‘Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfil: An it harm none, do what you will.’
Wicca is a joyous creed; it is also a socially and ecologically responsible one. Witches delight in the world and their involvement in it, on all the levels. They enjoy their own minds, their own psyches, their own bodies, their senses and their sensitivities; and they delight in relating, on all these planes, with their fellow-creatures (human, animal and vegetable) and with the Earth itself.
Wiccan ethics are positive, rather than prohibitive. The morality of witchcraft is far more concerned with ‘blessed is he who’ than with ‘thou shalt not’.1 The extremes of masochistic asceticism on the one hand, or of gross materialism on the other, seem to the witch to be two sides of the same coin, because both distort human wholeness by rejecting one or more of its levels. Witches believe in a joyful balance of all human functions.
This outlook is perfectly expressed in the Charge ‘Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth; for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. And therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honour and humility, mirth and reverence within you.’ It is worth setting these qualities out in their polarized pairs:
— and meditating on them as a model for a balanced ethic, while remembering that each of the eight qualities is positive, not restrictive. Compassion means empathy, not condescension; humility means a realistic appraisal of your own stage of development, not self-abasement; reverence means a sense of wonder (that essentially Wiccan attribute), not just remembering to take your hat off in a church or put it on in a synagogue. And the witch is always conscious that compassion must be partnered by power, humility by honour, and reverence by mirth.
The Charge continues: ‘And thou who thinkest to seek for me [the Goddess] know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not, unless thou knowest the mystery; that if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, then thou wilt never find it without thee. For behold, I have been with thee from the beginning; and I am that which is attained at the end of desire.’
This, too, is an ethical statement. To the witch, self-development and the full realization of one’s unique yet many-aspected potential are a moral duty. That which helps evolution forward is good; that which thwarts it is evil; and each of us is a factor in the cosmic evolutionary process. So one owes it not merely to oneself but to the rest of mankind and the world to look inside oneself and to discover and release that potential.2
Evolution, in this sense, does not merely mean Darwinism (though Darwin certainly defined one of the ways, on one of the levels, in which cosmic evolution expresses itself). It is the continuing process by which the ultimate creative force of the universe manifests itself ‘downwards’ through the levels, with increasing complexity, and is itself enriched by the experience of that complexity. (In Cabalistic terms, the Kether-to-Malkuth-to-Kether cycle.) This is a very deep subject, deserving of a lifetime (or several lifetimes) of study; for a first approach to it we recommend Dion Fortune’s book The Cosmic Doctrine and The Mystical Qabala.3 But while many witches do study this deeper philosophy, most of them (and all of them most of the time) are more concerned with a literally down-to-Earth guide to their daily activity.
For this living relationship to the cosmic process, on a scale at which it can be readily seen to affect us, witches are dedicated to the concept of the Earth as a living organism. And this attitude — physical, mental, psychic and spiritual — is the heart and soul of the Old Religion.
Mother Earth is thought of as precisely that. She produces us, nourishes us, makes it possible for us to live (at all levels from the simply biological to the breathtakingly creative), rewards us when we understandingly love her, takes revenge when we abuse her, and reabsorbs our material component when we die. She reminds us that all living creatures are our siblings, different but related offspring of the same womb.
The Mother Earth concept can be envisaged in many ways, from the scientifically sophisticated theory of the Gaia Hypothesis4 to the worship of her as Goddess. And indeed many witches see the Gaia Hypothesis as a further validation of their own immemorial Goddess approach. As we pointed out in Section XI, the intelligent advance-guard of modern science is coming closer and closer to many of the concepts which witches and occultists have always held; and witches watch this process with satisfaction and sympathy, if with an occasional ironic smile.
That God and Goddess concepts are emotionally and psychically necessary to mankind, and a justifiable approach to reality, will be argued in Section XIV, ‘Myth, Ritual and Symbolism’. But accepting them for the moment (and few readers would have got this far if they did not), no one can deny that the Earth Mother is the Goddess concept which is most immediately vital to us, most easily understood and most determinative of the rhythm of our lives. She is the background and foreground to our very existence. Even that other great Goddess aspect which is symbolized by the Moon would be difficult to conceive of separately from the Earth Mother whom she orbits, whose tides she controls and whose creatures she affects in everything from menstruation of women to the growth of plants. The Moon Goddess is the Earth Mother’s mysterious other self; any Goddess concept which lies outside the domain of that powerful sisterhood is far more subtle and abstract, and of less immediate concern to ordinary mortals.
How, then, do witches express their devotion to the Earth Mother, in ethical terms? The implications are obvious. The moral duty to the evolutionary process which we mentioned earlier is seen, by the witch, as a personal responsibility towards the natural rhythms and needs of the Earth as a living organism, and towards the needs, rhythms and evolutionary development of her constituent creatures. Those creatures — human, animal and vegetable — are the individual cells, the nervous system, the lungs, the sense organs of Mother Earth, just as the mineral kingdom is her living body-tissue and skeleton, the seas and rivers are her bloodstream, and her envelope of atmosphere is the air which she breathes as we do ourselves.
That is why environmental care and action play such an important part in the Wiccan ethic. That is why witches get angry — and active — when oxygen-creating trees are cut down faster than they are planted, when whales and seals are massacred for commercial profit, when chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used regardless of their ecological impact, when indifferent industries pollute the atmosphere and the rivers and seas with their waste products, and when the concrete jungle (often with more concern for commerce than for housing) spreads like a rash over the Earth’s complexion.
(Fortunately, it is not only witches who have begun to realize that the rape of the planet is reaching a critical stage; a symptom of this public concern is that many countries now have a Ministry of the Environment. Their effectiveness may be inadequate to the problem, but the term itself would have been meaningless a generation ago.)
Just how the witches’ environmental ethic is translated into action is sometimes a complex matter; there are few easy answers, and witches, like everyone else who takes the problem seriously, may come up with different ones. For example, some witches are vegetarians, while others feel that man as an omnivore is part of the balance of nature, and concentrate on humane methods of meat-production. Some witches regard the micro-chip revolution with horror, while others believe that properly handled it can mean de-urbanization, cheap and simple human communication, increased leisure, the elimination of meaningless jobs, and the shifting of man’s effort to essentially human creativity. Some withdraw into self-sufficient communes, while others involve themselves deeply in the existing structure in the hope of transforming it. Some delve into the past for inspiration, while others fix their eyes determinedly on the future.
Now all these attitudes, while they may sometimes conflict with each other, may well contribute something constructive. But the point about them is that they are all motivated by the same ethic; love and respect for Mother Earth and all her creatures. Which is why, for example, urban and rural witches alike put a lot of thought and effort into the Eight Festivals, as a deliberate and sustained method of keeping themselves in tune with Mother Earth’s natural cycle on a spiritual as well as a psychological level. They know that if the Festivals do not achieve that purpose, they are mere parties.
It is also one of the reasons why herbalism plays such an important part in Wiccan practice. Few witches would deny, or wish to belittle, the genuine achievements of modern medical science; in fact, many witches are themselves doctors or nurses. (Our English coven included three nurses, an operating theatre technician and a dental surgeon’s wife.) But quite apart from tradition (witch-herbalists were the village healers when most ‘physicians’ were ignorant leeches), witches practise herbalism because its study puts them in direct contact with the Earth’s natural flora, literally ‘at grass roots’. There are few more comprehensive disciplines for observing and understanding one’s natural environment than studying, hunting for and using herbs.
We have found, too, that many doctors accept and respect well-informed herbalists, providing they are not irresponsibly treating symptoms in ignorance of causes. When anyone comes to us for healing (whether herbal or psychic), our first question is always: ‘Have you been to your doctor, and what is he doing?’ If the patient has not gone to a doctor, through fear, prejudice or superstition, we urge him to do so at once. And if he has, we would want to know the doctor’s treatment, to be sure that any help we gave would not conflict with it. This is a very delicate area, to be approached with wisdom; a witch should be the doctor’s ally, not his rival. Most doctors are dedicated healers — and it is worth remembering that many of them, in addition to their acquired knowledge, have an inborn gift which is psychic in nature and which drew them to the profession in the first place; often it operates without their even being aware that they have it, except perhaps intuitively.
As for psychedelic, hallucinogenic and similar drugs — we do not take them ourselves, and we ban them absolutely from our covenstead. This ban includes cannabis, though we realize that differing views are sincerely held on the question of whether it should be legalized.
Drugs do, in a sense, expand consciousness — but in the same way as a non-swimmer jumping into the deep end gets wet and is also liable to drown. The expansion of consciousness is the central aim of psychic development, but through step-by-step training and under the individual’s full control. Drugs are a highly dangerous short cut, giving you the illusion, if you are lucky, of having the levels under your command. (If you are unlucky, it may land you in anything from trauma to psychosis.) They are not under your command, and neither are the entities which inhabit them, to whose activities you are completely vulnerable in the drugged state. You are like an adolescent who plays with a ouija board for kicks — and, like the adolescent, you can frighten yourself silly in the process, or suffer actual harm.
It is true that in the past (and in some cultures still) shamanistic religions have used drugs for divinatory purposes. But that was by trained priests and priestesses, under rigid social and religious sanctions. Such sanctions no longer exist in our culture, nor are they likely ever to be workably re-established. It is true, too, that serious occultists today have experimented with psychedelic drugs under expert observation and in carefully controlled conditions; Lois Bourne in Witch Amongst Us recounts such a controlled experiment with mescalin. But quite apart from the fact that such experiments are of necessity illegal, let us be honest and admit that not one in a thousand of the ‘occult’ enthusiasts who use these drugs does so in such a controlled way.
The fact must also be faced that, if you use these drugs, you are inevitably supporting the powerful crime networks which supply them. These networks (often with friends in high places) grow rich on the ruining of minds and bodies, including, on an ever larger scale, those of schoolchildren. Their activities interlock with every other form of criminal activity, from blackmail to civic corruption, and they are probably the most vicious and anti-social element in the community today. Some of them are actively interested in the occult scene, both as a market and to abuse its power for their own ends. Added to which, by the time their product reaches you, its purity is, to say the least, dubious.
Buy drugs and you maintain such people in being.
Even if you prepare your own hallucinogens, such as Amanita muscaria, you are running grave physical and psychological risks — and your psyche is still attempting a dangerous short cut, to give yourself the illusion of control over the levels.
Wise witches will leave drugs strictly alone, and achieve their expansion of consciousness the hard way — which in both the short and the long run is the only way.
It would be a waste of words, here, to reiterate the ‘normal’ basic ethical codes which are common to every decent Christian, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, pagan, atheist or what have you — the rules of respect for one’s neighbour, of civic responsibility, of parental care, of truthfulness and honesty, of concern for the underprivileged, and so on. These are fundamental human standards which the vast majority acknowledge and try with varying success to live up to. It goes without saying that witches do the same.
What we are concerned with here are the rules of conduct which are special to witches, or on which they lay special emphasis, because of the nature of the philosophy and their activities.
Perhaps the most important of these special areas is magic.
If you deliberately set out to develop your psychic abilities you are awakening a faculty by which you can influence other people, with or without their knowledge; a faculty by which you can obtain information in ways that they do not expect or allow for; a faculty by which you can either enhance their life-energy or sap it. By which you can help them or harm them.
Obviously, you are taking a great responsibility on yourself and this responsibility calls for a set of willingly accepted rules. And these rules are all the more important because very often only you know if you are honestly obeying them.
The observance or non-observance of these rules is precisely what distinguishes ‘white’ from ‘black’ working.5
All these rules are summed up in the phrase: ‘An it harm none.’ A witch must never use his or her powers in a way which will cause harm to anyone — or even frighten anyone by claiming to. Another Wiccan rule says: ‘Never boast, never threaten, never say you would wish ill of anyone.’
There are two situations in which, at first sight, it would seem that to observe the ‘no harm’ rule would mean to let a wrongdoer go unchecked, or to leave yourself undefended against attack. But there is an acceptable way of dealing with each of these problems.
If somebody is known to be acting evilly and harming others, witches are fully justified in stopping him. The method used is the magical operation known as ‘binding', which is described in Section XXII. The very specific object of a binding spell is to render the evil actions powerless — not to harm or punish the wrongdoer; punishment can be safely left to the Lords of Karma. The spell is against the deed, not against the doer — and it works.
The second situation is that of defence against deliberate psychic attack. Most white witches or covens are familiar with this. Their activities may arouse the envy or resentment of black operators — particularly when they are called upon to rescue those operators’ victims. It can also happen when a member has had to be banished from a white coven for good reasons, which is fortunately rare but sometimes inescapable; the banished witch is all too likely to express his resentment by lashing out psychically. And of course any efficient coven is quickly aware of such aggression on the astral plane.
A binding spell may be used here as well, of course; but sometimes one is conscious of astral attack without being certain of its source; or the source may be a group, the binding of which would be more complicated because effective binding depends on a clear visualization of the person being bound. The most direct and powerful means of defence, when you as an individual or a group are under attack, is to rely on ‘the Boomerang Effect’. This is the principle, proved time and again, that psychic attack which comes up against a stronger defence rebounds threefold on the attacker. So your remedy is to set up strong psychic defences (see Section IX) while deliberately not counter-attacking yourself. You invoke the God and the Goddess, in the firm knowledge that they are more powerful than any evil which may be directed against you. The ‘boomerang’ thus returns to its sender, and if he suffers harm, it is entirely his own doing, not yours.
A sharp line must always be drawn between influencing other people and manipulating them. Healing, or the solving of the personal problems of someone who has asked you for help, is legitimate and indeed necessary influencing. Manipulation, in the sense of interfering with an individual’s right of decision and choice, is not.
To make the distinction clearer, let us take the example of love-spells (which are popularly supposed to be a major part of a witch’s stock-in-trade). To use magical means to compel A to fall in love with B, regardless of his or her natural inclinations, is wholly wrong, and if it succeeds, it is likely to be ultimately disastrous to both A and B. Such requests may be even more callous than that; one man rang us up out of the blue and offered to pay us to work magic to get a girl he fancied into bed with him ‘just for one night’. He rang off angrily when we told him what to do with his money.
On the other hand, when Janet was a very new witch, she knew two people who she could see were strongly attracted to each other but both too inhibited to make a move. Janet watched the situation drag on, and finally (without saying anything to either of them) she worked a spell to overcome their shyness and to bring them together if they were right for each other. Next day the man asked the girl for a date. That was twelve years ago; they, plus three delightful children, are now busy living happily ever after.
That ‘love-spell’ was perfectly legitimate and helpful; not manipulation, but the removal of obstacles which were hindering a development which was natural in itself. And it contained the kind of rider which every principled witch includes in her spells if there is any doubt: ‘if they are right for each other', ‘provided no one is harmed', or whatever wording is appropriate. Such a rider as part of the wording of a spell (and spells, like divinatory questions, should always be precisely and unambiguously worded) becomes part of its intent, and therefore of its magical effect. But like the spell itself, you must really mean it — not just throw it in as a sop to your conscience; otherwise you may well encounter the Boomerang Effect yourself.
All these ethical standards of not harming anybody, and of relying on the Boomerang Effect instead of counter-attacking, may make it sound as though witches were unqualified pacifists. They are not. There are situations in ‘ordinary’ life when vigorous action is called for with any weapons available. If you come across an old lady being mugged, you do not preach to the mugger — you knock him out if you can. If bomber planes are attacking your city, you try to shoot them down before they can drop their bombs. If you are being raped, you use your knee with all the strength you can muster, without worrying about how long the rapist may spend in hospital.
Turning the other cheek is all very well — but even Jesus used force on one occasion, when he drove the money-changers out of the Temple with a scourge of cords. They asked for it, they got it, and they would have responded to nothing else.
Similar situations do arise in the magical sphere, when you have to act with no holds barred, and you may have to decide very quickly. But as in ‘ordinary’ life, a well-trained and conscientious witch knows he or she must take responsibility for the decision, and live with the consequences. To live with the consequences of not having acted, when action was called for, may be even more serious.
The Law says: ‘Never accept money for the use of the art, for money ever smeareth the taker.’ It is a universal principle among white witches that no payment may be taken for magical work. The acceptance of fees does ‘smear’ the taker; with the best will in the world, it encourages a subconscious tendency to ‘put on an act’ and to produce impressive results by a little quiet string-pulling; to call the customer in for more sessions than are strictly necessary; and before long to accept assignments that are not exactly black, just a little grey. And so on. More than one witch, or spiritualist medium come to that, has found his or her originally genuine powers waning after ‘going professional', because both sincerity and judgement have become eroded.
It is generally accepted, however, that fees may be accepted for such things as Tarot readings. These are consultations, not operations, and depend on intuition rather than magic in the strict sense. The temptation to showmanship is slight, and easily resisted by any honest Tarot-reader. And charging a reasonable fee does cut down the number of merely curious visitors, who can become a serious and time-wasting burden once your reputation spreads. Janet has had to give up ‘open door’ Tarot readings for this very reason.
We know several good and incorruptible Tarot readers who do it for a modest living, and we have unhesitatingly recommended them. But we have never known a witch or magician who charged for magical working and who retained his or her integrity.
Professional craftsmen who cater for witches’ and occultists’ needs are of course another matter. We know and deal with several whole-time metalworkers, incense-makers, jewellers and so on in that category, and to one at least we keep saying that he charges too little for his lovely products. (And after all, we get paid for our books, though we hardly get rich on them!) Even within the coven, if some skilled enthusiast makes tools for other members for the love of it, we all insist on paying for his raw materials. The essential point is that none of these payments is for magical working.
In our view, it would be wrong for any craftsman to claim, and charge for, an alleged magical element in his products, or to sell them as ‘magically charged’ or ‘already consecrated’. It is a matter of opinion perhaps, but we feel strongly that consecration and charging are the responsibility of the user — or, at most, that witches who give tools to other witches as presents may give them an initial charge or consecration as a token of the love with which the gift is made. But consecration should never be for sale.
Incidentally, when we were initiated we were taught that one should never bargain over magical tools; one should pay the price asked or go elsewhere. Dion Fortune (Moon Magic) has her reservations: ‘There is an old saying that what is wanted for magical purposes must be bought without haggling, but there is a limit to that sort of thing.’ Doreen Valiente feels even more strongly. She tells us: ‘In various old grimoires also one finds this statement; but I believe it was invented by some clever dealer in magical accessories. We weren’t taught anything about this point in Gerald’s day, perhaps because he too thought that this supposed magical law was invented by those who had something to sell, and that students of the Art Magical had been falling for it ever since. However, if you were buying from a brother or sister of the Art, and you couldn’t meet the price they asked, then I do think you shouldn’t try to beat them down. But with dealers, the more power to your elbow when it comes to haggling, I say!’ She adds that of course any object should be cleaned both physically and psychically before being put to magical use, and that this is ‘more important than haggling or not haggling’.
Tailpiece to these thoughts on ethics: an American Indian prayer (Sioux, we are told) which appeals to us greatly and which we always try to bear in mind. ‘O Great Spirit, let me not judge my neighbour till I have walked a mile in his moccasins.’