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John Moore: Anarchy and Ecstasy
Amidst ecstatic visions Anarchy appears. She says: Whenever you need anything, once a month at the full moon, assemble in the wilderness - in the forest, on the heath, by the seashore - for the state of nature is a community of freedoms. Recognize the imminence of total liberation, and as a sign of your freedom be naked in your rites. Dance and sing, laugh and play, feast on the fruits of the earth, the delights of my body, make music and love -- for all acts of pleasure are my rituals. And I am that which you find in the fulfulment of desire. Abolish all authority, root out coercion. Share all things in common and decide through consensus. Shake off the character armor which binds and constrains. Let the wilderness energies possess you. Cast the magic circle, enter the trance of ecstasy, revel in the sorcery which dispels all power. But commit no sacrifices. Repudiate harmfulness, exploitation and slaughter. Rather venerate all creatures and respect them as different but equal to you. Total transformation thus becomes possible. This rite shall continue to be celebrated until Anarchy becomes universal. This text has been adapted from renderings of "The Charge of the Goddess" by Starhawk and Charles G.Leland. There are multiple versions of this witchcraft rite and much dispute over its authenticity. Some maintain that it contains sentiments which have been uninterruptedly passed down the ages from prehistoric times, whilst others aver that it derives wholly from the fertile imagination of Leland, who first published it in 1899. (For further information, see Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today, Revised and Expanded Edition (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986), 56-9.) But to my mind the fact that it remains on the very cusp between fabrication and authenticity, or "fact" and "fiction," adds to its attraction. Next section: Selected Bibliography Back to contents |