Hear the words of the Dark Goddess, who stands within the Crossroads, whose torch illuminates the Underworld:
I am the Queen of magick and the dark of the Moon, hidden in the deepest night. I am the mystery of the Otherwolds and the fear that coils about your heart in the times of you trials.
I am the soul of nature that gives form to the universe; it is I who awaits you at the end of the spiral dance.
Most ancient among gods and mortals, let my worship be within the heart that has truly tasted life, for behold all acts of magick and art are my pleasure and my greatest ritual is love itself.
Therefore let there be beauty in your strength, compassion in your wrath, power in your humility, and discipline balanced through mirth and reverence.
You who seek to remove my veil and behold my true face, know that all your questing and efforts are for nothing, and all your lust and desires shall avail you not at all.
For unless you know my mystery, look wherever you will, it will elude you, for it is within you and nowhere else.
For behold, I have ever been with you, from the very beginning, the comforting hand that nurtured you in the dawn of life, and the loving embrace that awaits you at the end of each life, for I am that which is attained at the end of the dance, and I am the womb of new beginnings, as yet unimagined and unknown.
Charge of the Crone by Gypsy and Hawk Shadow
Hear the words of the Grandmother of Time:
She who has been known as Hecate, Erishkagel, Cerridwen, Kali-Ma, Anna, Perenna, Spider Woman, and many other names - some feared, and some loved, but none ever ignored. She it is who brings wisdom and the awareness of eternity.
She has been the Maiden, and remembers that joy. She has been the Mother, and recalls that pleasure. But age has changed her, and taught her the mysteries of the Wheel that is ever turning, the Wheel that is life, death, and rebirth. She is the whirling tornado, the erupting volcano, the rising tidal wave, the trembling of the earth's crust. With age comes an understanding of the past, and a glimpse of the future. For, in the turning of the Wheel, the past is the future, and the future is the past. She is the Learned One, the Teacher, the Bringer of Inevitable Change.
She is the Dark of the Moon, the Hidden One, the invisible unknown that lies ahead. But do not fear her for she is not malicious, and her touch, however harsh, is love.
Only in ignorance is she scorned and reviled. Those who do not know her, parody her as the ugly old woman whose powers were said to blight crops and sour the milk in the cow. It is fear that turns her age into abomination, her wrinkles into hideous deformity, and her voice into an evil and manipulative cackle. For those who sought power over the earth were afraid to face her wisdom and her unalterable truth.
But in the old days, we sat at her feet to learn the most ancient lore. From her came the knowledge of the healing herbs, and the chants and songs that shaped our lives. She sat in honour at our councils, our marketplaces, in our homes. She governed our governing, and interpreted our laws. She gave focus to our changing seasons. She was our teacher, our oracle, our promise of rebirth.
Come, honour her as of old, listen now to the words of Wise One, the ancient Seer, the Crone!
