Whenever you have need of anything, once in a month, and better it be when the moon is full, you shall assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of Me, who is Queen of all the Wicca. There shall you assemble, you who are fain to learn all magick, yet have not won its secrets; to you will I teach things that are yet unknown. Keep pure your highest ideals; strive ever toward them; let naught stop you or turn you aside. You shall be free from slavery; and as a sign that you be free, you shall be naked in your rites. Sing, feast, dance, make laughter and music, all in My presence. For Mine is the ecstasy of the spirit and Mine also is joy on earth. For My law is love unto all beings. For Mine is the secret that opens upon the door of youth, and Mine is the cup of the wine of life that is the Cauldron of Cerridwen that is the holy grail of immortality. I am the gracious Goddess. I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal and beyond death, I give freedom and peace, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor do I demand aught of sacrifice; for behold, I am the Mother of all things, and My love is poured out upon the earth.
Hear the words of the Star Goddess, the dust of whose feet are the multitudes of the heavens, whose body encircles the cosmos.:
I who am the beauty of the green earth and the white moon among the stars and the mysteries of the waters, I call upon your spirit to arise and come unto Me. For I am the soul of nature, who gives life to the cosmos. From Me all things proceed, and unto Me they must return. Let My worship be within the heart that rejoices; for behold--all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals. And therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you. And you who seek to know Me, know that your seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without. For behold, I have been with you from the beginning; and I am that which is attained at the end of desire.
Myth's Notes:
This traditional piece of Wiccan lore, which is one of the many versions of the Charge of the Goddess, was adapted from versions in Starhawk's Spiral Dance (1979) and the Farrars' Eight Sabbats for Witches (1983).
When Starhawk penned her Spiral Dance in the 1970's, she was unaware by who or when this beautiful piece of Wiccan liturgy was written. An earlier version was in Gardner's Witchcraft Today (1954), but Gardner did not credit it to anyone and implied he had no idea of its origin.
According to Doreen Valiente, in her Rebirth of Witchcraft (1989), and Aidan Kelly, in his Crafting the Art of Magic (1991) and Inventing Witchcraft (2007), Doreen rewrote an earlier version called Lift Up the Veil or Leviter Veslis. The Leviter Veslis was created probably in the 1940's by Gardner, who took pieces of the text from Aradia, or the Gospel of Witches by Charles G. Leland and the writings of the magician, Aleister Crowley, and rewrote them.
Acording to Valiente, Gardner explained to her that he was using this material to flesh out some of the fragmentary rituals given to him.