“Beloved of Gods and men…”

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.  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=998 — keep comments to the lines discussed in this blog only please (there are separate blog entries for the rest!)

The following two lines firstly describes the Goddess of Wicca as being “The Beloved of Gods and men” which as you will see are titles associated with the Goddess Aphrodite, but also with Baldur, the son of the God Odin in the Norse mythologies.  And then seems to hint at what happens to those who find themselves before this Goddess.  Though absolutely evocative and beautiful, we again see the influence of Aleister Crowley’s Law of Liberty in this text.

“and before my face, Beloved of the Gods and men,”

This is again probably original material.  Although almost certainly just coincidental, we thought it amusing to mention that this line is also found in a novel published in 1908 which has a character called Doreen in![1]

In Norse myths, Baldur, the son of Odin is often referred to as “beloved of Gods and men” which might have provided some inspiration for the use of the term; however this seems strange and unlikely considering he is male.  With these being words of the goddess this would be an inappropriate usage.  However, the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, was also sometimes referred to by the same title, and it is hopefully more likely that the author(s) of the Charge, may have taken their inspiration from this goddess rather than using the title of a male god.

“let thine inmost divine self shall be enfolded in the raptures of the infinite.”

Again this seems to be derived from two more quotes merged from the Law of Liberty: “He is then your inmost divine self” and “in the constant rapture of the embraces of Infinite Beauty”.  These quotes are in reference to words spoken by Hadit, the masculine divine in the cosmology of Thelema.  Thus it is being used completely inappropriately as words spoken by the Goddess, as in fact it originates in relation to the God.  This may indicate that the person compiling this version of the Charge was not familiar with Crowley’s work or philosophy, but thought of the words themselves as mere poetry to be used, as it would seem from this that the material used to compile the Charge was used regardless of its original context and symbolism, instead being purely utilised for its poetic and emotive effects.  This recalls Valiente’s remark in An ABC of Witchcraft that Gardner told her he “had supplied words which seemed to him to convey the right atmosphere, to strike the right chords in one’s mind.” If this is the case, then it could also support the idea that Gardner was the author, or one of the authors, of the original, as it seems to have been rewritten from the Lift Up the Veil charge.

---

[1] Mary Ware: The Little Colonel’s Chum, Johnston, 1908

(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=998

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

“I am the beauty of the green earth…”

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.  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=993 — keep comments to the lines discussed in this blog only please (there are separate blog entries for the rest!)

The lines included in this part of the analysis of the Charge of the Goddess I am posting here seems to emphasise a Lunar, Stellar, Water and Earthly component to the Goddess.  Interestingly, there are very few historical Goddesses who have all these attributes.  The Goddess Diana or indeed, her messianic daughter “Aradia” who is cited often as being the Goddess of the Wiccan tradition (both by initiates of traditions derived from Gerald Gardner, and by those who take their inspiration from The Aradia Gospel of the Witches by Charles Leland – which was of course influential as we have already seen in the compilation of this Charge) does not have all these attributes in a historical context.  However, the Goddess Hekate – who is popular amongst modern Pagan Witches – but who herself is not usually cited as “The” goddess of the Wicca, does have all these attributes in a clearly defined manner.  This opens up a whole host of additional questions and debates on the subject – which is not the subject of this entry.  From a spiritual perspective, the concepts described, could also of course, be taken to indicate strong pantheistic leanings.

“HPS: I who am the beauty of the green earth;

and the White Moon amongst the Stars; and the mystery of the Waters;  and the desire of the heart of man,”

This is largely original material, though it is possible the line “desire of the heart of man,” may have been inspired by Crowley’s book The Vision and the Voice (1909) where we find “I am the blind ache within the heart of man”.  We may note however that the phrase “beauty of the green earth” used in conjunction with stellar references was a common occurrence in Christian writings of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, so this is a well documented analogy.  Illustrating this point with two examples, in The British Preacher (1831) we read “How good must that light be which reveals to us the grandeur of the starry heavens, and the beauty of the green earth,” and in Evangelical Christendom (1893) we see, “if the glories of the starry heavens, if the beauty of the green earth never taught man of God”.

“call unto thy soul: arise and come unto me. “

This line is clearly again derived from Crowley’s work, as “arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me!” is found in both the Law of Liberty and its inspiration Liber AL I.61.

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=993

(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)

“Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess…”

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.  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=991 — keep comments to the lines discussed in this blog only please (there are separate blog entries for the rest!)

The next line “Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess” is usually, within an esoteric coven context, spoken by the High Priest, standing next to – or kneeling before the High Priestess who is deemed at this point to be the embodiment of the Wiccan Goddess.  The High Priestess continues with the Charge following this starting with “She in the dust …”   Both the lines discussed in this blog originate with the writings of Aleister Crowley.

This part of the Charge is of particular interest in this context as Doreen Valiente, a lady who worked with Gerald Gardner for a short period during the 1950′s and who left declaring her dissatisfaction (as she she subsequently did in other traditions too) and to whom this version of the “charge” is commonly attributed, claimed that she “removed” the Crowley from the Charge.  We have already seen in the lines I have posted to date that this is not the case at all as clearly quite a bit of the material which does not originate with the writings of Charles Leland’s The Aradia – Gospel of the Witches does show clear influence from Crowley.  In the earlier version of the Charge, sometimes referred to as Lift Up the Veil, the second part of the Charge consists nearly completely of a section of Crowley’s ritual prose used in his very well known Gnostic Mass and often referred to as “The Nuit Speech”.  So what is true, is that if it was Doreen who compiled (and lets be clear, she did not write it!) this version of the Charge of the Goddess, she did remove Crowley as she claimed – but only to replace it with more Crowley!   It is one of the most common mis-perceptions which are being perpetuated amongsts Pagans and Wiccans alike that Doreen “wrote” the Charge, and one of the many hindrances to the spiritual, mystical and magical growth of the tradition which should be about “wisdom” .  After all, wisdom is about truth – and truth means stripping away the illusions created by others around us, so that we can face it for what it is.

“HP: Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess,“

Once again the text returns to Crowley’s Law of Liberty, “We have heard the voice of the Star Goddess”, emphasising the Egyptian stellar goddess Nuit, who represents the entire universe in the cosmology of Thelema.

“She in the dust of whose feet are the hosts of Heaven, whose body encircleth the universe.”

This line appears to be more original material which is most likely a continuation of the reference to Nuit, who in Egyptian mythology is perceived as encircling the universe.  The phrase “Hosts of Heaven” is very widely used, but it is worth noting here that it may refer to the company of Angels in heaven in popular Christian use as it occurs several times in the Bible, or indeed to the Moon and Stars in the Occidental traditions, which again supports the idea that this line refers to the goddess Nuit.

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)

Charles Leland, The Aradia & Wicca

Discrediting, ignoring and belittling the work of Charles Godfrey Leland has become one of those “trendy” things to do, and I don’t like it.  Not one little bit.  Pagan writers with an academic leaning, or in particular those who like to alude to it, have long been discrediting the work of this American anthropologist, often times turning him into nothing but a babbling old man who believed anyone who told him what he wanted to hear, and in particular so in regards to his now most famous work “THE ARADIA, Gospel of the Witches”.   In this book he published material given to him by an Italian witch, and because some pagan writers today have forced themselves to come to the conclusion that Leland must have made it up, because of course Gerald Gardner invented Pagan Witchcraft.  Right?   Don’t be silly.

In the research we did for our book Wicca Magickal Beginnings, David and I found a great deal of evidence to support the idea that Leland was in fact not such a naive writer after all.  In fact, even after more than a hundred years most of his work stands up to critique when considered within the body of work contemporary to him and which followed him in the areas he studied.  The following is a quote from the first chapter of our book Wicca Magickal Beginnings, which also considers Leland’s Aradia in the context of Italian Witchcraft:

Contemporary with Frazer was the American anthropologist Charles Godfrey Leland, who published a number of significant books.  Amongst these was Aradia Gospel of the Witches in 1899, a polyglot text which would contribute to some of the most influential material in the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, specifically the Charge of the Goddess. There has been a great deal of dispute about the veracity of Leland’s Aradia, but regardless of whether its authenticity can ever be proved or disproved, it was and still continues to be, albeit sometimes without due credit, a hugely influential text.

What is relevant, yet often ignored about the Aradia is that it continues a trail of many centuries of Italian texts referring to a witchcraft cult, real or possibly mythical, that worshipped the goddess Diana.  For example, in 1749 Girolamo Tartarotti published a book called Del Congresso Notturno Delle Lammie (“Of the Nocturnal Meeting of Spirits”) which declared that “The identity of the Dianic cult with modern witchcraft is demonstrated and proven”. Prior to this in 1647 Peter Pipernus wrote De Nuce Maga Beneventana & De Effectibus Magicis (“Six Books of Magic Effects and of the Witch Walnut Tree of Benevento”).  Earlier still in 1576 Bartolo Spina wrote of witches gathering at night to worship Diana in his work, Quaestio de Strigus (“An Investigation of Witches”).  This trail of documentation, which only lightly scrapes at the surface of what is available from preceding centuries, does strongly suggest that the Leland material was indeed based on an existing tradition, rather than one fabricated out of thin air by Leland or his informant, the witch Maddalena.

(From Wicca Magickal Beginnings, Sorita d’Este & David Rankine, Avalonia 2008)

As should be clear if you take some time out to study these and other books published prior to Leland, combined with a visit to Italy in which you go talking to some people in the towns and villages mentioned by these writers, you will find that the practice of what could be termed ‘Witchcraft’ has always been alive and well in certain parts of Italy.  More interestingly perhaps is that the first known translations of the Key of Solomon and a number of other magical texts also emerged from Italy (North) and that at least some of the scribes who copied books such as the Key of Solomon for rich clients were women, and in one instance they were two sisters who also practiced Witchcraft.  As in a previous entry here considering Italian Witchcraft and the writings of Oliver Maddox Hueffer (a few years after Leland) it would seem that an entire area of study has been largely ignored.   Lets open our eyes a bit.