“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.

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The Charge of the Goddess & Aleister Crowley

I have many bugbears with the Wiccan tradition, especially in some of its modern variations, which often seems to have lost touch with its true origins.  So this is another post in a series on my blog in which I will explore just some of the ideas found in the Wiccan Book of Shadows, and which has now been adapted and adopted by other Pagan traditions.

One of the most famous and loved pieces of prose from Gerald Gardner’s Book of Shadows, which has been published, is the Charge of the Goddess.

Although the Charge of the Goddess is often attributed to Doreen Valiente, a lady who was a High Priestess trained by Gerald Gardner in the 1950′s who subsequently went on to explore a number of different pagan and witchcraft traditions, research seems to point at something different.  At the best, Doreen Valiente was responsible for compiling lines of prose from the work of other authors (today this is a popular practice for many people who are writing ceremonies for private groups, after all those rituals are not meant to be published!) – and even though Ms. Valiente claimed that she removed material from the controversial magician Aleister Crowley from an earlier Charge, now known as “Lift up the Veil” – it would seem that she largely replaced Crowley with more Crowley.  Strange but true, here is an example:

A favourite line which is often quoted by people who have read the Charge of the Goddess is:

“For mine is the ecstasy of the Spirit, and mine is also joy on earth. For my Law is Love unto all beings.”

The latter part of this line comes from Crowley’s Law of Liberty, quoting “ecstasy be thine and joy of earth” (AL I.53) and “love is the law” (AL I.57).  Although these pieces are pulled out of context and put together, it is worth noting that the beginnings of the two relevant verses are “This shall regenerate the world” (AL I.53) and “Invoke me under my stars!” (AL I.57), both concepts of great relevance to the Wiccan tradition, and also hinting at their union in the Orphic Oath of “I am a child of earth and starry heaven.” So although seemingly out of context, this line retains a great deal of relevant symbolism, even if quite concealed.

This phrase is an inspirational one, as can be seen by the following quote from the nineteenth century English poet and literary critic John Addington Symonds, “The mania of Plato was a permanent ecstasy of the spirit, in which love led the way to heaven, and raised a man above himself.”[1]

We may also note the occurrence of the phrase ‘ecstasy of the spirit’ in the writings of the late fifteenth century poet John Skelton, when he wrote in a way which strongly resembles the reincarnation theme found in the Charge, “ls it possible that in some such passionate ecstasy of the spirit we pass through death into the life beyond death?”^[2] Skelton also mentioned the triplicity of Diana, Luna and Persephone in his work Garland of Laurels in 1523 when he wrote “Diana in the leaves green, Luna that so bright doth sheen, Persephone in hell”.

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[1] An Introduction to the Study of Dante, Symonds, 1890

[2] Essays in Romance and Studies from Life, Skelton, 1878

[Extract from Wicca Magickal Beginnings, Sorita d'Este & David Rankine, Avalonia Second Edition 2008]

I feel that it is important for those who practice a system of spirituality and who name themselves as “Wicca” (from the old word for “Wise”) to seek wisdom, and wisdom comes through both knowledge and experience.  Is it not time for us to be honest about the origins of the Wiccan Tradition – after all, most of it really does have ancient roots, and a rich and beautiful tapestry of cultural and magical history.