A Pledge

Judy Harrow

The ceremony originated with Judy Harrow and one of her coveners who co-wrote the dedication ritual. During the ritual, the dedicant is asked several questions and is expected to respond in whatever way s/he feels appropriate. I will include all the questions here for completeness sake:

1. Do you understand that Witchcraft is the Priesthood of the Old Gods and Old Ways of Nature, and that every Witch is a Priestess or Priest?
2. Do you understand that initiation into that Priesthood will change your life forever, in ways that you cannot now foresee?
3. Do you understand what priesthood requires: that, if you become a Witch, you serve the Lady and the Lord by serving Their People, to the fullest of your ability?
4. Knowing these things, do you want to study Witchcraft and its related arts until you know enough to decide whether this is truly your Path?
5. Do you understand that Witchcraft is one of many means to serve the Old Gods and awaken the Old Ways, and that even if this is not your way after all, you may learn and grow while you are here? Can you accept that the decision may be, "No?"
6. Teaching what I love is a great joy. But I can only teach in joy if I know that what I love will be used and shared with care and honor. Before I am willing to teach you, there are three things and a fourth that you must promise me:
   1. Will you respect and protect the confidence of all who you meet in this Circle and all who seek our aid, revealing their identities to no one except by their explicit permission?
   2. Will you practice and teach the Craft for love alone, using this knowledge or teaching it only as a free gift, as I give it now to you, never accepting payment for it in money or goods or labor?
   3. Will you promise never to use what I teach you to affect another person, avoiding not only baneful magic but all well-intentioned meddling, unless you have that person's explicit permission?
   4. And if time brings fullness, as all here hope and expect it will, when you teach new students of your own, will you require these three pledges of them, along with their pledge to similarly bind their own students, so that all that spring from this line may be so pledged?