My Hair, the Moon, and a little Faith

A couple of days ago, I was speaking with someone who had recently cut his hair and donated it to Locks of Love. He showed me a photo of his long hair and it was like staring at my dream. I love long hair, and have had it for most of life, until the past six years. Today, my hair is the longest its been in that time, and I want it to be the longest it's ever been, in my life! I want it to reach to my navel, but I'd love even more to get it to my hips. Some people seem to have no trouble accomplishing that, the kind of people who just don't really shed and can grow their hair to their ankles with nothing more than a hairbrush. Maybe it's because it's my own hair and I obsess over it everyday, but it never seems to get past the bottom tips of my shoulder blades. I'm determined to change that, and because of that recent conversation, I might have found a new way.

I've done lots of research on growing hair in the past, and many of the tips I've collected over the years are now established parts of my daily routine. I only wash my scalp, and not everyday. I only condition my ends (and not everyday). I hardly ever style my hair with heat (or otherwise), besides straightening the pieces in the front once in a while -- anything else, and I use a heat protectant spray pretty generously. I take a provitamin A supplement every morning, I use a split end treatment, I've stopped using chemical dyes altogether and am now working towards including natural henna and indigo hair dye into my hair care practices. Something I've failed at is keeping my hair tied back for most of the day. I vastly prefer the way my hair looks down, but keeping it that way, especially at work, exposes it to breakage constantly. I've also started trimming it to get rid of the inevitable split ends, which keeps it stronger and gives it the illusion of being longer, but admittedly I'm not doing that frequently enough. And now, I might have found a way to trim my hair that will be even more effective, and it comes from a very old source: the Farmers Almanac.

The man I was speaking with who donated his hair told me that he always had his hair trimmed during different moon cycles that he believes influence both the thickness and the speed at which hair grows. I know I believe some wacky stuff, but I am science-minded and was skeptical of that idea immediately. But then he said, "It's in the Farmers Almanac," and my interest piqued right away. For the past two days, I've been looking into whatever information I can find about cutting hair in conjunction with the various moon phases and I'm surprised to find that it appears to be a pretty widely spread practice with lots of positive (albeit anecdotal) evidence.

"I tested this by trimming my two daughters hair every 2 mos and after 1 year the one cut by the moon had grown almost to her waist and was twice as thick as her older sister's hair [sic]." --from a Farmers Almanac forum on lunar hair-cutting. {And yes, I realize this would be a better experiment had the daughters been identical twins with the same haircuts starting out, but at least there are people out there who are attempting to use the scientific method to test this.}

A simple search on the Farmers Almanac website will tell you the best days to cut hair to increase growth, as well as the best to retard hair growth, or increase its thickness. It seems that the moon phases are used to inform lots of different types of cutting, from haircuts to mowing the lawn to pruning trees to culling cattle from a herd. I was totally unaware of these common lunar timings for different activities, and although I'm disappointed that I've yet to come up with any good scientific evidence for the validity of the practice, I'm still tempted to try it myself. I doubt my hair will grow any slower at least!

The thing is, the moon influences a lot in my life. Many Pagans, especially those practicing witchcraft or different types of folk magic, rely on the moon for its (her) influence. Spells and tricks are timed according to the phases to harness the appropriate lunar energy for the success of the magical working. Spells to bring in money might be performed during the waxing or full moon, which symbolizes growth and increase; while work to break a bad habit is performed during the waning or new moon, that indicates weakening or decrease.

Each of the four moon phases includes a variety of energies that can be captured to positively effect our lives. The new/dark moon is about potential. It's a starting point without expectation and represents all the possibilities we can imagine. It also represents privacy, turning inward, self-contemplation. The waxing moon is all about growth, increase, exploration. It represents the energy of anticipation and adventure. This is why the Farmers Almanac says the best days to cut hair for length are during the waxing phases. The full moon has deep symbolism, even in secular culture. It represents accomplishment, the womb, strength, and vitality (cut hair during the three days of the full moon for thickness). It is an agent of great change, from the tides on the Earth, to the legend of werewolves. Moonlight from the full moon is considered both cleansing and energizing, especially when meditating under it. The waning moon is about decrease, maturity, slowing down. It is passive in energy, while the waxing is very active. It is shrinking and preparing to once again return the dark and inwardness of the new moon. It helps to think of these three moon phases using the imagery of the Triple Goddess that Wiccans and some other Pagans worship. The waxing moon is equated with the Maiden, the full moon with the Mother, and the waning moon with the Crone, three separate aspects of the same being.

One of my favorite phases: the very thin waxing crescent (this represents birth to me). Image found here.

The moon is a huge comfort to me. Often, getting off work late at night and exhausted, I feel so much better instantly when I can walk to my car and look up at the moon, and I know it sounds crazy, but just talk to her (I really think of the moon as female). When I feel sad or lonely or overwhelmed, I sit on my deck I night and look at the moon and just try to let everything go. The moon can really do a lot for us, and not just cause the tides and the ebb and flow of the water in our own bodies. So, since I think my life is already pretty involved with the moon, I don't see it as much of a step to start cutting my hair by the moon's timing either. I'll be heading back up to my hometown in New Jersey soon for the summer, so the next time I think I'll be able to schedule a trim, according to the Farmers Almanac, will be June 19th or 20th. Maybe before then I can come up with some way of recording results in the most scientific manner possible. The Almanac is eerily right about a lot of things, and I hope that this is one of those times as well.

The Unnecessary Threefold Law

I wanted to take some time to talk about rant all over the place about one of my personal positions for which I've received some pretty heavy criticism in the past. I know what follows might seem pretty ridiculous; I'm going to talk about a commonly-held belief that I don't think is grounded in nature or science, despite the fact that I practice witchcraft, I'm a polytheist, and believe in many things for which there is not really a scientific foundation. Having said that, I will try not to sound too inane, and  please keep in mind that I'm not singling out any person/group in particular, and that I'm not attempting to offend anyone either, including the authors I've cited. I welcome any feedback or explanations that can be given, but please do not tell me that you think I'm naïve or absurd or displaying arrogance and hubris. I've been told all of that before, I've had my share of mistakes, but I've also had a lot of success, and I arrived at the following (non)beliefs through years of personal practice and experience. Thank you for reading, and I hope there's a good point somewhere in all this.

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Karma. I can't do it, regarding any definition, but especially the basic American definition - for that concept, there is no room in my worldview. What I really have a problem with, and was actually one of the main theological issues that drove me away from Wicca, is the American version of karma (good things happen to people who do good, bad things happen to people who do bad) and further, the Threefold Law (the consequences of one's actions, whether good or bad, return to the actor three times over). The latter especially grinds my teeth, and is made even worse because so many Wiccans seem to believe in the Threefold Law in a literal sense. I've never once experienced any event that could be clearly attributed to karma. I don't see others experiencing such events either, though their own interpretation might be different. I don't see any evidence for karma, in particular the Threefold Law, in nature. And aren't our religions as Pagans and Neo-Pagans, most of us anyway, nature-based? Shouldn't those of us practicing nature-religion, as Wiccans are, take our laws for life from what is observable in nature, and not try to make man-made laws work within a natural concept that does not support them?

Sometimes I feel like I might be missing what the Threefold Law actually teaches. It's hard to know how watered-down the modern American Wiccan version is from what must have been in the original Gardnerian and other British Traditional teachings. I'm not against living as if the Law does happen in reality with the realization that it doesn't actually, but that isn't how it is taught or represented, at least in the literature. It is explained to be literally what is happening out in the universe every time an action is made:

• "This couplet outlines the belief that the energy attached to any good or bad action that a Wiccan performs will be revisited upon the practitioner threefold (also known as the Law of Return). The threefold attribution is specific to the practice of Wicca, but the general law of cosmic consequence to an action or behavior is not unique." -Arin Murphy-Hiscock, from Solitary Wicca for Life (2005), referring to the couplet concerning the Threefold Law in Lady Gwen Thompson's Wiccan Rede.
• "Karma is the Sanskrit term for the energy generated by our actions, particularly in relationship to future incarnations. Witches see it as an extension of the Law of Three: what you do will come back to you threefold. Seen from an ethical viewpoint, karma could mean that one who does 'good' acts get rewarded with good and one who performs 'bad' actions gets punished with bad events." -Christopher Penczak, from The Inner Temple of Witchcraft (2002).
• "We believe in the Threefold Law and its justice. This has to do with cause and effect. What this means is that every action taken and every deed performed - whether good or bad - is calculated by karma at triple value, then sent back to us." -Dorothy Morrison, from The Craft (2001).
• "Witches believe that you get your rewards and punishments during this lifetime, according to how you live it. Do good and you will get back good. But do evil and evil will return. More than that, though, it is a three-fold retribution. Do good and you will get back three times the good; do evil and you will receive three times the evil." -Raymond Buckland, from Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft (2002).

In the last quote, Buckland goes on to say it might not be literally threefold, but uses the example of getting punched in the eye. If you punch someone in the eye, you might not be punched back three times, but at some vague point in the future, you might break your leg, which is three times the punishment to being punched in the eye. That just sounds a little ridiculous to me.

Penczak might be onto something in his own work, and he is already known for looking at witchcraft and Wicca with somewhat scientific eyes. He explains the Threefold Law as the energy generated from action gathering inertia out in the universe before returning to the sender. He thinks the number three is arbitrary, but that the inertia of the sent energy is what accounts for the reward or punishment's increase. 

However, the worst, and the most commonly-observed in my opinion, is Morrison's outline of the Threefold Law in which karma is viewed as something conscious, or at least as a cosmic justice system. Karma calculates our actions and doles out rewards and punishments. I can't help but imagine a Dutch businessman in the 1500s sitting at a table with a scale, setting all the actions on one side, and adding enough weight to the other to be three times as heavy. Then giving his reward or punishment to some sort of karmic mailman with a Return to Sender stamp. I don't mean to poke fun at an ethical guideline that is so important to Wiccans, but it's the literalism by which it is upheld that just baffles me. 

Why is the existence of this mythical threefold return necessary as an ethical foundation? If you believe in no form of cosmic retribution, actions all still have consequences and its the avoidance or gain of negative or positive consequences that motivates our behavior. Receipt of pleasure and avoidance of pain is the system that already exists in nature. Wolf packs hunt and share food together, monkeys groom each other, parent birds protect their nests and offspring, vampire bats share blood meals with each other. Their rewards are health, bonding, survival. This non-karmic system of consequences is observable and effective, without having to try to figure out how to explain an unseen universal force (my Dutch businessman) deciding when and how each person will pay their karmic debts and cash out on their karmic rewards.

Karma isn't, and furthermore shouldn't, be needed to live by the Wiccan Rede: an' it harm none, do what ye will. We live in a causal universe. Actions have reactions, and we as humans interpret the quality of those reactions as good or bad. We can make decisions based on those consequences, whether predicting them or learning from previous experience. We can be good people, and harm none, because being so enriches our lives through friendship, overall positivity, love, and even the perhaps more baser expectation of reciprocal altruism. The Threefold Law is an unnecessary, unfounded ethical premise that, in my opinion, does nothing to actually enhance the practice of witchcraft or Wicca. If you engage in spell-crafting (or any other activity for that matter) without a clear head, a focused plan, and a careful consideration of the consequences, then you deserve what happens. And if you do take the time to consider all the possibilities, alternative solutions, and have a focused goal, then you also deserve the good that can come your way. But attributing such consequences -- whether they are good or bad -- to a cosmic justice system removes responsibility away from the practitioner and places it onto something invisible and ultimately unreachable. I fear that this lack of true responsibility can lead to misinformed, unreliable, and maybe even dangerous spell-crafting. (As a worst case scenario, of course.) It can cause a lack of growth of the practitioner because attributing every 'punishment' or 'reward' to a universal force that they have no way of controlling, instead of recognizing and admitting a mistake or a victory, prevents learning through self accountability.

That's why I call it the Unnecessary Threefold Law. I don't think it's bad, and I even think sometimes it could be nice if the good energy I send out could amplified back to me. But it isn't realistic. It isn't really logical. It isn't nature, and it isn't life.

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Tell me what you think in the comments. Do you agree with me? Disagree? Why?

If you believe in the Threefold Law, where and how do you see it happening?