Equality and Pluralism in the Divine Embodied:
An Exegesis of The Charge of the Goddess Part I

by Kila

All sacred texts come from somewhere. Some are divinely inspired, and some are inspired by human beings in their mundane humanity. In the pagan community, I have observed that we tend to read a great deal but we also tend to not elevate texts over the lived experience of practitioners. And this often separates us from our mainstream counterparts in most other religions.

It is not that we do not have texts, we have plenty. However, most of these texts are quite apparently the work of the human intelligence, no matter how insightful. Our community rarely, if ever, claims texts to be directly inspired by the divine much less exalting one text over all others.

The paucity of religious texts that purport to tell us how the Goddess wants us to conduct our lives is a fortunate and an unfortunate thing for thealogians. On one hand we are able to be very creative, we are allowed to derive a thealogy directly from our everyday experiences with the Divine, we can rely on an embodied understanding of Spirit without the baggage and limits of text. On the other hand, we have nothing enduring and unchanging to which we can anchor our interpretations even as we (and these interpretations) change. Yet, if there is one text that stands out, it is The Charge of the Goddess written by Doreen Valiente.

In this article, I would like to offer some insights into the Charge through a traditional means of studying texts: exegesis. It should be noted that all texts have gaps and this leaves them open to various nuanced interpretations. And where one does not agree with a particular interpretation, another is always at hand.

I begin with the first verse[1]:

Listen to the words of the Great Mother who, of old was called:
Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Ceridwen,
Diana, Arionhod, Brigid and by many other names.

First, we are asked to listen to Great Mother who speaks to us. It is not a prophet or a priestess to whom she speaks but to all of us. We are addressed en masse. One possible reason for this generalization is a desire to put everyone on equal footing. And a common pagan spiritual understanding is that we are all equal in our ability to understand and experience the Goddess. Therefore, it is not necessary for the Goddess to choose one person to be her representative to the masses. She is fully able to speak to each heart because she has endowed each heart with the ability to comprehend her.

This makes sense on another level. If we are the embodied Divine, if we are a reflection of the Goddess in her variegated beauty, then surely we are worthy and able to listen to her as she speaks in our souls. We are all able to speak the Divine tongues whether or not we choose to exercise this power.

Consider now the second part of this phrase. In the days of old she was called by a number of names. This implies that there may be a difference temporally between her names in the past and her names in the present. It may also imply a shift in the understanding of the Divinity from a strictly polytheistic position to a monotheistic position (insofar as we are all part of the same universe, creation and divinity). One possible implication of this section is that we might discover new names of the Divine and that those names and aspects are as valid as those handed down to us.

This truly liberates modern practitioners of earth-based spiritualities to converse with the Divine in as many ways and modes as possible. It also does away with orthodoxy in that we do not have to be confined to recreating the practices of our forebears, we can fashion our own doxa and praxis. The polyvalence of the Goddess would allow for all competing interpretations of her.

Moving on to the next verse:

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 Wise.

We see here that the Goddess is open to communication of all sorts. There are numerous ways to read the first part of the line. I offer the interpretation that there are multiple layers here. First, there is the literal reading which gives us the meaning that we ought to communicate with the Goddess once a month on the night of the full moon whenever we have need of anything. Which may mean that we are free to worship or commune with her on the full moon on the months when we are in need of her. Another layer is that we are to commune with regularity, at least once a month and preferably when the moon is full. The first part of the sentence then becomes a statement of the obvious (when is humanity not in need of something?). In any event, I take this to mean that communing with the Divine and submerging ourselves in the Spirit is essential to pagan spirituality.

The second half of the verse underscores the importance of community. Now, it is well accepted that the overall pagan community is composed of groups and solitaries. And this is an important freedom. There is no compulsion to join a group, however, there is a benefit in coming together. What do we get from community that we do not get alone? Inspiration, challenges to broaden our thinking, support, and strength to persevere in our path. And anyone who has raised energy in a big group can attest that there is something incredible about that experience that is very different from the energy we raise in our solitary practices.

The fact that we are asked to assemble in a secret place can have two possible meanings. First, it could mean that we should assemble secretly in order to protect ourselves. Of course, we all know that prejudice of the kind that takes lives is still alive and well because there are some who take the injunction to not suffer a witch to live very literally. Therefore, this interpretation is still very salient for us as pagans. But another possibility in this line is that we are to find places that are secret in which to meet. Where would these be? I would suggest that these are places removed from the every day. Perhaps it is between the worlds, perhaps a sacred grove, perhaps the roof of an apartment building. This implies a movement out of ordinary places, therefore, we must transform the spaces in which we worship through the means given to us -- through purification, through changes in our own consciousness and through energy-work.

And the purpose of meeting in community in this verse is to adore the "spirit of Me" who is Queen of the Wise. In my interpretation, the form is not as important as the substance. It is the spirit and not the image that is important. When we communicate with the Goddess it is an intercourse of the spirit from the divine to the Divine. And that is why we are the Wise. The Wise are those who have learned to listen (as in the first verse) first.

In the next edition of Matrifocus, I will continue with this exegesis. In the meanwhile, I hope that readers will work with this text and do their own exegesis.

Notes

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