The Charge of the Goddess is a traditional inspirational text sometimes used in Neopaganism and Wicca. Doreen Valiente, a student of Gerald Gardner, originally wrote a Charge in verse, and later in prose: the prose version is the one known today. It has since been modified and adapted by many others, and is in the public domain. The original text of the prose version is found in Eight Sabbats for Witches by Janet and Stewart Farrar. See The Rebirth of Witchcraft by Doreen Valien ...

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CHARGE OF THE GODDESS: The Traditional words of the Goddess to her followers, or "hidden children". Normally declaimed by the HPS at every coven Circle.

(See also: CHARGE OF THE GODDESS, Paganism, Pagan, Pagan Dictionary)

CHARGE OF THE GODDESS: not an exercise but a well-known literary work. Doreen Valiente wrote it for Gardner and it came from the Charge of the Goddess in Aradia, Gospel of the Witches by Charles Leland. The High Priestess intones these words, as the Goddess to her 'hidden children' during ritual.

(See also: CHARGE OF THE GODDESS, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

A goddess is a female deity, in contrast with a male deity known as a "god". A great many cultures have goddesses, sometimes alone, but more often as part of a larger pantheon that includes both of the conventional genders and in some cases even hermaphroditic (or gender neutral) deities. As the concept of monotheism and polytheism can be relativistic, so too can related concepts be culturally misunderstood. The concept of gender as applied to a god and goddess, may connote deeper tendencies of patriarchy and matriarchy, which ...

Including:

• Goddess - Ancient Near East
• Goddess - Egypt
• Goddess - Mesopotamia
• Goddess - Arabia
• Goddess - Indo-European religion
• Goddess - Hinduism
• Goddess - Graeco-Roman religion
• Goddess - Celtic religion
• Goddess - Germanic religion
• Goddess - Abrahamic religions
• Goddess - Judaism
• Goddess - Christianity
• Goddess - Islam
• Goddess - New religious movements
• Goddess - Wicca and Neopaganism
• Goddess - Religious feminism
• Goddess - Secular use

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The Native American Sweat Lodge, Temazcal, is an ancient practice from the native indians of America; a sacred ritual for Healing and Purification. Participants at the Oneness Festival will be able to experience this very powerful ritual both at day time, and, when it is as most powerful, at night time.

Read more here: » Sweat Lodge: Temazcal I/III - The Traditional Mexican Sweat Bath

Sacred Sexuality: The Principles and Practices of Tantric Yoga

We are in a season of accelerated personal and global awakening, a season that calls us to be clear about our values, our priorities, our soul purpose for this incarnation, and fundamentally, to be clear about our self-identity. But as metaphysics and mysticism go mainstream, great discernment is called for lest we bring along our old separate, fear-based self-identities that manifest the illusion of all lack and limitation.

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In Wicca, skyclad properly means "naked outdoors", though it is frequently used to mean nudity anywhere. Some contemporary Wiccans perform rituals skyclad. This may be done for various reasons. Although some hereditary witches claim that their families have always practiced skyclad, nudity was probably introduced into witchcraft by Gerald Gardner, the father of Wicca, who was a nudist and insisted his coven practice nude. The Charge of the Goddess, attributed to the godde ...

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In Greek mythology, the Horae (Latin) or Horai (Greek; both words mean the "hours") were the three goddesses controlling orderly life. They were daughters of Zeus and Themis. There were two generations of Horae: (note: this does not refer to generation in the traditional sense of the second group being offspring of the first; earlier writers recognized the first generation and later authors subscribed to the second.) Horae - First generation. The first generation consisted of Thallo, Au ...

Including:

• Horae - First generation
• Horae - Second generation
• Horae - Third generation?
• Horae - The Hours

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Aradia, according to Charles Godfrey Leland's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, is the messianic daughter of the goddess Diana who came to Earth to teach witchcraft to her oppressed worshippers. Aradia has become an important mythical figure in Wicca and in some other forms of Neo-paganism. Aradia goddess - Aradia in Leland. Leland claimed that the majority of the book was based upon a manuscript given to him detailing the beliefs of an undiscovered religious witchcraft tradition in Tuscan ...

Including:

• Aradia goddess - Aradia in Leland
• Aradia goddess - Aradia in Neo-paganism
• Aradia goddess - Notes and references

Read more here: » Aradia goddess: Encyclopedia - Aradia goddess

Adad · Ashnan Asaruludu · Emesh Enbilulu · Enkimdu · Enten Ereshkigal · Kabta Lahar · Mushdamma Nammu · Nanshe · Nergal Nidaba · Ningal Ninisinna · Ninkasi Ninlil · Ninurta · Nusku Sumugan · Urshanabi Uttu · Annunaki In Sumerian mythology, the Annuna, the fifty great gods, whose domain appears to be principally but not exclusively the underworld. Some of them are associated with specific cities, while others bear a strong resemblance to the function ...

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In Aztec mythology, Cihuacoatl ("snake woman"; also Chihucoatl, Ciucoatl) was one of a number of motherhood and fertility goddesses. (See also Ilamatecuhtli, Teteoinnan, Tlazolteotl, and Toci.) Cihuacoatl was especially associated with midwives, and with the sweatbaths where midwives practiced. She is paired with Quilaztli and was considered a protectress of Chalmeca and patroness of Culhuacan. She helped Quetzalcoatl create the current race of humanity by grinding up bones from the previous ages, and mixing it wi ...

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Jupiter Mars Quirinus Vesta Juno Fortuna Minerva Mercury Vulcan Ceres Venus Lares The Flamens Bona Dea Carmenta Camenae Dea Dia Convector Flora Lupercus Pales Pomona Egeria Ceres, in Roman mythology, equivalent to the Greek Demeter, daughter of Saturn and Rhea, wife-sister of Jupiter, mother of Proserpina by Jupiter, sister ...

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Frigg or, in Gesta Danorum, Frigga was, in Norse mythology, said to be "foremost among the goddesses," 1 the wife of Odin, queen of the Æsir, and goddess of the sky. One of the Ásynjur, she is a goddess of marriage, motherhood, fertility, love, household management, and domestic arts. Her primary functions in the Norse mythological stories are as wife and mother, but these are not her only functions. She has the power of prophecy although she does not tell what she knows 2, and is the only one other than ...

Including:

• Frigg - Attributes
• Frigg - Stories about Frigg
• Frigg - The Death of Baldr
• Frigg - The Winnilers and the Vandals
• Frigg - Vili and Ve
• Frigg - Connection between Frigg and Freya
• Frigg - Maidservants
• Frigg - Notes

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Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is an 1899 book by Charles Godfrey Leland. It is one of the foundational texts of Wicca and Wicca-based Neo-paganism. The book is an attempt to portray the beliefs and rituals of an underground religious witchcraft tradition in Tuscany that had survived until Leland's claimed discovery of its existence in the 1890s. The veracity of this claim has been disputed by scholars. A critical edition of the book was released in 1999, the book's hundred-year anniversary, edited by Mario ...

Including:

• Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches - Claims questioned
• Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches - Influence on Wicca

Read more here: » Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches: Encyclopedia - Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches

In Egyptian mythology, Andjety (also Anezti, Anedjti) is a god who was particularly worshipped at Andjet (known in Greek as Busiris). His name reflects this, as it means simply (one who is) from Andjet, and Andjet simply meaning place of djed, djed being a type of pillar. Andjety appears to have been worshipped since pre-dynastic times, and is thought by most Egyptologists to be the god that eventually became Osiris, although the question is not finally settled. Andjety's attribu ...

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Doreen Valiente (1922 - 1999) was a co-creator of Wicca, together with Gerald Gardner. Born Doreen Dominy, the daughter of Christian parents, the young Doreen was convinced from an early age that she possessed the power to use magic. Valiente was the name of Doreen's second husband. Shortly after Gardner made public his claims to have been initiated into a surviving witch cult, he was joined by Valiente, who collaborated with him in the creation of rituals. Valiente also wrote a number of poems for the use of Wiccans, in ...

Including:

• Doreen Valiente - Bibliography

Read more here: » Doreen Valiente: Encyclopedia - Doreen Valiente

Kumari, or Kumari Devi is a living Hindu goddess in Nepal. Kumari means literally virgin in Nepali. A Kumari is a prepubescent girl selected from the Shakya caste of the Nepalese Newari community. The Kumari she is revered and worshipped by the country's Hindus as well as the Nepali Buddhist not the Tibetan Buddhist. While there are several Kumaris throughout Nepal, with some cities having several, the best known is the Royal Kumari of Kathmandu. The selection process for her is especially rigorous, and she lives ...

Including:

• Kumari - History
• Kumari - Selection process
• Kumari - Life of the Royal Kumari
• Kumari - Former Kumaris
• Kumari - References
• Kumari - External links

Read more here: » Kumari: Encyclopedia - Kumari

In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hêra (World Book «HIHR uh») (Greek Ἥρα or Ἥρη) was the wife and sister of Zeus. She also presided as goddess of marriage, the patriarchal bond of her own subordination. (Slater 1968) Hera is portrayed as being majestic and solemn, often enthroned and crowned with the polos, the high cylindrical crown worn by several of the Great Goddesse ...

Including:

• Hera - Etymology and Pre-History
• Hera - Cult
• Hera - Hera and children
• Hera - Hera the nemesis of Heracles
• Hera - Hera's jealousies
• Hera - Echo
• Hera - Leto and Artemis/Apollo
• Hera - Callisto/Arcas
• Hera - Semele/Dionysus
• Hera - Io
• Hera - Lamia
• Hera - Other Stories Involving Hera
• Hera - Cydippe
• Hera - Tiresias
• Hera - Chelone
• Hera - The Iliad
• Hera - The Golden Fleece
• Hera - The Metamorphoses
• Hera - Hera in Neopaganism

Read more here: » Hera: Encyclopedia - Hera

In Greek mythology the Erinyes or Eumenides (the Romans called them the Furies) were female personifications of vengeance. They were usually said to have been born from the blood of Uranus when Cronus castrated him. According to a variant account, they were born from Nyx. Their number is usually left indeterminate, though Virgil, probably working from an Alexandrian source, recognized three: Alecto ("unceasing"), Megaera ("grudging"), and Tisiphone ("avenging murder"). The heads of the Erinyes were wreathed with serpents ...

Including:

• Erinyes - Erinyes in fiction

Read more here: » Erinyes: Encyclopedia - Erinyes

Gardnerian Wicca is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Gardnerian Wicca is named after Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), a British civil servant who studied magic, among other topics. He knew and worked with many famous occultists, not the least of which was Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). After his retirement Gardner moved to Christchurch near the New Forest on the south coast of England, where he says he met a group of people who had preserved certain traditional practices. As an amateur folklorist, Gardner ...

Read more here: » Gardnerian Wicca: Encyclopedia - Gardnerian Wicca