“Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it;
let nothing stop you or turn you aside.”
~From The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valliente

This is one of the many passages from the Charge that has a few different layers of meaning both literally, and personally for me. I thought I would write this post and be done with it, but I find myself wrapped up in ideas and contemplation, so here is what I have so far.

Take a moment to check out these definitions of Ideal, Ideals, and Idealism… don’t worry I should be here when you get back!

Hi, again.

So this simple sentence could be telling us to maintain in our minds the archetypes of the Goddess and God and to strive ever towards Them an ideal to exemplify. Or we could be being told to find outstanding and worthy goals and to strive ever towards them.

Although for Pagans there are some interesting metaphysical implications to the philosophical notion of idealism… for if the world only truly exists because there are beings there to perceive it, does that mean the living creatures form the Universes self-awareness? That is that we are a part of the sentience of the universe around us!?!

Thou Art God, Thou Art Goddess, indeed!

Language and definitions are sooo… interesting sometimes!

Most Pagans and Witches I know tend to take the view that this passage relates to Ideal and Ideals in the ethical sense. That is that we must find good and worthy goals and strive ever towards them. I am trying to identify, for myself, what causes and goals in my own life I find worth striving ever towards, letting nothing stop me or turn me aside…

What would I live for… What would I die for…?

More on this later…