The Wiccan Rede
From Pagan Prompts
While I know some of you are not Wiccan, I do know that lots of people follow a 'golden rule' of sorts. Do you follow the Wiccan Rede ("And it harm none, do as you will.")? Or some variant of?
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Part One: To Rede and Rite.
I taught an entire class on the Rede at one point; as a teaching duo. Neither myself nor the other instructor follow the Rede. Several students in the past have been shocked into silence at that statement. The assumption by one student was clear. "Well you don't have any morals!", she stated with her lower lip thrust out.
"I most certainly do", I assured the class. "'Rede' means 'to advise' and is not, as many new Wiccans assert the Wiccan version of the Ten Commandments." The student in question spent the rest of the class standing against the rear wall, arms crossed, and a scowl on her face.
Whether or not you follow the Rede, finding your own morals and making the choices for yourself, is what is important. We find our moral centers at different times in life, and through our own set of experiences. Some feel it is wrong to take a life, period. Our Soldiers and Law Enforcement are occasionally called upon to take a life in the line of duty to spare others. This is not a duty they take on lightly, but for the good of all. Whether or not you agree with a single action by police or military, they are doing what they feel is right for everyone.
Some Wiccans come from Traditions where they teach you to "do what is necessary", instead of refusing harm; a previous Tradition of mine is one such. It was founded by former abuse victims, who saw nothing wrong with binding those intent on doing others harm. We were taught that to refuse harm in the name of the Rede, rather than face evil and stop it was just as wrong. Again, it comes back to forming your own guidelines, rather than depending on an all encompassing rule.
An oft quoted movie once stated, "There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men." Good people stand by and allow evil things to happen so often, the phenomenon has its own name, "Genovese Syndrome". It may be hard or scary to come to the aid of another person, so stopping the harm before it happens to someone else could be the next step.
Living as best you can isn't so bad, is it? Gathering together with your fellows and celebrating your lives, trials and tributes is beautiful. The full version of the Rede is a beautiful poem. It has great ideas, and hints for living your life. For example: 'Elder be the Lady's tree, burn it not or cursed ye'll be.' Elder is a purgative, if you burn it, it will make you sick.
Part Two: Black and White, Not always right.
On the flip side, we have Victor Anderson's quote, "White magic is poetry. Black magic is anything that works." The idea of attributing color to magic is a popular one, but lacks vision.
Is healing "white" magic or "black" magic? Most of my students respond, "white". However, if your healing ritual prolongs someone's suffering in a losing battle with cancer, the line is no longer as clear. Buying someone flowers sounds like a nice thing to do, but if I'm only doing it so that I can butter you up to tell you I side swiped your car in the parking lot, the line between perceived good and bad gets thinner.
The reason I agree with Victor Anderson is we aren't omniscient. No matter how well we try to see the outcome of our spell work, there is always some possibility that we can not see. Need a job, do a spell, right? However, if you do a spell, are you keeping a mother of three on unemployment? If you work to get a specific job, are you closing the window to an even better job? If a spell is needed, make sure to leave room for the Gods to give you better than you can dream of.
Let's be clear, spell work is a LAST resort, not the first. If you really need to get your supplies out and connect, light some incense and meditate or cast circle and talk to the Gods.
In closing, it's not the Rule that should be Golden, it's you.
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And in Blog related news, my Aphrodite post goes live July 13th!
5 comments:
Spell work is a LAST resort? Interesting premise. Hadn't considered that.
Hi Amy, I have often struggled with "right & wrong" There is no possible way in this world to"harm none", the best I can do is to attempt to never do to someone else something that I would not like done to me.
Oh, I get angry and start spouting off about "getting back" at someone for doing some harm to me or mine, but I remember that Karma is a beautiful thing :-) and try to let it go.
As far as the duties of service men and law enforcement...that is a job, a necessary part of life. There are people who have no rules and they must be prevented from doing harm to others.
Morals are more a non pagan idea to me...we each have to find the rules we can live by and hope spirit understands, We are only human and make mistakes.
Blessed be Amy Luv ya
Ellen, Thanks for commenting, and thanks for reading! It's something that I wish we would all give these concepts more thought.
You gave me a lot to think about,thank you maybe someday you can share your thoughts on "sin".
Kim, Thanks for reading, I'll see what I can come up with. ;)
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