Part the Third.
2. Live ye must and let to live, fairly take and fairly give
A more Levitical pair of exhortations one could possibly not find. Again, the Rede stresses the ethic of the faith, the walk that accompanies the talk, or in the case of wiccans, the silence. The reference to 'live ye must' is more than a bald statement that breath must be drawn, but is an allowance to the right to do what one 'must' to maintain. 'And let to live' is again twofold in it's meaning, for it applies not only to the right of those who follow the Path to be allowed , but provides for those who do not, to follow the Path of their choice, without judgement or opposition. These two statements demand ecumenism in it's true sense, and grants each and every individual with 'faith', to defend it, as well as follow it. This point is given even greater emphasis with the next exhortation, 'fairly take and fairly give'. Again the ethic is stressed with repetition, but puts as much onus on those without the faith, as those within. Paganism is a pacific faith on the whole, but recall it's roots are as bloody-handed as ever is Christianity, or Islam. There were tales mothers used to tell their children about the 'tinkers', Gypsies, those mendicant copperworkers and knife-sharpeners and such who used to travel the British Isles according to the Festivals in waggons, caravans. Legend had it they were the direct descendants of the true Romany folk, the last of the crossbreeding between the fey, and the mundane, before Christianity drove the old ways underground. These tales used to stress two things; one being one should never trust a tinker, for they'll always come out ahead in a deal, the second being never cheat a tinker, for their curses had true power, that they followed the Catanna, the Morrigan, the Shee (or more properly, the Sidhe..).The vengeance of a tinker was fearsome, and while there are those who would today deny there is a place for such observation, that modern wicca exists in a state of peace, it would have to be said 'the back of me hand to such blether', for wicca is a dual in it's nature as any other faith, and each and every practitioner of the Craft is as capable of taking the wrong path, as any fervent true believer in the propitiation of the Cross.