| Morals and Ethics Re-defined |
| Every book you read on Wicca will give you the basic information on morals and ethics. How many times have you read a chapter in some book on The Wiccan Rede, Karma and the Three-Fold Law? Most Wiccans can tell you about these morals, but I have a slightly different view on what we as Wiccans should consider when thinkng of morals. Lets start with the Wiccan Rede. The origins of the Rede is debatable, whether it was Gwen Thompson who made it up in the 1970's, or Gerald Gardner who took it from Alister Crowley is not too certain. Certainly the rede, or the basic meaning of the Rede, is older than a century and a half. The Rede simply states 'An it Harm none, Do what thou Wilt.' Its generally taken to mean 'do what you want, as long as it hurts none.' Many Wiccans would say that they don't do love spells aimed at specific people, or curses or 'black' magic because the Rede forbids it. I have a problem with that last statement. A person shouldn't say they don't do 'bad' magic because a simple phrase says not to. A person shouldn't do bad magic because their heart and conscious tells them its wrong. Think about this - a person really hates their boss to the point that they may want to kill them. That person wouldn't say 'Oh, I shouldn't kill them because the law says I shouldnt.' The person doesn't kill them because they know its wrong, because they know in their hearts that killing is wrong, not because the law says its wrong. They would feel guilt and remorse, and regret doing what they did. The idea of not doing wrong because a law says not to do it is wrong. People don't do bad things because they have grown up in a society which teaches tolerance, respect and love. Sure there is violence in our society as well, and bad things happen to people all the time, but for the most part were taught to respect people, be curtious and nice and to treat people as you would want to be treated. And thats the key, treat people as you would want to be treated. We shouldn't be frightened to do good. Steve lies on tax forms. His friend John says thats its bad because he could get caught and get in trouble. Jane says that its wrong because its wrong, its lying and its just plain wrong. She has been taught not to lie because its hurts people. Period. We need to start thinking like Jane and not John. We need to start thinking about what is right and wrong and how we want to behave. We need to say that we don't do curses and bad magic because its wrong and can hurt people, not because a phrases tells us not to. You should do good magic (or just generally good things in life) because it makes you feel good and you know you are helping people, and you shouldn't do bad things because you know it hurts people. Karma is another thing which Wiccans say is a factor in what Wiccans can and cannot do. They would say that a person gets what they deserve, that what you send out will come back to you. This is a nice belief, but that leaves me thinking, what about the good people who have been hurt, and the bad people who have a good life. I do not believe in Karma. I think Karma is just a term people use to explain why certain things happen to them. Lets face it, good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. Do we blame it all on Karma and say that they deserve what they get? Should we believe that the good person did something bad in the past and is paying for it now? I don't think we should. Most Wiccans do not believe in fate. We have a free will, we can make choices in our lives, and some of those choices will harm us, some will benefit us. Every choice we make affects us, all our actions have consequences. People are the source of evil. People do bad things to each other. That good person may have been wronged by a bad person at one time and you can't blame it on Karma. You can't say that Person A shot Person B because Person B had an affair and broke up a family. Person A had their reasons for shooting Person B, which of course is wrong, but some force didn't direct person A to shoot Person B because Karma had a role in all of this. You also can't say that Person B is poor and financially unstable because of Karma. Most likely they are unstable because they don't spend wisely, or invest or have a good job and education, or some other reason. Similarily, we need to start taking responsibility for our actions and not blaming it on Karma. It's like the Christians blaming their sins on the devil. We are responsible for everything we do. We are not however, responsbile for everything that happens to us, and thats where the bad people fit it, not Karma. If a person wants to curse another, fine. But they will have to deal with the consequences, and I don't mean bad energy and Karma coming back to them. Even non-magically speaking. If you deliberately hurt someones feelings, you may feel guilty about it. You will hurt that person, make them feel horrible and depressed. Can you live with knowing you hurt someone? Like I said, you do good, you feel good. You do bad, you feel bad. We need to change our attitudes towards the Rede and say 'We don't do curses or bad magic because it is wrong and it hurts people, not because Karma will come get us." I believe that the Rede is such a big part in Wicca today because people feel that they need to explain to people that Wiccans are not bad. Its easy to tell someone 'Oh no, Wiccans don't do curses because we have something called the Wiccan Rede which prohibits us from doing anything bad." If non-Wiccans know that we have some kind of guideline that tells us what is right and wrong, they are more prone to see that we are good. The Rede is just a way of showing people we are not bad. |
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