Who wrote the Wiccan Rede?
No one knows for sure. 1) “The Wiccan Rede (pronounced “reed”) is a saying that was formulated to sum up the ethics of the Neo-Pagan religion Wicca. The most common form of the Rede is An it harm none, do what ye will.” “The Rede in its best known form as the “eight words” couplet was first publicly recorded in a speech by Doreen Valiente in 1964. A similar phrase, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, appears in Aleister Crowley’s works by 1904, in The Book of the Law (though as used by Crowley it is half of a statement and response, the response being “Love is the Law, love under Will”). According to A.C. Aldag, “Crowley very likely stole this line from François Rabelais”, who in 1534 wrote, “DO AS THOU WILT because men that are free, of gentle birth, well bred and at home in civilized company possess a natural instinct that inclines them to virtue and saves them from vice. This instinct they name their honor”. Another possible source is St. Augustine. King Pausole, a char
