Part the Second
The Wiccan Rede

1. Bide ye Wiccan laws you must, in perfect love and perfect trust..
The use of the word bide is in itself interesting, for it means a twofold commitment. To 'bide' is to live within, to reside. It is the actual physical boundaries of where you exist, and refers directly to one's home, or centre of existance. It also connotes an acquiescence of self, in that bide means to follow without question, to listen, to obey. The word suggests a commitment to the fundimentals of the Craft, and to that which defines 'wicca' today, that would be total in it's scope.
Wiccan laws is a phrase which puts to the test a number of perjorative statements from a number of sources over the millennia, for it asserts there is a code, an ethic, a law behind the faith. It is not one that works with or towards chaos, but is one that attempts to govern man's behavior to be as close as harmonious as possible with all that happening about each individual. It sugests there are accepted patterns of behavior to govern interactivity with both one's fellows, and one's environment, so while one does as one will, no one else and nothing else suffers as a consiquence.
The word perfect, especially as it is repeated in the following phrase, is an affirmation of the imperfection around us, and the need for the individual to realise that there is something beyond themselves which must be striven for. Paganism in it's many and various forms, allows many views to define 'love' and 'trust', not to mention' perfect', but each carries with it a core of imperfection, for it, as musts be, is the other side of the coin. Perfection is a state of enlightenment, an epiphany, an ascendancy, a possibility for each and all of us for we have examples of others who have achieved that state, so it must be within each creature on this earth to reach that inner self, that ka. Equally there is that other 'enlightenment', that is the obverse of perhaps that which we see as 'desirable', but no less tangible. For logically, one cannot exist without the other. Where there is order, it must be constantly in conflict with chaos. Where there is good, there must be the conflict with bad. Taking this as a given, then it is then illogical to deny either as a state of man, but it does define the concept of 'will'.
Love and Trust, the two conditions under which all wiccans must abide. These are again stipulations that have been common to religions from the beginning, for it is the assertion of subservience. To some extent, it is the purpose to supply all those with faith, with a mother and a father, a set of parents ethical and fair, forgiving yet stern, generous yet not without their demands. Parents are 'supposed' to love their children, and children, to trust their parents. This also binds those accepting this creed from the very outset, to a relationship with those who have also sworn to it, a kinship of 'faith', and the love and trust signifies the 'family' the initiate is joining, or the 'family' the practitioner belongs to.