Know yourself

Know your Craft

Learn

Apply knowledge with wisdom

Achieve balance

Keep your words in good order

Keep your thoughts in good order

Celebrate life

Attune with the cycles of the Earth

Breathe and eat correctly

Exercise the body

Meditate

Honor the Lord and Lady

~Scott Cunningham

These aren’t necessarily in the order I would put them in, and I don’t know if Scott meant them to be in any particular order, either. But they are great goals for a witch in their practice.

Know yourself– “Know thyself”- inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. where the high priestess prophesied, and that was originally dedicated to the Goddess Gaia. The journey we take to know the God and Goddess is often a journey to know ourselves as well. Like DNA spirals, they are intertwined, inseparable. The Charge of the Goddess says “And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without. For behold, I have been with you from the beginning, and I am That which is attained at the end of desire.”  We are not asked to subject or bury ourselves, to disappear, in order to find the Goddess. It is in finding ourselves that we will most truly find her.

Know your craft/Learn/Apply knowledge with wisdom– Never stop learning. There is always more to learn. On one hand, Wicca is quite simple. It is a religion that worships a pre-Christian God and Goddess, reverences nature, and practices witchcraft. On the other hand, there are so many facets to it you can spend your whole life studying and barely scratch the surface. History, mythology, quantum physics, magick, folklore, herbalism…the list goes on and on. And it’s not just knowledge for the sake of knowledge. It’s knowledge to know the God and the Goddess better and to grow in our relationship with them. It’s knowledge to grow in our Craft. It’s knowledge to help heal this world, to do our part to end the evils that threaten us. And it’s knowledge to hone our Craft, so we leave something even better and more complete and more accurate for the next generation.

Keep your words and thoughts in good order– This is one of those ideals that is in every religion. Your thoughts are basically the oxygen of your inner life. And your words are the expression of that inner life. Thoughts that you allow to get away from you can poison your soul, and they will spill out of your mouth. Note that I am NOT speaking about the sadness that comes along with depression, or the thoughts that come along with anxiety, or what have you. I’m talking about choosing to dwell on the harm that someone did you, or continually thinking negative thoughts against yourself instead of working to think thoughts of self-love, or allowing your temper to get out of control. Revenge, fury, self-hated, bitterness- these need to be purged like the toxins they are. ,

Celebrate life/attune with the cycles of the earth– These are givens for a religion that reverences nature, that honors not only human life but plant and animal life as well. Everything participates to some degree in the immanent divinity and thus, everything is sacred, which should affect how you act. The Goddess and God are not only transcendent, they are immanent, and they are in the trees and the waters and the air and the animals to various degrees. Don’t take life carelessly or needlessly. Realizing the sacred nature of Nature makes us aware that she has lessons to teach us, and the Wiccan religion believes she does this through the Wheel of the Year and the monthly cycles of the moon. Ignoring those and not making any attempt to celebrate them or connect with their mysteries is missing out on a large part of what Wicca is about.

Breathe and eat correctly/exercise the body/meditate– The body and soul are inexorably linked during our life. What you do to your body affects your soul. And your body is made up of earth stuff. It’s linked to the Earth. It has lessons to teach you too. The fact that your body can help in the creation of life shows how important it is. Take care of it.

Honor the Lord and the Lady– the reason we’re Wiccan. We’re not Wiccan to get whatever we want through spells, or to get warm fuzzies when we go out in nature. We’re members of the Old Religion, after all, and the roots of the word ‘religion’ means to “bind, connect, or cleave to”. We are looking to bind, connect and cleave to the God and the Goddess, however we see them as. Wicca without deity is something that many seem to be trying for today, but I would strongly argue that is not Wicca. That is witchcraft. Wicca worships/reverences/honors (whatever term) the God and the Goddess.

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