Wicca, Witchcraft, Whatzawhozit?
The Rede of the Wiccae (The Wiccan Rede)
The Rede of the Wiccae (The Wiccan Rede)
The Rede of the Wiccae (the original title of this poem) is NOT part of the Wiccan religion. Note “Wiccae” instead of “Wiccans” or “Wicca”? The lady who wrote this was using the original old english word “wicca,” meaning “wise person”. In modern terms, it would be called “The Rule(s) of the Wise”. Let me restate: The Rede is NOT part of the Wiccan religion.
The Rede of the Wiccae was first published in the 1960s or 1970s in a magazine called “The Green Egg” and is typically accredited to a woman who went by the name Lady Gwen Thompson. She stated that her grandmother had written this poem as part of her Family Tradition; whether Lady Gwen herself or her grandmother wrote it, the fact remains that the Rede is a part of Lady Gwen Thompson’s Family Tradition, so unless you’re a member of her family, or adopted into their tradition, you can pretty much take it or leave it.
The phrasing of the Rede, “An it Harm None, Do What Thou Will” is curiously similar (and probably bastardized from) Aleister Crowley’s famous tenet:
“Do what thou Will shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the Law. Love under Will.”
witchyways