Commentary on the Charge of the Goddess 42: Comparison of the Sources of the Three Versions

	BAM Charge (418 words)	Verse Charge (189 words)	Final Charge (498 words)
Direct quotation
From Aradia	109 words (26.08%)	-	106 words (21.29%)
From Crowley: Law of Liberty	198 words (47.37%)	-	-
From Crowley: Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente	52 words (12.44%)	-	-
From Crowley: Khabs Am Pekht	13 words (3.11%)	-	-
From Golden Dawn Neophyte ritual	-	-	18 words (3.61%)
From Magnetic Magic	-	-	18 words (3.61%)
From BAM, with no known source	-	-	51 words (10.25%)
Total direct quotation	372 words (89%)	-	193 words (38.76%)
Editing of quotation in BAM
From Crowley: Law of Liberty	-	7 words (3.7%)	114 words (22.89%)
From Crowley: Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente	-	-	39 words (7.83%)
From Crowley: Khabs am Pekht	-	-	12 words (2.4%)
From Aradia	-	57 words (30.15%)	-
Total reuse of quotations in BAM	-	64 words (33.86%)	165 words (33.13%)
Edited BAM material with no known source	-	15 words (7.94%)	-
Material original to this version	46 words (11%)	110 words (58.2%)	139 words (27.91%)

Discussion

          It is clear from the comparisons above that it is too simplistic to say that the Charge is a ritual item put together by Gardner and Valiente with various quotations from Crowley and Aradia.

          Obviously the BAM version of the Charge is the one most heavily dependent on quotation from these two sources, with a relatively small amount added (which, since evidence is absent for any sources of this material, I would tentatively ascribe to Gardner) to make the quotations take their literary form of a Wiccan Charge.

          The subsequent versions of the Charge reused this quoted material, usually in a heavily edited form, while at each rewriting adding further new material (again in the absence of evidence for the sources of this material, I would tentatively ascribe its origin to Gardner/Valiente), and, in the case of the final version, more quotation from other sources than Crowley.

          Valiente succeeded in her aim of ridding the verse version of the Charge of references from Crowley, with one echo from the quotations from him found in the BAM Charge. It is true that other people have said that we should love each other, or that love should be our guiding principle, but I believe that the particular connection of the words ‘law’ and ‘love’ in the same sentence would suggest Crowley to most people, and certainly to occultists such as Gardner and Valiente. The verse version includes further allusions to the quotations in BAM from Aradia but the greatest proportion of material in this version is new material, which resonates strongly of Valiente’s other poetic work. The somewhat Masonic tone of this material is interesting, with mentions of five-fold kisses and fellowship.

          In the final version, much of the Crowley material excised from the verse version was reintroduced, but in an edited form. This Charge is much less dependent on direct quotation, however retains the long passage from Aradia, a little Crowley, and some new quotations from occult writers. A relatively large proportion of the material, however, is once again entirely new unprovenanced material, a welcome indication of the inspiration and creativity of the Mother of Wicca.