324 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
324 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
Aporrheton 5
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The Craft Laws
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By Aidan Kelly
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Many traditions about the Craft are scattered throughout recent
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books; a sizable bunch is the 161 "Craft Laws" you can find in Lady
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Sheba or in June Johns. Many of these traditions are merely definitions
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of what the Craft is, and so of the context within which the other
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traditions should be understood; they are "true" merely because (and
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insofar as) they are internally consistent. In contrast, some of the
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other traditions seem to be shrewd, hard-won observations about how
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psychic energy (as dealt with in the Craft) seems to work, and THESE
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are the important ones.
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The psychic reality that these traditions concern has been called by
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many names: spiritualists call it "the upper astral plane"; Jungians,
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the "superconscious"; the Bhagavad Gita, "the True Self"; many mystics,
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the "godhead"; Isaac Bonewits, the "Switchboard"; and very much so on.
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Any such name is an attempt to map (part of) a psychic reality that
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seems all too willing to accomodate itself to any map you use, and you
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will get nowhere in trying to understand that reality if you don't keep
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its platicity firmly in mind. In the Craft we conceive that reality as
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the Goddess (as #11 below states); She is both very real and a
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metaphor. She is real because human energy goes into making Her real;
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She exists as a "thought form on the astral plane," yet She can
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manifest physically whenever She wants to. She does not exist
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independently of mankind, but She is most thoroughly independent of any
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one person or group. (And precisely the same is true of any concept of
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divinity that people put energy into maintaining.) She is a metaphor
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because, great though She may be, She is finite, like any other human
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concept, whereas reality is infinite. And why do we need the Goddess,
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or any divinity at all? Because the human mind seems unable to grasp an
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undifferentiated infinity. By creating our own divinities, we create
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mental steps for ourselves, up which we can mount, toward relizing
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ourselves as divine.
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The Craft Laws, then, are not "13 Commandments" from on high; they
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are merely unproved hypotheses about how SOME psychic reality seems to
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work. They should be treated like any other hypotheses: respected as
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being the best guesses going, but continually tested to find out how
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valid they are and to generate better guesses. Naturally, you cannot
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test them by breaking them, any more than you can test the law of
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gravity by jumping off a ten-story building. Instead, you draw
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conclusions from them, or base predictions on them, and try workings to
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see if the latter hold up. The 13 below are ones that have held up so
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far under such testing; some we had in an earlier set of 13 did not. In
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compiling this set, I culled through all the traditions I could find,
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picking out especially (or thinking up) the most general statements,
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which would include many of the other traditions as special cases; you
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should be able to spot examples of this by carefully comparing
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Aporrheton 10 with this one. Certain of the laws here (the ones typed
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in all caps) seem necessary and reliable to us, and we will not
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tolerate any bending (let alone breaking) of them, for the reasons
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discussed under #12 below. Many of the rest are here, not because we
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understand them, but because we don't.
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I always approach traditional occult systems (astrology, the Tarot,
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the Craft, etc.) on the assumption that they consist of a terse,
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multileveled coding of hard-earned information about something real and
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important. It is almost as silly to think you've discovered everything
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such a system might mean as it is to think it meaningless. The only way
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to find out what such a system means is to get in there and work with
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it until you speak its language fluently. Then you will likely find (at
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least, this has been my experience) that the system gives you a map of
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reality, but of many places, not just one place, that it gives you a
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way to work with classes of realtionships that hold for many different
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kinds of people, things, and situations. That is, these traditional
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systems are very much like nonquantitative algebras or calculi; a
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symbol in one of them is not going to have an invariant and simple
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meaning, or even the same meaning in two different contextx, anymore
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than X is going to have the same numerical value in two different
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algebra problems.
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It therefore seems safest to keep these Craft laws whose meanings
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are not obvious in mind, and hope that further "experimentation" will
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shed some light on them. Of course, to get any results at all in
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dealing with psychic phenomena, you have to be optimistic and
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openminded. If you already hold a firm belief that you know what the
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Craft Laws mean, or that they are "Absolutely True," or the opposite,
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then your mind is closed, and you can't learn anything new. That is,
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you're not supposed to "believe" in the Craft Laws, or memorize them;
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you're supposed to UNDERSTAND them, else you've missed the whole point
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of why we have them.
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1. YOU CANNOT USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT TO CREATE OR INCREASE BAD
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KARMA, EXCEPT FOR YOURSELF.
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2. YOU MAY NOT USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT TO AFFECT ANOTHER PERSON IN
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ANY WAY, UNLESS YOU HAVE THAT PERSON'S EXPLICIT PERMISSION.
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These two are best discussed together, since they replace the
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inadequate statement one often finds that "You may not use the arts of
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the Craft to work malevolent magic." Notice that the first one says
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"cannot," being an observation of fact, wherease the second says "may
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not," being a statement of ethics.
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The first law states that, IN THE LONG RUN, you can harm no one but
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yourself. You cannot benefit from trying to harm another, because you
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are part of the fabric of reality, not separate from it. You get
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whatever you give, because getting and giving are the same, just as the
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trough and the crest are the same wave./ If you set up a pattern of
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nasty, callous selfishness around yourself, that is what you have
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projected onto the world, and that is all you will experience. If you
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act out of genuine affection and concern for others, you receive their
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affection and concern as well. The psychic (or life) field seems to
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have a single polarity: to create positive effects for yourself, you
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must create positive effects for others. And this observation applies
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not just to the arts of the Craft, nor to all the psychic arts, but to
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life in general.
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Now, what the second law points out is that it is the OTHER person's
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opinion that determines whether the effects of what you do are positive
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or not. This law is the equivalent of the Craft's version of the
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"Golden Rule": "Do unto others not as YOU wish to be done under, but as
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THEY wish to be done unto--for their tastes may damned well differ from
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yours." (Thus this law, most usefully, eliminates any arguments over
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how one defines "good" or "evil.") It follows that you may not do
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something for what YOU think is someone else's "own good"; you have no
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right to make that decision. You may not even work a healing unless you
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have permission from the person to be healed; it is unethical to hit an
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unprepared person with a jolt of energy. You may work without prior
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permission for someone whose karma you are already PERSONALLY involved
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with (as a mother for her child, a man for his wife, etc.), but you may
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not accept anyone's opinion that another would give permission if
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asked; no matter how close two people might be, they neither own one
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another nor carry each other's karma, and so cannot give such
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permission to another.
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3. You cannot use the arts of the Craft to win fame, fortune, power, or
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any other sort of material or social advantage.
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This again is an observation of how all the psychic arts work, not
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just those of the Craft. WHY they work thus is another question--THAT
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they do work thus is well-known. Perhaps the simplest explanation is
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that if your major motive for working is (or becomes) a desire for
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fame, fortune, etc., you soon get into a headspace where psychic
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abilities simply cannot function; many erstwhile psychics throughout
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history have lost their abilities and become charlatans, because they
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did not know this rule. You can (as many people do) make your living by
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a psychic art, as long as you charge only enough to live comfortably by
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your society's standards; it is only going on a "power trip" that would
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endanger your abilities. Similarly, doing trips on people without their
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knowledge (or the magician's favorite project, raising "demons" in
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order to control them) is another sort of power trip, and will have
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exactly the same effect on your abilities. A more traditionals Craft
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statement of this rule would be, "The arts of the Craft are the gift of
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the Goddess; if you misuse them, She will take them back."
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4. You cannot use the arts of the Craft for show, in pretence, but only
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in earnest, and only in need.
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If you work a ritual, it will have effects, whether you think you
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want it to or not. Therefore you cannot "pretend" to throw a hex, for
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example; the Lady does not recognize pretence. On the other hand, you
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cannot work the arts successfully just because you WANT to, as a head
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trip; the Lady won't cooperate. You have to need the energy or the
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information for some real purpose, else you can't tap into it. (At
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least, this is what meaning I have seen in this law so far.)
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5. The arts of the Craft can only be worked in a circle with at least
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one other person of the opposite sex.
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This "law" is actually just a set of definitions, though important
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ones, as follows. (a) The arts of the Craft are defined as those that
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will work only under these conditions; psychic arts that work under
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other conditions are thus not necessarily part of the Craft. (b) A
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coven consists of at least one man and one woman; it cannot consist of
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all men or all women. (c) If you're working by yourself, you are
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working as a magician, not as a witch--but you are still obliged by
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your oaths to the Lady to observe the other Craft Laws. (For more on
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this last point, see #12.)
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6. A man must learn the arts of the Craft from a woman, a woman from a
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man, except between parent and child.
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Since #5 defines the arts of the Craft as those that only work in
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the circle, obviously they can only be learned in the circle. If you're
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working with just one other person, that person must be of the opposite
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sex, else the arts won't work, and nothing can be learned. Thus it
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seems logical that this tradition applies only to a one-to-one teacher-
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apprentice relationship. If you're not in the circle, and/or are
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teaching a mixed group of men and women, obviously there's no problem.
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(This tradition MAY imply that the arts WILL work for two women if they
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are mother and daughter, or for father and some, since part of the key
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to the working, and the learning, seems to be the emotional closeness
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between the two; consider section IV, last para, in Aporrheton 10.)
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7. You must always pay whatever price is asked, without haggling or
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complaining, when you buy something to be used for the Craft.
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The Gardnerian Craft Laws (section IV, para 4, of Apor. 10) allow
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the arts of the Craft to be used to persuade someone to sell something,
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as long as his asking price is met, but this would violate our Law #2.
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In contrast, this law here is a safeguard against using your psychic
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talents not-quite-consciously to take unfair advantage of someone.
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8. You cannot belong to more than one coven at a time.
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Any two covens will likely have rather different symbolic systems
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for their workings, different understandings of the Craft Laws, and so
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on. Trying to work with both would then tend to confuse you, snarl up
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your communication lines to the Lade, and reduce the efficiency of your
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learning and working. Of course, if two covens do have identical
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systems (which could only happen if they shared a common ancestry),
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they could be considered the same cove, for the purposes under
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discussion here.
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In its original context (see section III, Apor. 10), this law seems
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merely an observation of fact: even if you're working with two or more
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covens, you will only BELONG to one of them; your loyalty will be with
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that one, and if there were a parting of the ways, you would stick with
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it. Obviously, in time of persecution, divided loyalties and
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disagreements could be a source of great danger, and would have to be
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forbidden. Also, in a Craft structure where the High Priestess has
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final authority within each coven, she would not much like having a
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Witch she is trying to train be influenced by another Priestess. True,
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these considerations don't apply to us, but they are valid as reasons
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for the tradition.
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9. None can coven with others they cannot agree with.
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Stated this way, this law becomes an etymological tautology, for
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"coven" means "to agree" (or "to come together"). The more those in a
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coven can agree on the interpretation of the Craft Laws, on the
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symbolic system used for workings, on the purposes of the workings, the
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greater the coven's effectiveness will be. Naturally, minor
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disagreements will crop up regularly in a group of individualists; they
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are not what this law concers. Rather, it applies to disagreements (or
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bad interpersonal feelings) that are strong enough that they are
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amplified by the group field, make the meeting unpleasant, and so make
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it impossible for the coven to work. For this reason--not, one may
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hope, out of mere in-group exclusiveness or arbitrariness--acoven must
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select its members carefully for compatibility. Also, since a coven is
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necessarily a "small group," many normal small-group processes will
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operate in it. These can be powerful, and emotionally very heavy, but
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there's nothing mysterious about them. Don't mistake them for something
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occult; that would lead you up a blind alley.
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10. You must not betray the secrets that cannot be told.
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The secrets in question here are Her secrets, the ones discussed in
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the Caution to the Novices. Insofar as these Craft Laws are simply
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observations of how psychic reality works (and it is for that, really,
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that we should value them) then they are "self-enforcing" like any
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other statement of fact. So what this law means is: (a) Don't commit
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suicide; (b) Don't violate your own sense of your self-integrity; (c)
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Don't "sell your soul to the devil"; (d) If you stick your finger in a
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flame, you'll get burned.
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11. ALL POWER IN THE CRAFT COMES FROM THE GODDESS.
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This law is another observation about how psychic reality works.
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The energy that is raised in the circle comes not from any one person,
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nor from all the persons in the coven as individuals, but from
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somewhere else: from the Goddess, or from some source ever further
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beyond. Such energy, like all psychic energy, comes THROUGH you, not
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from you; it is not your personal property, for you are merely a
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channel for it, a custodian of it. You do "own" your body and your
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individual personality, and you are entitled to the fruits of your
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labors, but the energy is not yours to exploit for your own benefit,
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for any human being could (potentially) learn to do anything you can
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do. Therefore, although you have a right to earn a living, the Craft is
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free to all, being a gift of the Goddess: you may not charge anyone
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even a penny to be initiated into the Craft or to learn its arts. Of
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course, you should insist on having your actual expenses covered; the
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Craft Laws do not require you to operate at a loss or to coddle
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freeloaders. But you may not make money from practicing the Craft as a
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religion, and if you try, you will lose all access to the power.
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This law also means that the only genuine initiations in the Craft
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are those worked (though not necessarily directly) by the Goddess
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Herself. That is, if you have the power from the Goddess, credentials
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from other people are unnecessary, and if you don't have any power from
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the Goddess, credentials from other people are useless. Hence there can
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be no authority in the Craft outside each coven.
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This law also provides another definition: any power that comes from
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the Goddess could be part of the Craft; so any poet who has experienced
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the reality of the Muse is, to that extent, a Witch. Conversely, any
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energy that cannot be conceptualized as coming from the Goddess (and
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apparently there ARE such forms of the energy) is definitely not part
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of the Craft. (The tradition that the Priestess is supreme within the
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circle also appears to be a special case of this law, insofar as only
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the Priestess can incarnate the Goddess.)
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12. IF SOMEONE INTENDS TO HARM YOU, YOU MAY USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT
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TO RESTRAIN HIM FROM DOING SO, BUT ONLY IF ALL IN THE COVEN AGREE
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THAT HE WILL IN NO WAY BE HARMED BY THE WORKING.
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No matter what the provocation, trying to harm another will only
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create bad karma for yourself. So, although you have an absolute right
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to protect yourself, you must not retaliate. As is said in K'ung Fu,
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"Solve the problem, no less, no more." The reason why the coven must
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discuss the situation and agree on the workings is twofold: (1) to
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allow cooler minds to prevail, for it is when one acts on impulse, out
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of anger, that one is most likely to overstep the line between
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self-defense and aggression; and (2) because those in the coven, having
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taken an oath to help one another, and being linked by the generation
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of the group psychic field, will all share to some extent in any bad
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karma generated by any member's misuse of the arts. If you are one who
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can only learn the hard way, say, by sticking your finger into a flame,
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you are of course free to burn your own fingers--but NOT if you are
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holding someone else's hand, which is exactly the situation if you
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belong to a coven. For its own self-preservation, a coven must
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therefore retain the right, as a last resort, to expel (and cut loose
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from the karma of) any member who persists in interfering in other
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people's lives without their permission or, of course, who attempts
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even blacker workings.
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13. Always remember that all mankind and all creatures are equally
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children of the Goddess; therefore never boast or threaten, or do
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anything that might disgrace Her or your brothers and sisters in
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the Craft.
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To blather thoughtlessly about the Craft, especially to persons who
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have no business knowing about your coven's affairs, not only drains
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your own energy and that of your coven, but also is a form of boasting,
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of using the Craft for self-aggrandizement, that will get you into the
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bad headspace law #3 warns about. More obviously, threatening to "hex"
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someone, even though you THINK you have no intention of doing so,
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violates the intent of laws 1 through 4, because you are playing games
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with the Lady, who just might decide to act on the threat, and because
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you are using the Craft (especially if you are known to be a Witch) to
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influence another against his will and to get your own way;
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furthermore, making such a threat reinforces the false impression most
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people have of the Craft, and so disgraces the Goddess. Again, since
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anyone could learn to do anything you can do, being a Witch doesn't
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make you any better than anyone else; put on airs, and the Lady will
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deflate you. Perhaps a good rule of thumb about discussing the Craft
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with outsiders is this: once you are convinced that someone's interest
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is sincere, then answer questions, fully and freely; but don't just
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volunteer information that has in no way been asked for, else you risk
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burdening that person with more information than he or she is able to
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cope with. |