Wicca III

The Wiccan Three-Fold Law
Erin Dragonsong

“Ever mind the rule of three, what ye send out comes back to thee.”
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The Three-Fold Law is not only a Wiccan law.  And it’s not dependent on an All-Knowing God watching and meting out punishment.  Far worse than that!  It is one of the essential threads of the universe … the very fabric of which life is made.  So no matter what you do, you can’t sidestep it.  Best to really understand it, then, so you can use it to your advantage and get the Universe working for you.  After all, don’t you want to be on the Divine’s good side? Be aware of the Three-Fold Law and you can get — and keep — the Universe on your team!

Religious Rule or Universal Law?

The Three-Fold Law is one of the basics of Wiccan belief. Despite the name, the Three-Fold Law isn’t a Wiccan law, exactly, but rather a universal spiritual principle.  We call it a law, I think, because in our respect-deficient culture we associate laws with punishment, and when what we put out comes back to us Three-fold, it often feels like we’re being punished!

The Three-Fold Law is a principle understood in many spiritual traditions in various forms.  What you give out comes back to you 10 times.  The sins of the fathers are carried forward for 7 generations (for those who don’t believe in reincarnating and reaping it in future lives).  What you do to others will be done to you. Etc. In essence, the Three-Fold Law is this: What you give out returns to you, magnified.

“Obey The Three-Fold Law You Should, Three Times Bad And Three Times Good”

In computer lingo, they call this process GIGO: garbage in = garbage out.  The Universe works the same way.  Whatever you put into it is what you get back out of it.  The good news is, the Three-Fold Law can work FOR you.  This Wiccan law works equally well with positive choices!

Try these equations:
BIBO – beauty in = beauty out
JIJO – joy in = joy out
You can use Love, Kindness, Peace, Smiles, Trust, anything good.  Play around with it and see what you come up with.  Then try using it to your advantage!

How Does The Three-Fold Law Affect You?

The Three-Fold Law is like Pagan Karma. Karma is simply an acknowledgement that choices have repercussions.  One of the most immediate repercussions, and both the strongest and the subtlest repercussion, is the energy generated by the choice.  If you would hurt someone in anger, you must first generate sufficient anger in yourself to drive yourself to action.  Then you transfer that angry energy to someone else through your words or actions, and the ripples spread throughout the world.  But the tricky bit is, at each step, your anger hurts you first of all.

Anger is unhealthy – this is well-known in medicine and psychology.  Anger is linked with many fatal diseases, like heart attacks and cancer.  Hurting someone else makes you feel bad about yourself, if only on subconscious levels.  You know in your hidden heart that you have done wrong, and so you lose respect and trust in yourself.  As you send out anger, making people around you angry, what do you think you are going to encounter in response?  Anger!  The ripples of your choices always return to you.

In the big picture, the energy of that anger is creating suffering for all beings.  After millennia of this energy swamping our planet, we find anger leading quite possibly to our extinction.  On a spiritual level, anger creates separation.  Whenever you divorce yourself from the Divine Presence, you feel pain deep within your soul.  You may not recognize it as such, but you will feel its symptoms: loneliness, frustration, anxiety, emptiness, etc.

The spiritual fact is that if anger is an issue in your life, you magnetically draw more of it towards you.  Like attracts like.  This is true no matter what our motivation for harm: greed, fear, lust for power, any negative energy.  Much more than anyone else, we harm ourselves by hurtful thoughts, feelings, words, and actions.  Revenge and resentment look rather foolish from that perspective, don’t they?  This is the Three-Fold Law in action.  But it is not punishment.  That’s a common mistake people make about karmic balance.  The Wiccan Law is not retribution but a gift!

The Three-Fold Law – Punishment Or Gift?

You can blame the gods, you can blame someone else, you can blame anything and everyone, you can even blame yourself.  The thing is, blaming isn’t going to get you anywhere.  Because the issue isn’t who’s at fault and who gets punished.  The issue is what you’re learning from life.  Each time the unpleasant situation arises, the Divine is asking you, Here, would you like to be free of this miserable thing yet?”

Each time, you’re offered the opportunity to notice how you’re hurting yourself (not to mention other people, the Earth, and the gods and goddesses).  Each time, you are given the opportunity to make another choice.  Thus, Karma in Wiccan law is an offering of healing.

Beware The Seeds You Plant

Every choice you make plants seeds for the future.   Whether you plant sweet juicy crops or bitter stinging weeds is entirely up to you. That’s the gift of free will. But whatever you sow, you will reap.  Unavoidably. Every choice, every action, every thought bears fruit.  And since the “fruit” is inside you, you can’t escape reaping it. T he most you can do, perhaps, is delay.  Which then gives you the problem of fruit molding and rotting within you, but this analogy has gone far enough.  So what seeds do you choose to plant for your future?  Sweet fruits or bitter poisons?

Poison Fruit

And these choices are not merely in the physical realm. It’s not as simple as you hit someone and they hit you back.  When you cherish a grudge or resentment in your heart — even if it’s never expressed — you are feeding yourself poison.  Every uncharitable thought has real repercussions, in your physical and mental health, and in the world.

Do You Have To Change?

That is why the great sages say, as Gandhi did, that you must be the change you want to see in the world.  There is no other way.  Regardless of whether the world around you is peaceful, you will never see that peace, unless you have a peaceful heart.  And without peace in your heart, how could you ever create it around you?  That’s like trying to bake bread without any flour.  This is fundamental to Wiccan philosophy — nothing is lost. It all comes back around.  If you want a peaceful, loving world, it starts in your heart.  Your heart! – and mine, of course, and everyone’s.  But your heart is the only one you have influence over.

This Horrible World Is Your Doing?

The state of the world is not an accident.  It is not fate. I t is not out of human control.  The world is exactly what we — all of us — make it. I t is the sum total of what we each allow our thoughts and feelings, our speech and actions to be.  You are in command of your contributions to the state of the world — or you’re not.  Your choice.  Either way, the responsibility is entirely yours.  And. . .the world is your creation.

God Set The World In Motion. . . But We’re The Ones Steering!

The Divine doesn’t like the suffering we create here.  Our pain is Her pain.  Yet She promised us free will, and She honours Her promises, no matter how badly we mess it up.  It’s our game, and She’ll let us play it through.  How we play is up to us.  How the game ends, well, that’s the Three-Fold Law in action.

The Magick Of The Three-Fold Law

And the wondrous gift of the Rule of Three is that
one little thought of compassion,
one little act of kindness,
one little choice for forgiveness . . .multiplies!

And keeps multiplying, as the ripples spread out to infinity, and back again to you.

Your Infinite Power

This means that you have much greater influence on the world than you can imagine!  Use your Power consciously, and the world must shift in response.  The Earth not only must shift, but desperately desires to accommodate such loving conditions.  She is waiting, she wants the opportunity to express these higher states.  She is waiting for you to help Her create a world of beauty, peace, and joy.

Summary

The Three-Fold Law is not punishment.  It’s not even a rule — more like a reminder.  Humans need reminders, because even though we’re pure in our souls, we often forget to act like it.  So the Three-Fold Law reminds us to choose consciously, carefully.  Because we reap the benefits and hazards of our choices.  How would your life be, if you really lived by this Law?

Bright Blessings,

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