Editing Wiccan Rede (section)

===Dating the Rede===
[[Pierre Louÿs|King Pausole]], a character in [[Pierre Louÿs]]' ''Les aventures du roi Pausole'' (The Adventures of King Pausole, published in 1901), issued a similar pair of edicts: ''I. — Ne nuis pas à ton voisin. II. — Ceci bien compris, fais ce qu'il te plaît.'' ("Do not harm your neighbor; this being well understood, do that which pleases you.") In [[Thelema]], a similar phrase, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law", appears in [[Aleister Crowley]]'s works by 1904, in ''[[The Book of the Law]]''. Although Gardner noted the similarity of the rede to King Pausole's words, [[Silver Ravenwolf]] believes it is more directly referencing Crowley.<ref>RavenWolf, Silver. "Solitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation." [[Llewellyn Worldwide]], 2003.</ref>

According to [[Donald H. Frew|Don Frew]], Valiente composed the couplet, following Gardner's statement that witches "are inclined to the morality of the legendary Good King Pausol, 'Do what you like so long as you harm none'"; he claims the common assumption that the Rede that was copied from Crowley is misinformed, and has resulted in the words often being misquoted as "an it harm none, do what thou wilt" instead of "do what you will".<ref>[http://www.researchpubs.com/books/mpex_frew.php Excerpt from Interview with Don Frew] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090722113214/http://www.researchpubs.com/books/mpex_frew.php |date=22 July 2009 }}, ''Modern Pagans'' magazine.</ref>

Thompson's attribution of the Long Rede to her grandmother has been disputed, since Adriana Porter died in 1946, well before [[Gerald Gardner]] published ''The Old Laws'', and no evidence for Porter's authorship exists other than Thompson's word. The poem refers to Wiccan concepts that, though ostensibly very old, have not been proven to pre-date the 1940s. Its attribution to Porter may have formed part of Thompson's claim to be a [[hereditary witch]]. Its precise origin has yet to be determined.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.waningmoon.com/ethics/rede3.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010905071606/http://www.waningmoon.com/ethics/rede3.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 September 2001|title=The Wiccan Rede: A Historical Journey – Part 3: Eight Words}}</ref>

Adrian Bott, in an article written in ''White Dragon'' magazine, 2003, argues that the Long Rede's creation can be placed somewhere between 1964 and 1975. Bott bases his argument on the alleged misuse of archaic English in the poem, in particular of " an' " as an abbreviation of "and", and of "ye" instead of "the". Bott states that the author of the poem was evidently unaware that this contraction of "and" is not an archaic, but a modern convention. According to Bott, in the "eight words" couplet originally cited by Valiente, "an'" is used correctly, in the Middle English sense of " 'in the event that', or simply 'if' " (as in the Shakespearean "an hadst thou not come to my bed") and thus has no apostrophe. In the poem, this has been transformed into an abbreviated "and" and given an apostrophe, with every "and" in the poem's additional lines then being written " an' " as if to match. Accordingly, Bott concludes that the poem was an attempt to expand Valiente's couplet into a full Wiccan credo, written by someone who misunderstood the archaic language they attempted to imitate.<ref>Adrian Bott, 2003. "The Wiccan Rede" in ''White Dragon'' magazine, Lughnasadh 2003</ref>

Robert Mathiesen repeats Bott's objection to "ye", but argues that most other archaisms are used correctly. However, he states that they all derive from late 19th century revivalist usages.<ref>Robert Mathiesen and Theitic, ''The Rede of the Wiccae: Adriana Porter, Gwen Thompson and the Birth of a Tradition of Witchcraft'', Olympian press, Rhode Island, 2005, pp.68–70.</ref> Based on this fact Mathiesen concludes that early twentieth century authorship of at least part of the poem is probable. He argues that its references to English folklore are consistent with Porter's family history. His provisional conclusion is that a folkloric form of the poem may have been written by Porter, but that it was supplemented and altered by Thompson to add specifically Wiccan material. Mathiessen also takes the view that the last line was probably a Thompson addition derived from Valiente. According to this account, the 1974 variant of the text, which was published by one of Thompson's former initiates, may represent one of the earlier drafts. Its publication prompted Thompson to publish what she – falsely, according to Mathiessen – claimed was Porter's "original" poem.