Lesson Six - The Wiccan Rede
'Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfil: An it harm none, do what you will.'
As Janet and Stewart Farrar say in A Witches' Bible, "Wiccan ethics are positive, rather than prohibitive. The morality of witchcraft is far more concerned with 'blessed is he who' than with 'thou shalt not.'"

Although different traditions of Wicca may have different sets of rules, underlying all such rules is one basic concept: Harm none.

The following is from Scott Cunningham's books Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner and Living Wicca, The Law and The Law of the Power:

The Law

We are of the Old Ways, among those who walk with the Goddess and God and receive Their love.
  • Keep the Sabbats and Esbats to the best of your abilities, for to do
  • otherwise is to lessen your connections with the Goddess and God.
  • Harm none. This, the oldest law, is not open to interpretation or change.
  • Shed not blood in ritual; the Goddess and God need not blood to be duly worshipped.
  • Those of our way are kind to all creatures, for hurtful thoughts are quite draining and aren't worth the loss of energy. Misery is self-created; so, too, is joy, so create joy and disdain misery and unhappiness. And this is within your power. So harm not.
  • Teach only what you know, to the best of your ability, to those students whom you chose, but teach not to those who would use your instructions for destruction or control. Also, teach not to boost pride, for ever remember: s/he who teaches for vain-glory shall take little pride in her/his handiwork; s/he who teaches out of love shall be enfolded in the arms of the Goddess and God.
  • Ever remember that if you would be of our way, keep the Law close to your heart, for it is the nature of the Wicca to keep the Law.
  • If ever the need arises, any law may be changed or discarded, and new laws written to replace them, so long as the new laws don't break the oldest law of all: harm none.
Blessings of the God and Goddess on us all.

The Law of the Power

  • The Power shall not be used to bring harm. to injure or control others. But if the need arises, the Power shall be used to protect your life or the lives of others.
  • The Power is used only as need dictates.
  • The Power can be used for your own gain, as long as by doing so you harm none.
  • It is unwise to accept money for use of the Power, for it quickly controls its taker.
  • Be not as those of other religions.
  • Use not the Power for prideful gain, for such cheapens the mysteries of Wicca and magic.
  • Ever remember that the Power is the sacred gift of the Goddess and God, and should never be misued or abused.
And this is the Law of the Power.

Cunningham wrote these as examples of laws which you can use as a solitary practitioner. The underlying theme is: Harm none.
The Farrars discuss this further in A Witches' Bible:
"If you deliberately set out to develop your psychic abilities you are awakening a faculty by which you can influence other people, with or without their knowledge; a faculty by which you can obtain information in ways that they do not expect or allow for; a faculty by which you can either enhance their life-energy or sap it. By which you can help them or harm them.
Obviously, you are taking a great responsibility on yourself and this responsibility calls for a set of willingly accepted rules. And these rules are all the more important because very often only you know if you are honestly obeying them...
All these rules are summed up in the phrase: 'An it harm none.' A witch must never use his or her powers in a way which will cause harm to anyone -- or even frighten anyone by claiming to. Another Wiccan rule says: 'Never boast, never threaten, never say you would wish ill of anyone.'"
This rule does not mean you leave yourself open to attack from others. There are acceptable ways of dealing with such things. One is a binding spell designed to render evil actions powerless -- the spell is against the deed, not against the doer. Another is to set up your own defense against psychic attack. The key to both is to set up strong psychic defenses without counter-attacking.
To end as we began: 'Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfil: An it harm none, do what you will.'

Questions:

  1. In your own words, describe the Wiccan (Witches') Rede and what it means to you.
  2. Why is the Rede important to those practicing the Craft? How does it apply to life in general?
  3. You have two friends who you think would be very good for each other. You decide to work a love spell to bring them together. Does this violate the rede (harm none)? If so, why? If not, why not?
Read over the following exercise. If you are not going to actually perform the exercise, at least visualize it in your mind. Explain how you think this relates to the Wiccan Rede.

Exercise:

From To Ride a Silver Broomstick by Silver RavenWolf.
To run an experiment on action and reaction, go to a quiet lake, pond, or a smooth area in a stream. Take a small pebble in your hand and envision that you are the stone. When you throw it into the water, think "This is the action." Watch as the stone hits the surface and understand that the initial rise of water is the main consequence of the action.
Then watch as concentric circles flow from the point of impact. These circles represent the fall-out of your action, the stone hitting the water. Some of the circles are very definite in nature, others are almost indistinguishable in design. Carry this thought further and consider the impact of a good deed: the environment and all that is in it vibrates around the deed, and changes occur that are positive in nature.
Now imagine the impact as a negative deed, and ponder on the domino effect because of that action on the environment and those people that are contained in it.

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