The Wiccan Rede: A Historical Journey

Demanding tolerance between covens as well as toward the outside world, Doreen spoke the Anglo-Saxon witch formula called the Wiccan Rede or wise teaching: "Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfil, An' it harm none, do what ye will."[1]

Valiente's "Eight Words" quote was also published in volume one (1964) of the Pentagram, the UK newsletter that hosted the event and as will be discussed later was subsequently published beween circa 1965 and 1966 in the United States in The Waxing Moon newsletter. In 1965 the Rede was again quoted without references in Justine Glass' book Witchcraft, The Sixth Sense:

The other, only slightly less important belief of the witches is in hurtlessness; an article of faith also of the ancient Huna religion, which is thought to have originated in Africa and traveled across the world, by way of Egypt and India to Hawaii. The kahunas taught that the only sin was to hurt – either oneself or someone else. The Wiccan Rede (i.e. Counsel or advice of the Wise Ones) is: 'An ye harm no one, do what ye will.' [2]

Glass' book also goes on to discuss how one of the coven’s duties is to keep its members in check when emotions are strong. This ethical support mentality was also mentioned by Gardner in The Meaning of Witchcraft as well as other authors in the 1970's. As I will discuss in my paper on the Three-Fold Law, as traditional covens gave way to solitary practice (for the majority), something was needed to fill in for the coven’s grounding element to provide "moral restraint". This replacement was the emphasis on the Wiccan Rede and the Three-Fold Law. As Glass insinuated, ethics was not a significant focus in the Craft at the time (around 1965), although the idea of harming none was generally accepted.

Another interesting variation is mentioned by Dr. Leo Louis Martello in his book Witchcraft: The Old Religion (first published in 1973): "Witch credo 'And ye harm none do what thou wilt'"[3]. According to Dr. Martello, the quote was part of an article dated March 15, 1972 in The Villanovan, the newspaper of the Students Union of the Catholic Villanova University in Pennsylvania, USA. Again no sources were given.

Circa 1970/1971, Alex Sanders composed a series of lectures written by himself and others which were privately distributed as a course for novices in Alexandrian Wicca, a tradition Sanders founded. In the essay entitled The Book of Shadows, it is mentioned that during first degree initiation,

The Book [of Shadows] is closed in front of him [the one being initiated] and he is shown the cover, on which is often written the motto of Wicca: "An it harm none - do what ye will." [4]

These lectures were published in the book The Alex Sanders Lectures in 1984 but were in private circulation since the 1970's. This is the only reference to the wording of the Rede in Sander's published material, although he had made reference to Crowley's "Do what thou wilt" phrase in Stewart Farrar's What Witches Do (1971).

Now when it comes to the origin of the Alexandrian tradition of Wicca, there is much controversy. Alex claimed to have been initiated into the Craft by his grandmother at the age of seven, which was later determined to be a hoax. There is also much debate as to how he was able to obtain a copy of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows which he had passed off as his own while incorporating additional elements of ritual magic into it. The point to be made here is simply that Sander's teachings were heavily influenced by Gardner's work among others and that this reference to a witches' motto may have derived from Valiente's Rede assuming the wording in the lecture was not altered at a later date prior to its compilation and publishing in 1984 - long after the Rede's widespread dissemination.

There is, however, another important source for the Wiccan Rede, which is often attributed as the source of its origins. In the Ostara 1975 (Vol. III. No. 69) issue of Green Egg magazine, in an article called "Wiccan-Pagan Potpourri", was a long (but most will find very familiar) poem called the Rede Of The Wiccae:

Rede Of The Wiccae
Being known as the counsel of the Wise Ones:

1. Bide the Wiccan Laws ye must In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust.
2. Live an’ let live - Fairly take an’ fairly give.
3. Cast the Circle thrice about To keep all evil spirits out.
4. To bind the spell every time - Let the spell be spake in rhyme.
5. Soft of eye an’ light of touch - Speak little, listen much.
6. Deosil go by the waxing Moon - Sing and dance the Wiccan rune.
7. Widdershins go when the Moon doth wane, An’ the Werewolf howls by the dread Wolfsbane.
8. When the Lady’s Moon is new, Kiss thy hand to Her times two.
9. When the Moon rides at Her peak Then your heart’s desire seek.
10. Heed the Northwind’s mighty gale - Lock the door and drop the sail.
11. When the wind comes from the South, Love will kiss thee on the mouth.
12. When the wind blows from the East, Expect the new and set the feast.
13. When the West wind blows o’er thee, Departed spirits restless be.
14. Nine woods in the Cauldron go - Burn them quick an’ burn them slow.
15. Elder be ye Lady’s tree - Burn it not or cursed ye’ll be.
16. When the Wheel begins to turn - Let the Beltane fires burn.
17. When the Wheel has turned a Yule, Light the Log an’ let Pan rule.
18. Heed ye flower bush an’ tree - By the Lady Blessèd Be.
19. Where the rippling waters go Cast a stone an’ truth ye’ll know.
20. When ye have need, Hearken not to others greed.
21. With the fool no season spend Or be counted as his friend.
22. Merry meet an’ merry part - Bright the cheeks an’ warm the heart.
23. Mind the Threefold Law ye should - Three times bad an’ three times good.
24. When misfortune is enow, Wear the Blue Star on thy brow.
25. True in love ever be Unless thy lover’s false to thee.
26. Eight words ye Wiccan Rede fulfill - An’ it harm none, Do what ye will. [5]

Joseph B. Wilson [8], publisher of the first witchcraft newsletter in the US (The Waxing Moon)and who for many years acted as a central networking hub for correspondence, contacts, etc., shared with me that Lady Gwen was one of his early correspondents. Although Wilson could not remember much about her, he recalled that he shared a good bit of his own information from his mentors with her -- which by some accounts has since ended up as part of her adapted hereditary lineage. Mr. Wilson was also able to confirm two other important links to Valiente's Rede influence on the Porter/Thomson Rede:

1) Wilson clearly remembers reprinting Valiente's words in The Waxing Moon. Since his archive was lost several years ago, he could not give an exact date, but it would have been circa 1965-1966.

2) Gwen Thompson was a subscriber to The Waxing Moon.

Although this offers some links to a possible influence of Valiente's Rede in the development of Lady Gwen's rede, it is not conclusive and so we are left with three likely scenarios:

1) Lady Gwen's stated history of her version of the Rede is accurate and was written by her grandmother. This will raise the question: If the passing of Adriana Porter came before the publishing of Gardner's first book containing elements of witchcraft ritual (High Magic's Aid, 1949) and after Gardner is said to have been initiated by "Old Dorothy Clutterbuck" in 1939, then could they share a common source? Or could one have perhaps inspired the Rede from the other? I could find no evidence to support or deny this.

2) Lady Gwen adapted a poem written by her grandmother, adding more Wiccan-like elements. Since the tradition Lady Gwen taught is freely described as an adaptation of her hereditary tradition it is quite possible that Valiente's Rede influenced some of the rewording of Adriana Porter's poem, perhaps even unconsciously doing so.

3) The entire history of Lady Gwen's Rede was made up to add a sense of lineage and credibility to her established tradition. The questionable claims of family-based initiations pre-dating Gardner were not un-common and readily abused, so the accuracy of Thomson's claim will always remain somewhat debatable without documentation.

By 1978 in her book Witchcraft for Tomorrow, Doreen Valiente had also mentioned the Wiccan Rede.

This idea has been put into a rhymed couplet called the Wiccan Rede:

        Eight Words the Wiccan Rede fulfil:
        An it harm none, do what ye will.

This can be expressed in more modern English as follows:

        Eight words the Witches' Creed fulfil:
        If it harms none, do what you will. [9]

Then take up the pentacle, and pass deosil with it round the circle, holding it up at the four quarters, east, south, west and north, and repeating each time:

        Eight words the Witches' Creed fulfil:
        If it harms none, do what you will.[11]

An Do What You Will be the challenge,
So be it in Love that harms none

Valiente's earlier book, An ABC of Witchcraft Past & Present, which was first published in 1973, had no specific entry for the Rede, despite introducing it in her 1964 speech. Chances are it had not yet "taken hold" in the early Wiccan "community" that was still largely segregated and coven-centric by 1973, and thus was not yet something established enough to be included in an encyclopedia of witchcraft. However in the entry on Basic Beliefs of Witches, the a variation of the Rede was mentioned as part of the discourse on the Witches' ethics:

Witches do not believe that true morality consists of observing a list of thou-shalt-nots. Their morality can be summed up in one sentence, "Do what you will, so long as it harms none." This does not mean, however, that witches are pacifists. They say that to allow wrong to flourish unchecked is not 'harming none'. On the contrary, it is harming everybody. [12]

If the Rede (or at least a version of it) was written by Valiente then the Crowley influence needs to be accepted as possibility. While Gardner does not associate Crowley with Wiccan ethics despite drawing from Crowley's work in other areas, Doreen Valiente, a poet at heart, would have been much more open to using Crowley's Law.

And mind you, Aleister Crowley, in my opinion, was a marvelous poet and he has always been undervalued in English literature simply because of the notoriety which he made for himself and reveled in. He loved being called the wickedest man in the world and all that sort of nonsense. The thing is --- as his latest biographer, John Symonds, says --- he couldn't have it both ways. If he wanted to get himself that lurid reputation, which he worked very hard at for many years, then he wasn't, at the same time, going to get a good reputation in English literature, in spite of the fact that a couple of his poems are in The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. I think it's a pity that he's not had the recognition that he deserves, really, and perhaps later years will remedy that. [13]

[1] Hans Holzer, The Truth about Witchcraft, 1971, page 128
[2] Justine Glass, Witchcraft, The Sixth Sense, 1965, page 58
[3] Dr. Leo Louis Martello, Witchcraft: The Old Religion, 1975, page 42
[4] Baker, J. (ed.), The Alex Sanders Lectures, 1984, page 67
[5] Green Egg magazine, Vol. III. No. 69 (Ostara 1975)
[6] Later known as Lady Gwynne
[7] New England Coven of the Traditionalist Witches website (See links page).
[8] I am indebted to Tori McElroy for contacting me in reference to an early version of this paper and bringing me in contact for Mr. Wilson, and grateful to Mr. Wilson for sharing with me scanned copies of the issues of Pentagram.
[9] Doreen Valiente, Witchcraft for Tomorrow, 1978, page 41
[10] Doreen Valiente, Witchcraft for Tomorrow, 1978, page 72
[11] Doreen Valiente, Witchcraft for Tomorrow, 1978, page 74
[12] Doreen Valiente, An ABC of Witchcraft Past & Present, 1973, page 55
[13] Doreen Valiente, 1991 Interview with FireHeart Journal
[14] The phase "in perfect love and perfect trust" was in use by other traditions long before the printing of the Rede Of The Wiccae in the Ostara 1975 Green Egg.
[15] Aidan Kelly traces this back to 1949 in Crafting the Art of Magic: Book 1, page 55. See also the Public Contents of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows (webpage), section A.4.

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