Wiccan Ethics

What is the ethical underpinning of Wicca, if there is one at all? Most often, you'll hear people answer this question by pointing to the Wiccan Rede or the Threefold Law of Return. Personally, though, I think that Wicca--at least, the version of Wicca I practice--doesn't teach ethics. Rather, there's an expectation that people come into Wicca as fully formed moral adults who already know the difference between right and wrong.
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[@ellebi2]

Thank you Jack! I really enjoy your videos and they're very informative

[@ashenwalls3558]

Lovely video, thank you for sharing! I recently saw a reddit thread claiming that Wicca isn't a religion because it doesn't tell you how to believe in God exactly, and doesn't tell you what morality is. I had a good chuckle but didn't have the energy to respond 🤣

[@Burnside128]

So full disclosure, while I'm not a Gardnerian, or formally initiated into any kind of traditional wiccan tradition, it's a well I pull from quite a bit in my wiccan practice. And this generally lines up with my understanding of Wiccan ethics. But something I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about, is the notion that the Charge of The Goddess lays out a system of Virtue Ethics ("may there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honour and humility, mirth and reverence within you") This gets talked about at length in the Farrar's 'A Witches Bible', in the chapter on ethics, and I think it both butts up against, and complements the argument you're making, in interesting ways. On the one hand, this is an ethical system coming from within the liturgy of the religion itself. But on the other because virtue ethics steers clear of making behavioral prescriptions the way Utilitarianism does ("An it harm none, do what ye will", almost word-for-word John Stuart Mill's summary definition of utilitarianism), it instead focuses on that internal searching you talked about. Personally, I find this to be a much more powerful ethical framework than the Rede. I abide by it as a kind of day to day advice, but not as any kind of immutable law or precept. Plus, I think the dialectical relationship between the inner cultivation of an ethical code, and the outer spiritual experience of ecstatic spiritual communion, makes a lot of sense, given Wicca's focus on these kinds of dialectical polarities and their cycles (life and death, summer and winter, etc.), In ways that a strictly utilitarian ethic, or karmic retribution just doesn't jive with. That's my two cents anyway. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this facet of the discussion, and if you think it has any merit.

[@JackChanek]

There are lots of things in Wiccan liturgy that individuals can choose to draw inspiration from when thinking about their moral decision-making! But I do think it's fundamentally a mischaracterization of Wicca to say that it teaches a particular moral framework (e.g. a virtue ethics with a given set of virtues). Some Wiccans might choose to embrace such a framework, but that's a choice made by individual practitioners rather than something inherent to Wicca; crucially, someone isn't made less Wiccan by adopting a consequentialist, deontological, or contractualist approach to ethics.

[@boblathrop9983]

What State do you live in?

[@Mathew_Carter]

Even if it's fair to say the Wiccan Rede and Law of Return had an ambiguous origin, would it also be fair to say that they have become core Wiccan principles in current times? After all, Wicca has continued to evolve over the past ~70 years. If practitioners are expected to already be ethical prior to initiation, from where are those ethics supposed to come? How truly affective is a religion (which is social by design) that does not include any behavioral standards?

[@bhagavansatanicparamahansa1568]

Listen Jack, we respect your Gay Wicca Cosplay movement but I represent the Gardnerian branch of wegga ( the real one ) and if you ever mention Wiccan ethics again you'll be disbarred from Wicca.