The charge of the Goddess






When I shall have departed from this world,
whenever ye have need of anything,
once in the month, and when the moon is full,
ye shall assemble in some desert place,
or in a forest all together join
to adore the potent spirit of your Queen,
my Mother, great Diana. She who fain
and learn all sorcery yet has not won
In truth all things are yet unknown.
And ye shall be freed from slavery;
and as the sign that ye are truly free,
ye shall be naked in your rites, both men
and women also: This shall last until
the last of your oppressors shall be dead...

"No one knows when or by whom it was first composed, or even whether it is authentically ancient," says Starhawk (1979), author of the classic The Spiral Dance. The above text is excerpted from Leland (1899). Other versions abound. For example, similar versions of the Charge of the Goddess are posted in various places on the web, as well as a Charge of the God.