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Charge of Aradia
Whenever you have need of anything, once in the month when the Moon is full, then shall you come together at some deserted place, or where there are woods, and give worship to She who is Queen of all Witches.
Come all together inside a circle, and secrets that are yet unknown shall be revealed.
And your mind must be free and also your spirit,
and as a sign that you are truly free, you shall be naked in your rites. And you shall rejoice, and sing; making music and love. For this is the essence of spirit, and the knowledge of joy.
Be true to your own beliefs, and keep to the Ways, beyond all obstacles. For ours is the key to the mysteries and the cycle of rebirth, which opens the way to the Womb of Enlightenment.
I am the spirit of witches all, and this is joy and peace and harmony. In life does the Queen of all witches reveal the knowledge of Spirit. And from death does the Queen deliver you to peace and renewal.
When I shall have departed from this world, in memory of me make cakes of grain, wine and honey. These shall you shape like the Moon, and then partake of wine and cakes, all in my memory.
For I have been sent to you by the Spirits of Old, and I have come that you might be delivered from all slavery. I am the daughter of the Sun and Moon, and even though I have been born into this world, my Race is of the Stars.
Give offerings all to She who is our Mother. For She is the beauty of the GreenWood, and the light of the Moon among the Stars, and the mystery which gives life, and always calls us to come together in Her name. Let Her worship be the ways within your heart, for all acts of love and pleasure gain favour with the Goddess.
But to all who seek Her, know that your seeking and desire will reward you not, until you realize the secret. Because if that which you seek is not found within your inner self, you will never find it from without. For she has been with you since you entered into the ways, and she is that which awaits at your journey's end.
Baba Yaga
(Yes, we have done Baba Yaga before but this is a slightly different view)
'Baba' means grandmother in Russian, and is a term of respect for elder women in general. Baba Yaga is the ArchCrone -the Goddess of death and transformation. Because of this Yaga is much feared, and often assumes a horrific guise. The uninitiated look upon Yaga, or any Crone Goddess, and see only destruction. The initiated see transmutation, creation.
Baba Yaga is shown as the all-terrible, fearsome Halloween Witch. But this is often how students see their teachers, and above all the Crone Goddess is a teacher. It is only through the Crone Goddess that one can attain spiritual wisdom. In the stories She appears in, Baba Yaga sets seemingly impossible tasks for the young hero or heroine, promising dire consequences should they fail-just as Venus set impossible tasks for Psyche in Greek myth. Invariably the hero or heroine accomplishes every task, and is grudgingly rewarded by the Crone, with whatever boon they had first asked-for always these ingenues come to Baba Yaga of their own free will, seeking a favor of some sort.
In this way Yaga represents the cycle of Life and Death, through whose sometimes painful lessons the soul gains wisdom and understanding (for which it entered into life in the first place). Yaga also represents the process by which an individual gains self-understanding and enlightenment -a process which can be a difficult and exasperating as collecting blood from the proverbial turnip.
Baba Yaga is portrayed as living in a place far away and difficult to get to (for so wisdom usually is), and usually deep in the forest (a long-standing symbol of the Spirit world). Sometimes Her house is said to get up and walk about on chickens legs. Around Baba Yaga�s house is a fence of sharpened stakes, upon which She places the heads of those who fail to pass Her tests-just as the Crone Goddess Medusa lived amidst a Forest of stone statues. These moldering heads represent past lives, and the fact that it takes many tries before one actually attains wisdom. Success comes only after many attempts.
Baba Yaga is said to fly through the air -not on a broom, but in that other famous Witches� tool; a mortar and pestle. She uses a broom to sweep away Her tracks when the magic mortar travels on the ground. Baba Yaga is said to possess a herd of flying horses, and to fly around the world once each day on the back of Her flying mare.
Baba Yaga also has at Her command a number of otherworldly servants. These include a Red Knight, a White Knight, and a Black Knight-who are Dawn, the Day, and Night. Yaga is further served by six pairs of dwarves, who represent elemental spirits. The first group of frightening Halloween Witch things (the house, the mortar, The heads...) are visible to all, as the outward signs of death are as well.
The second group (the mare, the knights, the dwarves) which show Yaga�s mastery of the elements, are known only to those who have been inside Her house and passed Her tests -even as the secrets of Spirit are known only to those brave enough to pass beyond the veil of ordinary life and take a look.
By Rev. Don Lewis, Holy City Temple
The Faces of Bast
Bast is the Egyptian Goddess and protector of cats, women and children. She is Goddess of sunrise. Her goddess duty changed over the years, but, she is also known as a goddess of love, fertility, birth, music and dance. Bast is the Goddess of the moon and possessor of the Utchat. The all seeing eye of her brother Horus. Her scared city is Bubastis, was in lower Egypt (the northern part). Bubastis signifies "The House of Cats" in ancient Egyptian. Bast feast day is celebrated on October 31. The Egyptians celebrated the feast of Bast with merry making, music, dancing, drinking much like our modern Marti Gras. Bast is often shown holding a sistrum (a type of rattle), during the celebrating, worshipers shuck a sistrum.
Found at the website Faces of Bast http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/7544/bast.htm
BHU (Hindu)
Bhu is the Earth, a Goddess who, before Creation, rested at the bottom of the primeval ocean. Here Brahma found her and raised her to the surface in the shape of a many-petalled lotus flower (Nymphea stellata) which opened magnificently as soon as she reached the light. The Gods and Goddesses of Hinduism is often depicted seated on the rising Lotus absorbed in meditation.
Cerridwen / Caridwen (Wales)
Moon Goddess; Great Mother; grain Goddess; Goddess of Nature. The white corpse-eating sow representing the Moon. Welsh bards called themselves Cerddorion (sons of Cerridwen). The bard Taliesin, founder of their craft, was said to be born of Cerridwen and to have tasted a potent from her magick cauldron of inspiration. Wife of the giant Tegid and mother of a beautiful girl Creirwy and an ugly boy Avagdu. In her magickal cauldron, she made a potion called greal (from which the word Grail probably came). The potion was made from six plants for inspiration and knowledge. Her symbol was a white sow. Death, fertility, regeneration, inspiration, magick, astrology, herbs, science, poetry, spells, knowledge.
Coatlique
Coatlique (pro: Ko-at-lee-kuray) is the Aztec Goddess portrayed in the famous statue in the Mexico Museum that shows her with Two Snake Heads and a Skirt of inter-twined serpents. The Goddess name means "Serpent Skirt" but nahuatl - the language spoken by the Aztecs-is constructed in such away that the name has many other meanings as well.
According to legend Coatlique was a priestess. One day as she was sweeping the Temple, she saw a beautiful ornament of Jade on the floor. Coatlique picked up the jade and placed it inside her garment near her heart. In this way she magically conceived the God Quetzalcoatl (pro': kwet-zal-ko-at-uhl) . When Coatlique gave birth to Quetzalcoatl, her older children led by Texcatlipoca (pro: 'Tesh-kat-lee-po-ka') tried to kill Quetzalcoatl but they could not. So the children killed Coatlique instead. This was the origin of the bad feeling between Quetzalcoatl and Texcatlipoca. Coatlique is thought of as the Goddess of the Earth but also is considered to be a Goddess of Time. She is a crone Goddess and is sometimes said to rule the Dead.
By Rev. Don Lewis, HP
Erda
Erda is the Norse Earth Goddess who dwelled in a cave among the roots of the great tree Yggdrasil, the world tree who represents the nurturing of all life. Erda�s plentiful fountain of wisdom flows at the roots and gave water to world tree. So magical is the Water of Erda that the tree Yggdrasil grew so large to allow its limbs to reach the heavens. Erda is invoked by those in need of wisdom which is used to bend the powers of Fate, which is Erda�s Domain as well. Odin even surrendered his right eye for the privilege of drinking from Erda�s fountain. So great is the value of wisdom and knowledge that no sacrifice is to great to obtain it.
Today's Goddess Thought: Let wisdom come because we are naturally wise, and allow yourself to be aware of the cool waters of Erda to quench your thirst for self-knowledge.
IRIS
Iris is the beautiful, many-hued Goddess of the rainbow -a single stream of light expressing itself in many colors. Iris is a Maiden Goddess. The archetype of the Maiden Goddess deals with creativity, self-expression, personal accomplishments, new life and new growth of all sorts.
In Greek mythology Iris was the messenger of the Goddess Hera, Queen of Heaven. This is to say that Iris represents the communicative aspect of the Goddess, which brings us messages from the Divine, and facilitates our spiritual growth. Iris is the builder of bridges. Just as the rainbow bridges Earth and Sky, so too Iris bridges the worlds of matter and spirit. Iris controls the door to the inner self, the spirit world, the Divine essence. As such Iris is patron of spiritual energy work and the system of Chakras, which reflect the rainbow's colors.
Iris was also looked to as a psychopompos -a guide Who eased the crossing between life and death, or the world of spirit. Iris brings us the messages of the spirit world through divination, meditation, mediumship, and omens, and carries our own messages back to spirit.
Lakshmi (Hindu)
Lakshmi, the Hindu Goddess of fortune, offers the promise of prosperity and beauty to all. As the divine manifestation of all forms of wealth she bestows her prosperity to all who offer her praise and offerings. In Indian Mythology, Lakshmi was born of the great Ocean of Milk. As she rose from the depths, The elephants wrapped her in Lotus and bather her in Water poured from Golden Vessels. Her beauty was enhanced by Lotuses that never fade. Lakshmi is so beautiful anyone who views her knows instant happiness.
(Reprinted from earlier issue but the thought is not)
Lasya
Lasya is a Tibetan Deity who is numbered among the yoginis mentioned the sacred text, Bardo Thodol and she is one of the few female bodhisattvas. The bodhisattvas are a group of mostly male figures of specific sacredness and importance. Lasya rules the human sense of vision, and she draws all eyes toward her by performing dance and mudras. Thus she is seen as the divine archetype of the female, displaying the physical beauty, dignity, majesty, and seductiveness of the female principle.
Mary, Queen of Heaven
Many Goddesses have been honored by the title Queen of Heaven. Mary was declared the mother of god and Queen of Heaven in Ephesus, Turkey in 432 CE. Ephesus is the site of the legendary and ancient Great Goddess Temple dedicated to Artemis Diana, it was the last surviving Goddess Temple in the current era. Artemis Diana was also known as the Lady of the Beasts and the Queen of Heaven. It is for these reasons, that Ephesus was chosen to honor and celebrate the powers and titles of Mary. Today many new Goddess Temples are appearing all over the world
From Abby Willowroot, The Spiral Goddess Groove
Ops (Roman) lady bountiful the planter
Ops is the personification of the Golden age of Civilization, a time when the earth overflowed with good things to eat and riches to fill our homes. Within the Goddess Ops is the idea of equality of the creative force and the world's production through continued prosperity. The Words Opulent and Opulence are from her.
Ops is most worshiped between August 25th and December 19th, by rich and poor alike. The festival was known as Opeconsiva. The traditional way to worship Ops is by sitting on the ground.
Marisha
Marisha is a Hindu Goddess, 'Daughter of the Wind and the Moon, Nurseling of the trees'. She is the Dew, Tusshara, which has the cooling presence of the moon at the night creates on the leaves. The wind collected those beneficent drops into one body with fragrant and medicinal leaves, nurtured by the forests, supervised by the moon. This is the moment of great pleasure.
From the Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend by Jan Knappert
