“Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, and mirth and reverence within you.”
From The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valliente

This passage from the Charge of the Goddess has been a challenge and an inspiration to me in my journey as a Witch. Eight things that She wishes us to embody. None of these words are more than three syllables, but each of them is carrying a lot of weight and power within them. One of the first things I did when I began to contemplate the above piece of the Charge of the Goddess was to look up the dictionary definitions of these eight words and in some cases their root words… humble for humility for example.

Go ahead and take a moment to look them up, and while your at it, take a look at some of their related words…

“Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, and mirth and reverence within you.”

I looked these words up in my own (hardcopy) dictionary and wrote the definitions that seemed applicable to living my life as a Witch, into my Book of Shadows. From there I developed a prayer that I say each day.

“Mother Celestial and Father Divine,
Let me walk in Strength and Beauty,
Let me exercise both Power and Compassion,
With both Honor and Humility,
Let me always remember Mirth, as well as Reverence,
That I may be worthy of Thy Perfect Love and Perfect Trust,
And that of those in whose hearts you dwell,
Blessed Be,
So Mote It Be.”
~ A prayer by Geoffrey Stewart/Pax

Like other aspects of my daily practice, I have not always remembered to recite this. I lose track of center and balance in the mad rush of daily life. Yet, continually, I am reminded of and return to them.

Taking Valliente’s Charge as a divinely inspired text. Taking it as the Words of the Goddess, and looking at these qualities or virtues as what She expects of Her Witches, She asks a lot of us. I am sometimes intimidated by the thought, but then I remember my prayer, and it helps me not only get through my day; it helps me to stumble towards being the man, and the Witch, I believe my Goddess wishes me to be.