Having written quite critically about some aspects of the Wiccan Laws, I wanted to illustrate 3 fundamental laws that nearly all wiccans accept and use in their lives. No just Wiccan, but even pagans (in general) use these..
So here’s an extract from one of the e-Witch Apprentice modules.
“Know Thy Self
`Know Thy Self’ is an important part of all magical work. When we work intensely in the realms of magic, we come across the energies and forces of other people – magical and non-magical, other living things, and magical or esoteric entities (spirits, guides, ghosts, fairies etc). It is easy to become so involved with those, that you can `loose’ your own identity or boundary. It is similar to have a very close relationship with another person, where you sometimes can be in danger of loosing your own identity, likes, wants, hopes by doing too much for the other person. So as well as studying magical energies, we also dedicate an equal amount (if not more) of time to knowing about our own self – our hopes, wants, fears, nightmares, and of course our skills and abilities.
An it harm none, do what you will!
This is a very important `law’ in Wiccan communities, and it’s essence can not be impressed upon you enough! Basically, it speaks of personal responsibility, and implies that – `as long as your actions do not in any way harm others, you may do what ever you like’. This is harder to achieve than you might think!! Our every action or intention has the possibility of impacting on, or affecting (directly or indirectly) one or more peoples’ lives around us. We find that it is nearly impossible to take any sort of action that will not affect others. Yet, we must strive and aspire to this moral code of Witches!
One word of warning: Do not try to use some clever logical arguments or lines of thoughts to `crack’ this code to justify your own actions. Best you can do is to acknowledge it, and aspire to it in as humble manner as possible.
The 3-fold return
Most Wiccans & magical practitioners believe in the natural law of return – especially a 3-fold return! What this means is that whatever actions we take or energies we send out, we believe that 3 times that amount will come back to us – sooner or later (in this life!). Any good deeds you perform selfishly has the potential to return some 3 times benefit; By the same token, if you take actions that harm others or disrupt them, your own life may suffer similar or different kind of harm or disruptions – sooner or later, and when you least expect it! These are very similar to the Hindu principles of Karma!!”
-Mani Navasothy
QuantumPhoenix 