No, I really don't believe in karma.

Sometimes I feel a bit like a broken record. I do not believe in karma. This seems like such a shocking topic to a lot of folks. Even in a traditional witchcraft forum, where I would not expect it to be controversial, and yet...

Turns out when I say this, some people seem to think I mean that I do not believe that karma has any sway over me, and just me. That I just consider myself above and untouched by the concept, while the rest of the peasants are all still getting pulled around by their karma. Which isn't the case at all. The truth of it is when I say I do not believe in karma, I mean exactly that. Not for me, not for you, not for anyone. The whole thing just does not exist.

And I don't know why that's such a weird thing to some folks. Certainly you've met someone who doesn't believe in all the exact same things you do, right? So how come this seems so different? It's not even like this was some universal thing in ancient paganism, lots of pagan cultures wouldn't have really had concept of karma as most see it today.

"So you don't think your actions have consequences?"
Well, no. Of course they do. All actions have consequences - I just don't think it's as simple as good for good, bad for bad. (And I certainly don't think there's any sort of times three, or times ten, or whatever involved.) Sometimes someone can do something bad and "get away" with it. Sometimes bad things happen to someone who is otherwise a good person. To me this is not all part of some great cosmic balancing act, it's just the way things are. As they say, shit happens, for better or worse. My own observations of people around me just do not point to karma being a thing.

And I realize a lot of folks do involve the concept of karma in their spirituality or practice of witchcraft, and that's fine, we're not all going to agree on everything after all - but when I say I don't, that's really all I mean by it. Doesn't make me better or worse than someone who believes in it, just different.