We first must love ourselves. There will never be harmony within our spirits if we don’t first love, respect, and accept ourselves for who we are. Learning how to love ourselves often involves getting to know ourselves better. We need to learn who we are and why we are in the World. By getting to know ourselves, we can love ourselves for the unique and special people we are. By becoming aware of our weaknesses, we can overcome them. By being aware of our strengths, we can use them as a force for positive change, growth, and good.
From this inner harmony of self-love, we can learn to love others. We become aware of other people and learn to love them. When this happens, there is mutual respect; for we love them like we love ourselves. We begin to understand that we all have that “same-ness” even though we are different people. We honor the spirits of others because they are special and loved like us. Through love, we discover the harmony between ourselves and others.
Compromise is often necessary for harmony. NO ONE can ever have everything one wants. We become aware that the needs of others are equally important as our own needs. Love of others means consideration of the needs and emotions of others, and then striving to act in harmony with them. If the love is returned, they will be considering your needs and emotions as well. Thus compromises are made, and through love, harmony with others is achieved.
When we have learned to love ourselves and live in harmony with others, we can then extend that love to the World. When we love the world, we will not abuse it, just like we won’t abuse ourselves or others. We become aware that we are a part of the World, not apart from it. We treat the Earth with respect, and all who live on it, including people different than us, plants, and animals. We love the whole world, not just the parts that are easier to love. When we stretch our love to every part of the planet, then we feel that love returned equally magnified.
The things in this world are not “out to get us,” we have just forgotten how to live in harmony with them. When we do stupid, careless, or bad things, then we have somehow lost that harmony. We have lost harmony either in ourselves, with those others, or with the World. Through Love, balance can always be restored.
The Wiccan Rede & the Rule of Three
To help us remember the connections between Love and Harmony, Wicca has two guidelines that we agree upon and live by. They are the Wiccan Rede and the Three-Fold Law. The Wiccan Rede states: “An it harm none, do as thou wilt.” The Three-Fold Law says: “All energy that you send out in the World will return to you Three-Fold.”
The Wiccan Rede is just like the “Golden Rule”: “Do to others what you like them to do to you,” or “treat others like you would like to be treated.” It means treating people with respect and dignity, and realizing that other people have rights, too. Never do anything that will hurt someone else, either by words or by actions.
The Three-Fold Law explains why this is so important. For everything you send out, you will get it back. Thoughts, just like actions, are energy. This is one of the fundamental concepts of magic. When you send positive, loving, and healing thoughts into the world, they will return to you three times stronger than the thought you sent out. When you send negative, hateful, and harmful thoughts into the world, they will also return to you three times as strong.
There is no special book where you can look up your name and “see how you’re doing.” No one can tell you that the special treat you found or the unexpected surprise you received is because of something nice you did last week. There is no time limit on the Law, and the cause is not often clearly linked to the effect. What Wiccans do know is that everything, eventually, will be returned to you. Once you start to pay attention to the Law, you’d be surprised at how it always works.
When we pay attention to the Rede and remember the Law, we are helped in living our lives in harmony with ourselves, others, and the World. We then know that to hurt someone else means that we hurt ourselves, in many different ways. That is why we always seek to find that balance, that harmony, through love.
~Flame RavenHawk