By: Aisling Bronach of House Shadow Drake

Many Wiccans often discuss karma and the three-fold law of returned energy as being almost synonymous with each other. Within Wicca, the three-fold law is stated as "whatever you do returns back to you three times over." Karma is seen as the agent that causes the returned energy. However, karma is an Eastern term and upon closer examination yields meanings other than that which is attributed to it by Wicca.

Karma comes from the root word kri that means "to do" or in more modern terms "action." Through the exact performance of rituals, the Vedas were able to use karma to influence such things as the Gods, harvests, and even their enemies. It was also believed that every thought, word, and action that made a person consider its morality created karma. Karma is determined by how much skill is involved with each action that is executed. For each action, the level of skill is then determined by the exactness of the action combined with the intent of the individual. To the Buddhists, this skill could be considered as the conscious interpretation of the individual committing to the action in regards to the individual's desired outcome that is measured in degrees of pain and pleasure. However, within the Buddhist philosophy, one also needs to be aware of the concept of the individual as opposed to the other; otherwise the other is viewed as being either empty or being the same as the individual and thus holistic which would therefore not incur a karmic function.

Now, this is where the confusion begins. There is also something called three-fold karma. Three-fold karma includes samchit, prarabdha, and agami. In English, this can be seen as the actions amassed from previous lifetimes that have not yet been played out, the actions which have already been worked out in previous lifetimes that forms a sort of fate which will be played out during this lifetime, and the actions that we take part in during this lifetime.

The key difference here is that the karmic influence only occurs once for each action and that the consequence of karma is dependant upon the skill and intent of the person who committed the action.

Resources

Dass, Baba Hari. Silence Speaks: From the Chalkboard of Baba Hari Dass. (Sri Rama Publications, 1997).

Himalayan Academy. Karma: We Mold Our Lives Like a Potter Fashions a Pot. Hinduism Today. 1994.

Pappu, S. s. Rama Rao, ed. The Dimensions of Karma. (South Asia Books, 1987).