An opinion piece.
I want to start this piece by stating, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Wiccans. The only reason I find this article even necessary to write is down the repeating theme I see cropping up on social media. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to hold yourself to the expectations and moral guides of the Three-Fold Law. If this resonates with you and with your morals, I not only applaud you, but encourage you to listen to that call, and go with it! There isn’t anything wrong with it at all. This piece directly applies to how I feel this standard does not apply to me and is impossible to adhere to. Perhaps it will resonate with you. Perhaps not. But this is not a drag or a slight at any single person who the Three Fold Law does resonate with.
Now, if you don’t know what the Three-Fold law is, you might not even realize that you have been held to this standard. If not with yourself, but by other witches on the internet. Usually it stems from a really good place, of people just trying to keep up a morally *just* standard, and informing witches of the very real reality that is “all magick comes at a cost.” The Three Fold law, also known as the Rule of Three, is described as followed:
“In Wicca, the Threefold Law—also known as the Law of Three—is the law of return. The concept of karma in Witchcraft is to do good and good will be returned, either three times or at three times the intensity. But do evil, and that too will return threefold. These returns will be within the current lifetime. There is no “putting off” rewards or punishments, as in Christianity; they come about in the present life. With this belief, there is no inducement for a Witch to do evil. It is, therefore, a corollary of the Wiccan Rede: “An it harm none, do what thou wilt.” By consciously harming none as you live your life, you will not invoke any negative return upon yourself.” [excerpt is taken from the Free Dictionary Website]
Now the original appearance of a sort of “mock-up” for the Three Fold law comes to us from the 1949 Gardner Book “High Magic’s Aid.” Stating:
“Thou hast obeyed the Law. But mark well, when thou receivest good, so equally art bound to return good threefold.” (For this is the joke in witchcraft, the witch knows, though the initiate does not, that she will get three times what she gave, so she does not strike hard.)
So let’s unpack this a bit. Aside from the fact that Gardnerian Wicca is all about balance, but this quote leans heavily on how the woman shouldn’t strike too hard, has never sat right with me. The idea that this rule is something ancient that witches have known for centuries is just simply not factual. It is about 80 years old that the very idea of it has come into play and is stemming from a heavily appropriative idea of what Karma is. Often I see witches on social media pressing this idea that you must adhere to this rule, but also don’t describe themselves as Wiccan. And it often leaves me wondering, why? This isn’t ancient text or ancient moral codes of conduct. This is less than 100 years old, stemming from a place of repressed post-war England. There is again nothing wrong with adhering to these rules, but it’s definitely not a must, and I feel stems from a lot of misunderstanding. As Wicca is the most easily accessible piece of modern witchcraft, people often forget that it is a religion. And one they may not necessarily desire to follow.
Now if you are someone who does follow the Wiccan religion, I think having a sort of self-regulated set of rules is something that is truly commendable. You’ve put yourself into a position, where you want to uphold a standard! And that’s great. However, I’m going to now get into why it doesn’t work for me. My own sort of philosophies.
It is my personal opinion, that there is no such thing as white or black magick. There is no such thing as truly having clean hands in any magickal situation, but instead, it is something we tell ourselves to make it sit right. If you are at all familiar with the basic concepts of the Butterfly Effect you’d know that any small universal changes can have massive effects. Now I’m not trying to suggest that your protection spell has caused a hurricane. But what I am trying to suggest is doing things like prosperity spells, for example, means the money you are getting is being taken from someone else who also may be needed it. By adhering to the Three-Fold Law, we are implying in my opinion, that we know what’s best for the universe, and our “clean” magick we know best on. Which is impossible, as we are not gods. There is no path of no harm, but instead a path of potentially least harm. But again, we cannot know that it is the least harm, as we are not gods.
Even things with nothing but the best of intention will have some kind of external impact. So the idea that the magick you do is fine, as long as it harms no one, is impossible in my opinion. How can you know what your magick will affect the outside world? It’s impossible. And then it begs in the question, why even do magick at all if we are going to constantly fear external effects. Instead, it is my opinion that the magick one should do, should instead be justified, instead of “clean.” The idea that something is right or wrong, aside from a moral standpoint, aligns too closely to me with the concept of “sinning.” And although Christian witchcraft is a valid practice, doesn’t apply to me. So why should I rack my brain with guilt over a moral philosophy I don’t believe in?
I guess my main point here is, if we as a demographic, continue to push our own morals onto each other, how are we any better than the hyper-conservative, morally restrictive, monotheistic religions who push their morals, political beliefs, and practices on you? We complain about an entire religious demographic, who genuinely believes they are doing the right thing, and then turn around and do the same thing to our fellow witch. There is nothing wrong with wanting to uphold a standard of morals in your own practice. But for the love of all things sacred, please stop pressing the concept as a rule for others to follow.
Your morals are your own. Just as my morals are my own. Enough shaming people to do what you feel is right, and instead, try to learn from their perspective. Together we can grow from this.
