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                                        Aporrheton 5 
                                         The Craft Laws 
            
               (Marked 4/73 by Judy Harrow; author not noted) 
            
                         ManytraditionsabouttheCraft arescatteredthroughoutrecent
           books; a  sizable bunch is the 161  "Craft Laws" you can  find in Lady
           Sheba or in  June Johns. Many  of these traditions are  merely defini-
           tions of what  the Craft is,  and so of the  context within which  the
           other traditions should be understood;  they are "true" merely because
           (and  insofar as) they are internally consistent. In contrast, some of
           the other traditions  seem to be  shrewd, hard-won observations  about
           how psychic  energy (as dealt  with in the  Craft) seems to  work, and
           THESE are the important ones. 
 
                         The psychicreality that these traditionsconcern has been
           called by  many names: spiritualists call it "the upper astral plane";
           Jungians, the  "superconscious"; the  Bhagavad Gita, "the  True Self";
           many mystics,  the "godhead";  Isaac Bonewits, the  "Switchboard"; and
           very much  so on.    Any such  name is an attempt  to map (part  of) a
           psychic reality that seems all too willing to accomodate itself to any
           map you  use, and you  will get nowhere  in trying to  understand that
           reality if  you don't keep its Plasticity firmly in mind. In the Craft
           we conceive that reality as the Goddess (as #11 below  states); She is
           both very real  and a metaphor. She is real  because human energy goes
           into making  Her real; She  exists as  a "thought form  on the  astral
           plane," yet She  can manifest  physically whenever She  wants to.  She
           does  not exist independently of  mankind, but She  is most thoroughly
           independent  of any one  person or group.  (And precisely  the same is
           true of any concept of divinity that people put energy  into maintain-
           ing.)  She is  a metaphor  because, great  though She  may be,  She is
           finite, like any other human concept, whereas reality is infinite. And
           why do we need the Goddess, or any divinity at all?  Because the human
           mind  seems unable to grasp an  undifferentiated infinity. By creating
           our own divinities, we create mental steps for ourselves,  up which we
           can mount, toward relizing ourselves as divine. 
 
                         TheCraft Laws,then, arenot "13Commandments" fromon high;
           they  are merely  unproved hypotheses about  how SOME  psychic reality
           seems  to  work. They  should be  treated  like any  other hypotheses:
           respected as being the  best guesses going, but continually  tested to
           find out how valid they are and to generate better guesses. Naturally,
           you cannot test them by breaking them, any more  than you can test the
           law of gravity by jumping off  a ten-story building. Instead, you draw
           conclusions from them, or  base predictions on them, and  try workings
           to see if the latter hold up. The 13 below are ones that have  held up
           so far  under such testing; some  we had in  an earlier set of  13 did
           not. In  compiling this  set, I  culled through all  the traditions  I
           could find, picking out  especially (or thinking up) the  most general
           statements,  which  would include  many  of  the other  traditions  as
           special cases; you should be able to spot examples of this by careful-
           ly comparing Aporrheton  10 with this  one. Certain of  the laws  here
           (the ones typed in all caps) seem necessary and reliable to us, and we
           will not tolerate  any bending (let alone  breaking) of them,  for the
           reasons discussed  under #12  below. Many  of the  rest are  here, not
           because we     understand them, but because we don't. 
 
 
                                                                             1196
 
                I  always  approach  traditional occult  systems  (astrology, the
           Tarot,  the Craft,  etc.)  on the  assumption that  they consist  of a
           terse, ultileveled  coding of hard-earned information  about something
           real and important. It is  almost as silly to think  you've discovered
           everything such  a system might mean as it is to think it meaningless.
           The only way to find  out what such a system means is to  get in there
           and work with it until you  speak its language fluently. Then you will
           likely find (at  least, this has  been my experience) that  the system
           gives you a map  of reality, but of  many places, not just  one place,
           that it  gives you a  way to work  with classes of  realtionships that
           hold  for many different kinds of people, things, and situations. That
           is,  these  traditional systems  are  very  much like  nonquantitative
           algebras  or calculi; a symbol in one of  them is not going to have an
           invariant  and simple meaning,  or even the  same meaning in  two dif-
           ferent contextx,  anymore than X is  going to have  the same numerical
           value in two different algebra problems. 
 
                         It therefore seems safest to keep these Craft laws whose
           meanings are not obvious  in mind, and hope that  further "experiment-
           ation" will shed some light on them. Of course, to get  any results at
           all in dealing with psychic phenomena,  you have to be optimistic  and
           openminded. If you  already hold a firm belief that  you know what the
           Craft Laws mean, or that they are  "Absolutely True," or the opposite,
           then  your mind is closed, and you  can't learn anything new. That is,
           you're not supposed to "believe" in the Craft Laws, or memorize  them;
           you're supposed to UNDERSTAND them, else you've missed the whole point
           of why we have them. 
            
               1. YOU CANNOT USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT TO CREATE OR INCREASE BAD 
                  KARMA, EXCEPT FOR YOURSELF. 
 
                   2. YOUMAY NOT USETHE ARTS OF THECRAFT TO AFFECTANOTHER PERSON 
                IN ANY WAY, UNLESS YOU HAVE THAT PERSON'S EXPLICIT PERMISSION. 
            
                  These two are best discussed together, since they replace the 
           inadequate statement one often finds that "You may not use the arts of
           the Craft  to work malevolent magic."  Notice that the  first one says
           "cannot,"  being an observation of fact, wherease the second says "may
           not," being a statement of ethics. 
 
                         Thefirst lawstates that,INTHE LONGRUN, youcan harmno one
           but  yourself. You cannot benefit from trying to harm another, because
           you are part of the fabric  of reality, not separate from it.  You get
           whatever you  give, because getting and  giving are the same,  just as
           the trough and  the crest are the same wave./ If  you set up a pattern
           of nasty, callous selfishness  around yourself, that is what  you have
           projected onto  the world, and that is all you will experience. If you
           act out of genuine affection and concern for others, you receive their
           affection and concern as  well. The psychic (or  life) field seems  to
           have a single polarity:  to create positive effects for  yourself, you
           must create positive effects for others.  And this observation applies
           not just to the arts of the Craft, nor to all the psychic arts, but to
           life in general. 
 
 
                                                                             1197
 
 
                         Now, whatthe second law pointsout is that itis the OTHER
           person's  opinion  that determines whether the effects  of what you do
           are positive or not. This law is the equivalent of the Craft's version
           of the  "Golden Rule":  "Do unto  others not as  YOU wish  to be  done
           under,  but as THEY wish to be  done unto--for their tastes may damned
           well differ from yours." (Thus this law, most usefully, eliminates any
           arguments over how one defines "good" or "evil.") It follows  that you
           may not do something for what YOU think is someone  else's "own good";
           you  have no  right to  make that decision.  You may  not even  work a
           healing unless you have permission from the person to be healed; it is
           unethical  to hit an unprepared person with  a jolt of energy. You may
           work  without prior permission for someone whose karma you are already
           PERSONALLY  involved with (as  a mother for  her child, a  man for his
           wife,  etc.), but  you may  not accept  anyone's opinion  that another
           would  give permission if asked; no matter  how close two people might
           be, they  neither own one another nor carry each other's karma, and so
           cannot give such permission to another. 
            
                   3. You cannot usethe arts of theCraft to win fame, fortune,   
            power, or any other sort of material or social advantage. 
            
                         Thisagainis anobservation ofhow allthe psychicarts work,
           not just those of the Craft. WHY they work thus is another question---
           THAT they do work thus is well-known. Perhaps the simplest explanation
           is that  if your major motive for working is (or becomes) a desire for
           fame,  fortune,  etc., you  soon get  into  a headspace  where psychic
           abilities simply cannot  function; many erstwhile psychics  throughout
           history have lost their abilities and become  charlatans, because they
           did not know this rule. You  can (as many people do) make  your living
           by a psychic art, as long as you charge only enough to live comfortab-
           ly  by your society's  standards; it is  only going on  a "power trip"
           that  would endanger your abilities.  Similarly, doing trips on people
           without  their        knowledge (or  the magician's  favorite project,
           raising "demons"  in order to  control them) is another  sort of power
           trip, and will have exactly the same effect on your  abilities. A more
           traditionals Craft statement of this  rule would be, "The arts  of the
           Craft are the gift of the Goddess;  if you misuse them, She will  take
           them back." 
            
                   4.You cannot usethe arts ofthe Craft forshow, in pretence, but
                 only in earnest, and only in need. 
            
                         If youwork aritual, itwill haveeffects, whetheryou think
           you want it to or not. Therefore  you cannot "pretend" to throw a hex,
           for example; the Lady does not recognize pretence. On  the other hand,
           you cannot work the arts  successfully just because you WANT to,  as a
           head trip;  the Lady won't cooperate.  You have to need  the energy or
           the information for some real purpose, else you can't tap into it. (At
           least, this is what meaning I have seen in this law so far.) 
 
 
                                                                             1198
 
                   5. The arts ofthe Craft can onlybe worked in acircle with at  
              least one other person of the opposite sex. 
            
                         This "law" is actually just a set of definitions, though
           important ones, as follows. (a)  The arts of the Craft are  defined as
           those  that will work only  under these conditions;  psychic arts that
           work  under  other conditions  are thus  not  necessarily part  of the
           Craft. (b) A  coven consists of  at least  one man and  one woman;  it
           cannot  consist of  all men  or all  women. (c)  If you're  working by
           yourself, you are  working as a magician, not as  a witch--but you are
           still  obliged by your  oaths to the  Lady to observe  the other Craft
           Laws. (For more on this last point, see #12.) 
            
                   6.A man must learn the arts of the Craft from a woman, a woman
           from a man, except between parent and child. 
            
                         Since#5 definesthe artsof theCraft asthose thatonly work
           in the  circle, obviously they can  only be learned in  the circle. If
           you're working with just one other  person, that person must be of the
           opposite  sex, else the arts  won't work, and  nothing can be learned.
           Thus it seems logical that this tradition applies only to a one-to-one
           teacher-apprentice relationship.  If you're not in  the circle, and/or
           are teaching a  mixed group  of men  and women,  obviously there's  no
           problem.   (This tradition MAY imply  that the arts WILL  work for two
           women if they  are mother and daughter, or for  father and some, since
           part of  the key to  the working,  and the learning,  seems to  be the
           emotional  closeness between the two;  consider section IV, last para,
           in Aporrheton 10.) 
            
                   7. You mustalways pay whateverprice is asked,without haggling 
                   or complaining, when you buy something to be used for the     
           Craft. 
            
                         TheGardnerian Craft Laws (sectionIV, para 4,of Apor. 10)
           allow the arts  of the Craft  to be used to  persuade someone to  sell
           something, as long as his asking price is met, but  this would violate
           our Law  #2. In contrast, this  law here is a  safeguard against using
           your psychic talents not-quite-consciously to take unfair advantage of
           someone. 
            
               8. You cannot belong to more than one coven at a time. 
            
                         Any two covens willlikely have rather different symbolic
           systems  for their  workings,  different understandings  of the  Craft
           Laws, and so on.  Trying to work with both would  then tend to confuse
           you, snarl  up your communication  lines to the  Lade, and  reduce the
           efficiency of your  learning and working. Of course,  if two covens do
           have  identical  systems (which  could only  happen  if they  shared a
           common  ancestry), they  could be  considered the  same cove,  for the
           purposes under discussion here. 
 
 
                                                                             1199
 
                         Inits originalcontext (seesection III,Apor. 10),this law
           seems  merely an observation of fact:  even if you're working with two
           or more covens, you will only BELONG to one of them; your loyalty will
           be with that one, and if there  were a parting of the ways, you  would
           stick with  it. Obviously, in  time of persecution,  divided loyalties
           and disagreements could be a source of great danger, and would have to
           be forbidden. Also, in a Craft structure where  the High Priestess has
           final authority within  each coven, she  would not much like  having a
           Witch she is trying to train be influenced by another Priestess. True,
           these considerations don't  apply to us, but they are valid as reasons
           for the tradition. 
            
               9. None can coven with others they cannot agree with. 
            
                         Statedthis way,this lawbecomes anetymological tautology,
           for  "coven" means "to agree" (or "to  come together"). The more those
           in a coven can agree on  the interpretation of the Craft Laws,  on the
           symbolic  system used for workings,  on the purposes  of the workings,
           the  greater  the  coven's  effectiveness will  be.  Naturally,  minor
           disagreements  will crop up  regularly in  a group  of individualists;
           they are not  what this law concers.  Rather, it applies  to disagree-
           ments (or bad interpersonal feelings) that are strong enough that they
           are amplified by the group field, make  the meeting unpleasant, and so
           make it  impossible for the  coven to work. For  this reason--not, one
           may hope, out of  mere in-group exclusiveness or arbitrariness--acoven
           must select  its members  carefully for compatibility.  Also, since  a
           coven is necessarily  a "small group,"  many normal small-group  proc-
           esses will operate in it. These  can be powerful, and emotionally very
           heavy, but there's nothing mysterious  about them. Don't mistake  them
           for something occult; that would lead you up a blind alley. 
            
               10. You must not betray the secrets that cannot be told. 
            
                         Thesecrets in question hereare Her secrets,the ones dis-
           cussed in  the Caution to the Novices. Insofar as these Craft Laws are
           simply observations of how psychic reality works (and it is for  that,
           really, that we should value them) then they are "self-enforcing" like
           any other  statement of fact.  So what  this law means  is: (a)  Don't
           commit suicide; (b) Don't  violate your own sense of  your self-integ-
           rity; (c) Don't "sell  your soul to the devil"; (d)  If you stick your
           finger in a flame, you'll get burned. 
            
 
 
                                                                             1200
 
               11. ALL POWER IN THE CRAFT COMES FROM THE GODDESS. 
            
                           This lawis anotherobservation about howpsychic reality
           works.  The energy that is raised in the circle comes not from any one
           person, nor from all the persons in the coven as individuals, but from
           somewhere else: from  the Goddess,  or from some  source ever  further
           beyond. Such energy, like  all psychic energy, comes THROUGH  you, not
           from  you; it  is not  your personal  property, for  you are  merely a
           channel for it,  a custodian of  it. You do "own"  your body and  your
           individual personality, and  you are  entitled to the  fruits of  your
           labors, but the energy is  not yours to exploit for your  own benefit,
           for any human being  could (potentially) learn to do anything  you can
           do. Therefore, although  you have a right to earn  a living, the Craft
           is free to all, being a gift of the Goddess: you may not charge anyone
           even a  penny to be initiated into the Craft  or to learn its arts. Of
           course,  you should insist on having your actual expenses covered; the
           Craft Laws  do  not require  you to  operate at  a loss  or to  coddle
           freeloaders. But you may not make money from practicing the Craft as a
           religion, and if you try, you will lose all access to the power.  This
           law  also means  that the  only genuine initiations  in the  Craft are
           those worked (though not necessarily directly) by the Goddess Herself.
           That is,  if you  have the  power from  the Goddess,  credentials from
           other people are unnecessary, and if you don't have  any power from   
           the Goddess, credentials  from other people  are useless. Hence  there
           can be no authority in the Craft outside each coven. 
 
                       Thislaw alsoprovides anotherdefinition: anypowerthat comes
           from   the Goddess  could be part  of the Craft;  so any poet  who has
           experienced the  reality  of the  Muse is,  to that  extent, a  Witch.
           Conversely, any energy  that cannot be  conceptualized as coming  from
           the Goddess  (and apparently there  ARE such forms  of the energy)  is
           definitely not part of the Craft. (The tradition that the Priestess is
           supreme within  the circle also appears  to be a special  case of this
           law, insofar as only the Priestess can incarnate the Goddess.) 
            
                   12. IFSOMEONE INTENDS TO HARMYOU, YOU MAY USETHE ARTS OF THE  
                       CRAFTTO RESTRAINHIM FROM DOINGSO, BUT ONLYIF ALL INTHE    
                COVEN AGREE THAT HE WILL IN NO WAY BE HARMED BY THE WORKING. 
            
                         No matterwhat the provocation,trying to harmanother will
           only create bad karma for yourself. So, although you have  an absolute
           right to protect yourself, you must not retaliate. As is said in K'ung
           Fu, "Solve  the problem, no less,  no more." The reason  why the coven
           must discuss the  situation and agree on the workings  is twofold: (1)
           to allow cooler minds to prevail, for  it is when one acts on impulse,
           out of  anger, that one  is most likely  to overstep the  line between
           self-defense and  aggression;  and (2)  because  those in  the  coven,
           having  taken an  oath to help  one another,  and being  linked by the
           generation  of the group psychic field, will  all share to some extent
           in any bad karma generated  by any member's misuse of the arts. If you
           are one who can only learn the hard way, say,  by sticking your finger
           into a flame, you are of course free to burn your own fingers--but NOT
           if you are holding someone else's hand, which is exactly the situation
           if you belong to a coven. For its own self-preservation,  a coven must
           therefore retain the right, as a  last resort, to expel (and cut loose
           from the karma of) any member who persists in interfering in other 
           people's lives without  their permission or,  of course, who  attempts
           even blacker workings. 
            
 
 
                                                                             1201
 
                   13. Always rememberthat allmankind and allcreatures areequally
                         childrenof theGoddess;therefore neverboastor threaten,or
                       do anything that mightdisgrace Her oryour brothers and    
           sisters in the Craft. 
            
                         Toblatherthoughtlesslyaboutthe Craft,especiallytopersons
           who  have no  business knowing  about your  coven's affairs,  not only
           drains your  own energy and that of your coven,  but also is a form of
           boasting, of using  the Craft for  self-aggrandizement, that will  get
           you into the bad headspace law #3 warns about. More obviously, threat-
           ening to "hex" someone, even though you THINK you have no intention of
           doing so, violates  the intent of  laws 1 through  4, because you  are
           playing  games with  the Lady,  who just  might decide  to act  on the
           threat,  and because you  are using the  Craft (especially if  you are
           known to be a Witch) to influence another against his will and  to get
           your own way; furthermore,  making such a threat reinforces  the false
           impression most  people have of the  Craft, and so disgraces  the God-
           dess. Again, since anyone could learn to do anything you can do, being
           a Witch doesn't make you any better than anyone else; put on airs, and
           the Lady  will deflate you. Perhaps a good rule of thumb about discus-
           sing the  Craft with  outsiders is this:  once you are  convinced that
           someone's  interest  is  sincere,  then answer  questions,  fully  and
           freely; but don't just  volunteer information that has in no  way been
           asked for, else you  risk burdening that person with  more information
           than he or she is able to cope with.
 
 
                                                                             1202
 


Next: The Abbreviated Laws (including Comment by J.R.F.)