Earth Magic: Your Complete Guide to Natural Spells, Potions, Plants, Herbs, Witchcraft, and More

By MARIE D. JONES

Interest in green living, natural healing, and natural medicines is strong.

Contains a blend of information and hands-on spells and rituals

Features the specific medicinal properties and spell-casting purposes of an extensive list of plants, roots, and herbs

Includes dozens of recipes for homemade herbal teas, tinctures, elixirs, infusions, potions, salves, balms, lip balms, and herbal wine with easy-to-follow instructions

Logical organization makes finding information quick and easy

120 color photographs and illustrations bring the text to life

Thoroughly indexed

Authoritative resource

Ideal for anyone interested in natural, earth-based beliefs, practices, and traditions, including the uses of plants, herbs, stones, and even the energies and forces of the planet

Publicity and promotion aimed at the wide array of websites focused witchcraft, natural healing, and the supernatural

promotion targeting more mainstream media and websites on a popular topic

Promotion targeting national radio, including Coast to Coast and numerous other late-night radio syndicates looking for knowledgeable guests

Promotion to local radio

Promotion targeting magazines and newspapers

• Language: English
• Publisher: Visible Ink Press
• Release date: Jun 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781578597154

MARIE D. JONES

Marie D. Jones is the author of over twenty nonfiction books, including Visible Ink Press’The Disaster Survival Guide: How to Prepare For and Survive Floods, Fires, Earthquakes and More, Earth Magic: Your Complete Guide to Natural Spells, Potions, Plants, Herbs, Witchcraft, and More, and The New Witch: Your Guide to Modern Witchcraft, Wicca, Spells, Potions, Magic, and More, as well as Mind Wars: A History of Mind Control, Surveillance, and Social Engineering by the Government, Media and Secret Societies. A former radio show host herself, she has been interviewed on more than two thousand radio programs worldwide, including Coast-to-Coast AM, The Shirley MacLaine Show, and Midnight in the Desert. She has also been interviewed for and contributed to dozens of print and online publications. She makes her home in San Marcos, California, and is the mom to one very brilliant son, Max.

Book preview

Introduction

The earth is filled with magic and healing. Even as it gives us the food, water, and air we need to survive, it offers gifts far beyond the obvious. The earth can heal our bodies, minds, and spirits and has always provided the means to do so, long before the days of technology, computers, and pharmaceuticals became the things we turn to instead.

Working with the plants, herbs, stones, and even the energies and forces of the planet we live on provides us the opportunity to not only enrich our lives but also to do so in a way that is healthy, empowering, and doesn’t harm or disempower others. Earth-based beliefs, practices, and traditions are at the heart of who we are as human beings and harken back to times when we lived off the land, or at the very least, close to it and always in harmony with it.

Yet few of us know which herbs, plants, spells, or incantations can help us and how to properly work with them. Even fewer are aware of the science and universal laws behind these practices and beliefs because we assume that something that evolved before the internet and modern medicine is primitive and backwards. Those are assumptions that are partially responsible for the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual sicknesses that plague modern humans.

We got disconnected. No, the truth is that we disconnected ourselves. Bombarded with modern advancements and the distractions they bring, we lost touch with Earth and turned away from what she has to offer us, choosing instead to be on the cutting edge of progress, even if it didn’t serve us on a deeper level. Now, we all feel a sense of uneasiness, a deep and protracted isolation despite having the world at our fingertips as we never did before. We ache and mourn for the days gone by when time was on our side and we lived more fully in the present. We long for the places in nature we once spent time in to rejuvenate and refresh before sitting in front of a television set or computer became the norm.

Imagine that everything you want and need to feel happy, fulfilled, strong, and healthy was right at your fingertips, dancing in a world unseen at the end of your nose? It still is, and all we have to do is open ourselves up to the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding that exists where the small voice within us speaks. Imagine feeling a part of everything and yet also possessing a secure and unique individuality that is always at home, no matter who you are with or where you go. Imagine coming home again to the mother that you cast out when you grew up and got connected to the digital world, forsaking the natural world you left behind.

Earth magic is everywhere around us, but it has become a lost art and science. We have forgotten our place within the greater picture that includes being more connected with, and reverent of, the planet we call home. Too often, we abuse the earth and her gifts and treat her as though her resources and wonders are something to be taken for granted. Disrespecting the earth is a more modern concept. Older nature-based traditions understood how important it was to treat Mother Earth with respect.

In this book, we will explore the history of Earth-based traditions from the dawn of humanity to these modern times. Earth traditions are making a comeback because people feel empty, alone, powerless, and cold, and they are beginning to awaken to the need to ground themselves and go back to their natural roots. It isn’t about disregarding or casting aside the amazing progress we have made with technology but rather learning to balance that with the fact that we are vibrating energy living on a vibrating, energetic planet that serves as the foundation we build our lives upon. A weak foundation brings illness, despair, lack, and unfulfillment. A strong foundation brings well-being in all areas of our lives.

We will also explore the vast array of tools the planet offers for finding that wellbeing, including spells, potions, uses for herbs and plants, symbols and talismans, candles, and stones and gems and their special powers and meanings, grounding ourselves to the energy of the earth, discovering our animal and spirit guides, and finding wisdom in the stars and planets above. Oh, and so much more, such as the laws of the universe and the forces of science that allow us to align ourselves with our desires and intentions and use the energy that we cannot see to help us achieve them. The science behind Earth magic may surprise you!

Can you truly heal disease with a particular herb? Will a spell work to help you find your soul mate? How does knowing which stones to wear improve concentration and increase productivity? Is it possible to mix up a potion to bring more happiness into your life? Do the stars really hold secrets to your destiny based on where and when you were born on the earth below? These and other questions will be explored and answered in this book.

Then we will discover the rites, practices, and traditions people use to connect themselves to the planet, to the spirit world of the unseen, and to the energies that coarse through our bodies. Some people choose to learn and practice alone, while others love the idea of being a part of a group or coven or even just a social networking group with shared beliefs and interests. There are rituals that go far back into our historical past that are still being celebrated today, as well as rites of passage that bridge the past and the present in our traditional, organized religions with pagan roots.

Finally, we will be called to become more active in getting back to the Mother, using our newfound wisdom to help not just ourselves but those around us, even the planet. Earth is not dying, as you may have heard, but she is urgently calling out for help, and we must help her, or we will face dire consequences. This is where we live. This is our collective home. Unless we balance the masculine aspects and energies of existence with the rising feminine, we will continue to live lives that feel unharmonious and chaotic simply because we are giving too much energy to one extreme and not walking the middle road, allowing for both energies to express their strengths and benefits in ourselves and the world around us.

The world is on the cusp of great change. A shift is in the air and has been for years now. Perhaps it is time to return to the old ways even as we continue to exist in the new. Worry not, for you can still have your cell phones, laptops, gadgets, and modern advances. In order to experience what our ancestors once understood, you don’t have to deny modern advancements and throw away your television sets. These are the gifts of the outer eyes, the things we see and make use of in our everyday lives on a surface level.

But Earth magic asks that we also use our eyes within and see the deeper, more profound things that are there glimmering, just beyond the veil, in the space called the liminal. Earth magic demands we use our hearts and souls to discern the highest and best good for ourselves and others, instead of always depending on the intellect and rational mind to guide our way. Surely, we need both the imagination and the intellect, the creative and the rational, but to be out of balance has caused great suffering and unhappiness for so many who long to stop blocking one way of expression for the sake of another.

While there are those who will scoff and say that casting a spell or mixing up a blend of herbs to create a particular outcome is silly, others know that these things work. Whether they work because there is a deep science behind these actions, or they work because of the power of belief in the practitioner—or perhaps a bit of both—is up for argument and debate. But they work. Just because something cannot be duplicated in a laboratory using the scientific method does not mean it doesn’t exist or doesn’t work. And perhaps it is this whole hidden part of reality that we have strayed so far from and long to return to.

Reality isn’t just getting up and going to a job, or school, or tending to children and spouses and families. Reality is not just war and bad news and death and struggle. Reality is not just a paycheck and a stack of bills. There is a whole other level of reality—maybe many levels of reality—where magic occurs according to its own laws and rules. We may not understand it, or perhaps we’ve just forgotten how it works, but it’s there nonetheless. Quantum physics tells us that the observer can change the outcome of the behaviors and actions of particles. It also tells us that reality is nothing more than a vibrating field of particles and waves in a state of superposition waiting to be collapsed into a fixed and measurable state.

It is in that field that all possibility exists, and from which magic—or what we call magic simply because we don’t yet understand the laws behind it—arises.

This book is filled with tools, wisdom, techniques, and information all directed toward getting back in touch with the order of existence and learning to work with it to create external reality, both individual and collective. It is about learning to get back to nature and rediscovering her power and how we can utilize it—from the most mundane tasks in our lives to the grandest goals we can envision.

Whether you believe in these tools or this wisdom is your prerogative. No one will force you, dear reader, to become a neighborhood kitchen witch or a pagan goddess worshipper or an herbalist or modern shaman. And yet, if you stop the distractions and noise of your life just long enough, you might be surprised to find that you are all those things and more, and that you are capable of aligning yourself with the life force and the energies and laws of the earth. You might even realize you’ve missed that connection from childhood, or maybe you are lucky enough to know it already but just need a reminder or some new ideas for practicing a new way of living in the world.

The earth is filled with magical things. Things that await our rediscovery of the power they offer—the power to heal, to create, to unite, and to fully step into who we were always meant to be. Let it cast its spell upon you, and in turn you may find you have your own spells to cast by the light of the moon.

EARTH TRADITIONS

Long before the prominent religions we know of today came into existence, people worshipped nature. They began to attribute powers, positive and negative, to the world around them to understand their environment a little better and, perhaps, feel a little more in control of it. The most important thing was to survive and find food, water, shelter, and time to procreate and raise the next generation so that the species would continue. If something was of benefit to those needs, it was proclaimed good. If something hampered those aims, it was deemed bad. Thus, duality was born. But for our ancestral pagans who lived off the land and in accordance with the cycles of birth, life, and death, this duality was a part of their belief system and something to be revered, not feared. It was the way nature worked.

The worship of nature is not exclusive to old pagan traditions. Even today, we have neopagans and modern-day Wiccans, witches, shamans, and druids as well as the long-standing traditions of Native and indigenous peoples the world over. The veneration of nature reaches even into Western traditions in their rites, celebrating birth, death, marriage, and fertility.

While many Earth traditions are goddess oriented or matriarchal religions, not all are, and most include gods among their pantheons. A strong bond exists, though, between women and the feminine aspect of duality and Earth traditions found in Wicca and witchcraft, where the Mother Goddess personifies Earth, and female deities represent the Divine powers of nature.

Modern societies often denigrate Earth traditions because they feel they impede the natural progress of humanity toward a more developed, materialistic, capitalist, antinature form of existence, yet, as we will see, the two are not exclusive of each other. One can respect the planet and still like progress. One can practice daily spell casting and still use a cell phone. One can worship the moon goddess and still drive a car to a job.

∗∗∗ WITCHCRAFT AND WICCA ∗∗∗

Every year at Halloween, millions of people dress up as witches, usually as a caricature of the real thing. Pointy, black hat, warts on the nose, ugly, mean; the media has portrayed witches as something dark and evil.

For the rising number of women and men alike who call themselves witches, though, that portrayal couldn’t be further from the truth. Witchcraft may be a great pop culture device, but for those who practice its rich traditions, it is a serious and reverent spiritual system that reveres nature, Earth, the feminine, and the masculine.

Shaman women like this one shown in a 1908 photo from Khakas, Russia, were honored for their knowledge of nature, which could be used to help their fellow villagers who might be ill. They also recorded their knowledge in early books.

Witches have had a torrid past thanks to the mechanisms of the Catholic Church, which is hell-bent on keeping women from exercising their power and sexuality. They’ve been called demonic, associated with the Devil (despite not being Christians and therefore not believers in the Devil), barbaric, and cruel. During the medieval witch hunts, women were tortured and executed (as well as many men!) for having their periods, breastfeeding children, having unusual moles, being too attractive, and a host of other reasons that had nothing at all to do with dancing with the Devil in the dark of night.

Witches were the original healers and medicine women of European villages who used herbs, plants, and the gifts of the natural world to help bring about healing and the end to disease. Witches acted as midwives and helped new mothers nurse their babies. Witches cooked, cleaned, and gave birth as ordinary women did. Superstition and religious persecution resulted in the mass deaths of males and females accused of consorting with the Devil, and even today, the word witch often brings immediate, knee-jerk, negative connotations.

Wicca is a type of witchcraft, but the terms are often interchangeable. A mistaken assumption exists that Wiccans are good witches or white witches, but again, the truth is that because of the beliefs of all witches in the Threefold Law, which states that anything you do comes back to you threefold, and the rule of do no harm, no black witches exist who practice black magic. That is another thing entirely and should be labeled otherwise.

Some witches say that Wicca is the religion, and witchcraft is the spiritual practice. Witchcraft can be a part of Wiccan practice, but not all who practice witchcraft are Wiccans. It’s confusing, to be sure. Outside of the Wiccan religion, people practice many other kinds of witchcraft such as the solitary road, Alexandrian, and Gardnerian traditions, but again, all are governed by the laws and forces of nature and a reverence and respect for Mother Earth and the goddess. Wiccans follow the Wiccan Rede, which lays down the rules and traditions that must be honored.

Witches usually meet and do their rituals in a coven, but today, some prefer solitary practice. Again, as with pagans, social networking has allowed witchcraft to not only flourish but grow in leaps and bounds as people come together online to build community and find common ground or explore different ideas and compare rituals and rites.

Real witches are as serious and committed to their practice as they are to their health, families, and careers and are not doing it for a quick way to get a lover or some cash.

Are witches magic? That depends on your definition of magic. They work with herbs, plants, spells, and rituals and know how to use the forces of nature to bend to their will. They understand how to achieve the alpha brainwave state and the meditative state of relaxed awareness, the best way to cast their spells, and how to bring about an altered state of consciousness to access knowledge, information, inspiration, and energies that exist beyond the confines of conscious awareness. They realize that everything is vibration and energy and that we can influence and alter those vibrations and direct the flow of that energy to our desire. They know and respect that the laws of nature they work with are available to anyone to utilize, so, in a way, we are all witches.

One obvious variation to come from early paganism was witchcraft and Wicca. Much of the belief set is in both, but the history of practicing witches is a dark one. Many were persecuted as happened, infamously, in Salem, Massachusetts, from 1692 to 1693.

The Wiccan Rede

Bide within the Law you must, in perfect Love and perfect Trust.

Live you must and let to live, fairly take and fairly give.

For tread the Circle thrice about to keep unwelcome spirits out.

To bind the spell well every time, let the spell be said in rhyme.

Light of eye and soft of touch, speak you little, listen much.

Honor the Old Ones in deed and name,

let love and light be our guides again.

Deosil go by the waxing moon, chanting out the joyful tune.

Widdershins go when the moon doth wane,

and the werewolf howls by the dread wolfsbane.

When the Lady’s moon is new, kiss the hand to Her times two.

When the moon rides at Her peak then your heart’s desire seek.

Heed the North wind’s mighty gale, lock the door and trim the sail.

When the Wind blows from the East, expect the new and set the feast.

When the wind comes from the South, love will kiss you on the mouth.

When the wind whispers from the West, all hearts will find peace and rest.

Nine woods in the Cauldron go, burn them fast and burn them slow.

Birch in the fire goes to represent what the Lady knows.

Oak in the forest towers with might, in the fire it brings the God’s

insight. Rowan is a tree of power causing life and magick to flower.

Willows at the waterside stand ready to help us to the Summerland.

Hawthorn is burned to purify and to draw faerie to your eye.

Hazel—the tree of wisdom and learning—adds its strength to the bright fire burning.

White are the flowers of Apple tree that brings us fruits of fertility.

Grapes grow upon the vine giving us both joy and wine.

Fir does mark the evergreen to represent immortality seen.

Elder is the Lady’s tree burn it not or cursed you’ll be.

Four times the Major Sabbats mark in the light and in the dark.

As the old year starts to wane the new begins, it’s now Samhain.

When the time for Imbolc shows, watch for flowers through the snows.

When the wheel begins to turn, soon the Beltane fires will burn.

As the wheel turns to Lamas, night power is brought to magick rite.

Four times the Minor Sabbats fall, use the Sun to mark them all.

When the wheel has turned to Yule, light the log the Horned One rules.

In the spring, when night equals day, time for Ostara to come our way.

When the Sun has reached its height, time for Oak and Holly to fight.

Harvesting comes to one and all when the Autumn Equinox does fall.

Heed the flower, bush, and tree by the Lady blessed you’ll be.

Where the rippling waters go cast a stone, the truth you’ll know.

When you have and hold a need, harken not to others’ greed.

With a fool no season spend or be counted as his friend.

Merry Meet and Merry Part bright the cheeks and warm the heart.

Mind the Three-fold Laws you should, three times bad and three times good.

When misfortune is enow, wear the star upon your brow.

Be true in love, this you must do, unless your love is false to you.

These Eight words the Rede fulfill:

An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will

∗∗∗ OTHER EARTH TRADITIONS ∗∗∗

Native and indigenous cultures the world over have their own system of beliefs in the powers of nature and the deities associated with those powers. Native American peoples as well as those who populate Central and South America include medicine men and women, shamans, and spiritual wise elders who know the magic of Earth and use it for benevolent purposes. Even those who practice Voudon, or Voodoo, work with spirits that infuse the natural world and can be manipulated to influence human lives in terms of physical, mental, and spiritual healing.

In North America alone, over two thousand Native American and indigenous tribes exist, each with healing practices and rituals. Herbal medicine can differ from tribe to tribe, and customs and traditions may mirror one another, but they often are specified by region and tribal heritage. To Native Americans, good health of the body, mind, and spirit was a strong part of their beliefs, and they understood the gifts of the natural world to achieve that health. Though each member of the tribe was responsible for his or her own health, the tribal council and elders had much to offer in the way of guidance, direction, and knowledge of which herbs did what and how to work with natural forces for the benefit of self or of all.

Physical and spiritual healing dictated the use of specific herbal remedies that each tribe developed based upon the plants available in their locality. The environment was full of cures, whether it was the thick forest or the desert. Herbal plants were held as sacred, as was all of the natural world. Healing the physical alone would not lead to total healing. You had to cover the spirit, too, because spiritual maladies were as debilitating as those that attacked the body. The medicine man or woman was someone the tribe knew had the most extensive knowledge of herbs, plants, and medicines but also knew how to work with and heal the spirit. Even their tools came from nature in the form of furs, bones, shells, roots, and feathers. They might keep their herbal remedies tied up in a piece of animal hide or cloth called a medicine bundle, which would get passed down to the next medicine man or woman.

Non-Natives in the United States have often been influenced by medical and ceremonial traditions of indigenous tribes. Many Americans find a greater spiritual connection to Nature by learning to practice these traditions.

The role of elders and healers were intertwined and revered. The Great Spirit was accessible to all in the tribe, but the elders and healers knew how to communicate and obtain information that elevated them above the rest of the tribe in a high seat of honor.

Native American medicine and rituals could fill ten books, and because of the incredible diversity, suffice it to say here that if you feel called to it because of your Native heritage, a return to your roots will serve you well. A backlash has occurred against non-Native Americans who try to take on the customs, traditions, and beliefs of Natives, but no judgment exists here if you feel the call. For many modern people, Native Americans represent the longing to return to Earth that we all feel no matter what our background or bloodline. Even today, as their tribes fight against the loss of their traditions and customs, not to mention their land, the knowledge they have gleaned over the past continues to live on despite the onslaught of technology and modern medicine.

∗∗∗ SHAMANS ∗∗∗

The word shaman originated from the Tungus tribe of Siberia and was later adopted to refer to other similar cultural practices around the world. Modern New Agers have somewhat hijacked the tribal traditions and altered them for today’s spiritual preferences, but for those who are truly a part of this indigenous wisdom and knowledge, the roots of shamanism run deep. The focus is on the connection with nature but also a belief in other realms the shaman can travel to, including the Lower World, Middle World, and Upper World. Each world is filled with different types of guides and spirits, and the shamans use chanting, drumming, and dancing as well as hallucinogenic methods to achieve access to these other worlds.

True shamans are the ceremonial leaders of their village and offer spiritual discovery and enlightenment as well as healing. They believe that healing must begin with the spirit. A sick or diseased spirit must be made strong and well before physical healing can be achieved. This understanding of the connection of body, mind, and spirit is behind all shamanic practices.

Medicine men and women of the Native American peoples can have different names according to tribe or region, but all are the highly respected chosen ones to give spiritual and physical healing and, like shamans, start with spiritual wellness as a focus. These traditions go back thousands of years and are practiced by over two thousand different tribes or indigenous populations in North America alone. They may use herbs, sage, roots, plants, and other natural objects in their healing. In general, many Native Americans are ethnobotanists, using the natural world of plants to do their spiritual medicine. They do not have to be medicine men or women, as this is a widespread practice just as kitchen witchery is a widespread practice among peasants and rural villagers in Europe.

This Amazon shaman in traditional clothing is prepared to offer advice and aid to any of his fellow tribesmen in need of tapping his library of knowledge acquired through his long life.

Medicine men and women perform individual and group ceremonies and rituals used in their communities and rarely discuss or share their rituals outside of the tribal nation. They are not open to non-Indians taking their sacred practices and making them into moneymaking schemes or adulterized versions with New Age spins.

∗∗∗ VOODOO ∗∗∗

Witch doctors are African traditional healers, including those who practice Voudon, Vodou, or Voodoo as we know it, but they do not use that somewhat derogatory term and are truly healers and medicine men or women who originate from Africa or Caribbean nations. Vodou is the scholarly name for the religion, and the word means force or mystery. Despite its negative portrayal in pop culture, Voodoo is not a cult. It is a real religion. It is not violent and filled with witchdoctors and people poking pins in dolls. Voodoo practices vary according to region, but all originated in Africa with influences from the Yoruba religion of Southwestern Nigeria. Once Voodoo arrived on American shores, it had adopted many Haitian influences and blended with Catholic and Native American traditions to become new forms such as Santeria.

Voodoo altars like this one in Boston can be divided into three parts: the righthand area holds offerings to Rada spirits, the top-left to Petwo spirits, and at the bottom are offerings to Gede.

Voodoo is surprisingly focused on community and seeks enlightenment and experiential knowledge for both the individual and the whole group. Responsibility is part of the Voodoo beliefs, and those who practice it take it very seriously. The belief system centers on the understanding that, like other nature traditions, both physical and nonphysical, seen and unseen, worlds exist. The worlds are interconnected, and we can access them just as the spirits of our ancestors can access them and continue to be with us today.

Modern medicine treats the human body as a separate entity from the spirit and often looks at the body as a machine. Emotions are ignored in favor of fixing the symptoms and leave humanity reeling from rising numbers of anxious, depressed, and sick individuals. The Natives knew that you must not only treat the parts of the body but the whole of the individual inside and out. While some cultural traditions such as Voodoo utilize the sacrifice of animals as a symbolic gesture to the deities, others shun sacrifice or offer foods to the gods and goddesses.

However, one truly doesn’t have to be labeled a witch, shaman, pagan, or Voodoo priestess to learn to accept, use, and benefit from the wondrous gifts of Mother Nature. We are all living on the same Earth and are all capable of accessing the laws that govern the planet and the stars above. We are all students of the same teachers, even if we don’t all take the lessons to heart.

New traditions are springing up from old, and even the larger metaphysical and New Age movements focus on the as above/so below and as within/so without healing modalities for body, mind, and spirit. Often, they borrow from the older traditions while adding on new practices that suit today’s busy, technology-obsessed, social world. No matter what, something can be learned from any and all of these traditions and schools of thought to assist our healing, enlightenment, and growth.

It’s time to regain a sense of balance and relationship with the planet we live on and those we share it with: animal, plant, and human alike. It’s time to find the power available to us and our connection to the greater whole, and it all begins with learning the laws of nature and the tools of the trade of working with those laws.

Longevity and a sharp but curious mind are what makes someone a tribal healer. Elders who are best at learning, remembering, and documenting become The Chosen Ones.

UNIVERSAL LAWS TO LIVE BY

Whether working with spell casting, kitchen witchery, or candle magic, it is important to remember some of the universal laws and rules suggested by those who work with the natural world. Even if all we do is use plants and herbs to mix a potion for healing, we are behooved to remember these laws and use them to benefit our foray into the magic of Earth.

We can start with the basics. Popular idioms have much wisdom to share if we heed them. Some of those idioms we use every day include suggestions involving give and take and do and do not, and they speak of a reaction for every action we take. That actions have reactions is scientifically backed up, too.

Like attracts like.

You reap what you sow.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Be careful what you wish for.

Religious texts such as the Christian Bible also include sayings such as:

Ask and you shall receive.

Judge not, lest you be judged in return.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Many of these basic wisdom teachings are repeated in older and newer religious traditions because they are universal, almost archetypal, in nature.

∗∗∗ THE GOLDEN RULE ∗∗∗

The Golden Rule alone is a powerful and universally recognized saying that anyone in the world knows and understands, even if they don’t particularly follow it. It is based on the ethics of the law of reciprocity, that what you give out comes back to you, and that ethically, we want to treat others just the same way we wish to be treated. Respect, compassion, acknowledgment, and, of course, using the rule for the good of all is a part of every major religious tradition. The reverse is also true. We don’t want to do things to others that we wouldn’t want done to us. Even in a less tangible sense, what we wish to befall others should always be aligned with what we wish to befall ourselves.

In the real world, people often forget this basic rule, which may date as far back as 551 to 479 B.C.E., when it appeared as a tenet of Confucianism. It then spread and became a tenet of Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Taoism, Sikkism, Brahmanism, Baha’i, pagan traditions, Unitarian Universalism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Native American and indigenous traditions:

Respect, compassion, acknowledgment, and, of course, using the rule for the good of all is a part of every major religious tradition. The reverse is also true.

•Buddhism: Hurt not others in a way that you yourself would find hurtful. (Udana-Varga 5:1)

•Christianity: "All