It’s only natural to wonder about rules, laws, and things you “have to do” in order to be Wiccan.  After all, most faiths have some kind of text that is esteemed as the guidepost for spiritual expression among its members.  Most faiths have rules and expectations and beliefs — depending on the faith, these can be fairly relaxed or rigidly dogmatic.  And thus the title of this post — More Like Guidelines Than Actual Rules.  You’ll have to forgive my Pirates of the Caribbean reference there.  The phrase is just too appropo to the topic to pass up!  The other potential title for this post was Why Are The Laws Always Gone? (again, POTC reference).  As you’re about to see, our “laws” can be as elusive as Captain Jack’s rum.

It’s true.  As far as many Wiccans are concerned, their one “Law” is the Wiccan Rede: An It Harm None, Do What Ye Will.  This really is just a part of a much longer passage, these eight words being the last two lines.  However, these two lines contain the most often quoted, the most often debated, and ultimately, the most often deriled eight words you’ll hear in regards to “Wiccan Law”.  I’m going to refrain from going into full detailed exposition of the Rede here (my workshop on this will take every bit of an hour and a half).  The biggest points I want to make about the Rede are these:

• Rede means ‘advice’.  In other words, the Rede isn’t Law.  Nothing happens to you if you don’t follow it.  Like any other piece of advice, you are welcome to ignore it.  Believe me, there are more than a few that do.

• The most basic essence of the Rede involves thinking before acting, considering the consequences of your actions, and realizing that you are ultimately responsible for those actions and the effects your actions have on others.

• You’re likely to hear that the Rede is a bunch of fluffy nonsense, impossible to do, and therefore the moral baby to throw out with the ethical bathwater.  You’re welcome to agree with them (and some of them can be very convincing amidst all that condescension), however, I will tell you from 20 years of personal experience that the Rede holds a few secrets for those willing to meditate upon it.  It’s harder to follow than any other “guideline” I’ve ever tried.

Aside from the oft-maligned and misunderstood Wiccan Rede, the other “Law” you’re liable to hear mentioned is the Law of Three-Fold Return.  This isn’t as much a Law for Wiccans as it is a Universal Truth for everyone.  It’s just how energy works.  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction — you might recognize that from physics.  This isn’t the great Wiccan Rule, formulated for Wiccans, by Wiccans.  It applies to everyone.  It’s non-discriminatory and an equal opportunity truth.  With civil law, you have the choice to obey or not.  With a natural law, the Law itself is more like a public service announcement.  Regardless of your feeling on the matter, what you send out comes back.  Send out negative, get back negative, unless something happens to that energy to change it along the way in some fashion.  Send out positive, get back positive, again unless something happens to change it.  As for the “Three-Fold” part, focus less on the numbers and more on the fact that it happens.  In the end, it doesn’t matter whether or not you only get a “Two-Fold” return or a “One-Fold” return.  You act in a proper way for the sake of behaving properly, not to mitigate the outcome to your favor.

You may also eventually encounter The Laws Of The Craft. These laws number 162 in the version found in The Grimoire Of Lady Sheba.  Let me say upfront that there are doubts as to the origin of these laws and that any adherence to them has fallen by the wayside for the most part.  I still utilize them as a teaching tool.  Researching and understanding these Laws has been a subject of particular enjoyment for me, and I’m afraid I’m not in the camp that cries that these Laws are worthless.  However, will you be expected to memorize them, follow them, engrave them upon your heart?  Chances are, probably not.  I do recommend working through them, however, as suggested in my OWLs offering Being An Ethical Witch.  As with the Rede, secrets are there for those who look diligently.

This is one of the most difficult parts of becoming Craft — our lack of dogma and definitive rules for how you should live and practice your faith.  Our Scripture is written in the living world around us, with as many interpretations available as there are perspectives to view it.  Our Laws, as stated above, are more like guidelines, devoid of any meted out punishment.  Any repercussion is delivered neutrally, matter-of-factly, just because “that’s the way it works”.  There’s no ultimate Evil out to make you violate some precept and, in truth, if the greatest guideline is still nothing more than advice (the Rede), there’s not even something to violate to earn that punishment.

For some people, this is too much to handle.  It requires that you establish a moral compass for yourself, to be able to defend the readings of that moral compass and to navigate your path successfully with which way it tells you that you should go.  If you’re coming from a religion where you are told what to think, what not to think, how to believe, how to worship, and where to go and when, then coming into the Craft can be like giving a toddler too many choices of what to wear in the morning — the toddler won’t be able to decide because there’s just too much to decide upon.  For your first few years in the Craft, while you are learning to establish your own ethics, it is very easy to feel a little lost and overwhelmed.  After all, you’re probably already insecure about practicing a faith that seems so complex, and then, on top of all that new stuff to learn, you’re also told that you have to figure out how to act/practice/make decisions all by yourself.

Here is the primary guideline I’d like to leave you with:  we practice the Craft by practicing our Craft.  Practice is a verb, an action word.  You learn to walk this path by walking, not holing yourself up and intellectually pursuing your spirituality.  You have to do things… risk… try… succeed sometimes and fail sometimes… revise your understanding and move forward again.  Each time you should be a little wiser, aware of yet one more thing that didn’t work.  Learning the ropes of the Craft — navigating those pesky guidelines — means taking your life and your choices into your own hands by whatever ethical code you develop for yourself.  The more you risk and try and learn, the more you grow and solidify your understanding of your path and the guidelines that apply specifically to you.

Fortunately, as an earth-centered spirituality practitioner, most of the “laws” are going to take care of themselves in your life.  Sadly, the laws you will have to worry most about are the ones mankind makes and the “laws” of restriction that live in your own head as negative self-talk, judgments/prejudices, and destructive patterns.  Will you conform or transform?  What are the payoffs for each option?  And do you have the strength to make the hard choice and go against the grain when you must?

Rules are rigid, brittle, just beg to be broken, and imply punishment for error.  Guidelines flex, flow, allow room for breath and movement and change, are subject to interpretation and personal application.  Considering the Craft is all about change and movement, which do you think works better, even if it means more work?

And that’s why they’re guidelines, Miss Swan.  Also explains why the rum is always gone, doesn’t it?

Next entry in New to Wicca? — A Wiccan History Pamphlet

Photo screencap from Pirates Of The Caribbean (Walt Disney Pictures, 2003).