Wicca Ethics

In Wicca there are two major ideas that help people decide what they should and shouldn't do. (Remember that though some other Pagan paths or individuals use these same ideas or something similar that doesn't mean that ALL Pagans you meet will believe in these). The first one says how you should behave. If you ever hear someone refer to the "Wiccan Rede" or maybe just the "Rede" they're referring to the phrase "An it harm none, do what ye will." (Sometimes a word or two is changed in this but it's still basically the same rule) When you think about this for a while what is comes down to is that the ultimate guideline for whether something is okay to do or not is whether anybody (including you) might get hurt. Some situations are clear with this. Using illegal drugs (or misusing legal or prescription medicine) is seen as bad because it's bad for your health and can majorly mess up your life. If it's something like dressing up vegetables in doll clothes and having a tea party with them... well I'll admit we'd have to wonder about you but under the Rede it isn't necessarily something that's "wrong" because no one is getting hurt by it. Other times you'll be faced with something more difficult. Someone cheating on a test in class might make the teacher be tougher when grading things which would hurt the other classmates, but if you tell on the cheater then they could get a failing grade. Situations like this though, are part of what makes the Rede such a valuable rule to live by. Instead of trying to think of every possible situation you could come across and having a rule for each, this way you just get a general standard, and its up to your own judgement what the best way to react (or not react) is. The other big idea in Wicca is often referred to as the "Law of Three." You've probably heard of karma, which is a bit like the common saying "what goes around comes around." Karma is the belief that whatever you do, no matter if it's good or bad, will eventually come back to you. (Sometimes this is easy to see, like if you're the sort of person who helps people out when they're having problems, later they'll be more likely to help you out in return.) The Law of Three actually goes a step further than karma. It says that whatever you do (again, it doesn't matter if it's something good or something bad) it comes back to you three times over. Why the three? Well, it could be because three is an important number in numerology, I'm really not sure. People disagree about whether we should take that three literally as telling us that things come back three times over, or if it's just a way of saying that you get back what you put out, and then get back some more. Copyright © 1998 Cossie The current URL is: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1492/library/ethics.html Return to the library.

Main Page || SiteMap || What's New? || Library Awards/Webrings || Copyrights || Disclaimer || Contact The Moonlit Grove