What do Wiccans believe?

There are as many different types of Wiccans as there are people, and different Wiccans all tend to have different beliefs. And old joke goes, "If you ask 100 different Wiccans what they believe, you will get at least 101 different opinions."

Since I cant speak for all Wiccans, these are beliefs that I, along with many other Wiccans, hold to be true. These are the tenets of the Tradition I belong to, Universal Eclectic Wicca. I know of no other Wiccan group besides UEW that refers to these points as "The Five Points of Wiccan Belief", but most Wiccans believe in these ideas.

The Five Points of Wiccan Belief

1. The Wiccan Rede
   The central Ethic of Wicca is just eight simple words... but it is deceptively simple. "An it harm none, do as you will" or sometimes just "Harm none", the meaning behind these words is much more complex. The word rede as a verb means "to advise or counsel". Think of it as a little bit of motherly advice from the Goddess. If you choose to not follow the advice given to you, then you will pay the consequences for your actions.
   

   "If an action will cause harm, physically, emotionally, or mentally, to another person or one's Self, refrain from doing it. Strive to always be helpful and never willingly cause strife or harm to befall someone. Weigh your actions against each other, would you wish your actions taken against you? Take no action you would not wish to receive." ¹

   There are many literary versions of the Rede out there, here are two of my favorites:

   The Lady Gwen Thompson Version

   The Doreen Valiente Version

2. The Law of Return
   Law of Return is sometimes known as the Karmic law, The Threefold law, or the Rule of Three. Basically it means that any energy you send out will come back to you, and that your actions will affect what happens to you. If you only send out good energy and do good things, you will receive lots of good energy in return, and good things will happen to you. But, if you choose to send out negative energy or do evil things, then you will receive lots of negative energy in return, and bad things will happen to you. Some Witches believe there is a Three-Fold return, some a Ten-Fold return, while others think you get back exactly what you give. It is just a matter of opinion.

3. The Ethic of Self-responsibility
   This one is pretty self-explanatory. You are the only one responsible for your actions. If you make a mistake, you must take responsibility for it, not blame it on someone or something else. This can be hard for some people, but I am free because I know that I alone am responsible for everything I do.

4. The Ethic of Constant Improvement
   This means that as a Wiccan, you should always be learning, growing, and changing, making the World a better place. While the Ethic of Self-responsiblity tells you to be responsible for yourself, this Ethic tells you to be responsible for the World around you. There are many ways to do this; becoming involved in ecology, conservation and recycling, teaching religious tolerance, and promoting racial harmony are just a few examples.

5. The Ethic of Attunement
   The purpose of many Wiccan rituals is to attune yourself with the Divine, to work towards being in harmony with the Divine. Most Wiccans believe in three groupings of divinity, as explained in UEW below:

   1. "The Divine Self (thou art god) is expressed within The Ethic of Self- Responsibility. No one is in control of the Self except for the creator of the Self, the person that "owns" the body Our rites of Attunement to the divine self include the practice of Ritual, and occasionally, High Magick, but also includes meditation, dance, drumming and anything else that makes us feel "in touch" with our Selves."
   2. "The Divinity of the Gods, or the "Other Powers" defies immediate explanation as do the gods themselves. In Wicca, our gods are more like parents, the Divine Father and the Great Mother, and less like the fury-fueled jealous God of Christianity. Our rites of Attunement to the Gods are nearly all celebratory in nature, with the more intensive rituals combining the divinity of the gods with the divinity of the Universe in worship of the lunar and harvest cycles."
   3. "The Divinity of the Universe is subdivided into three groups. In Gaeism, the Planet Earth is a creature and each individual being, plant, animal or mineral is a part of that being, which is usually, but not always, named for the Goddess Gaea or Gaia. In Animism, each thing be it a windstorm or a rock, has a spirit of its own. In Cyclic Totality, or Cyclicism, it is the laws of the Universe which are divine, be they the cycles of celestial decay, or the harvests, or the birth-death-rebirth of the nitrogen cycle."²

References:

• ¹- Taken from the Universal Eclectic Wicca expanded reading of the Rede, by Kaatryn MacMorgan.
• ²- Taken from the Universal Eclectic Wicca 'Ethic of Attunement', by Kaatryn Macmorgan.