(I missed a week. Oops!)

Back in 2005 an online friend had a witchcraft course running in a forum. The tradition she co-created was Wiccan based. That trad was not for me, but one of the pieces of course work I found very intriguing. It was to rewrite the Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valiente in our own words  with what the deities mean to us after meditating on the charge. Here is my rewrite:

The Charge of the Goddess

by PJVJ (Modified from Doreen Valiente’s Charge of the Goddess)

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,

Brid, and by many other names.

 I am the cut in the leaf and the tiny insect underneath. I am the wild goose and soaring wind. I am your joyous burst of laughter and your most bitter tear. I flit at the edges of your imagination and tease in your dreams. I am the base of all that you are and that you will become. I am the love – in nature, in art, in music, in laughter, in sex, in you. I am the despair – in light, in darkness, in words, in crowds, in loneliness, in you. I am always with you. I am the Honor. I am the Humility. I am the Reverence. I am the Peace. I am the Joy of All things.

Meet with kindred spirits, once a month when the moon is full, and invoke my presence, my joy, my desire; and fulfill your need. Call me and I shall join you in your rite.  Know that all acts, all manners, of love and pleasure come through me. Rejoice in my presence and raise voice, hands and feet to me. Sing! Dance! Laugh! Seek my wisdom – all of my wisdom.

Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess; she in the dust

of whose feet are the hosts of heaven, and whose body

encircles the universe.

Look up! Look down! I am everywhere. I am here in your house. I am out in the fields. I am above you in the sky. I am below you in the middle earth. I surround the universe with my ample self and I reach inside you and light the flame – of existence, of knowledge, of love, of eternity. Seek everywhere at once for me, but know this to be true – if what you seek you do not see first within you, you shall never find it outside of you.

I am the beginning and end, the above and below, the seen and unseen. I was there to smell your first breath and I will be there blowing your last breath away. And when you rise again I will be there with you. I am All that Is and all that Is is Me.

Copyright © 2005 (Boneweaver) Pamela V Jones

Originally posted at Lean in to Joy.