<P> "Thou hast obeyed the Law . But mark well, when thou receivest good, so equally art bound to return good threefold ." (For this is the joke in witchcraft, the witch knows, though the initiate does not, that she will get three times what she gave, so she does not strike hard .) </P> <P> However, The Threefold Law as an actual "law", was an interpretation of Wiccan ideas and ritual, made by noted witch Monique Wilson (1923 - 1982) and further popularized by Raymond Buckland, in his books on Wicca . Prior to this innovation by Wilson and its subsequent inclusion in publications, Wiccan ideas of reciprocal ethics were far less defined and more often interpreted as a kind of general karma . </P> <P> Raymond Buckland made a reference to an ethical threefold law in a 1968 article for Beyond magazine . The Rule of Three later features within a poem of 26 couplets titled "Rede of the Wiccae", published by Lady Gwen Thompson in 1975 in Green Egg vol. 8, no . 69 and attributed to her grandmother Adriana Porter . The threefold rule is referenced often by the Wiccans of the Clan Mackenzie in the S.M. Stirling Emberverse novels . </P> <P> This rule was described by the Dutch metal band Nemesea, in the song "Threefold Law", from the album Mana . </P>

By the power of 3 so mote it be