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Wicca 101 - Ethics

The Wiccan Rede

"An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will"

As long as your actions do not harm anyone, you're free to do what you want. Issues such as sexual orientation are strictly personal and no one else's business. Likewise, Wicca imposes no requirements or taboos on things such as foods or clothing.

"Harm", however, includes much more than physical violence. It involves emotional abuse, gossip, slander, and sexual predation, among other things. It also includes harm against oneself.

Note that the Rede does not ban harmful actions. Such a code would be unrealistic, not to mention ridiculous. Self-defense, for example, does harm one's attacker, but we'd never suggest you just take the beating. The Rede merely states a number of circumstances (those that harm none) which can be done with impunity. [more]

For actions that do harm, we have...

The Law of Return
Simply put, the Law of Return states that all actions have repercussions. There are many versions of the Law of Return. I, personally, believe in a one-to-one correspondence in line with with Newton's law that "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction". Far more popular, however, is what is commonly referred to as the Threefold Law, often phrased as:

Ever Mind The Rule Of Three
Three Times Your Acts Return To Thee
This Lesson Well, Thou Must Learn
Thou Only Gets What Thee Dost Earn

Those who do good are done well by others, while evil seeds more evil. The Law of Return holds us responsible for our own actions, and reminds us that nothing is free. It is also a lesson in moderation. To return to the self-defense example: you have the right to return what was done to you in order to defend yourself, employing as much force as necessary to keep yourself safe. You do not, however, have the right to continue bashing the guy's head in with a pipe when he's already unconscious. [More]

Do you have commandments?
No. We find a rigid list of right and wrongs to not be realistic or useful. I've spent half of my life hearing arguments over what "Thou shall not kill" is supposed to mean. Does it include self-defense? War? Abortion? Animals for food? What about plants for food? There are also plenty of crimes that the 10 Commandments doesn't cover, and no matter how many commandments you write, you will never cover every situation.

Instead, we attempt to create a framework in which individual situations can be examined and judged, based upon the potential for harm. The result is a religion whose followers' ethics do in fact generally fall in line with those of the rest of society.

Various Traditions and individuals may brandish their own personal codes, but none of them are universal or to be taken as all-inclusive. One popular example is Scott Cunningham's 13 Goals of a Witch.