The “Wiccan Rede” can be described as a statement that provides an important moral system for the Wicca religion, Neopagan. These systems are also applicable to other faiths that are based on witchcraft. The common Rede form can be said to be the moral that says “An It Harm None, Do What Ye Will”. The origin of the word Rede can be traced back to Middle English, and means ‘counsel’ or ‘advice’ and is related to the word Rat from the German language. The above mentioned Wiccan Rede form is considered to be the initially published couplet form and is quoted by Mr. “Doreen Valiente” in the early years of 1960s. Several versions of this have been published which contain some variations from the original text. Some of them include “And it harm none, do what ye will”, “that it harm none, do as thou wilt”, etc. This means that you can do what ever you want provided no harm is caused to anybody.
A phrase that is found to have some similarity to the above mentioned couplet is found in the works of Aleister Crowley during the early years of 1900s. The references about this can be found in some other works also. Later in the year 1974, a poem by the name “The Wiccan Ride” came out and contained 26 lines and was published on the “Earth Religion News” magazine that was associated with neopagan religion. Soon after this, another poem came out that had something in common with the above mentioned Wiccan Rede but there were some differences. The version was given the name “Rede of the Wiccae”, instead of Wiccan Rede.
Don Frew had said that the couplet was composed by Valiente following a statement by Gardener that indicated the morality that witches had to follow according to the King Pausol, a legendary king. Many people have expressed their views on this and there were disagreements to the fact that the couple source was Crowley. They said that this resulted in the misquoting of some of the terms contained in the original couplet of the Wiccan Rede.
Now let us have a look at some of the interpretations that are associated with the Wiccan Rede. Many people consider the Rede to be equal to Golden Rulea commonly found rule in almost all the religions. The Rede is not followed by all the conventional wiccans. For Gardnerians, this is connected with morality. This concept is followed by Gardnerians.
There are disagreements regarding the Rede among the Wiccan and Neo Pagan communities. The dispute is mainly regarding the meaning. Some argue that the Wiccan Rede should be considered as an advice. However, the rest want to consider the wiccan Rede as a commandment. The character of this Wiccan Rede is not found to be similar to Holy Bible or other religious books. The concept is different slightly. In other words, the Rede can be considered as a guideline that a person should analyse and understand so that he or she can effectively deal with different types of situations. Also, the concept of Wiccan Rede does not indicate which actions cause harm to others and which are the ones that do not result in negativity. This is what makes the Rede different from the Abrahamic religions. As a result, the decision on the harmful and harmless activities are determined by a person. However majority of the Wiccans believe that the concept of Rede is associated with good purposes and they associate the Rede with the above mentioned golden rule and follow the concept of this Wiccan Rede.