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
Showing posts with label Wiccan Rede. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wiccan Rede. Show all posts
Thursday, June 14, 2018
Friday, September 7, 2012
Plagiarism!
Blessings Darlings!
Plagiarism (from Wikipedia): defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work.
I've been running into an astonishing amount of plagiarism on Pagan sites and pages online lately. It's hard to find an original thought. Instead, you get a picture of an athame with text that comes from Wikipedia. You look, and the person posted it after taking it (with permission) from another site which may or may not be the one that original plagiarized the text. Okay, in this case, the text was originally plagiarized by Ravensgrove Coven on Facebook.
But that one group isn't the only one doing it. Lots of groups on Facebook, lots of blogs, lots of websites, have scraped all their content from others, usually without attribution. And in the cases where the stuff is copyrighted, without getting permission from the writer/artist.
Honor? The 3-fold law? The Wiccan Rede? Karma? Common decency? "The Christians stole all our stuff"? Some Pagans have no ethics, no morals, no honor, and lie about their belief in the Gods, the Rede, the 3-fold law, etc.
Like what someone else has written, and want to share it? Great! Write a summary mentioning who wrote it and provide a link to the original source. That way you share it AND the creator gets the traffic/attention. I've done that with many folks blogs posts that I like. You will NOT read their entire blog post on MY blog. I will link you to THEIR blogs.
Want to incorporate someone else's words that inspired your work, and don't have their permission? Look at what I posted on Thursday, Sept 6, 2012 (with luck, I'll remember to put the link in!). Instead of quoting the words, which I didn't have permission for and ... uh ... was pretty sure that the writer wouldn't want to give me permission for, I did a bullet point summary. The source being from a closed group I could not link back to it in general, and since I also wanted to protect the privacy of the 'bad example', I also did not want to post her name/identifying into, like an avatar.
Today was one of those days when I called out plagiarism when I saw it. And I discovered that some of the people ... well, I'll leave out what the Lala called them ... before she was bounced from one group ... don't seem to understand the difference between plagiarism and copyright violations.
Let me explain the difference between plagiarism and copyright violations: plagiarism, as noted above, is ANYTIME you pass off the words of another as your own (not giving credit) even if the words are public domain (that is, wikipedia); copyright violations muck up an author's 'exclusive right' to their words.
Honestly, plagiarism is explained to US kids thoroughly in high school, when they are taught to do research papers. It's not rocket science, it's not a PhD level concept, it's not a 3rd degree mystery.
Frondly, Fern
Plagiarism (from Wikipedia): defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work.
I've been running into an astonishing amount of plagiarism on Pagan sites and pages online lately. It's hard to find an original thought. Instead, you get a picture of an athame with text that comes from Wikipedia. You look, and the person posted it after taking it (with permission) from another site which may or may not be the one that original plagiarized the text. Okay, in this case, the text was originally plagiarized by Ravensgrove Coven on Facebook.
But that one group isn't the only one doing it. Lots of groups on Facebook, lots of blogs, lots of websites, have scraped all their content from others, usually without attribution. And in the cases where the stuff is copyrighted, without getting permission from the writer/artist.
Honor? The 3-fold law? The Wiccan Rede? Karma? Common decency? "The Christians stole all our stuff"? Some Pagans have no ethics, no morals, no honor, and lie about their belief in the Gods, the Rede, the 3-fold law, etc.
Like what someone else has written, and want to share it? Great! Write a summary mentioning who wrote it and provide a link to the original source. That way you share it AND the creator gets the traffic/attention. I've done that with many folks blogs posts that I like. You will NOT read their entire blog post on MY blog. I will link you to THEIR blogs.
Want to incorporate someone else's words that inspired your work, and don't have their permission? Look at what I posted on Thursday, Sept 6, 2012 (with luck, I'll remember to put the link in!). Instead of quoting the words, which I didn't have permission for and ... uh ... was pretty sure that the writer wouldn't want to give me permission for, I did a bullet point summary. The source being from a closed group I could not link back to it in general, and since I also wanted to protect the privacy of the 'bad example', I also did not want to post her name/identifying into, like an avatar.
Today was one of those days when I called out plagiarism when I saw it. And I discovered that some of the people ... well, I'll leave out what the Lala called them ... before she was bounced from one group ... don't seem to understand the difference between plagiarism and copyright violations.
Let me explain the difference between plagiarism and copyright violations: plagiarism, as noted above, is ANYTIME you pass off the words of another as your own (not giving credit) even if the words are public domain (that is, wikipedia); copyright violations muck up an author's 'exclusive right' to their words.
Honestly, plagiarism is explained to US kids thoroughly in high school, when they are taught to do research papers. It's not rocket science, it's not a PhD level concept, it's not a 3rd degree mystery.
Frondly, Fern
Thursday, March 22, 2012
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 peoplekarma 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
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
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
Saturday, February 25, 2012
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
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
Thursday, October 21, 2010
aBinary
Blessings, Darlings!
Are you a good witch or a bad witch? Are you for us or against us? Is it good or is it evil? Is he gay or straight? Is that a man or a woman? It's us vs. them!
There's a lot of pressure to see everything through the lens of dualism.
To some extent doing so is probably hard-wired into us humans. We, as a species, seem to be 'categorizing animals', probably as a result of evolutionary pressure that started with "food or not-food" and went from there. Categorizing, even generalizing, are shortcuts to decision making in an environment that requires LOTS of decision making. It is a useful thing.
But - categories are mere representations of reality, and therefore by definition limited. For while categorizing is black/white, the universe is technicolor ... and has at least three dimensions. Never confuse the map with actual reality.
Apparently, some neopagans out there combine the concept of duality with the concepts of good and evil, to the point that they feel that the concept that good and evil forces must always be in balance. Which seems odd to me, since most neopagans also say that there is no God/dess of Evil a la Satan, no anthropomorphized or demonized Evil. Being the snarky judgmental Druid Bitch that I am, I assume that this is another way to shortcut making decisions and taking actions in life. If good and evil MUST balance, then you don't - maybe even SHOULDN'T - take action against evil being done, for you'd upset the balance. Throw in misunderstanding the Rede, and some can't stop those harming others because they might harm the perp.
For me, of course, I see myself as the Hands of the Gods on Earth, bitchslapping those the Gods would have bitchslapped. Which means self defense, which means throwing the occasional curse, etc.
I'm also not pre-occupied with balance. The universe isn't into balance, it's into entropy. Assuming we don't have the cyclic universe some theorize, then the universe will end, and end without even a whimper as energy and matter diffuse out to uselessness.
But that's the long, long, long term.
In the short term, we can look at our world, and see how human society has changed, and it doesn't show balance, either. A friend - Henry over there who commented about Hinduism in a previous post, in fact - who once made a great case on how we show all signs of coming OUT of the Kali Yuga not descent into it. Lifespans are growing longer, more humans have more rights than even, more children are surviving infancy, more people have at least some level of voting rights than ever, a smaller percentage of the human population is in slavery, etc, etc, etc. Is this evenly distributed, even in the US? Oh, heck no. Ask an African American who lived 100 years ago if there has been real progress, the answer will be yes. Ask a transexual woman, and she'll explain in detail how the answer is no.
I'm NOT saying that life is rainbows and unicorn farts.
Of COURSE there is still a long way to go to promote 'good' and reduce 'evil'/abuse of people. What I'm saying is the promoting good, making changes that increase the good and reduce the evil does NOT mean that evil is just going to break out elsewhere to 'balance' it.
For that matter, I suppose that some folks feel that all good in their lives must be balanced by evil in their own lives. It may bring some 'pie in the sky' solace to those who have survived abuse, but.... that good is not going to spontaneously arrive. Good CAN and WILL happen in lives, but working for it, demanding an end to evil and abuse, working for ending abuses and for good is going to get a whole lot more good in your life than passively sitting back and waiting for it to get dumped in your lap.
And those poor, scared, folks who think that all good that happens to them must be balanced by evil happening to them - that every moment of joy MUST be balance by moment of sadness, that every love must be balanced by hate! Life sometimes sucks. It does not HAVE to. Prepared for challenging times, but don't feel you MUST SUFFER because you are loving life at other times. It doesn't have to be that way.
Frondly, Fern
Are you a good witch or a bad witch? Are you for us or against us? Is it good or is it evil? Is he gay or straight? Is that a man or a woman? It's us vs. them!
There's a lot of pressure to see everything through the lens of dualism.
To some extent doing so is probably hard-wired into us humans. We, as a species, seem to be 'categorizing animals', probably as a result of evolutionary pressure that started with "food or not-food" and went from there. Categorizing, even generalizing, are shortcuts to decision making in an environment that requires LOTS of decision making. It is a useful thing.
But - categories are mere representations of reality, and therefore by definition limited. For while categorizing is black/white, the universe is technicolor ... and has at least three dimensions. Never confuse the map with actual reality.
Apparently, some neopagans out there combine the concept of duality with the concepts of good and evil, to the point that they feel that the concept that good and evil forces must always be in balance. Which seems odd to me, since most neopagans also say that there is no God/dess of Evil a la Satan, no anthropomorphized or demonized Evil. Being the snarky judgmental Druid Bitch that I am, I assume that this is another way to shortcut making decisions and taking actions in life. If good and evil MUST balance, then you don't - maybe even SHOULDN'T - take action against evil being done, for you'd upset the balance. Throw in misunderstanding the Rede, and some can't stop those harming others because they might harm the perp.
For me, of course, I see myself as the Hands of the Gods on Earth, bitchslapping those the Gods would have bitchslapped. Which means self defense, which means throwing the occasional curse, etc.
I'm also not pre-occupied with balance. The universe isn't into balance, it's into entropy. Assuming we don't have the cyclic universe some theorize, then the universe will end, and end without even a whimper as energy and matter diffuse out to uselessness.
But that's the long, long, long term.
In the short term, we can look at our world, and see how human society has changed, and it doesn't show balance, either. A friend - Henry over there who commented about Hinduism in a previous post, in fact - who once made a great case on how we show all signs of coming OUT of the Kali Yuga not descent into it. Lifespans are growing longer, more humans have more rights than even, more children are surviving infancy, more people have at least some level of voting rights than ever, a smaller percentage of the human population is in slavery, etc, etc, etc. Is this evenly distributed, even in the US? Oh, heck no. Ask an African American who lived 100 years ago if there has been real progress, the answer will be yes. Ask a transexual woman, and she'll explain in detail how the answer is no.
I'm NOT saying that life is rainbows and unicorn farts.
Of COURSE there is still a long way to go to promote 'good' and reduce 'evil'/abuse of people. What I'm saying is the promoting good, making changes that increase the good and reduce the evil does NOT mean that evil is just going to break out elsewhere to 'balance' it.
For that matter, I suppose that some folks feel that all good in their lives must be balanced by evil in their own lives. It may bring some 'pie in the sky' solace to those who have survived abuse, but.... that good is not going to spontaneously arrive. Good CAN and WILL happen in lives, but working for it, demanding an end to evil and abuse, working for ending abuses and for good is going to get a whole lot more good in your life than passively sitting back and waiting for it to get dumped in your lap.
And those poor, scared, folks who think that all good that happens to them must be balanced by evil happening to them - that every moment of joy MUST be balance by moment of sadness, that every love must be balanced by hate! Life sometimes sucks. It does not HAVE to. Prepared for challenging times, but don't feel you MUST SUFFER because you are loving life at other times. It doesn't have to be that way.
Frondly, Fern
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