraft is more than a practice. It's the Witch, the Earth, and the Energy. Magick in its purest, most elemental form. It allows total freedom of magickal expression and limitless choices. It is the shortest, most intense, and direct route to understanding your own power.
Occasionally, Witches and spiritual-types from the so-called "White Light" path like to label and criticize other's decisions or life choices. They argue that manipulative - or what they refer to as 'black magick' - is wrong. (Hint: the Law of 3 is an entirely made-up concept. It is nothing more than 1950's Paganism, propagated by worthless new age books.)
Do you think energetic or emotional manipulation in black magick? All magick, all physical action, and the very act of breathing is in itself manipulation. You manipulate energy, you manipulate air, you physically manipulate the real-world experience around you -- and that's true even without magick!
Cursing and healing. Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path. Black and white. Desiring and repelling. They are all part of the same circle. All interlocking forms of spiritual, magickal, and transformational work. Human energies in the spiritual, coming into the material world through perfectly natural means.
Manipulating love is no different than manipulating money - after all, the money must come from somewhere.
This doesn't need to be a Robin Hood situation of taking money away from one group to feed another. Understand that the simple act of accepting a job offer could very well be an act of denying another person that very same opportunity.
Whether you consciously wanted this person to not get the job doesn't matter - the same physical and emotional response will be emitted by the other party. In the same manner, a Christian's prayer to God for a lover to return is essentially a (weak) version of a love spell. By placing the ultimate decision making on the shoulders of an "exterior" being is simply semantics.
Similarly, fertility magick and death magick are only one degree from separation. Those willing to perform "White Magick" to bring a physically materialized soul into the hands of those who cannot otherwise conceive is itself, essentially playing God. Likewise, performing "Black Magick" to kill a pedophile or an animal abuser can also be of great benefit and should be celebrated.
Separating magick into right versus wrong, black versus white, evil versus good, is not only a narrow-minded task, but it narrows your scope of universal understanding and the greater reality. Nothing and no one is judging you but you. Learn to love yourself, stand up for yourself, and know that you are a limitless being.
Making peace with the world and our magickal practice begins with our minds. Just as the moon can illuminate the dark, the rays from the sun can leave a deadly burn. The circle of life does not exist of right and wrong, black and white, good and evil. The circle of life is a never-ending array of colors, shades, and experiences.
Witchcraft is a natural, flowing process. Although one must decide for themselves what is right for them, accepting the circle of life will facilitate a more peaceful, loving physical experience and a sense of well-being.
Enjoy your magick. Feel confident about your choices. Follow your own path.