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The Charge of the Goddess is the closest thing to scripture that Wicca possesses. Like scripture, it is used in rituals and to support beliefs. And like scripture, its origins are obscure.
The Charge itself claims to be the words of the Goddess, beginning "Listen to the words of the Great Mother." When Gerald Gardner first published an excerpt from it in Witchcraft Today (1954, p. 42), he claimed it came from the Roman era . He also speculated that "a similar charge was a feature of the ancient mysteries."
Fairly early, however, the age and origin of the Charge was questioned. Stewart Farrar, in 1971 (p. 34), pointed out that a large part of it was quoted from Charles Godfrey Leland's Aradia. Since then more work has been done in ferreting out the Charge's sources, especially in Farrar and Farrar (1981, p. 42) and Kelly (1991, pp. 52 - 4, 114 - 5). The purpose of this essay will be to gather this work together, add more sources to it, and then analyze the relative contributions of the authors of the Charge.
The earliest form of the Charge (given by Kelly, 1991, p. 53), was a prose version put together by Gerald Gardner, called "Leviter Veslis" ("The Lifting of the Veil"). It consists mainly of the Leland material with large quotations from Aleister Crowley added, along with very small amount of original material. Kelly dates this version to before 1948. According to Doreen Valiente's own account (1989, 60 - 62), some time after her initiation in 1953 she wrote first a rhyming version, and then the prose version used by most Wiccans. The first prose and the rhyming versions may be found in Kelly (p. 53) and Valiente (pp. 61-2), respectively. The first prose version reads:
Listen to the words of the Great mother, who of old was also called among men Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, and by many other names.
"At mine Altars the youth of Lacedaemon in Sparta made due sacrifice.
[Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full, then ye shall assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of Me who am Queen of all Witcheries.]
["There ye shall assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets. To these will I teach things that are yet unknown.]
["And ye shall be free from slavery, and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites, both men and women, and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music, and love, all in my praise.]
For ecstasy is mine, and joy on earth. For 'love is my law.' Keep pure your highest ideal: strive ever toward it. Let naught stop you or turn you aside.
{There is a Secret Door that I have made to establish the way} to taste even on earth the elixir of immortality.}
Say {'let ecstasy be mine, and joy on earth even to me, To Me} For I am a gracious Goddess. {I give unimaginable joys on earth, certainty, not faith, while in life! And upon death, peace unutterable, rest, and ecstacy, nor do I demand aught in sacrifice."}
Hear ye the words of the {Star Goddesss}.
{"I love you: I yearn for you: pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous.}
{"I who am all pleasure, and purple and drunkenness of the innermost senses, desire you, put on the wings, arouse the coiled splendor within you, 'Come unto me.'}
{"For I am the flame that burns in the heart of every man, and the core of every Star.}
"Let it be your inmost divine self who art lost in the constant rapture of infinite joy.
{"Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy and beauty.} Remember that all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. So let there be {beauty and strength, leaping laughter, force and fire} within you.
("And if thou sayest, I have journeyed unto thee, and it availed me not, Rather shalt thou say, 'I called upon thee, and I waited patiently, and Lo, Thou wast with me from the beginning,'
For they that ever desired me, shall ever attain me, even to the end of desire.)
(The text is as published in Kelly, with corrections from Kelly, unpublished manuscript.)
The words within square brackets ([ ]) are from Leland, those within brackets ({ }) are from Aleister Crowley's Book of the Law, and those within parentheses (( )) are from Crowley's Liber LXV,. The passages in italics are found in Crowley's essay "The Law of Liberty."
The line "Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess" is not exactly the same as the line from The Law of Liberty, which reads "We have heard the voice of the Star Goddess." However, the line in The Law of Liberty is followed by the same material as is found here, so we can be confident that that is its source.
The first thing that should be noticed is how little of this version cannot be traced to published sources. Except for the introduction, this version is essentially quotations linked with a small number of connecting phrases.
The large number of quotations from "The Law of Liberty" illustrates Gardner's method of composition especially well. He must have had that essay in front of him as he wrote, since his quotations from it are in the same order as they appear in the essay. This is especially striking in the case of the sections of the Charge wherein quotations from the essay are followed by excerpts from The Book of the Law. In all cases, these quotations are also found together in the essay.
Further, all but one of the quotations from The Book of the Law are also found in "The Law of Liberty." In fact, except for that one phrase, all of this prose version of the Charge (except for the introduction and the short connectors) can be traced to three sources: Leland, "The Law of Liberty," and Liber LXV. The significance of these Crowley sources will be discussed later.
In my earlier version of this article (Serith, 1996), I suggested that the only line from The Book of the Law which is found in the Charge but is not in "The Law of Liberty" ("There is a Secret Door that I have made to establish the way) would be found quoted in another of Crowley's works. I have indeed found that work, Khabs Am Pekht. At the time that Gardner was composing the first prose version, it was to be found in The Equinox Vol. III:1, commonly called The Blue Equinox because of the color of its binding. Also published in The Blue Equinox were "The Law of Liberty" and Liber LXV.
There has been a fair amount of speculation on the connection between Crowley and Gardner. Some have gone so far as to suggest that Crowley wrote the Gardnerian rituals (Adler, 1979, 1986, p. 64, gives some examples).
Those wishing to see a strong Crowley influence have often pointed to the Charge. As I have shown, there is at this early point a fair amount of Crowley in it. Words from Crowley's works are also found in the Great Rite and the Drawing Down the Moon rituals, as published by Stewart Farrar (1971, pp. 93-94 and 68 respectively). These are taken from the Gnostic Mass. It should come as no suprise at this point that the Gnostic Mass was published by Crowley in The Blue Equinox.
All of this material comes from the first, the earliest, layer of the Book of Shadows (Kelly's 1949 version, and Farrar and Farrar's (1984) Text A). There is one other identifiable quotation from Crowley in this layer, taken from "Two Fragments of Ritual" (Equinox I:10, Kelly, p. 56). The next layer (Kelly's 1953 and Farrar and Farrar Text B) is that used by Gardner at the time of Valiente's initiation. It contains one more piece by Crowley, the Amalthean Horn prayer (given in Kelly, p. 81, and Farrar and Farrar, 1981, p. 41), which is a slightly altered version of the poem "La Fortune," from his Collected Works, Vol. III (p. 120). More Crowley was to enter later, under the editing of Valiente, as will be seen later. To be blunt: with one exception, all of the material taken from Crowley that has been attributed in print to the Book of Shadows in the phase during which Gardnerian Wicca was first taking shape (the 1949/Text A version) comes from one book - The Blue Equinox. Rather than there having been a strong connection between the Gardner and Crowley, then, their contact is likely to have been extremely limited.
The first entry into print of the Charge was an excerpt published In Witchcraft Today (p. 42), which reads:
Listen to the words of the Great Mother, who of old was also called among men Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite and many other names. At mine altars the youth Lacedaemon made due sacrifice. Once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full, meet in some secret place and adore me, who am queen of all the magics....For I am a gracious goddess, I give joy on earth, certainty, not faith, while in life; and upon death, peace unutterable, rest and the ecstasy of the goddess. Nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.... (The ellipses are in the original.)
This is the version that Gardner says he thinks "came from the time when Romans or sirangers came in." It should be noted that since it was published in 1954 it dates from after Valiente's inititiation in 1953. In light of that it seems a bit odd that, as seen below in the textual comparison, it deviates quite significantly from the first prose version, and that the second prose version follows the first prose rather than the published excerpt. It is likely from this that Gardner did not consider this published version authoritative, and may have been working from memory, resulting in the differences.
Most interesting is the phase with which Gardner introduces this fragment: "Before an initiation a charge is read beginning:"That he mentions this document specifically in the context of an initiation ritual is clear evidence that the idea of a "charge" and, of course, the term itself, originated in Gardner's Masonic roots, where such charges are part of inititiation rituals.
The sources of the final version of the Charge, as edited by Valiente, are more complex. In the following analysis, I give the exact quotations from her sources, along with the Charge itself, so that Valiente's editing may be seen more clearly. I have included as well those sections of Gardner's Charge (both the first prose and the Witchcraft Today versions) which survived into the final form.
I have used these abbreviations for the sources:
AL: The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis).
AP: Alipilli
AR: Aradia: Gospel of the Witches.
GD: The Golden Dawn (ed. Israel Regardie, III, p. 245). (The second half of this passage, "From me ... return," is also found in Milton's "Paradise Lost," Book V, but since the first part is not, it is unlikely that Valiente took it from Milton.)
KJV: King James Version of the Bible
KP: "Khabs Am Pekht."
LL: "The Law of Liberty" (including quotations ultimately from The Book of the Law.)
P1: Gardner's prose version.
P2: Valiente's prose version
65: Liber LXV II: 59-60 (Crowley).
V: This is material that could have been drawn from any number of sources.
VV: The Vision and the Voice, chapters 19 and 5 (Crowley).
WT: The Witchcraft Today version.
Full bibliographical information will be found at the end of this article.
For the text itself I have relied on Kelly,1991, pp. 114-5 (correcting what appears to be an error by changing "ideals" to "ideal"). The few differences between this and other published versions do not affect my results in any substantial manner. (Other versions may be found in Farrar, 1971, pp. 197-198; Lady Sheba, 1971, pp. 65-67; and Leek, 1971, pp. 189-191. Excerpts from it are found in Holzer, 1971, pp. 16-17; Huson, 1970, p. 221; and Johns, 1969, p. 143. Starhawk, 1979, pp. 76-77, gives an awkardly edited version in which she has removed every phrase that has the word "man" in it.) I have used the abbreviation "P2" for this version.
P2: Listen to the words of the Great mother,
P1: Listen to the words of the Great mother,
WT: Listen to the words of the Great Mother,
P2: who was of old also called among men,
P1: who ... of old was also called among men
WT: who ... of old was also called among men
P2: Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine,
P1: Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine,
LL: Melusine
WT: Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine,
P2: Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arianrhod, Bride,
P1: Aphrodite,
WT: Aphrodite
P2: and by many other names. "At mine Altars the youth
P1: and by many other names. "At mine Altars the youth
WT: and many other names. At mine altars the youth
P2: of Lacedaemon in Sparta made due sacrifice.
P1: of Lacedaemon in Sparta made due sacrifice.
WT: of Lacedaemon made due sacrifice.
P2: "Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month, and
P1: Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month, and
WT: Once in the month, and
AR: Whenever ye have need of anything, Once in the month, and
P2: better it be when the moon is full. Then ye shall assemble
P1: better it be when the moon is full, ye shall assemble
WT: better it be when the moon is full, meet
AR: when the moon is full, Ye shall assemble
P2: in some secret place
P1: in some secret place
WT: in some secret place
AR: in some desert place, Or in a forest all together join,
P2: and adore the spirit of Me
P1: and adore the spirit of Me
WT: and adore me,
AR: To adore the potent spirit of your
P2: who am Queen of all Witcheries.
P1: who am Queen of all Witcheries.
WT: who am queen of all the magics
AR: queen, My mother, great Diana.
P2: "There ye shall assemble, ye who are fain to learn all
P1: There ye shall assemble, ye who are fain to learn all
AR: ye shall assemble She who fain would learn all
P2: sorcery, yet who have not won its deepest secrets. To
P1: sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets. To
AR: sorcery yet has not won Its deepest secrets,
P2: these will I teach things
P1: these will I teach things
AR: them my mother will teach all things
P2: that are yet unknown.
P1: that are yet unknown.
AR: as yet unknown.
P2: "And ye shall be free from slavery,
P1: "And ye shall be free from slavery,
AR: And ye shall all be freed from slavery, And so ye
P2: and as a sign that ye
P1: and as a sign that ye
AR: be free in everything; And as a sign that ye
P2: be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites,
P1: be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites, both
AR: are truly free, Ye shall be naked in your rites, both
P2: and ye shall dance, sing, feast,
P1: men and women, and ye shall dance, sing, feast,
AR: men And women also they shall dance, sing
P2: make music, and love, all in my praise.
P1: make music, and love, all in my praise.
AR: make music and then love in her praise
P2: "For mine is the ecstasy of the Spirit, and mine is also joy
P1: Let ecstasy be mine, and joy
LL: But ecstasy be thine and joy
AL: ecstasy be thine and joy
P2: on earth. For my Law is Love unto all beings.
P1: on earth. For "love is my law."
LL: of earth Love is the Law
AL: of earth Love is the Law
P2: "Keep pure your highest ideal. Strive ever towards it.
LL: Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever toward it
P2: Let naught stop you or turn you aside.
LL: without allowing aught to stop you or turn you aside,
P2: "For mine is the secret which opens upon the door of
P1: There is a Secret Door which I have made...
KP: There is a Secret door that I shall make
AL: There is a Secret door that I shall make
P2: youth and mine is the cup of the Wine of Life:
P2: and the Cauldron of Cerridwen,
P2: which is the Holy Grail of Immortality.
P1: to establish the way to taste even on earth the elixir of immortality.
P1: Say, "Let ecstacy be mine, and joy on earth even to me, To Me.
P2: "I am the Gracious Goddess who gives the gift of Joy
P1: For I am a gracious Goddess. I give unimaginable joys,
WT: For I am a gracious Goddess, I give joy
LL: Gracious Goddess I give unimaginable joys
AL: I give unimaginable joys
P2: unto the heart of Man.
P2: "Upon Earth I give the knowledge of the Spirit Eternal,
P1: on earth, certainty
WT: on earth
LL: on earth:
AL: on earth:
P2: and beyond death I give peace and freedom, and reunion
P1: And upon death, peace unutterable, rest and ecstacy,
WT: and upon death, peace
LL: upon death; peace
AL: upon death; peace
P2: with those who have gone before.
P2: Nor do I demand aught in sacrifice, for behold, I am the Mother of
P1: nor do I demand aught in sacrifice."
WT: nor do I demand aught in sacrifice
LL: Nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.
AL: nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.
P2: all things, and my love is poured out upon earth."
P2: Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess,
P1: Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess.
LL: We have heard the voice of the Star Goddess
P2: She in the dust of whose feet are
KJV: dust of feet
P2: the hosts of Heaven, whose body encircleth the universe.
KJV: host of heaven
P2: "I who am
P2: the beauty of the green earth; and the White Moon
V: the beauty of the green earth
P2: amongst the Stars; and the mystery of the Waters;
P2: and the desire of the heart of man. I call unto thy soul:
VV: the blind ache within the heart of man
LL: the heart of every man
AL: the heart of every man
P2: arise and come unto me.
P1: arouse ... "come unto me."
LL: arouse ... come unto me!
AL: arouse ... come unto me!
P2: "For I am the Soul of nature who giveth life to the
P1: 'For I am the
GD: O Soul of Nature giving life and energy to the
P2: Universe; ‘From me all things proceed; and unto me, all
GD: Universe. From thee all things do proceed. Unto Thee all
P2: things must return.'
GD: must return.
P2: Beloved of the Gods and men
P2: thine inmost divine self shall
P1: Let it be your inmost divine self...
LL: He is then your inmost divine self...
P2: be enfolded in the raptures of the infinite
P1: in the constant rapture of the infinite
LL: in the constant rapture of the embraces of Infinite Beauty
P2: "Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth, for
VV: the heart that rejoiceth,
P2: behold: all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals;
P1: Remember that all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals.
LL: Remember that all acts of love and pleasure are rituals,
P2: and therefore let there be Beauty and Strength, Power
P1: So let there be beauty and strength,...
AL: beauty and strength
P2: and Compassion, Honour and Humility, Mirth and reverence within you.
P2: "And thou who thinkest to seek me, know that thy seeking and yearning
P1: "And if thou sayest, I have journeyed unto thee,
65: I have journeyed unto Thee,
P2: shall avail thee not
P1: and it availed me not...
65: and it availed me not.
P2:unless thou know the mystery,
P2: 'That if that which thou seekest
AP: If that which thous seekest
P2: thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never find it without thee,
AP: thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never find it without thee,
P2: for behold; I have been with thee from the beginning,
P1: Thou wast with me from the beginning,'...
65: and Thou wast with me from the beginning.
P2: and I am that which is attained at the end of desire."
P1: shall ever attain me the end of desire."
The line attributed here to Alipilli, "That if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee thou wilt never find it without thee" most likely was taken from L. A. Cahagnet's Magnetic Magic, where it appears on the title page. It is found in other sources, such as Madame Blavatsky's , vol. II, p. 617, where she credits it to "Abipili." (It is more correctly Ali Puli.) However, it is Cahagnet which is found in Gardner's library, and is therefore almost certainly Gardner's source.
The material attributed to "Various sources" is that which is found in a number of works with which Gardner and/or Valiente could have been familiar with, and could therefore be thought of as "being in the air." "The beauty of the green earth" is itself found in various sources. d'Este and Rankine (2008, 155) give two late 19th century examples. It is interesting that in both of their examples the phrase is used to complement "starry heavens," and here it complements "White Moon amongst the Stars." The opposition of earth and heaven is an obvious one, but the fact that in both cases the opposition mentions the stars makes me wonder.
"Dust of whose feet" is probably based on the King James Version of the Bible, where variations on it are found certainly four times: "dust of thy feet" (Isaiah 49:23), "dust of his feet" (Nahum 1:3), "dust of your feet" (Matthew 10:14) and "dust of their feet" (Acts 13:51). "Hosts of heaven" is easily formed from "host of heaven," which is found 19 times in the KJV (Deut 4:19, 17:3; 1 Kings 22:19; 2 Kings 17:16, 21:3, 21:5, 23:4, 23:5; 2 Chron 18:18, 33:3, 3:5; Nehemiah 9:6; Isaiah 34:4; Jeremiah 8:2, 19:13, 33:22; Daniel 8:10; Zephaniah 1:5; Acts 7:42).
"Whose body encircleth the universe" is a description of the Egyptian star/night sky goddess Nut, who, as Nuit, formed an important part of Crowley's system, whose nature is described and name used in "The Law of Liberty." She is depicted in the "Stele of Revealing," upon which Crowley based his "Book of the Law." A depiction of the stele may be found here.
There are a total of 498 words in the version given by Kelly. The following table shows how many came from each source:
Valiente: 168 - (33.7%)
Leland: 93 - (18.7%)
Crowley: 83 - (16.7%)
Gardner: 66 - (13.3%)
Crowley
(edited by either Gardner or Valiente): 40 - (8.0%)
Alipilli: 18 - (3.6%)
Gardner (edited by Valiente): 12 - (2.4%)
Golden Dawn: 12 - (2.4%)
King James Version: 6 - (1.2%)
Before going on to discuss the sources further, there is a non-source that I need to address, Apuleius's The Golden Ass. In this Roman novel the main character is turned into an ass as a punishment for spying on a ritual to Diana. After many humorous adventures, he prays to Isis. She appears to him in a dream and instructs him how to regain his human form. First, however, she describes herself as the reality behind other goddesses (pp. 263-265).
What we have here is essentially a charge of a goddess. This goddess is moreover a syncretistic goddess, one who "was of old called among men" many names. That Gardner knew the story is certain; he summarizes it in The Meaning of Witchcraft (1982, 1959, pp. 87 - 88). It is likely to be the "similar charge [that] was a feature of the ancient mysteries." What is interesting, though, is that the only thing in the Charge that may have its origin in Apuleius is "Mother of all things," and even that if also found in Milton's Paradise Lost, Book XI. Further, although Isis identifies herself with several other goddesses (Cecropian Minerva, Paphian Venus, Dictynnian Diana, Ceres, Juno Bellona, Hecate, and Rhamnusia), none of them are among the goddesses mentioned in the Charge of the Goddess, except for Diana. Even she appears in specifically "Dictynnian Diana," a form of Artemis worshiped on Crete.
What has happened here? Gardner had access to a charge of a goddess, but in composing his own chose not to use it. Perhaps Apuleius was simply too well-known to copy.
Regardless of his reasons for not using the words (except perhaps one goddess name) from Apuleius, it is quite possible that the idea of a Charge of the Goddess, that is, one delivered as if from a goddess, was inspired by that of Isis in The Golden Ass. As we have seen, the idea of a "charge" in general has Masonic roots. But a Masonic charge is not a proclamation of a deity, as that found in Apuleius is. If the idea of a charge from a goddess came from Apuleius, it could be said that he both was and wasn't the source of the Charge.
When analyzing the sources of the actual words of the Charge, it is important to note that those attributed to Valiente or Gardner may eventually prove to have a further source behind them. However, assuming these figures to be accurate, it will be seen that Valiente wrote a plurality of the Charge, slightly more than one third. Leland takes the second place, but when the edited versions of Crowley’s are added to the direct quotes, it is Crowley who comes in second. In light of Valiente's stated objections to material from Crowley (Valiente, 1989, 60-1), it is interesting that she left so much of his work in the Charge.
I've included the possibility of the phrase "the heart of man" coming from The Vision and the Voice (originally published in The Equinox, I:5), but this is extremely unlikely, and in fact unnecessary, since it is found among Crowley's quotations from the "Book of the Law" which are included in "The Law of Liberty", which we know Gardner had access to. This would leave "the heart that rejoiceth" as the only possible excerpt from The Vision and the Voice, but this is almlost as unlikely, since no other lines that can be attributed solely from that text appear in the Charge. Further, The Vision and the Voice is a series of visions Crowley had. A large part of it consists of teachings given him by spiritual beings; in essence, a series of Charges. If Valiente had had access to it, it is odd that she would have chosen only these two short lines to incorporate. Perhaps she did not have The Vision and the Voice at hand when she was working, or did not want to rely on Crowley, but remembered the phrases without remembering where they came from.
With all of these sources, it is important to note that much of the meat of the Charge, the theologizing regarding the Goddess, may be attributed to Valiente. Although Wicca's Goddess theology has been heavily influenced by "The Law of Liberty," it has been put into memorable words by Valiente.
If all of the lines that have an identifiable source plus all of those that are in the Gerald Gardner version are removed, we are given a view of those lines that were most likely written by Doreen Valiente. Disregarding words that Valiente added to knit quotations together, her contribution is this:
"of the Spirit, mine also is unto all beings. Which opens upon the of youth and mine is the cup of the Wine of Life and the Cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of Immortality. Unto the heart of Man. I give the knowledge of the Spirit Eternal, and freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. For behold, I am the Mother of all things, and my love is poured out upon earth. She in the dust of whose feet are the hosts of Heaven, whose body encircleth the universe. I who am the beauty of the green earth; and the White Moon amongst the Stars; and the mystery of the Waters; and I call unto thy soul; For I am the Soul of nature who giveth life to the Universe; Beloved of the Gods and men, shall be enfolded Let my worship be within Power and Compassion, Honour and Humility, Mirth and reverence within you. Unless thou knowest the mystery."
There is certainly room for further research. First, there are the unattributed lines. I would expect at least some of these to have sources which can be found. Second, the importance of "The Law of Liberty" for the history of Wicca has been missed by many previous researchers. As well as having been used as a source for the Charge, it presents a form of duotheism that no doubt was one of the sources of Wicca's own, especially in its theology of the Goddess. It is a document which certainly deserves further study.
What has emerged from this analysis is a picture of the Charge not as a scripture that emerged from the shadows, nor as a text that sprang full-blown from the mind of one woman, nor even as an edited version of a single earlier text. It is, rather, a complex text, with many parents. It is, in fact, a microcosm of Wicca itself, and the history of the varying claims of its authorship parallel that of Wicca as well.
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Apuleius. The Golden Ass. tr. William Adlington (1566). ed. Harry C. Schnur. New York, NY: Collier Books, 1962.
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Lady Sheba (Jessie Wicker Bell). The Book of Shadows. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1971.
Leek, Sybil. The Complete Art of Witchcraft. Chicago: The New American Library, 1971.
Leland, Charles G. Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1974 (1899).
Milton, John. "Paradise Lost." In Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton. Intro. Cleanth Brooks. New York: The Modern Library, 1950.
Regardie, Israel (ed). The Golden Dawn. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1984.
Serith, Ceisiwr. The Charge of the Goddess: A Source Analysis. Enchante 21 (Carmentalia, 1996), 22-25.
Starhawk (Miriam Simos). The Spiral Dance. San Francisco, CA : Harper and Row, 1979.
Valiente, Doreen. The Rebirth of Witchcraft. London: Robert Hale, 1989.
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