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Wican Rede

I posted this on my blog but after I realized that it may be a question that a lot of us newbies could be thinking. So here is part of my blog:

"Bide the Wiccan Law ye must,
In perfect love and perfect trust.
Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill:
And ye harm none, do what ye will.

What ye send forth comes back to thee
so ever mind the law of three.
Follow this with mind and heart,
Merry ye meet, and merry ye part."

The one law that we are to follow, but it's an extremely important one. To cause no harm doesn't mean only physical pain but any hurt or pain in the slightest. To show disrespect to anyone or to they're culture, religion, or thoughts, hurts them. Even in joking we have to be careful, someone may laugh but be hurt. This can all be done without magic. How can we be sure that what we do will not cause harm? You can not intend harm and add to the ritual/spell and harm none, but does it change the ritual/spell so it doesn't harm? How can you be sure that it won't cause harm even in the slightest? I have only done one ritual/spell and that was at the past Sahaim. I have been reading and studying online, mostly online. The more I find out the more I am scared, I'm scared that even if I don't mean to there will be a chance to cause harm that I don't know about. How can I be sure? The more I learn the more the possiblities that I think about. Am I just going to indepth or am I not meant to do this? I know that this is my true path nothing felt more right. How can I do rituals/spells with not causing harm? I study so that I won't cause harm, I have a friend who does instead. That is her way and it works good for her but I'm scared if I don't know I will unintentional cause harm. I want to do more but fear stops me. How can I conquer it?

So the most important question would be how can we be sure not to cause harm to another?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by ShadowDragon on December 7, 2008 at 7:42pm

Ok the first part of the rede is not saying NOT to harm, rather if what you are doing doesn't harm anyone then do what you WILL, not what you want, but will. The intent is the key there. If you are practicing in perfect love and perfect trust, you are not going to be malicious about things. This doesn't make you a door mat however. If you or a loved one is threatened use any means at your disposal to protect them...

Now for the second part, This gets into the whole threefold law, which I do not beleive in, but this is where the consequences come into play. If you harm others than you will be harmed, if you help others, you will be helped. Basically Do unto others as you would have done unto you. For the record I do beleive in Karma, and Karma always seeks to balance therefore you cannot receive more or less than you put out there. That is just my beleief, and not a popular one in the pagan community.

Do not be afraid of pursuing your craft. you will never know the extent of anything you do, magickal or otherwise, or be able to plan for all the reprecussions. You have to make a descision with the information you have and the beleifs you have, stick with it, take responsability for it, and know you did your best...remember even the most destructive forces ultimately serve the cycle and have a purpose, even if you cannot understand it.

Blessed Be,
SD

Permalink Reply by Andy on December 7, 2008 at 8:12pm

That isn't the entire Rede. The whole Rede is a long poem. Personally I think it is more your intent not your action. If I do something with the intention of being good and its goes wrong and harms something then I probably wouldn't get too much bad karma.
Another thing is the 3 fold law. I do not believe in the 3 fold law literally, I think it's more of the Correlian tradition, it repeats as many times as it takes to teach you the lesson. Also Wicca is about balance, hence the pentacle, and if the universe gives me 3 times what I put out, it's screwing itself up right there.

Permalink Reply by wolffrank1963 on December 8, 2008 at 2:25am

Trust and love conquer fear everytime, keep your mind and heart true and your action's will stay pure and kind.

Permalink Reply by Aideen Ailbe Tiger on December 8, 2008 at 9:28am

mm
Thanks for all your advice. I don't do anything malicious, I just was worried that if I do something with pure good intent and there is something that I did not see as a posiblity that may harm. I will take all you say to mind. thank you all
blessed be

Permalink Reply by Chandra on December 9, 2008 at 3:38pm

Magick is all about intent, but there is still the possibility of causing harm. The type of harm one could cause with good intent is in the way of changing events that could have lead to greater good.

The best example of spells with good intent that turn bad are love spells. Obviously wanting to find love is a very good goal, but if you are too specific it can cause a lot of harm. Doing one with a specific person as the love object can at the very least cause you to miss the chance with someone who is truly "perfect" for you, or at the worst... well, I'm sure there are discussions about that all over the place. If you are specific about the traits you want in a person, or in the goal of finding say "the best person for you at this time." you're likely to get a good result if you can put your will toward that.

What I have read says that Witches need to be focused on the end result, with the best result being the BEST for all concerned for that time and the future. If you focus your intent on the best result for everyone, I'm sure you will have no trouble doing no harm.

Also you need to think about the true end result. Like if you need to get a car, you don't think about the money to get the car, you do a spell for a car. You think about already having it, driving it, the type of stereo, the color... you put your will on the car you already are going to have, and forget about how it will happen. That will allow the universe to avoid harm by not trying to do what you think is the best, and just doing the best.

You should also consider doing some sort of divination before hand to see if there are any obstacles you wouldn't have thought of. An easy way is pendulum dowsing.

You can make a pendulum from a needle and thread, or use a necklace that has kind of a pointy end to it. you can make it work two easy ways, you can hold it so that it swings easily and ask yes or no questions. the pendulum will swing in a circle either clockwise or counter-clockwise, one for yes and the other for no, you should ask it what it will do for yes and what for no first off. i have seen some people use them where it swung side to side for yes, and front to back for no, so you should check with your pendulum first. You can also use a dowsing board. You might find one online with directions, but I've always liked the yes or no questions method. here's a site that has several different ways of dowsing.

Meditation may help as well.

Despite all of this, magick IS all about intent, and if your intent is to do no harm, then you're pretty likely not to.

You seem pretty worked up in your original post, but I think you would benefit from something my teacher often says "there's a difference between HURT and HARM." Keep in mind that the path of the witch is often painful. Some traditions even use a ritual whip to represent this. Pain and hurt are part of life and sometimes they are the best teachers we have. So though you don't want to hurt anyone, you never know when a little hurt might do the best good.

Permalink Reply by Chandra on December 9, 2008 at 3:49pm

There is scientific support for the three fold law. it goes along with inertia. When you send something out ... like a ball, it doesn't necessarily come back with the same force because of other forces effecting it, like centrifocal force, or gravity. For example if you throw a ball straight up really far, it gains speed coming back because of gravity which causes it to gain in force and so it returns with more power than you sent it out with...Since we are working with energy, the energy can follow the same rules of physics that all other forms of energy or matter do... It does even out by the reaction that whatever it returns to gives it, like a human cushioning the force with some give when they catch the ball, or the ground by giving a little and forcing the ball to bounce until all of the energy has been exerted.

Just because something is not equal does not mean that it is out of balance.

Permalink Reply by Rebecca (Community Moderator) on March 28, 2009 at 3:04pm

Hi Aideen, thanks so much for this discussion. I found it very interesting to read. I am not Wiccan so I am not familiar with the Rede, but in reading your string of replies, I have learned that there is familiar territory for me in this topic. That's all!

Permalink Reply by virginia singleton on April 27, 2009 at 8:44am

this is also what i belive, do your best to cover all possibilities & pray to your godess with pure heart

Permalink Reply by william henry on May 25, 2009 at 7:10pm

I find that in our lives we will meet many souls both great and small and as long as our intensions are always good we have nothing to worry about and further more when we do meet these souls and we will we will always be of good cheer and in doing so they will be blessed and so will we

Permalink Reply by Gixana on April 8, 2010 at 2:21am

No matter what you do, there is a chance of harm somewhere. Even if you went into the middle of nowhere and became a hermit, you would harm yourself, by taking away your contact with the world, it's as many people have already stated, intent is important.