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[purplemoonstars]

As it plainly states " Harm none, do as ye will"! I have 2 question I can't seem 2 find legit answers for, so n e help I sure would appreciate. (1) Does this imply that I can not kill bugs or insects? (2) Does an individual need 2 become a vegetarian, as the killing of animals would fall under the harming portion of the Rede? I love chicken, fish and turkey, and on occassions pork. I am not much of a red meat eater. To some these questions might be silly or stupid, but for me I believe there are no stupid questions. I have been studing and researching and beginning to implicate the craft ways, but I still have unanswered questions. Thank you for your comments and concens, in advance.

[alyceavary]

I'm not a vegetarian & I kill bugs on a regular basis, but I also let a few spiders live on the ceiling to help.  I haven't (knock on wood) had any issues.  You HAVE to eat & regardless what PETA says, the Goddess wouldn't have put those animals here if there wasn't a need.  They will die no matter what happens, it IS the nature of things, might as well use their death to sustain your body. 

[C_A]

...but I still have unanswered questions. Thank you for your comments and concens, in advance.[/color]

Questions ASKED and ANSWERED countless times on these fora.

Try the search function.  Or, for THAT matter, try READING around the forum a little bit. 

WICCA IS A SEEKERS RELIGIOUS PATH.

Seek a little, will ya?

Oh, BTW.  Not everyone thinks purple text is cute.  As a matter of fact, it probably SEVERLY limits the number of replies you'll get because people won't BOTHER reading it.

[Sagulations]

C_A Reminds me of my father, aha 

[Nixie]

First off, do you think it would be doing harm to kill a bug?? The Rede can be interpreted differently by every person who reads it. What lessons they take from it also differs from person to person.

I am a Vegetarian but I do not think that killing an animal to survive is going against the Rede, or any other divine... thing. Humans have been killing animals sine Neanderthal times, to survive; on the other hand the pointless killing of animals for sport I do not agree with. I try to set most bugs free into the garden, but there are some insects like wasps (allergic) I don't risk, so I do kill them. If I have to take that road, I say a prayer and return them to nature.

I hope this has helped. 

[Earthbound Spirit]

Oh, BTW.  Not everyone thinks purple text is cute.  As a matter of fact, it probably SEVERLY limits the number of replies you'll get because people won't BOTHER reading it.

I like the purple text.  It looks great on my machine.  I use the smf default theme. 

To the op....

no and no

[blue]

Quote PMS:

As it plainly states " Harm none, do as ye will"!

 and

 I have been studing and researching and beginning to implicate the craft ways, but I still have unanswered questions.

Blue:

 I would say it's a matter of context. If you take it at face value then harm none might mean don't step on a bug but if you look at it from a historical point of view it might mean something entirely different. Consider the place and the time. Wicca was founded in England in the 1940's & 1950's ? The Rede dates back to sometime in the 1960's or 70's ? The term "harm none" might pre-date Wicca by hundreds of years.

 What's all that about ?

 Obviously, the world was a very different place back then. How so ?

[Earthbound Spirit]

Here is a very good link about the Rede.

http://www.waningmoon.com/ethics/rede.shtml

[blue]

 It's a good article EBS. For whatever an opinion is worth i think more than anything you have to read, read, read, but after that, you have to think and decide for yourself. It's not like there's a pope of Wicca and it's all laid out for you in black and white.

 Here we've got eight words ( not four ).

 An it harm none / do what thou will.

 Is the emphasis on the first four words or the last four words ?

 Maybe the second part is equally as important as the first part ?

 How does that figure in with the historical context of Wicca ?

 What about " Love under will shall be the whole of the law." ? 

[C_A]

The two halves are equal.

As far as "The Law" is concerned, it is of no consequence in this context.

[Khara]

Why are those the only lines that seem to have any attention paid to them?

I mean out of 320 words those 8 are the only ones anyone seems to care about....

 

[C_A]

Because MOST of the books stress "these eight words".

Yes, there IS "more to it" than that...it has been hashed and rehashed here for years.  People just "wanna get in on it", so to speak.  It's easier and funner than going and reading all those old stuffy posts, ya know...

[blue]

The two halves are equal.

As far as "The Law" is concerned, it is of no consequence in this context.

 Here we go again ... another rede thread eh ? 

 I dunno ... i read all through the link that EBS provided and one of the things that the author suggested was that the the main reason the rede was put out there was to provide a moral & ethical compass for the solitary practitioner.

 It's a good beginning but it only goes so far. It's only one part of a much larger integrated system of ethical concepts.

 The beginner might see only the "do no harm" part but when you add the "do what thou will " part it begins to take on a completely different meaning altogether. Maybe that means do no harm while making your will manifest.

 Given the historical context of 1950's England it might also mean practice your religion as you see fit ( within the framework of your tradition ). It might upset the Christian establishment but they have no moral right to make a fuss about it as long as nobody is being harmed in the process.

 No harm / no foul .... right ?  As long as nobody is being harmed the law of the land has no business interfering in your affairs.

 So ... there are good reasons for doing no harm but it's all to lay the groundwork so that you can go out there in he world and make YOUR WILL manifest.

 Which part is more important ?  Doing no harm -or- making your will manifest ?

 Given that " love under will shall be the whole of the law " i think that making your true will manifest is more important than doing no harm.

 After all .... we all know that it isn't always possible to do no harm while doing our thing so there's the principle of threefold return. Basically it's saying, go ahead and do the wrong thing if you must, but know full well in advance that you are fully responsible for the consequences of your choices and actions. Forget divine salvation .... everyone pays dearly for their sins in this lifetime.

 Does this make any sense ? 

 All the different concepts fit together like a jigsaw puzzle to create a picture of an intergrated system of ( Wiccan ? )ethics.

 One concept, all alone by itself, is out of context.

[Earthbound Spirit]

Dang blue, you read the whole thing?  All the sublinks too?

[C_A]

Here we go again ... another rede thread eh ? 

Nope.  The other ones are MORE than adequate.  I'll leave well enough alone for a little while, but I'll prob'ly lock it in the eventuality...

Less we have to prune later....