Goddess of the Witches

In you the cosmos, multifarious and one,
Male and female, light and dark, night and day,
In you the planet’s evolving soul, the aeons’ wisdom,
The many levels, all interdependent,
The whole body and all its parts,, without division,
The principle of life in all things, the celestial numbers and harmonics,
The divine music, the rhythms of Nature!
Steatopygous Earth Mother, monumental and massive,
Enthroned on the ground in huge-bellied splendour,
Self-created before Creation, free and unveiled,
Progenetrix of all, giving form to the formless,
Queen of puissant matriarchs, sovereign over the state!
Of her the son and consort, the sword-bearer,is born,
Nursed at her breast to become her chosen lover,
To serve and adore her in his deeds and endeavours.
You are circle and spiral, chaos and order, mind and matter,
Breathing in and out, singing and dancing, being and becoming!
There on the mountaintop, let hierogamy commence,
As the king comes to the Mother’s embrace,
Mating with the priestess, with the Earth herself,
Confirmed by her in sovereignty and powers,
Ascending to the throne, the lap of the Goddess,
Suckled by her with her heavenly milk.
I see in you the Dark Goddess and the Bright,
She who creates and she who destroys,
Inseparable and one, creating, nourishing and reabsorbing,
The menstrual mind shedding its cycle again and again.
I see in you the blood Sabbath:
The ovulation of the spirit, the mother turtle’s homing,
The moon that tempers and transforms the sun’s fire,
Midwife of mysteries, sacred prostitute in the temple!
O, Triple goddess of the three faces and three forms,
The bright white dawn Maid, carefree young adventuress ,
Innocent and naked in wild erotic abandon,
All inspiration, fertility and fire of springtime,
Teasing and exciting men with sensual provocation,
The huntress running free through the woods in pursuit;
The red Mother, ripe and nourishing, womb of all,
Bearing and nourishing life with powerful devotion,
Shrewd with counsel and influence in the blood,
Protecting what she loves with terrible ferocity,
Destroying the outworn, the unhealthy, with invincible fecundity;
The black Crone, wise beyond all, her compassion unbounded,
Containing all ages and times, steadying and enriching,
The gateway of death, and the psychopomp to guide us,
Pointing to the new life where the trinity unites.

You are the annual impregnation of the earth,
And all purposeful deliberate activity.
I see you in every woman’s face and figure,
Your body church, synagogue and mosque all at once,
The very body of the Goddess, turning all her faces toward me.
I adorn you with rose oil and lemon verbena,
With myrrh and camphor, with musk and patchouli,
Cinnamon, blue hyacinth, sandalwood and jasmine,
Basil, borage, lavender, centaury and rue.
I give you crescent honey-cakes, and scallops in their shells,
Elder wine and hawthorn wine, sloe gin and mead.

I see you, Demeter, taking the form of a mare
Among the herds of king Oncus, fleeing the gods’ desire;
I see you mate with your lover in the thrice-ploughed furrow.
And you, Persephone, in the Underworld,
Willow woman holding up your torch in the darkness,
You who eat the pomegranate seeds of indissoluble marriage,
And bring forth green new vegetation from the depths,
Autumn skies summon the ephebi in torchlight procession,
To drink the lost years’ barley wine
And contemplate the cosmos in a single ear of grain.

Hail, Brighid, fire-and-water mistress,
Guiding the hands of smiths and poets, priests and doctors;
For you the greenwood marriage, the tangling of lovers,
Three sisters in one, fire-wheel spinning in the mind,
Owning the boars and rams and oxen,
Shrieking and wailing of war-lament.

Come, Ishtar, Lady with the Beautiful Voice,
Eight-pointed Morning and Evening Star, mistress of the girdle,
Naked body richly ornamented and jewelled,
Coiffed to perfection, jewel-crescent-crowned,
Clasping your own breasts from beneath.
The lion and the scorpion attend you,
As you pour water from the bottomless jar,
And keep the flowers, fruit and grain about you,
You the ark upon the Flood, and the lunar Sabbath,
The sight of the full moon through rain.
Love and war are one in you, your lovers many,
-Arbiter of battles, blesser of weapons,-
And in your name the king and priestess unite,
And the sacred prostitute sits in the temple,
Waiting for a silver coin to fall in her lap,.

Aphrodite, uninhibited, desirous and desired,
Perfumed with sea-foam and the sea’s horizon,
She who looses the girdle and wins the quince!
No mortal woman is so unpredictable
In her beauty and enticements,
So apt to conquer by grace.
Shall I call you Urania, Genertix, or Porne?
Epistrophia, Parakyptousa, Androphonos or Thalamon?
I see the dolphins leaping in pairs in the estuary,
And the goat at his pleasure;
I bring you myrtle, rose campion and benzoin,
Sandalwood, olibanum and storx.
In your temple enclosures,
Among the planes and cypresses and vines,
Couples would withdraw to secluded benches
To please the goddess by pleasing one another.

Hecate haunts the moonlit crossroads,
Horse, dog and boar her three heads,
Leading the wild Hunt of ghost-hounds through the night,
Whelping bitch of graveyards and murders,
Sending demons to torment men’s dreams, and drive them mad,
Or visions to enrich and comfort on the secret paths.
Screech owl calling at night,
From a cave among yews and osiers,
Raise the torch to guide us through the Underworld;
I divine with your special instrument,
A golden sphere with sapphire hidden inside.

I see you, Epona, naked horse-rider,
Carrying the cornucopia in your arms,
The raven on your shoulder,
And the serpent coiling round you,
As you, happy lady of the Otherworld,bring war and harvest.
Under your aegis the king mates with the mare,
Only to feast on her sacrificed flesh,
Then bathe in and imbibe the broth,
And share it among his people.

I see you, Arianrhod, of the circumpolar stars,
Resting place of souls between incarnations;
Goddess of the silver wheel,revolving through birth and rebirth;
Spiral maze I tread widdershins inwards, deosil outwards.
Lamp,wand and sceptre sway the world,
With unicorn visions born in the rock crystal’s core.

I see you, Isis, bare-breasted, in white,
Bracelets and anklets shimmering,
Your headdress of disc and horns resplendent,
As you move to the music of sistrum,harp and lute;
The dismembered body of Osiris,
You lovingly reassemble,
Anoint it with most precious oils,
And,enthroned upon the phallus,
Receive his resurrected seed, fierce as phosphorus.
So lay the Tarot cards out and read the lifetimes,
While the sick incubate,healed by dreams,
And the opium poppy drips white fire....
Kundalini arises in me,
Rising in a left-handed spiral up the spine,
The Goddess uncoils herself and raises her head,
And enters the royal road of the spine,
Piercing the chakras, till she enters the brain,
And you taste her nectar of immortality.