The Wiccan Rede and Taking Care of Ourselves

One thing that I have spent much time thinking about since I started this blog is regarding the meaning and the impact of the Wicca Rede "And it harm none, do what you will." From what I have been reading, most people vaguely define the Rede as "as long as you don't cause harm to anyone, everything will be okay and you can go about your way." But it seems that most people do not include themselves in that equation.

One of the problems with the Wiccan Rede is that not many people define what "harm" is. I've seen it talked about as not hurting anyone. And by that, I am thinking that they mean physical and emotional harm to others. But what is "harm?" Harm can be either physical, mental, or emotional in nature. It can also mean harm that you cause to another and harm that you cause to yourself.

Much of harm we can do to ourselves usually shows up in the form of general health. Do we smoke, eat too much or too little, exercise to little, get enough sleep? All this can effect our well being, yet most people do not seem to take this into accouunt when talking about the Rede.

On September 30th, I was watching ABC news and they were talking about the health epidemic of kids, both in the US and in England. I think that this broadcast hit the point I am trying to make, and that is that most people do not take care of themselves today and seem not to care all that much. Much of the focus of this broadcast followed Jamie Oliver through his crusade of changing school lunches in England. Jamie Oliver said something along the lines of kids who are in grade school today are the 1st generation that will not live as long as their parents. He was saying this in regards to what the kids were eating in their schools.

So how can we start taking better care of ourselves and therefore bring our bodies back into balance so that we can function as we were meant to? I think we need to learn to listen to what our bodies are telling us while we eat and move. I also think we have to start paying more attention to the "normal" aches and pains. We can't ignore these pains, because this is an opportune time to fix something that has gone wrong with our bodies.

Now, I am talking about two different issues within this post - The Wiccan Rede and then I sidetracked to health. I have been sitting on this post for a little over a week trying to figure out what I want to say with it. I realized what I was trying to say when I read Daven's take on the Rede. I would have to say that I agree with him - the Rede is not adequate for today's Pagan. There needs to be a new way to express Pagan ethics without being too vague and simplistic.