Ch.11 Adore the Spirit of Me (WMB 11.j)

Extract from: Wicca: Magical Beginnings written by d’Este & Rankine, 2008 (Avalonia.) PB / Kindle @ https://amzn.to/3Ay4HJr.

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(Textual analysis of the Charge of the Goddess part 8)

“For mine is the secret door which opens upon the land of youth;”

This is somewhat rewritten from the earlier version of the Charge (Lift Up the Veil), which draws more directly from Liber Al, “There is a secret door that I shall make to establish thy way in all the quarters” (AL III.38).

The reference to the quarters is one which is not used in the Charge, but interesting from the point of view of Wiccan terminology, where the four directions are sometimes referred to as quarters. It also hints at the grimoires where the magick circle was often divided into quarters, as seen in the Heptameron and subsequent grimoires.

The ‘land of youth’ is a translation of the name of the Irish otherworldly realm of Tir-na-Nog, home of the Irish pantheon of the Tuatha de Danaan. As the nineteenth century author Thomas Croker observed in Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1828), “It is called the Land of Youth, because time has no power there, no one becomes old.” The presence in the Charge of this Celtic otherworld clearly indicates the relevance of the Celtic goddesses in the initial list of names.

Extract from: Wicca: Magical Beginnings written by d’Este & Rankine, 2008 (Avalonia.) PB / Kindle @ https://amzn.to/3Ay4HJr. Shared here with the intention to inspire and inform the now and future generations interested in Wicca and other Pagan traditions inspired by it.