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The Charge of the Goddess'' (or "Charge of the Star Goddess") is an inspirational text often used in the neopagan religion of Wicca. The Charge of the Goddess is recited during most rituals where the Wiccan Priestss is expected to represent, and/or embody, the Goddess within the sacred circle, and is often spoken by the High Priestess after the ritual of Drawing Down the Moon. The Charge is the promise of the Goddess (who is embodied by the High Priestess) to all witches that she will teach and guide them. It has been called "perhaps the most important single theological document in the neo-Pagan movement".〔Shelley Rabinovich and James Lewis. ''Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism'', p. 41. New York: Citadel Books, 2004〕 It is used not only in Wicca, but as part of the foundational documents of the Reclaiming (neopaganism) tradition of witchcraft co-founded by Starhawk. Several versions of the Charge exist, though they all have the same basic premise, that of a set of instructions given by the Great Goddess to her worshippers. The best-known version is that compiled by Gerald Gardner. This version, titled "Leviter Veslis"or "Lift Up the Veil", includes material paraphrased from works by Aleister Crowley, primarily from Liber AL (The Book of the Law, particularly from Ch 1, spoken by Nuit, the Star Goddess), and from Liber LXV (The Book of the Heart Girt with a Serpent) and from Crowley's essay "The Law of Liberty", thus linking modern Wicca to the cosmology and revelations of Thelema. It has been shown that Gerald Gardner's book collection which was acquired by Ripley's Believe It or Not! included a copy of Crowley's The Blue Equinox" (1919) which includes all of the Crowley quotations transferred by Gardner to the Charge of the Goddess. () There are also two versions written by Doreen Valiente in the mid-1950s, after her 1953 Wiccan initiation. The first was a poetic paraphrase which eliminated almost all the material derived from Leland and Crowley. The second was a prose version which is contained within the traditional Gardnerian Book of Shadows and more closely resembles Gardner's "Leviter Veslis" version of 1949. Several different versions of a Wiccan ''Charge of the God'' have since been created to mirror and accompany the ''Charge of the Goddess''. == Themes == The opening paragraph names a collection of goddesses, some derived from Greek or Roman mythology, others from Celtic or Arthurian legends, affirming a belief that these various figures represent a single Great Mother: :''Listen to the words of the Great Mother; she who of old was also called among men Artemis, Astarte, Athene, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Dana, Arianrhod, Isis, Bride, and by many other names.'' This theme echoes the ancient Roman belief that the Goddess Isis was known by ten thousand names and also that the Goddess still worshipped today by Wiccans and other neopagans is known under many guises but is in fact one universal divinity. The second paragraph is largely derived and paraphrased from the words that Aradia, the messianic daughter of Diana, speaks to her followers in Charles Godfrey Leland's 1899 book ''Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches'' (London: David Nutt; various reprints). The third paragraph is largely written by Doreen Valiente,() with a significant content of phrases loosely from ''The Book of the Law'' and ''The Book of the Heart Girt with the Serpent'' by Aleister Crowley.〔 The charge affirms that ''all'' acts of love and pleasure are sacred to the Goddess e.g. "Let my worship be within the heart that rejoices, 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charge of the Goddess」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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