Charge of the Goddess

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The Charge of the Goddess is a traditional inspirational text sometimes used in Wicca. Several versions exist, though they all have the same basic premise, that of a set of instructions and beliefs set down by a Great Goddess. A Wiccan Charge of the God has since been created to mirror and accompany the Charge of the Goddess.

1 Themes
2 History
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Themes

The opening paragraph names a collection of classical goddesses, some derived from Greek or Roman mythology, others from Celtic or Arthurian legends, affirming a belief that these various figures represent a single Great Mother:

Listen to the words of the Great Mother; she who of old was also called among men Artemis, Astarte, Athene, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Dana, Arianrhod, Isis, Bride, and by many other names.

This theme is an echo of the ancient Roman belief that the Goddess Isis was known under ten thousand names.

The second paragraph is largely derived and paraphrased from the words that Aradia, the messianic daughter of Diana, speaks to her followers in Charles Godfrey Leland's book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (1899). The third paragraph is largely Valiente's original contribution, with some phrases taken from ideas from The Book of the Law by Aleister Crowley.

[edit] History

In Apuleius's The Golden Ass, Isis delivers what Ceisiwr Serith calls "essentially a charge of a goddess". This is rather different to the modern version known in Wicca, though they have the same premise, that of the rules given to Earth by a great Mother Goddess.

The earliest Wiccan version appeared in the 1940s and draws from Charles Godfrey Leland's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches and other modern sources,^[1], particularly from the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley. It is believed to have been compiled by Gerald Gardner^[1] or another member of the New Forest coven.^[2] Doreen Valiente, a student of Gardner, took his version from his Book of Shadows and drew from this to write a version of the Charge in verse, and later in prose. The prose version has since been modified and adapted by many others.

The original text of Valiente's prose version is found in Eight Sabbats for Witches by Janet and Stewart Farrar. See The Rebirth of Witchcraft by Doreen Valiente, chap. 4, which also includes her original verse version.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b http://www.ceisiwrserith.com/wicca/charge.htm Ceisiwr Serith. The Sources of the Charge of the Goddess. Accessed 23 October 2007
^ Heselton, Philip. Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration. Milverton, Somerset: Capall Bann, pp. 300-1.