As I posted yesterday, I am a green-thumbed witch. If I plant it, it grows- most of the time. As you can see in the picture, there are four compartments to this segment. In each of them, the same number of seeds were planted. Yet, each of them has a different number of plants, and one has none at all (full disclosure: later on, the one at the top sprouted one plant). Each of these compartments was given the same amount of water, soil, sunlight, etc... not all of the seeds took hold. If I reap what I've sown, why did I not see an equal measure of plants come up? Or, as the Law of Three states, why not three times what I planted?
Because nature doesn't work that way, and given we Pagans (at least all the ones I know) say that nature is our church, we should be looking to her for our examples. I can plant a seed and it can grow into a huge plant that eventually gives me a bountiful harvest- much more than what I cultivated. I can plant a seed and have absolutely nothing happen (as mentioned yesterday- no woad at all). I can plant a seed and while it grows for awhile, it may die out. There are numerous potential possibilities in the life of a plant.
If they don't get proper amounts of sunlight, water, nutrients, etc... they won't grow. If a bird or other animal digs them up before they take root, or eats them when they are tender, I've lost them. It's a precarious situation for a plant in the world, just like it is for any other living thing on the planet. It's a violent world we live in, and there are no guarantees.
Spiritually speaking then, there is no evidence that The Rule of Three (Three-fold Law) or Reaping What You Sow has any surety, either. For those of you who believe in a "just-world view", I'm sorry to burst your bubble here. I may or may not reap what I've sown and you can never guarantee me that it'll happen to me 3 times better or worse (Law of Three). Life is much more random than that.
Karma is one of the most abused, twisted and picked on concepts in the western world, and it doesn't mean at all what most Pagans like to throw around to soothe their wounded feelings. Karma is a Hindu and Buddhist concept from circa 5000 years ago. While similar to the biblical reap-what-you-sow and law of three concepts, the biggest difference is that in this life you pay off your last life's karmic debt and are racking up karma points in this life for the next one. The whole "Karma is a bitch and you're going to get what's coming to you soon" meme is popular, it's not Karma. Karma is a debt paid in future lives for past transgressions. I'm not Hindu or Buddhist, and I don't see evidence of that kind of concept in nature, so I'm going to set that aside as well. I'm also not a big believer in reincarnation, but that's a subject for another blog post.
The other, more dangerous concept, is that you are punished for things your parents do or have done. Loren brought this up in her "Oh the Humanity Segment" of the Sunday Stew this week.
While, I can see how a child can be physically altered by a mother's drug addiction or other unhealthy behaviors in pregnancy, or through genetic deficiencies, that's not a punishment from a deity. This "Sins of the Fathers" concept comes from the bible in three passages: Exodus 20:5, Exodus 34:6-7; Deuteronomy 5:9.
Basically, these passages state that the sins of the father are visited upon the sons to the third and fourth generations.
Of course, in true biblical fashion, it contradicts itself in Deuteronomy 24:16, and again in Ezekiel 18:20 by saying everyone pays for his own sin and that the sins of the father are not visited on the son. My poor neighbor was told by her brain-washed fundie daughter that it was because of her sins that the daughter can't get pregnant. By the way, the bible doesn't say that the sins of the mother are visited upon the daughter- if you want to play the let's-get-literal game with that tome, then let's; moms are not passing sins on onto their daughters. It's all the father's fault, and you sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, great-great grandsons and even possibly great-great-great grandsons are all the ones in trouble.
It's this kind of thinking that deflects our own responsibility and accountability, and allows us to continue in the just-world fallacy mentality, and believe that bad things only happen to bad people, or if they happen to good people, it's because of someone else's mistakes, sins, bad judgment, etc... we don't have to own up to anything this way, and we'll never grow from it. Psychologists say that people who believe in this fallacy are happier, and I have to wonder if willful ignorance truly is bliss.
My son watched a movie recently in which the hero purposefully killed another person- something completely out of character for this particular personality. He was extremely upset by this. He also wasn't happy with George RR Martin killing off certain heroes in the Song of Ice and Fire stories, either. My son believes strongly in the just-world view, and these concepts don't fit in with that. Yet, they are much truer to real life than the belief that good happens to the good and bad happens to the bad. I'm happier knowing I live on a wild planet where random things happen to random creatures. It doesn't mean that my efforts and determination aren't rewarded.
In my green-thumb post yesterday, I stated that nurture complements nature. While there are no guarantees that I will reap an exact amount, I can certainly help push the odds in my favor. This is true both in the natural and spiritual worlds. I'm not advocating that we throw out the baby with the bath water, here. I'm simply stating that our concepts of black and white need some color.
We don't always reap what we've sown. Sometimes, we reap more, sometimes less or none at all. The Rule of Three is a concept created by Gerald Gardner circa 1949, and has no basis in fact whatsoever. Karma is a Hindu/Buddhist concept that has to do with reward/punishment for past lives. The Sins of the Father concept also has no footing upon which to stand. These laws of reciprocity, when taken literally, result in a fear-based, reward/punishment way of thinking, that has no basis in reality, and either confines us to limitation or allows us to absolve ourselves from accountability.
We can do better.
Addendum: See Alan's fantastic post on the Three-fold Law here.