By Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
“Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth, for behold: all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals.” These are some of the words from the charge of the goddess. Some who count this as one of their sacred scriptures take these words to heart. “All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals.” Some say love and passion, but what is meant by love and passion?
Love is defined as a deep feeling of affection. Passion is intense emotions that compel us to action. Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente both worked on the Charge of the Goddess, and each had their own ideas of what love and passion was. Gardner was known as a practicing nudist and some people said that he created Wicca as an excuse to have an affair on his wife. Doreen Valiente would leave Gardner’s coven because she felt his love of publicity compromised what the coven was about. She would practice Wicca and witchcraft with various other people. She published and taught prolifically, and was instrumental is writing ritual and liturgy for Wicca in its early years.
They defined their passion for Wicca differently, and so do all the Wiccans I have met. Passion in general can be a good or bad thing. You have to reign it in even though it is difficult. Passion about something can lead you to fight for justice or be violent. Will your passion lead you to commit atrocities out of unbridled rage or will it lead you to make positive change and make a difference? One woman I know is passionate about justice, so she is in law school. Another one I met was passionate about it and kept trying to stop traffic in protests and she finally got hit by a car.
What do you love? Does your love of money lead you to work so many hours you refuse to spend time with your kids and you fight your ex in court, hoping to pay zero child support? Or does it lead you to learn to invest wisely and you pass the knowledge on to your kids? Does your powerful amorous passion for someone lead you to respect their privacy when they tell you to, or does it make you a deranged stalker who cares more about what you want than what they ask of you?
Love and passion can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and ALL acts based on these emotions don’t please the goddess. Especially considering that not all goddesses are the same. A human sacrifice from the Thags might please Kali, but it won’t please every goddess. Some ancient devotees of Diana took vows of chastity. The goddess Freyja would not be impressed. Venus would be impressed with sensuality within the right social norms, but Aphrodite would not have such expectations. So, if you want to enjoy yourself in ways that would please your goddess, find out what your goddess finds pleasing.
Today, there are so many different people within our Pagan circles venerating so many different goddesses and gods. Many of us venerate deities who little documentation is available about. My mother goddess is Nerthus – and precious little is known about her. I do know that only her priest was permitted to see her face- and anybody else who did would be put to death. So, if I was to make an image of her, then her face would be veiled. Some other goddesses would want their faces to be unveiled and displayed proudly.
In honor of doing acts of love and passion for your goddess, you can do good deeds in her name. Donate to a cat rescue in honor of Freyja. Consecrate marriages in honor of Frigga or Hera. Drop some hard truths and keep it real to rock the boat when you feel it is called for in honor of Eris. Have some great sex in honor of Inanna. Be compassionate in honor of Kwan Yin. Whatever pleases your goddess that you can participate in will actually bring you closer to her. It will make her happy, and experiencing things that are important to her will help you to understand her better.
So are ALL acts of love and passion the rituals of the goddess? It depends on how you define passion and love. If you think it is indiscriminately screwing your way in and out of every bed you can- depending on your goddess, no. if you think passion is indulging every knee jerk reaction you have and justifying that by what the Charge of the Goddess says, probably not.
As Pagans, we have cast off the “thou shalt nots” of Christianity but we have forgotten that while not everything they call a sin is actually a sin, doing whatever we please in the heat of the moment isn’t a virtue. All things must be balanced and our lives must be lived mindfully- or we will regret it. And remember the Charge of the Goddess also says, “Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever toward it; let naught stop you or turn you aside.”
Blessed Be.
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Lady Saoirse has studied magic and lore for most of her life but started walking her own magical path after being spiritually reborn in the desert. Today she is a High Priestess for The Temple of the Goddess, she is a psychic advisor and spiritual counselor, she is a member of the spiritual family at the Magical Druid in Ohio, and she shares her gifts as a Psychic and Content Writer for SpiritualBlossom and Mysticsense and she writes for PaganPages.Org emag.