Wiccan Rede/Talk

Yes, rede is a (conscious) archaism - finding a Germanic word in Middle English that didn't make it into Modern English usage. It should be defined in the entry. --MichaelTinkler

Surely the obvious comparison is NOT to the 10 Commandments, but to the 'golden rule', of which it is (unless it is actually ancient, which no one seems to be asserting in these entries) a paraphrase.

Very good point. The comparison to the commandments gives insight into the Wiccan moral viewpoint, but I added a comparison to the Golden Rule. See if you like it better now. --Dmerrill

Isn't it more related to the Hippocratic oath? JHK

Interesting. I'd never thought of that. Yes, it definitely is very similar, but as the Hippocratic oath isn't a religious belief I'm not sure how relevant it is here. But anyway, let's leave that comparison to the actual Golden Rule article rather than reproducing it under every single religion's version of the golden rule (there at least 8-10 of them). --Dmerrill

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Comparing the Rede to the golden rule is fine, but saying that it is an expression of it, or equivalent to it in some other way, is simply wrong. --Lee Daniel Crocker

See what you think now. And thanks for your criticism. Unfortunately this is one area where I might be too close to the subject matter and need the criticism to examine my own preconceptions. I am trying to be factual and npov, truly. --Dmerrill

I'm starting to find this whole thing more interesting than i'd like -- I've run into people who swear up and down that they are Wiccans = witches, and that Wicca is the religion of witchcraft. I've always thought (from the little I've read on Wicca) that Wicca was a modern (not to say New Age) attempt to reconnect with Druidic and other Celtic traditions (for which we don't have a lot of evidence). When I combine this with the knowledge that many women accused of witchcraft, especially in the middle ages, may have been folk healers or herbalists, then the Hippocratic oath makes sense.

I've also been on a lot of religion bulletin boards where self-avowed Wiccans say that they are witches, but that their Wiccan religion prevents them from harming others...so could someone explain to me where this leaves witchcraft in the sense of people who practice magic, spells, incantations, etc, with or without a rejection of Christianity, with or without a touch of Satanism??? I'm sooo confused! JHK