Commentary on the Charge of the Goddess 26: Upon earth I give knowledge of the spirit eternal

Upon Earth I give the knowledge of the Spirit Eternal; and beyond death I give peace and freedom; and reunion with those who have gone before;

Sources and Influences

Ye Bok of Ye Arte Magical: I give unimaginable joys, on earth certainty, not faith while in life! And upon death, peace unutterable, rest, and ecstasy, nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.

Crowley: Law of Liberty: For hear, how gracious is the Goddess: “I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death: peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.” (2)

Crowley: Liber AL vel Legis: I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice (1.58)

Apuleius: Metamorphoses: Thou shalt live blessed in this world, thou shalt live glorious by my guide and protection, and when after thine allotted space of life thou descendest to hell, there thou shalt see me in that subterranean firmament (11.6)

Thealogy

The Beatific Vision, revisiting the Circle theme

It is plain that in the thealogy of the Charge, plugging into the Goddess ‘current’ has implications in both life and beyond death. The change of this passage from the BAM version of the Charge appears to be a complete change of meaning from the original Crowley quotation, however Crowley’s own commentary, referred to in the previous section, on this passage indicates several similar ideas, and indicates that the change introduced for the final version of the Charge relates to what happens after death:

‘These joys are principally (1) the Beatific Vision, in which Beauty is constantly present to the recipient of Her grace, together with a calm and unutterable joy; (2) the Vision of Wonder, in which the whole mystery of the universe is constantly understood and admired for its ingenium and wisdom. ...
‘The certainty concerning death is conferred by the magical memory, and various experiences without which life is unintelligible. “Peace unutterable” is given by the trance in which matter is destroyed; “rest” by that which finally equilibrates motion. “Ecstasy” refers to a trance which combines these.
‘”Nor do I demand aught in sacrifice”: the ritual of worship is Samadhi. ...’  (Aleister Crowley (edited by Israel Regardie): The Law is for All. Llewellyn Publications, St Paul, MN, 1975, pp. 142-143.)

Samadhi refers in Hinduism to a state of consciousness beyond dreaming or deep sleep in which there is no mental activity and the individual is absorbed in the object of meditation, or in which union with the divinity is achieved (Stephen Schumacher and Gert Woerner (editors): The Rider Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion. Rider, London, 1989.).  A synchronicity with the idea found in the Charge that the Goddess is found at the end of desire.
This passage raises one of the most characteristic aspects of Wiccan thealogy, one not present in the BAM version of the Charge, nor in the Crowley quotations underlying the BAM version: Wicca’s understanding of what happens to people when they die. Gardner stressed this belief: he stated that the witches, when he first knew them, were insistent that they had known him before; he attributed this to the fact that one of his ancestors had been accused of witchcraft (Gerald Gardner: The Meaning of Witchcraft. Weiser Books, York Beach, 2004.).
The belief in Wicca that after death we will see and know and love again, those we have known before, is a variant on the common belief in western occultism in reincarnation, usually as mediated by the influence of the Theosophical Society. Hutton believes it to be genuinely new to Wicca(Ronald Hutton: Dion Fortune and Wicca (Address given at the Company of Avalon’s Dion Fortune Seminar 2009). <www.companyofavalon.net/documents/RonaldHuttonaddress.DF.doc> Updated 2009, Accessed 8.3.10.).  Wiccan eschatology also includes the idea of a time of rest between incarnations, often described as being in a place called the Summerland. The Wiccan understanding of the last things cannot be stated by than by an unnamed witch quoted by Gardner in Witchcraft Today:

‘When we die we go to the gods’ domain, where having rested awhile in their lovely country we are prepared to be born again on this earth; and if we perform the rites correctly, by the grace of the Great Mother we will be born again among those we loved, and will remember, know and love them again, while those who do evil will have a stern schooling in the gods’ domain before they are fit to be reborn again, and then it will be among strangers. Being reborn again we ever progress, but to progress we must learn, and to learn ever means suffering. What we endure here in this life fits us for better in the next, and so we are heartened to endure all the trials and troubles here, for we know that they but help us to higher things. Thus the gods teach us to look forward to the time when we be not men any more, when we become one with the Mighty Ones.’ (Gerald Gardner: Witchcraft Today. Arrow Books, London, 1975, p.166.)

Another aspect of this reunion, as described in the Charge, is that even while on earth the Goddess gives the knowledge of the Spirit Eternal: the witch lives with an awareness of what she believes to come beyond death, and, as commented elsewhere here, with an awareness of the impact both of previous lives on this present life, and of the impact of this life on future ones. At the risk of over-dramatising the case, the witch can see her life in almost epic terms – I can agree with Terry Pratchett’s account of the ability of witches to know about the story and see how it is playing out in the present events! In his novel Witches Abroad  the witches journey to a distant part of the Discworld, and in the course of this journey fall into various stories (Terry Pratchett: Witches Abroad. Corgi Books, London, 1992.). There are occurrences of wicked sisters, fairy godmothers, farmhouses falling on witches (who wear red shoes), wolves preying on grandmothers, and so on.
These may appear merely to be the trappings of the fairy story type of witch, but the knowledge of the Spirit Eternal involves us in dealing with how the common stories of our culture play their part out in our lives. This knowledge is esoteric and brings power – in this case knowledge really is power – as Mircea Eliade writes, referring to Australian totemic myths:

‘We see, then that the “story” narrated by the myth constitutes a “knowledge” which is esoteric, not only because it is secret and is handed on during the course of an initiation but also because the “knowledge” is accompanied by a magico-religious power. For knowing the origin of an object, an animal, a plant, and so on is equivalent to acquiring a magical power over them by which they can be controlled, multiplied, or reproduced at will...’  (Wendell Beane and William Doty (editors): Myths, Rites, Symbols: A Mircea Eliade Reader, Volume 1. Harper Colophon, New York, 1976, pp. 139-140.)

The knowledge of these stories can help us to understand what is happening in epic terms, but of course being witches a mere understanding of these events is not enough for us, we have to be actively involved in them as well. As people who call themselves witches, we are ourselves part of these stories, even though in Wicca the image of the witch is turned on its head to create a benign, misunderstood creature. So while as witches we gain an understanding of the Spirit Eternal, we also take the opportunity at times to intervene in the story to create a slightly different ending.
But what are these stories we are involved with? And why do they resonate so strongly with us? This question is related both to the idea of knowing and loving those we have loved before, and the feeling of familiarity that people often have on coming to Wicca for the first time. There are two explanations other than  reincarnation for these phenomena, one psychological and one biological.
In the context of stressing the importance of repetition in magical ritual, Vivianne Crowley talks about the concept of morphic resonance (Vivianne Crowley: Way of Wicca. Thorsons, London, 2001.).  This is the term by which the biologist Rupert Sheldrake refers to the phenomenon that each species appears to have one collective memory, to which all members of the species have access. Crowley also refers to this happening with such things as crystals and molecules. Once a change has been made for one member of the species, for example performing an action for the first time, or an evolutionary leap is made, this information is also available to every other member of the species. Crowley uses this theory to explain that once something has been done once, it is always easier for it to be done, even by somebody else, a second time. The member of that same species who repeats the action is drawing on the ‘collective memory’ to help do it again.
The psychological explanation, to which Crowley compares the idea of morphic resonance, is the Jungian idea of the collective unconscious. She writes that this collective unconscious is based at a lower level of our minds than the normal conscious everyday level, where we are all clearly differentiated from each other. Below the consciousness the divisions between us are less clear, and we can access a mind which is common to all humans. It is at the deeper unconscious that such things as clairvoyance and telepathy occur; some people can engage this level all the time, some can work with it at will, and for others it is only accessed at times of trauma, which explains such things as seeing the recently departed.
What does this have to do with Wicca and fairy stories? Fairy stories, myths, and legends often have similar content, the world over. We know how they ought to work. For example, anyone brought up speaking English in Britain will be familiar with the story of Cinderella (deliberately choosing a story with magical elements). If someone were to refer to ‘ugly sisters’, our collective unconscious will refer the ugly sisters to the story of Cinderella, and look for a poor sister who is kept cleaning in the kitchen. We all know this. Somebody brought up speaking a different first language may not recognise the allusion to ugly sisters at first glance. They may do if there is a similar fairy story in their own language and they can relate Cinderella to it.
So some things provide ‘scripts’ as it were, which are present in our systems of explanation in our minds. They are common to us, and we know how they ought to work. By referring events in our lives to these myths, legends, fairy tales, and folklore in our mind, we can begin to understand the roles we are playing (Goddess help you if you realise you are acting like an ugly sister). Magically, we may be able to change the story slightly. Of course, in the fairy stories the witch never succeeds in manipulating the story her way, but we can still try. Seventy years ago, who would have thought there would be thousands of people in Britain calling themselves witches?
As for knowing and loving our dear ones again, and the familiarity of Wicca, this may also be explained by morphic resonance and the collective unconscious. The rituals of Wicca touch some deep points in our unconscious, as Crowley puts it:

‘For many newcomers to Wicca, its rituals are both new and yet familiar: novel but somehow not. It is as though we have been there before. While the words used by different traditions may vary, or we may create our own, the archetypal ritual pattern of the circle guarded by the four quarters, into which the powers of Goddess and God are invoked, seems ancient and deeply rooted. By the process of morphic resonance, when we perform our rites we connect ourselves with all those who have performed them before – a stream of spiritual ancestry. We in our turn are adding to the collective memory field of the rites and others in their turn will draw on our experience when they in future generations perform their rituals.’ (Vivianne Crowley: Way of Wicca. Thorsons, London, 2001, p. 147.)

Having seen what the powers of the Goddess give to the witch, the next section of the Charge goes on to describe whether these powers need to be ‘paid for’, making it plain that they do not: no pacts with the Devil here!