A Witch's 10 Commandments: Magickal Guidelines for Everyday Life

MY WITCHES TEN COMMANDMENTS 1. You Are God/dess. As Above, So Below; As Within, So Without. First off you may notice that I am numbering them according to Catholic tradition rather than Jewish and Protestant. Catholics combine the first and second commandments, where as Jews and Protestants separate them. To end up with ten commandments, Catholics separate the last commandment into two rather than the single tenth commandment in the Jewish and Protestant decalogue. The reason for this, is because Jews and Protestants are more sensitive about the proscription against graven images, where as Catholics, as any fundamentalist Christian will tell you, worship statues, especially statues of Mary. Also, Catholics like to stick in a second warning about sex, towards the end. 2. Spirit Abides In All Things; Names And Words Have Power. No Comment. i.e. I agree. 3. Remember The Esbats And Sabbats. According to Phaedra B. (Isaac Bonewits' wife) "The 'attitude of gratitude' statement is a mainstay of motivational speakers, but I confess this is the first time I've heard it was obligatory for Witches." So I thought I would leave the "attitude of gratitude" for Oprah Winfrey, and change the commandment to something that is more in tune with the original ten commandments as well as Wiccan and Pagan spirituality. 4. Honor Your Ancestors, Teachers, Elders, (And Leaders?) Ancestors, those who have gone before us, Teachers, those we have actually learned something from, Elders, those who are older than us, I agree with. However, I hesitate to include Leaders, as I personally have trouble relating to authority, especially as it has been misused and abused within churchianity, and other totalitarian institutions like fascism and communism. I believe in the democratic heritage of questioning, critiquing, and censoring our leaders, and giving honor where honor is due. 5. All Life Is Sacred. No Comment. i.e. I agree. 6. All Acts Of Love And Pleasure Are Sacred. I would add here, "between consenting adults," or some such limitation. 7. Whatever You Send Out, Returns Threefold. Christian's use the term "You reap what you sow." I like what someone wrote on the wall of a local bar I visited: "Karma is a bigger bitch than I choose to be." 8. Never Cry "Witch!" Respect Personal Privacy and Anonymity. As with my third commandment above, I'm surprised the author missed this one also. 9. Do What You Will Shall Be The Whole Of The Law; Love Is The law, Love Under Will. This quotation is from Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) the favorite muse of my main man Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. I also included the first part, that the author left out. I admit, that in honor of Page (See the fourth commandment above) I tried reading the "Book of The Law" which sounded like a bunch of gobbledy goop to me, but I think I get the main point, which I will elaborate on more below. 10. Eight Words The Wiccan Rede Fulfill: And It Harm None, Do What You Will. Here I quoted the last v

A Witch's 10 Commandments: Magickal Guidelines for Everyday Life This is my personal review on "A Witch's 10 Commandments" by Marian Singer. First of all, I can understand the reviews of the previous posters and their personal preferences when compared/contrasted with this book. However, I recommend this to every student/teacher/elder of the Craft. Why? It gives a refreshing review in the "how/why/what" of our personal beliefs and ethics as Witches/Pagans. I can understand the fact that Ms. Singer compares/contrasts in some form the Witch/Pagan perspective and the Christian perspective. Rest assured, however, she does not force any of these ethics on any individual but aides the individual in finding his/her own particular ethics/moral codes. Overall, this book earned a 5/5 star rating from me. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone, Witch/Pagan or not!

I found the book to be an interesting comparison between the biblical ten commandments, and ten principles that those who walk the Pagan path tend to express as important. Even though there is no set of "commandments" for the Pagan religion, the book offered many ethical guidelines that are good not only for the magickal person but for everyday living as well. The one thing that I did not enjoy however is the fact that they way that the book is binded together. The pages are tattered and with the way they are cut is makes the pages hard to turn and they tend to stick together.

I didn't like the ragged edged paper. I guess it's an attempt to be "pagan" or something, but I found it difficult to flip pages. Marian Singer provides a pretty good discussion of pagan moral values. After a couple of decades where all the pagan books seemed to be some version of spells for beginner witches, it is a welcome change to see moral and philosophical writing from a pagan perspective. Moral values are the heart of a religion, any religion. Just as their commandments proscribe and define the day to day practice of christians, pagan moral values define the day to day lives of practicing pagans. The format attempts to line up pagan values side by side with christian commandments for comparison and contrast. While it's a good thought, the two different moral systems are so different that there is really no clear one-to-one correspondence between Christian commandments and pagan values. Even so, Singer selects ten general categories of pagan moral values that can be listed. It says a lot that there isn't a one-to-one correspondence. Pagan values are markedly different from those of christians. There is no universal, cross-cultural set of morals. Where christian commandment 7 says "Thou shalt not commit adultery," pagan values say, "All acts of love and pleasure are sacred." This is a valuable book for anyone beginning a pagan path or who is thinking about becoming a pagan. It provides real food for thought about the values that most people raised in a christian dominated culture assume to be universal, but which are really religious teaching from one particular religion. I gave it a 4 because Singer describes her religion in terms of another religion and because the publishing format makes the book difficult to read or refer to. Witches really don't have ten commandments.