Karma & Reincarnation in Traditional Witchcraft

ט״ז בכסלו תשע"ב
Shamash 18

Do we truly get back what we give? Does what goes around truly come around? It is very self-evident in the experience for most of us that the answer to these questions is not necessarily or simply - not the way you might think. For the Traditional Witch, the truth rests betwixt the horns (of enlightenment). Peter Paddon writes (A Grimoire for Modern Cunningfolk):

For the average neo-Pagan or Wiccan ... karma is about what goes around comes around [karma] ... Karma and reincarnation in the mind of the average neo-Pagan are closely aligned, because karma is said to extend beyond this lifetime and into the next. You can be working off a karmic debt from a previous lifetime in this one ...

But are these beliefs as held by the average neo-Pagan true? Not according to Traditional Witchcraft. As Peter Paddon again informs us, Traditional Witchcraft teaches:

We don't all get the right to reincarnate ... [reincarnation] is alot more complicated than that [than as the average neo-Pagan believes]. The concept is that when we die, the essence of who we are and what we are gets basically put into this huge melting pot, and becomes part of a cosmic soup from which ladles of new humanity are poured forth. And so, whilst we do get to come back, we don't get to come back as a single entity ... we get recycled ... this ties in to very well what the Celts believed. There is alot of evidence to show that the Brythonic Celts of Wales especially [my (Liorah Lleucu) ancestors, BTW] had this concept of the Cauldron of Ceridwen where we all go back into the cauldron when we die, and it's only the most elite and special people - who have earned the right to reincarnate as whole entities - who are able to climb out unscathed from the cauldron. Everyone else gets boiled down into the soup and recycled. This is really an important thing to me. It's a very key part of the Tradition I follow, the concept of the Mighty Dead. They end up becoming the great teachers, the great bards, the great characters of history and mythology. The basic idea about the soup is that all these components get pulled out in different combinations, and it's, if you like, the powers that be are looking for stable combinations. And when a combination is stable, it creates the scenario where that person is able to qualify to become one of the Mighty Dead ... Now, this then enables these people who've managed to retain their INTEGRITY [emphasis added] to come back as themselves for several lives and to be great teachers ...

So, do we truly get what we give? and does what goes around truly come around?

Traditional Witches are not governed by a moral code such as the Wiccan Rede or by the average concept of karma. In contradistinction to the average neo-Pagan, Traditional Witches are driven to ACT ETHICALLY and to CHEAT FATE (which for many may ultimately be to be boiled down in the cauldron) and to ask ourselves - am I willing to pay the coin for the action I am about to do? In this way, we are driven to maintain our INTEGRITY as whole Being of Consciousness. Taken together, all this clearly implies that if we give love (or anything else we may give), we may not necessarily get love (or anything else we may give) in return. Traditional Witches do not act in order to get back what we give. Traditional Witches choose to act with integrity, to take responsibility for any action taken and to pay the coin for any mistakes we may make along the way - ultimately, if we act without integrity and with malice, the coin we may be ultimately charged is to be found an unstable entity of consciousness and without the ability to climb out of Ceridwen's cauldron into a new life WHOLE.