The Wiccan Rede

Blessings Darlings!

It's time.  I can't put off looking at "An it harm none, do as ye will".

Let's start with this:  it's 8 words.  EIGHT  E*I*G*H*T .  Shortening it IN ANY WAY changes it completely.  It's meaning is not 'harm none' any more than it is 'Harm' or 'an it harm, do as ye will".  It has to be taken as a whole, or at the VERY least leave the clauses intact and see how the clauses interact.  You know that - you're a magic user, right?  You know that the number of the words matters.  8 is the number of magic.  And eight is the goal of the initiate, having gone through the seven stages.  Numbers matter as much as words do.

Let's move on to -  it's Wiccan.  It's not 'universal' in any way.  
Let's move on to - its "Rede".  Rede does not mean "law".  It means advice. 

Now then, let's get to the meat of the matter, and look at the first part of the saying, "An it harm none".  First, and most important, is that it only addresses acts that harm no one.  It doesn't say anything about acts that DO do any harm. Just like when we discussed that 'my worship is in the heart that rejoices' is just addressing ONE thing, ONE place that Her worship is but does not rule out other place - "An it harm none" is only addressing ONE category of results.  It's not pretending to talk about acts with other results.  And, clearly, the second part of the phrase is permissive "do as ye will".  So in the case of acts that don't harm folks - if you wanna, then it's ADVICE is that you can go right ahead if you choose to.  It is permissive.

But what about acts that DO cause harm?  Again - THE WICCAN REDE DOES NOT ADDRESS THEM AT ALL.  It has no 'blanket advice' for you about acts that harm.  You are going to have to look at the individual situation and decide what you are going to do/not do.  And you're going to have to take responsibility for the action/inaction.  You're not going to be able to blame/credit your choice to advice coming from outside of yourself.  

I supposed that I should say a few words on 'harm'.  Okay.   "While actual harm is not limited to the physical, being fucking butthurt is not harm."

Let me assure you that I did want to write a whole lot more about that.  But ain't no one wants to hear me whine about other people being butthurt.  Let's just pass them the lube and tell them to ... well, maybe SIT DOWN and shut up might be rude ...

Frondly, Fern

The Threefold Bitchslap

Blessings  Darlings!

Some neopagans say that they live according to the Rede-as-harm-none (which I covered earlier here) and the Threefold Law Of Returns.  And that the three-fold law, they will tell you when asked, is "Whatever you send out you get back three times over".

Well, no, that's not what the Threefold Law is.

The root of the Threefold Law seems to be in the "long version" of the Rede, as written by Lady Gwen Thompson .... who was not Wiccan but but BTW .... and BTW at the time was NOT "British Traditional Wicca" but "British Traditional WITCHCRAFT".  It was published in Green Egg in 1974, don't recall which issue.

The line in question reads "Mind the Three-fold Laws ye should three times bad and three times good." I copied that from  http://rialian.com/wiccrede.htm 
 
That's not about you getting back three times over what you send out. That's "Whatever someone does to you, good or bad, do back to them three times over."  Yes, I checked this with a Gardnerian, in case anyone was asking.  It's supposed to be YOU being the manifestation of the hands of the God/dess/es handing people karma logical response to their actions. No room for passive-aggressive behavior here. 

It's not you sitting in front of a picture of the dude that dropped you and repeating "The three fold law will get you" and expecting some bean counter in the sky doing it for you. 

It means that you are expected to take an active, involved role in creating Justice right here on Earth. 

It's easy being nice to someone who's been nice to you.  Co-worker jumped your car and you bring them cookies or whatever.  Easy peasy, no risk.

It's harder, especially for women, to take an active role in bitchslapping someone who has worked to do you harm.  We've been rather socialized to just walk away, to be non-confrontational.  It's DANGEROUS, we've been told, to say "No, that is not allowed, stop that". Bullies are supposed to be out for attention and we've been told that to ignore them makes them go away.

But that's not the case.  Bullies get worse without confrontation.  Silence ENABLES abuse -ALL types of ause - rather than stops it.  I can't find the scholarly article right now, but last year I read one that pretty definitively showed that social confrontation did not CAUSE conflict - it ENDED conflict.

Yeah, it might take doing it more than once.  Like, maybe three times.... or more. 

But when pushed - push back ... or make dang sure that the push-ers momentum is used by you to make sure that they fall. Hard. And in public.

Administer the Three-Fold Bitchslap.

Frondly, Fern

The Rede

Blessings Darlings!

Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill - an it harm none, do as you Will.

Okay. What does it mean, and in what circumstances? Does it apply to the Will (capital W, as in Higher Will) or will (lower case w, as in whatever you choose to do)?  What is 'harm'?  Can you 'harm none' in ANY situation? CAN you do anything that goes against your Higher Will, anyway?

Yeah. All the usual questions about the Wiccan Rede.

How about THIS for an interpretation - "do what ever you want, as long as it harms no one.  But since NOTHING you do harms no one at all ... do whatever you want and just take responsibility for your choices.  And if you claim you harm none - you lie to yourself."

Frondly, Fern