Someone recently spoke to me of the “rule of three” by which they meant the threefold law. I was irritated by their acceptance of something they have been told as fact. If I was to just accept the tenets of faith I was told then I would still be attending my parents’ church and trying to repress my homosexuality which always results in something unfortunate.
This is a load of rubbish, in my honest opinion. It is the belief that whatever action you do whether good or bad, particularly bad, the results of that action will be visited upon yourself 3 times. If you steal from someone, you will be stolen from 3 times or something of 3 times the values.
In my experience this does not happen and like the 10 commandments and many other ideas, this was written about to control people. To take control of their actions. It’s often espoused by people who don’t actually read or practice witchcraft, but like the fashion of being pagan.
This rule was made up by Gerald Gardner. It appears for the first time in 1945 High Magic Aid. Until then, there is no record of it being thought before. Many witches of Trad Craft would happily cast curses for money. They weren’t concerned about making witchcraft politically correct or giving it a good reputation. It appeared in Gerald Gardner’s book of shadows which was subject to much editing of Doreen Valiente.
It would be adopted by the coven of Alex and Maxine Saunders in different ways for example they would operate a loan system for coven members where they were required to return 3 times what they borrowed as a teaching mechanism. This is essentially what it was a method of teaching not a natural law of the universe.