Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The Wiccan Rede and Values

I posted a while ago that I no longer identify as a Wiccan. There is no problem with the religion or beliefs of the Wiccan faith, it's just that my personal beliefs have evolved to something a bit different that doesn't exactly fit into the realms of Wicca anymore. One thing that I haven't lost though, is my love for the ethic of the Wiccan Rede. An it harm none, do as thou will. I don't want to get into an analysis of this phrase, so if you are interested in more information (please see John Coughlin's wonderful analysis of this ethic).

That brings me to my first point, the Rede is an ethic, is it really a value of mine? An ethic, simply put, is a moral, a view of what is right or wrong. A value, on the other hand, is something we put worth to, not necessarily monetary or material worth, but a personal worth in spirit and in life, some weighted more heavily important than others. Therefore, it is within my interpretation of the Rede (an ethic) that I find many of my own personal values.

One of the more important values I find in the Rede is that of self-responsibility. This is something I am teaching my kids early on; that we must be responsible for our own actions. If we are not responsible for them, who will be? The Rede points this out when it tells us to think about if what we are going to do will harm anyone. If we have fully thought about all of the possible consequences of our actions and determined it will not harm anyone (ourselves included), then we are free to do it. However, if we find something is important to do, but it will harm someone in someway, then the guidelines of the Rede stop here. At this point we need to take responsibility to explore other ethics and laws to determine if proceeding is still the best thing to do and if we are willing to live with the consequences of our actions which may be harm to ourselves or others. This is where things get sticky, and again, I'm not here to discuss the in's and outs of the Rede. So, I will leave the discussion here and say, this is why taking self responsibility in our actions is so important. Everything we do can effect someone, somewhere that we may not even know. If someone is hurt as a result of our actions, we need to do what we can to make it right. No one else should be expected to fix our wrongs.

Another value is consideration for other people and things. This flows right from the previous point of self responsibility. Not only should we be responsible for our own actions and take into consideration how our action will affect another, but we should also take into consideration how our inaction may affect someone. I sometimes think I'm too considerate. Because of this exaggerated consideration for others I often ask too many questions to make sure other people affected by my choices are not offended and okay with the choices I'm making. Some considerations are of more importance than others, but I still hold consideration of others feelings and needs very highly, and sometimes above my own feelings and needs (which is something I need to work on in finding balance). While the Rede doesn't flat out mention inaction, I like to think it hints at it, because if we choose not to act, that is still the act of not choosing, which may harm someone.

Taking care in the actions we take part of is a value I find in the Rede. Again, this value flows directly from the previous points. If we do decide to do something we are taking responsibility for the consequences and we are considering how it will affect other people, but we shouldn't stop there. We should also take care to do things correctly. A long time ago I had the chance to learn a bit of Eastern Psychology under a Zen Buddhist monk. I remember his demeanor was interesting because he had a strong adherence to rules and expectations with little room for error, yet he taught how to take care and pay attention to everything that was done to make sure it was done with the most attention possible. If an action was important enough to do, it should be done with care. This is a great message. It makes me think of all the projects I got tired of and either quit or half assed until they were finished. Were they really that important to me? I'm guessing not or I would have taken care to do them to the best of my abilities. When we take care in the actions we do, we are showing respect and appreciation, in addition to responsibility and consideration. I think this is very important, and it really does help me to step back and reassess what is important in my life.

I also see the value freedom within limits held in the Rede, as hinted at above. Now the first thing I want to address is it seems like I am placing a boundary on the freedoms everyone asserts they have, however, everything we do is freedom within limits. We set limits by the laws we obey, the rules we follow, the social norms we practice, and the ethics we adhere to. I accept this value as higher on my value continuum for the simple fact that if everyone had freedom to do everything they wanted without limits, chaos would very quickly take over. Not to mention someone else's freedom would start infringing on another person's freedom and I'm quite sure the end result would not be pretty. Even within limits we find much arguing over who is right and who should be allowed to do what. Sadly I see a lot of "his leg is on my side of the car!" type bickering among people, communities and cultures.

While I appreciate these limits to freedom to an extent, I also recognize that we are all human, humans are not perfect, therefore the limits that we have created are not always perfect. The experiences we have in life often dictate what we find important or of value, and sometimes through life we find out the things that others find valuable and learn to embrace those too. With this thought, our values either change or evolve, and we have the ability to change our laws, rules, social norms and morals to match.

There are so many things the Wiccan Rede gives me. Not only is it an ethic I can follow, but it also shares with me the importance of so many values that I hold near and dear to my heart. Just in the few values I briefly touched on in this post I can see how our values overlap and connect to each other. Often more than one value is held within a concept, and many times one leads to another. In the next month, and probably longer, I'm going to explore some of the other ethics I follow, Pagan or just cultural. I'm going to study them to see if there are any other values contained within their words and teachings. I look forward to the lessons I will learn (education, something else I place high value on).

Bright Blessings
~Ava

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