The Three R's - Responsibility (Part 1)
You’re in the right place if you…
want to learn how to be responsible for your thoughts words and actions.
want to learn how veganism is related to witchcraft.
want to learn how to be a vegan witch.
The three R’s—Respect, Responsibility and Resourcefulness—are often taught in elementary schools. I wanted to apply them to witchcraft.
What we learn as children is often more about how to be good people and how to participate in a civilization.
Being respectful of others and the world we live in, taking responsibility for our actions, and being resourceful with the things we know and the materials we have available to us.
Today is all about responsibility…
Responsibility and Magic
This is one of the hardest aspects of witchcraft and understanding the forces of the Universe. It’s really easy to take responsibility for the joyful parts of your life, but when it comes to taking responsibility for the undesirable things, many of us are more willing to play the victim.
In order to practice magick successfully, you need to be willing to take responsibility for everything. In the Principle of Cause and Effect, responsibility places you in the position of Cause, meaning you are the creator of your life.
Things happen for you, not to you.
Responsibility makes you the decider.
How do you respond to your circumstances?
What choices will you make to create the results you desire?
Responsibility allows you to be in control of how your energy flows and your level of vibration. This means that you choose your thoughts, words, and actions in accordance with what you want to attract.
It pays to take responsibility for your life.
Responsibility and Veganism
One of the biggest ways that I have taken responsibility in my life is through becoming vegan. If you don’t know what this means, Veganism is a diet and sometimes a lifestyle. Vegans don’t eat or use animal products of any kind, although there are varying degrees of Veganism.
There are a variety of reasons to be vegan. Here are my reasons, all centering around this idea of taking responsibility for my actions.
They were hard realities to face, but taking responsibility for how my actions effect the Earth, animals, myself and other humans has been the most empowering thing I have ever done.
My spiritual awakening really shifted into hyper-drive once I made this change as well, so as I mentioned in this blog post, veganism is a very big part of who I am as a person and who I am as a witch.
Keep in mind that these are my own choices that I made for my own life. It is an example of how taking responsibility can be empowering.
It’s hard to talk about veganism without sounding preachy. This is because what we eat is very personal and when someone presents information that is counter to your personal choices and beliefs, your defenses will raise. While I do advocate for veganism, it is not my intention to try change anyone’s mind with this post. As I said, this is an example of how taking responsibility for your choices can be very empowering and how that can influence your magic.
That said, I am happy to discuss offer support to anyone who is wanting to look deeper into becoming vegan.
Responsible for Earth
I became Vegan because of my commitment to the Earth. As I’ve said before, the central theme of my life has always been Earth-focused.
As a kid I was obsessed with recycling, as a teenager I started the ecology club at my school, as a young adult I studied environmental science and restoration ecology. I have worked in several positions where I teach others about the importance of the natural world and how climate change is impacting our planet, and participated in environmental activism events.
When I found out that being Vegan is the number one way that an individual person could reduce their impact on the planet, I knew that I had one choice: to become vegan.
Animal agriculture is…
responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions in the form of methane gas which is 25-100 time more destructive than CO2.
responsible for 20-30% of all water usage in the world and occupies 1/3 of all ice-free land on Earth.
the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution, habitat destruction, and deforestation.
I took responsibility for how my actions effect the Earth and I decided to give up meat, dairy, and all other animal products.
Responsible for Animals
As I continued learning, I discovered the horrors these animals live through. It breaks my heart.
Animals crammed together in filthy, windowless warehouses and cages. Some never even see sunlight, feel the grass underfoot, or smell fresh air until they are loaded onto trucks to go to slaughter.
This is the truth for the vast majority of animals raised for meat and other products.
This is because in order to turn a profit, companies must produce more product in less time and in less space. Without regulations, they are able to act without regard, or without respect for the lives of the animals (or the people who work there).
There are a lot of varying codes of morality in witchcraft, from the threefold law to the Wiccan Rede of “And it harm none, do what you will.” Personally, I try to do my best and cause the least amount of harm.
My decision to be vegan is very much about knowing the miserable life these creatures live and wishing for them not to experience such brutality. By consuming an animal, I would be taking the life of a creature who can feel pain, is intelligent, and has a family unit. A living creature who is worthy of respect and was brought into this world only to be treated like an object. All of this suffering is needless when I have another option for food.
Not to mention that thinking of the conditions is disgusting. It’s not very appetizing to think about your meal being covered in their own waste. I prefer not to go down the path of thinking about what meat and dairy products actually are because it turns my stomach. But once you realize that humans are regularly consuming flesh, muscle, blood, feces and urine, mucus, fat, and pus (not pork, ham, beef, bacon, steak, seafood, or any other word used to hide the truth of these products), it’s hard to UN-realize.
I took responsibility for how my actions effect animals and I refused to cause them unnecessary and avoidable harm.
Responsible for Myself
The journey continued with learning about the health aspect of Veganism.
Most people who switch to a vegan diet experience a boost of energy, improved digestion and clearer skin in the early stages. Long-term effects include lower risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as weight loss.
Obviously, it is just as easy to eat junk food as a vegan as it is to eat junk food as a meat eater. If you aren’t accustomed to thinking about what you are eating, the nutrient content, the portion, the vitamins and minerals etc. switching to a vegan diet can seem harder. This is why some people find themselves feeling less healthy.
But if you don’t think about it when you eat meat, you likely aren’t eating a balanced diet either.
Humans aren’t even meant to eat meat, and certainly not the amount that the population consumes on average. When you compare the biological function of countless human features to carnivores, omnivores and herbivores, we resemble herbivores more often than the others: saliva, stomach acid, intestines, digestion time, nails and teeth, etc.
Humans started eating meat during the ice age period of our history, when plant food sources were hard to find. Before that and for the vast majority of our ancestral and genetic history, humans were vegan. Therefore, it makes sense that we’d be healthier on a vegan diet.
I took responsibility for how my actions effect my health and I committed to remain Vegan.
Responsible for Others
As I continued on this path, I learned about how animal agriculture effects other people.
For one thing, the workers are exploited and encounter horrors equal to the animals. They are underpaid and over worked. They face discrimination and classism from society, and harassment and abuse from superiors.
Additionally, animal agriculture is an unsustainable way to feed the world. We currently grow enough food to feed 10 billion people, but 50% of grain worldwide is fed to livestock. 82% of starving children live in countries where food is fed to animals, and the animals are eaten by developed countries.
I took responsibility for how my actions effect other people on this planet and I resolved to boycott the animal agriculture industry.
Responsible Spirituality
As a witch, I am called to recognize and honor the Divine essence in all living things: the Earth, the animals, myself and other people. To me, veganisim is a form of worship. When you are a vegan witch, the simple acts of cooking, shopping for food, and eating are all blessings of peace, love, and compassion you send out into the universe. It’s the most simple and powerful form of magick.
In the next post in this series I will be sharing ten tips for how you can take responsibility for your life.
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Now it’s your turn!
Consider how your thoughts, words, or actions effect the planet. How can you support those that are helpful? How can you change those that are harmful? Consider how your thoughts, words, or actions effect yourself. How can you support those that are helpful? How can you change those that are harmful? Consider how your thoughts, words, or actions effect other people. How can you support those that are helpful? How can you change those that are harmful?
