Charge of the Goddess

A central liturgical text in Wiccan ritual, recited by the High Priestess as the voice of the Goddess addressed directly to the assembled coven. The form in widest use today was substantially composed by Doreen Valiente in the 1950s, drawing on the speech attributed to Aradia in Leland’s Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (1899) and on earlier material in Gerald Gardner’s working notes. The Charge is the most-cited single piece of modern Wiccan liturgy and one of the few elements consistent across Gardnerian, Alexandrian, and many eclectic Wiccan groups.