There is Balance and Imbalance.

Science has found that systems will tend toward equilibrium, whether the setup is of predator/prey relationships or hydraulic pipes. The system of constantly changing checks and balances would therefore seem to be Nature's creation. Subtle changes bring sweeping change, or massive changes minimal effects, depending on the setup.

Thus do I see the world, chaos with an underlying order, order with an underlying chaos. Striking a delicate balance in the microscopic and the macroscopic; a disorderly structure to everything. The univers is chaos and fractals.

"First, Harm None" is therefore more than doing no purposeful damage. It means restoring what is set wrong, striving to bring that which is Imbalanced back to its proper equilibrium. It requires Balance within the Self, then in all relations and co mmitments I have. I am a model of the whole systeml I must know my Self, my natural points of Stability and Chaos, my points that tend to Imbalance and Balance (these are different things), and above all my Name.

A Name is a mantra of Self, a conce pt that embraces all of what I am at my fundamental levels. As such, a Name grants me the power of self-control at the deepest core. My Name I share with only a few I love and trust utterly; people who will never use the insight into my sould against me.

The name I used to write these pages, Darkhawk, reflects but a few aspects of all that is contained n my truename.

From that it may be deduced that I answer to many names.

I feel that I strayed slightly off-topic back there, so I will go on to the second Law.

This is the second tenet of Wicca, the other wording of the Wiccan Rede.

It means that so long as naught is in Imbalance I may act as I will.

This may seem to be a remarkably easy way to live, do what you will, correct? Actually, this piece of the philosophy has incredible complexities to it.

How does one act freely while constrained by the law of no damage? Most people who look at this second law see only the opportunity to go on binges and spluges, go to wild parties or whatever.

They neglect the first piece: An it Harm None.

None includes yourself. And everyone else. So going off and doing your own thing is fineÑ just so long as nothing bad comes of it.

For example, I maintain an open relationship. This is wicked hard to do. Not only do I have to balance my own needs, but the needs of everyone else. This is obvious in a straightforward, traditional relationship. With anything more complex, the battle to retain Balance is truly a War. (Should I ever refer to "winning the War," this is what I am referring to. I achieved balance within myself on this count and have been much happier ever since.)

Some will call this unethicalÑ after all I am not maintaining the traditional standards of fidelity and all that rot. Others will see the hedonistic joyseeker.

I am neither. I have labored hard to make this work, and the Balance here is maintai ned. I have harmed none, and done much good in the process.

This last law is a personal one, not one I found anywhere and adopted.

Note that "I will not deny my Self" is to be distinguished from "I will not deny myself." To me the difference is obvious, though that is not necessarily universally true.

Therefore:

"I yam what I yam," said that great philosopher Popeye the Sailor Man.

These are my resolut ions that get summed up in this Law: I will not act in a way contrary to my core. I will not be forced from my center, my Self, though I may lose my grounding on my own. I will be in accordance with my Name at all times.

Should my compliance with my laws or fundamenals require it, I am willing to give anything up. This is within my Self; I am an idealist willing to follow a principle to the stars.

This is the most important thing in the world to me.

This is probably the hardest thing to explain, since few people beli eve in it anymore.

Honor is what is captured in the Wiccan Rede.

It is the impulse of the Right Thing To Do Incarnate, only without self-sacrifice or altruism; a power all its own, without pity or caring.

It is the cold mirror image of l ove, but it is complimentary. They exist in symbiosis.

Pride, frankly, is occasionally my shame.

It is, of course, the forceful maintenamce of dignity in the face of insults, mud puddles , and fools.

But these same fools may drive me, in the name of my pride, to defend myself with all my strongest weapons, and ever to try to seem more knowledgable than I am.

I am what I am, and I am proud of that.

It is when Pride masque rades as Honor that there is a problem.