“and I am that which is attained at the end of desire”

This is the last in a series of blogs I am have decided to do, providing textual analysis for the ritual prose known as The Charge of the Goddess.  Each quotes a section of material which I presented, with my co-author David Rankine, in the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings.  For your convenience, all posts on this subject has been tagged with “charge analysis” here on my blog, and I ask that comments and other remarks be posted directly onto the original blog http://www.sorita.co.uk/?p=1000 — keep comments to the lines discussed in this blog only please (there are separate blog entries for the rest!)

The following lines from “Let my worship be within … ” through to “end of desire” at the end of the Charge are prime examples of material taken from the work of Aleister Crowley into the Charge.  It clearly shows how Doreen Valiente’s claims to have taken as much of the Crowley material out of the earlier version of the Charge (known as “Lift up the Veil”) is flawed.  As we put it politely in Wicca Magickal Beginnings:

“The Lift Up the Veil charge was clearly pre-Valiente, as she was not initiated until 1952/3.  Valiente claimed that she rewrote the Lift Up the Veil charge to produce the Charge of the Goddess, removing Crowley’s influence, as she put it, “cutting out the Crowleyanity as much as I could”[1] However, as you will discover this is simply not true, as most of the material used in the Charge of the Goddess draws from material published in The Aradia, Gospel of the Witches by Charles Leland and from a variety of original works by Aleister Crowley – with a few additions from the Golden Dawn and Christian liturgy.”

[1] The Rebirth of Witchcraft, Valiente, 1987

This then casts some serious doubts on Valiente’s claim to authorship – because, if she was being honest she seems to not be aware of the fact that there is so much NEW material of Crowley in this Charge of the Goddess, or if she was the “author” of the piece, she is clearly trying to cover up for the fact that she was plagiarising so much of it from Crowley – and as illustrated by the origins of so much of Wiccan liturgy attributed to Valiente, it seems to more often be the case that she was confused about who wrote the material she claimed for herself, as most of the key pieces can be seen to derive directly from key texts by Aleister Crowley, from Christian texts and even from a couple of texts from literary Satanism!

What follows is an extract from Wicca Magickal Beginnings showing the origins of this last part of the Charge:

“Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth, for behold:”

The line “heart that rejoiceth” could be taken from Crowley’s Vision and the Voice, though it is not a unique phrase so this may be coincidence.

“all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals; “

More from the Law of Liberty, here emphasising the sexual and sensual components of magickal ceremony in a very Crowleyan manner, “Remember that all acts of love and pleasure are rituals”

“and therefore let there be Beauty and Strength,

Power and Compassion,

Honour and Humility, Mirth and reverence within you.”

The reference to “beauty and strength” could be from Liber Al (AL II.20) or may be coincidence.  The rest all seems to be original, though it may have been inspired by “let there be Harmony and Beauty in your mystic loves, that in us may be health and wealth and strength and divine pleasure according to the Law of Liberty”; words spoken by the Deacon during the Gnostic Mass, another of Crowley’s works.

“And thou who thinkest to seek me, know that thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not unless thou know the mystery,

that if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee,

thou wilt never find it without thee, for behold;

I have been with thee from the beginning,

and I am that which is attained at the end of desire.”

The inspiration here comes from Crowley’s Liber LXV, lines 59-60, “But I have called unto Thee, and I have journeyed unto Thee, and it availed me not. I waited patiently, and Thou wast with me from the beginning.”

(c) 2010 Sorita d’Este.  This blog was written by Sorita d’Este for www.sorita.co.uk, all rights reserved.

Comments welcomed at http://www.sorita.co.uk/?p=1000

Order a signed copy of Wicca Magickal Beginnings for £14.99 (with free P&P worldwide)

“and the Cauldron of Ceridwen, which is the Holy Grail of Immortality.”

This is the next in a series of blogs I am have decided to do, providing textual analysis for the ritual prose known as The Charge of the Goddess.  Each quotes a section of material which I presented, with my co-author David Rankine, in the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings.  The Charge is a beautifully evocative piece of prose which is used today by Pagans of all kinds of traditions, as well as of course in its original setting within initiatory Wicca – it is wrongly attributed to Wiccan authors, when in fact it is material primarily plagiarised from Aleister Crowley and Charles Leland.

For your convenience, all posts on this subject has been tagged with “charge analysis” here on my blog, and I ask that comments and other remarks be posted directly onto the original blog http://www.sorita.co.uk/?p=965 — keep comments to the lines discussed in this blog only please (there are separate blog entries for the rest!)

I am making this research available online in order to help raise awareness of the true origins of Wiccan ritual, for too long untruths have been perpetuated without question, even by leading experts in the field.  The truth about the origins of the practices found in the tradition is far far far more interesting than any of the people who made it famous!  Wicca is a distilled system of magical practice with roots going back many decades, sometimes hundreds and in some instances thousands of years before its public unveiling in the 1950′s – they say truth is stranger than fiction, and this is a clear example of exactly that!

The Rosicrucians and their rituals have become one of the modern trendy origins for the Wiccan rituals.  There is of course usually a fire when there is smoke, and this is true for the Rosicrucian connection – as it is for many others – but in this case its a minority source, which could have filtered its way in Wicca through a number of indirect sources.  The following line in the Charge is a possible Christian / Rosicrucian reference, but if it is, its less direct than the connection which exists for the majority of the Charge of the Goddess and the writings of Aleister Crowley and Charles Leland.

————

“and the Cauldron of Ceridwen, which is the Holy Grail of Immortality.”

This seems to be original material.  The reference to the “Cauldron of Ceridwen” brings in another of the goddesses mentioned at the start of the charge.  The equation of the cauldron to the Holy Grail, a very Christian symbol, is somewhat puzzling and inappropriate, but it has a nice poetic ring and flows on naturally from the previous line which as we have shown was likely borrowed from Christian liturgy.  It is of course also a popular theme in the Arthurian and Grail Mysteries, which might have influenced the person(s)who compiled this piece, due to its inherently ’Celtic’ overtones.

Years later, in An ABC of Witchcraft (originally published in 1973), Valiente quoted from Hargrave Jennings’ The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries in her entry for the Cauldron. In this, if indeed she was the author of these lines, she may have revealed her inspiration for their inclusion, but this is purely speculation on our part, and certainly is not an adaptation of words / phrases as found throughout the Charge. “We claim the cauldron of the witches as, in the original, the vase or urn of fiery transmigration, in which all things of the world change”[1]

The idea of immortality is raised in relation to the incarnation of the Goddess on Earth in Law of Liberty, as we have seen in regards to the inclusion of Melusine earlier with the phrase “Elixir of Immortality”

[1] An ABC of Witchcraft, Doreen Valiente, 1984

————————-

If you want to read more, see the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings (ISBN  978-1-905297-15-3)  by Sorita d’Este and David Rankine.  See   http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/titles/wicca_mb.htm for more information.

If you would like to add your comments, opinions or additional ideas to this article please do so on my website, where it will be available for others to read in future:  http://www.sorita.co.uk/?p=895

(c) 2010 Sorita d’Este.  This blog was written by Sorita d’Este for www.sorita.co.uk, allrights reserved.

Order a signed copy of Wicca Magickal Beginnings for £14.99 (with free P&P worldwide)

“And mine is the cup of the Wine of Life … And the Cauldron of Ceridwen…”

There had to be something original in the Charge of the Goddess, which could not be attributed to either Charles Leland or Aleister Crowley, and the following two lines can be described as being that bit of “original” which was probably added to the other plagiarised material by Gardner or Valiente, or whoever was responsible for compiling the evocative piece of prose known as The Charge of the Goddess.  Though even it in part was inspired by (or maybe consciously borrowed from) Christian liturgy, something which Doreen Valiente did on a regular basis.

What follows is an extract from Chapter 11 “Adore the Spirit of Me” in the book “Wicca Magickal Beginnings” which I co-authored with David Rankine and which includes a full analysis of the entire text, together with research on the origins of all the various component parts found in Wicca.

(For your convenience – all posts drawing from the analysis of the Charge of the Goddess in Wicca Magickal Beginnings will be tagged as “Charge Analysis” which should make it easier for you to find using the search facility on this site)

———————-

“and mine is the cup of the Wine of Life: “

This line seems to derive from the Catholic Liturgy, as part of the reading drawn from the Byzantine Matins, in the Table Blessing for Holy Thursday, which goes, “Instructing his friends into the divine mysteries, Jesus, the wisdom of God, prepares a table that gives food to the soul, and mingles for the faithful the cup of the wine of life eternal. Let us all, therefore, draw near the mysterious table, with pure souls let us receive the Bread of Life” The real question here, which we can neither prove or disprove at this point, is whether this was a deliberate use or whether it was a phrase merely imbedded in the psyche of the person who compiled the Charge, who consequently used it without realising the source of their inspiration?

“and the Cauldron of Ceridwen, which is the Holy Grail of Immortality.”

This seems to be original material.  The reference to the “Cauldron of Ceridwen” brings in another of the goddesses mentioned at the start of the charge.  The equation of the cauldron to the Holy Grail, a very Christian symbol, is somewhat puzzling and inappropriate, but it has a nice poetic ring and flows on naturally from the previous line which as we have shown was likely borrowed from Christian liturgy.  It is of course also a popular theme in the Arthurian and Grail Mysteries, which might have influenced the person(s)who compiled this piece, due to its inherently ’Celtic’ overtones.

Years later, in An ABC of Witchcraft (originally published in 1973), Valiente quoted from Hargrave Jennings’ The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries in her entry for the Cauldron. In this, if indeed she was the author of these lines, she may have revealed her inspiration for their inclusion, but this is purely speculation on our part, and certainly is not an adaptation of words / phrases as found throughout the Charge. “We claim the cauldron of the witches as, in the original, the vase or urn of fiery transmigration, in which all things of the world change”[1]

The idea of immortality is raised in relation to the incarnation of the Goddess on Earth in Law of Liberty, as we have seen in regards to the inclusion of Melusine earlier with the phrase “Elixir of Immortality”

---

[1] An ABC of Witchcraft, Doreen Valiente, 1984

————————-

If you want to read more, see the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings (ISBN  978-1-905297-15-3)  by Sorita d’Este and David Rankine.  See   http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/titles/wicca_mb.htm for more information.

If you would like to add your comments, opinions or additional ideas to this article please do so on my website, where it will be available for others to read in future:  http://www.sorita.co.uk/?p=895

(c) 2010 Sorita d’Este.  This blog was written by Sorita d’Este for www.sorita.co.uk, allrights reserved.

Order a signed copy of Wicca Magickal Beginnings for £14.99 (with free P&P worldwide)

Serpents ~ ssssssss

There is something amazingly powerful about the simplicity and power inherent in the snake.  So much so that the serpent motif can be found in almost all the world religions, symbolising magical and sexual power, sometimes the serpent was reverred and adored, and sometimes reviled and feared. 

Ophiolatreia is the name giving to the worship of the serpent and it is one of the most enduring religious motif found throughout the world, possibly even more so than that of the importance placed on the phallus.  Remarkable if you think how simple a creature in many ways serpents are, that they should become a symbol of so much power.

From the serpent temptress in the Garden of Eden, to the serpent power ascribed to the Egyptian Goddess Aset (Isis) and the shapeshifting power of the Malay Kris knife, the healing power of the serpents of Asclepius – the serpent is to e found everywhere. 

But what is the serpent, and what is the power of the serpent today?  Is it merely symbolic, or is there something more to it?

In the first of the books of the Bible, Genesis we encounter the serpent, in what is possibly the most famous of serpent tales known in the West:

“¹Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 

 ²And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 

 ³But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

⁴And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

 ⁵For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

 ⁶And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

 ⁷And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. ”

[Genesis 3]

Could this story be the root of the fear felt by many when they first encounter a snake?  An irrational fear which is rarely equalled by the power the physical creature may exert over them?  Or is there something deeper and far more deeply rooted in our psyche which is at the heart of this fear?

When examining the creation myths from around the world, we find that there are quite a few in which the serpent plays an important role, not just that of the biblical Genesis.   For two completely unrelated examples see the creation story of the Aboriginal people of Australia (http://www.indigenouspeople.net/legend.htm ) and that of the Aztec people (http://www.crystalinks.com/azteccreation.html ) in Central America.  Could our fear be related to something which formed part of our own origins?

Yet serpents also played an important role in religious rites around the world, often as the object of veneration.  The mystic serpent which played such a central role in the Baccic orgies, the head of Medusa entertwined with serpents, the Pythia of Delphi whose name derived from the Python of Delphi who once held power there, before being defeated by Apollo and his twin sister Artemis, the dragons of the Arthurian myths are also a form of fiery serpent. 

What power do these creatures hold over us that we take so much note of their presence, and why?

Speaking for the Goddess…

In my essay “Mantic Voices” published as part of the Priestesses Pythonesses & Sibyls project I edited and which was published by Avalonia last year, I examined the role of the Oracle Priestess in different traditions.   It is clear from the available evidence that comes to us from the many spiritual traditions of the world that woman have long been spiritual leaders.  They have long served the gods and spirits of their native lands and their ancestral people, as well as those of their adopted lands.  Whilst these women are named as many things at different times and in different cultures, it is clear that many of them served in the role of the “prophetess” – that is that they became vesels for the gods and spirits to speak through, either through deep trance or through other forms of interaction, such as mediumship and divination. 

From Medea and Circe, to Boudica and Morgan Le Fey we find them, through to the Nuns of the Roman Catholic Church and though they insist on the masculine form of the word, other Christian churches, such as the Anglican Church here in the UK, now also accept women into their Priesthood.  But not all Priestesses are destined to become oracles for the God(s).  The oracles in the ancient world were often women who were chosen for the role due to their particular skill and abilities, sometimes they would be chosen based on oracles received from a serving priestess.  Great importance was placed on the oracles of the Pythia at Delphi and the Sibylline prophesies.    Their predictions were taken very seriously and were often studied by scholars for many centuries in an effort to understand their meanings.  There were many different forms of oracle too – and this in itself is very interesting and warrant an entire area of study, often much neglected today.

The practice of oracular work in modern pagan rituals is often neglected in favour of a pre-prepared “Charge” which is read out by someone in a group.  This is a remnant of the practices of our ancestors which was of course a lot more ecstatic.  There are very few groups and individuals practising full trance in the pagan revivalist traditions.  In the Wiccan tradition I have heard that it is growing in popularity in more recent years, though out of my own experiences it is necessary to make a great many changes to the practices of the tradition in order to incorporate full trance necessary for such practices.  The rituals were not designed to incorporate full trance possession, but instead for the recital of the prose concocted by Doreen Valiente from fragments taken from Leland’s The Aradia and Crowley’s Law of Liberty text.  In fact, a little known fact by those who frequently use the Charge of the Goddess in their rituals is that ironically the only channelled material it contains comes from Aleister Crowley’s “Liber Al Vel Legis” (better known as “The Book of the Law” and much of what was included was actually attributed by Crowley to Hadit, the masculine principle in his system of magick.   So yes,  it does make a powerful piece of prose to use in ritual, but it is also in reality a rather weird choice if you are speaking for the Goddess, using words which originally came from a male divinity!  

The Wiccan Tradition, and in particular parts of the rituals which are attributed to Doreen Valiente, is often “borrowed” (to use the nice term) from such inappropriate sources, yet even though people are now becoming more aware of such origins, there seems to be a reluctance to change anything.  In fear of losing “authenticity”.  Maybe its time to study the meaning of “To Dare” and “To Know” – the two, I have found, often goes together rather well.  Do we truly speak the words of the Goddess of the Wicca when we recite “The Charge of the Goddess”?  I realise that there is a lot of power in those words, charged as they have been over the years by (probably!) tens of thousands of recitals.  How honest are we when we recite those words and claim that they are from our deities?  Is that what was intended?   Is this another dogma which is being formed, which we should not question? 

There are of course traditions, groups and individuals who do work towards understanding the mysteries of the many Gods and Goddesses through trance and possession.  Many examples of the women who speak for the Goddesses (and Gods!) can be found in Priestesses Pythonesses & Sibyls – it is difficult for me to highlight any of them in particular, as Priestesses Pythonesses & Sibyls  was born out of my own desire to be able to learn from and with the women I asked to contribute to it – they come from so many traditions – including Wicca  and the Fellowship of Isis, but also the Western Mystery Tradition, Priestess of Avalon, Thelema, Candomble, Voudou and Seidr.  I have had the honour to work with some of them over the years in different ways, and I hope in time to have the honour to experience ritual with all of them.  I highly recommend this book and the essays therein to women who do mantic (oracular / trance) work with the feminine divine, and indeed those who open themselves to speak for the Gods.  (After all, the most famous oracular priestesses, the Pythia at the Oracle in Delphi, spoke for the God Apollo!).