The Charge of the Goddess (or Charge of the Star Goddess) is an inspirational text often used in the

neopagan Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...

religion of

Wicca Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and w ...

. The Charge of the Goddess is recited during most rituals in which the Wiccan priest/priestess is expected to represent, and/or embody, the

Goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes ...

within the sacred circle, and is often spoken by the High Priest/Priestess after the ritual of Drawing Down the Moon. The Charge is the promise of the Goddess (who is embodied by the high priestess) to all witches that she will teach and guide them. It has been called "perhaps the most important single theological document in the neo-Pagan movement". It is used not only in

, but as part of the foundational documents of the

Reclaiming In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i. ...

tradition of witchcraft co-founded by

Starhawk Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and author. She is known as a theorist of feminist Neopaganism and ecofeminism. In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spir ...

. Several versions of the Charge exist, though they all have the same basic premise, that of a set of instructions given by the Great Goddess to her worshippers. The earliest version is that compiled by

Gerald Gardner Gerald Brosseau Gardner (13 June 1884 – 12 February 1964), also known by the craft name Scire, was an English Wiccan, as well as an author and an amateur anthropology, anthropologist and archaeology, archaeologist. He was instrumental in bri ...

. This version, titled "Leviter Veslis" or "Lift Up the Veil", includes material paraphrased from works by

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

, primarily from

Liber AL ''Liber AL vel Legis'' (), commonly known as ''The Book of the Law'', is the central sacred text of Thelema. Aleister Crowley said that it was dictated to him by a beyond-human being who called himself 'Aiwass'. Rose Edith Kelly, Crowley's w ...

(

The Book of the Law ''Liber AL vel Legis'' (), commonly known as ''The Book of the Law'', is the central sacred text of Thelema. Aleister Crowley said that it was dictated to him by a beyond-human being who called himself ' Aiwass'. Rose Edith Kelly, Crowley's ...

, particularly from Ch 1, spoken by Nuit, the Star Goddess), and from Liber LXV (The Book of the Heart Girt with a Serpent) and from Crowley's essay "The Law of Liberty", thus linking modern Wicca to the cosmology and revelations of

Thelema Thelema () is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. The word ' ...

. It has been shown that Gerald Gardner's book collection included a copy of Crowley's ''

The Blue Equinox ''The Blue Equinox'', officially known as ''The Equinox: Volume III, Number I'', is a book written by the English occultist Aleister Crowley, the founder of Thelema. First published in 1919, it details the principles and aims of the secret societ ...

'' (1919) which includes all of the Crowley quotations transferred by Gardner to the Charge of the Goddess. There are also two versions written by

Doreen Valiente Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente (4 January 1922 – 1 September 1999) was an English Wiccan who was responsible for writing much of the early religious liturgy within the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca. An author and poet, she also published five b ...

in the mid-1950s, after her 1953 Wiccan initiation. The first was a poetic paraphrase which eliminated almost all the material derived from Leland and Crowley. The second was a prose version which is contained within the traditional Gardnerian

Book of Shadows A Book of Shadows is a book containing religious text and instructions for magical rituals found within the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Since its conception in the 1970s, it has made its way into many pagan practices and paths. The most famous ...

and more closely resembles Gardner's "Leviter Veslis" version of 1949. Several different versions of a Wiccan Charge of the God have since been created to mirror and accompany the Charge of the Goddess.

Themes

The opening paragraph names a collection of goddesses, some derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representa ...

, others from

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

Arthurian King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

s, affirming a belief that these various figures represent a single Great Mother: This theme echoes the ancient Roman belief that the

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

was known by ten thousand names and also that the Goddess still worshipped today by Wiccans and other neopagans is known under many guises but is in fact one universal divinity. The second paragraph is largely derived and paraphrased from the words that

Aradia Aradia is one of the principal figures in the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland's 1899 work ''Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches'', which he believed to be a genuine religious text used by a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, a claim t ...

, the messianic daughter of Diana, speaks to her followers in

Charles Godfrey Leland Charles Godfrey Leland (August 15, 1824 – March 20, 1903) was an American humorist and folklorist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Princeton University and in Europe. Leland worked in journalism, travelled extensi ...

's 1899 book ''

Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches ''Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches'' is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland that was published in 1899. It contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy that docu ...

'' (London: David Nutt; various reprints). The third paragraph is largely written by Doreen Valiente, with a significant content of phrases loosely from ''The Book of the Law'' and ''The Book of the Heart Girt with the Serpent'' by Aleister Crowley. The charge affirms that ''all'' acts of love and pleasure are sacred to the Goddess, e.g.:

History

Ancient precedents

In book eleven, chapter 47 of

Apuleius Apuleius (; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern- ...

's ''

The Golden Ass The ''Metamorphoses'' of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as ''The Golden Ass'' (''Asinus aureus''), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of the no ...

'',

delivers what Ceisiwr Serith calls "essentially a charge of a goddess". This is rather different from the modern version known in Wicca, though they have the same premise, that of the rules given by a great Mother Goddess to her faithful. The Charge of the Goddess is also known under the title ''Leviter Veslis''. This has been identified by the historian

Ronald Hutton Ronald Edmund Hutton (born 19 December 1953) is an English historian who specialises in Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and Contemporary Paganism. He is a professor at the University of Bristol, has written 14 ...

, cited in an article by Roger Dearnsley "The Influence of Aleister Crowley on ''Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical'', as a piece of medieval ecclesiastical Latin used to mean "lifting the veil." However, Hutton's interpretation does not reflect the Latin grammar as it currently stands. It may represent Gardner's attempt to write ''Levetur Velis'', which has the literal meaning of "Let the veil be lifted." This expression would, by coincidence or design, grammatically echo the famous ''fiat lux'' (''Gen. 1:3'') of the Latin Vulgate.

Origins

The earliest known Wiccan version is found in a document dating from the late 1940s, Gerald Gardner's ritual notebook titled ''Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical''. The oldest identifiable source contained in this version is the final line, which is traceable to the 17th-century ''Centrum Naturae Concentratum'' of Alipili (or Ali Puli). This version also draws extensively from Charles Godfrey Leland's ''Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches'' (1899) and other modern sources, particularly from the works of Aleister Crowley. It is believed to have been compiled by Gerald Gardner or possibly another member of the

New Forest coven The New Forest coven were an alleged group of witches who met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the early 20th century. According to his own claims, in September 1939, a British occultist named Gerald Gardner was init ...

. Gardner intended his version to be a theological statement justifying the Gardnerian sequence of initiations. Like the Charge found in

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, where the charge is a set of instructions read to a candidate standing in a temple, the Charge of the Goddess was intended to be read immediately before an initiation. Valiente felt that the influence of Crowley on the Charge was too obvious, and she did not want "the Craft" (a common term for Wicca) associated with Crowley. Gardner invited her to rewrite the Charge. She proceeded to do so, her first version being into verse.Shelley Rabinovich and James Lewis. ''Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism'', p. 41. New York: Citadel Books, 2004 The initial verse version by

consisted of eight verses, the second of which was: Valiente was unhappy with this version, saying that "people seemed to have some difficulty with this, because of the various goddess-names which they found hard to pronounce",''The Rebirth of Witchcraft'', Doreen Valiente, page 62 and so she rewrote it as a prose version, much of which differs from her initial version, and is more akin to Gardner's version. This prose version has since been modified and reproduced widely by other authors.

References

External links