The Law/Rule of Three is something that is generally found in Wicca and basically means, anything you send out to you returns times three.  Some relate this to another tenant of some Wicca followers to “Do what ye will, but harm none”.

I've had many discussions on the law of three.  I am one of those people that do believe that sending out positive will return positive.  This type of thought process is found in many other religions such as Christianity and Dharmic religions.  These are sometimes referred to as “The Golden Rule” or “Karma”.  I did a blog post on Karma for the letter K.

While writing several of my posts on the threefold law, I've been confronted with several arguments.  The most popular being, what about babies that die.  What did they send out to get that back?  I guess that really depends on how you look at death. Is death a punishment or a reward?  And who is the judge of this behavior and who passes out the grades at the end?

To me the Law of Three is something that was created to keep ourselves in check.  Keep in mind I am not Wiccan.  I do come from a background, meaning I was first introduced into Paganism via Wicca, but my stance today is solitary Hecatean.  I do not have a set of rules before me that I must follow in order to be a devotee.  It is more fluid than that.  I use the Law of Three not because someone tells me it is what I should do, but because it is the right thing to do.  

Right in my eyes.  No one else judges this.

What some fail to realize is that the majority of religion was created to do one thing.  Control people.  Either by fear or by reward, religion either punishes those who do not live up to a set of standards or rewards those with the blessings of the God/dess when they are good.

Though I do try to be good to others, and do well for my environment, it is not because of the Law that I do this.  I pick up the trash because leaving it hurts the lands.  I help others, because I would like them to help me.  I stay positive because being negative is not productive for me. 

When I watch people around me, Christian and non-Christian alike; I’m surprised to see how many people whip out their Gods & Goddesses and toss them around for every little thing.  From touchdowns to school shootings everyone claims that their deity saved them, granted powers or gave rewards for their service.  Some even go so far as to claim that their deity actively seeks out the “wrong doers” and punishes them with floods, tornadoes and the like.

I have two responses here.  First, my deity does not have an interesting in a football game.  She does not care if I gain or lose weight and therefore is not expecting thanks or honors if either of those occur.  Secondly, I do not necessarily believe in a physical manifestation of the Goddess.  To me, Hecate was created in order to personify characteristics that we as humans need/want to have.  Meaning, perhaps it wasn't so much that she walks the night with torches to show me the way, but more so that I use my energy to focus on her torches which then light to show me the way. 

That may sound a bit convoluted, but that is what I believe.  We can manipulate energy.  We are energy.  We can send out and receive energy. We can do it with respect to the law or we can do it for our own belief in what is right.

When presented with these types of situations I often think about it this way.  Do I want someone to do something for me because the law says so, or do I want them to do it because deep inside their convictions tell them?

For me, it’s always the intent that defines the action.

Namaste & Blessed Be

Sosanna

)O(

SIN:  sin

Noun:   An immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.

Verb:     Commit a sin.

Synonyms:          noun:  trespass - guilt - offense - transgression - offence

                                Verb:  transgress - err - trespass – offend

The concept of sin has always fascinated me.  Logically when we think about what sins actually are and what they’ve been turned into it astounding.  When we look at sin from a legal prospective we see something very similar to the Code of Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonia law code that some say is the ancestor of what we today call Common Law.   Sin is in essence a “God’s Law” code.  A set of rules created to ensure the security of the tribe in question.

I can completely understand why in antiquity a group of people would want a set of rules to govern people.  My issue comes in when those rules are written by human beings and are claimed to be of divine origin.  One group claims that another group cannot possibly be “righteous” because “God said don’t eat pork” and they eat pork.  Here I am referencing of course the Law of Moses. 

This law, according to the Old Testament, governs everything from moral laws through laws of what to eat and when to eat it.  If we look at this set of laws from the prospective of the people of the time, we can see that some of them make pretty good sense for people living in a desert without access to proper cleaning materials.  It’s a pretty good idea not to eat pork that’s been lying about in a hot desert for a week.  I get that.  We also cannot pick and choose what we want to keep and what we want to toss out.  On one hand we have “don’t eat or touch pork, it is unclean” and then we have Football.  I think you see where I’m going here.  This particular set of laws, if I give the benefit of the doubt and say, yes, your book is true, was intended to govern a group, a LARGE group of people that had been living as slaves their entire lives, for generation after generation.  They NEEDED strict rules until they could learn to think and govern themselves again.   I think that by now, these “laws” are obsolete.

The next “sin” I want to talk about is the idea of “Original Sin”.   This is a Christian doctrine, which says everyone is born of sin.  Because of the sins of our fathers we inherited that sin and must be forgiven in order to move in to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Many religious groups support this and have way to “cleanse” newborns by baptisms and so on to help remove the sin.   To me, this concept was nothing more than a way to control the masses.  How else do you get a group of people to do what you say? Tell them they are doomed from the beginning and the ONLY WAY to salvation is via your church.  I just shake my head at this thought process.  When we look at this from a legal prospective, to tell a person because their father was a thief, they must serve time is ludicrous.  We would never, arrest the child of a rapist and toss them in jail.  We would never require restitution from the offspring of an embezzler.  Each person is accountable for their own actions.  Not the actions of their fathers, grandfathers or great grandfathers. 

If that were the case, I’d not be sitting here now writing this blog.  I’d be locked away in a jail somewhere, because I have parents who were indeed criminals.  The concept that I am a sinner because “YOUR” book quotes a God that “YOU” follow and that means I’m doomed is a bit much. 

Over my lifetime I’ve studied many things, one of which is law.  I am a Paralegal.  I have taken classes and studied the law in three states.  One thing that I learned very quickly was a concept called the “Spirit of the Law vs. Letter of the Law”.  When one follows the letter of the law, it is taking the words or the “letters” directly from the statute and applying them to a particular incident.  The “spirit” of the law is where we look at the situation, and understand that even though by the letter of the law this person may be guilty, this was not what the spirit of the law, fairness… justice..  Those two “spirits” would not be rewarded and actually be damaged by applying the letter of the law.  This “spirit” is even mentioned in the Christian bible in the book of Romans.  An example of this might be someone who is driving 67 miles per hour in a 65 zone.   By the letter of the law they are speeding, however this speed limit was not intended to stop people from driving 67, it was intended to stop people from driving 80. 

I think that when we look at sin we need to stop looking at the “letter of the law”.  Those “letters” were written a very long time ago, by who?  Men.  Not a God. Men that wanted your obedience.  Today we can look around us and think about what does sin really mean.  What is the “spirit” of the law?

In my opinion, the spirit of the law or what should be the spirit of the law of sin is one thing.  Don’t be an ass.  Yup that’s it.  Don’t be an ass.  Don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, and don’t blow people up.  Live and let live.  One commandment, the word according to Sosanna.

Namaste & Blessed Be

Sosanna

)O(