The Wiccan Rede, Part 1

I have found that author John Coughlin best sums up the Wiccan Rede, when he says, "Today's Wiccan ethics largely center on the Wiccan Rede: If it harms none, do what you will. Longer versions are in circulation adding poetry or personal views (or both), but these eight words are the basis of these variants and best sum up the nature of Wiccan ethics".

It seems important here to separate this Rede from one modern interpretation of it that I have seen -- the one that says "Do what you want as long as it doesn't harm anyone".  The Rede I am using here says that it is ok to do something that won't cause harm but it does not say anything about things which do cause harm.  It sets an ethical guideline of harmlessness.  This is consistent with the definition of  'rede', which according to the Oxford English Dictionary, means "Counsel or advice given by one person to another. Also: a piece of advice".

The other Rede actually says that all actions that cause harm are forbidden.  I think that this is impractical and almost impossible to follow.  After all, sometimes all we have to choose from is a lesser and a greater harm.  And what about self-defense?  No, this isn't workable.  Moreover, it is a newer, and less accurate reconstruction of the older phraseology. The older phraseology is reflected in the Rede I am using here.

If it harms none, do what you will.  This seems so simple to follow on its face, but it really isn't -- at least if, like me, you believe in an interconnected web of relationships and responsibilities toward, well, toward everything, really.  What does it mean to truly harm "none" in this context? Is it even possible to know when an action will cause harm?  After all, tiny differences in starting conditions can yield widely varying outcomes in chaotic systems -- and this is a chaotic system if I ever knew one!

No, I think that in order to work at all, the Rede must be taken with a dose of practicality -- that harm to another cannot be the intent or foreseeable collateral damage of an action, and that this is an ethical guide.  And based on this guide, a practice of harm minimization is acceptable -- to "hurt none" where possible, and do the least amount of hurt in all other situations.