Charge of the Crone

The Charge of the Crone
By Jim Garrison

Hear the words of the Dark Goddess who stands within thecrossroads,
whose torch illuminates the Underworld:

I am the Queen of magic and the Dark of the Moon, hidden in the deepest night.
I am the mystery of the Otherworld and the fear that coils about your heart in the time of your trials.
I am the soul of nature that gives form to the universe;
it is I who awaits you at the end of the spiral dance.
Most ancient among gods and mortals,
let my worship be within the heart  that has truly tasted life,
for behold all acts of magic and art are my  pleasure and my greatest ritual is love itself.
Therefore let there be beauty in your strength, compassion in your  wrath,
power in your humility, and discipline balanced through mirth and  reverence.
You who seek to remove my veil and behold my true face,
know that all your questing and efforts are for nothing,
and all your lust and desires shall avail you not at all.
For unless you know my mystery, look wherever you will,
it will elude you, for it is written within you and nowhere else.
For behold, I have ever been with you, from the very beginning,
the comforting hand that nurtured you in the dawn of life,
and the loving embrace that awaits you at the end of each life,
for I am that which is attained at the end of the dance,
and I am the womb of new beginnings as yet unimagined and unknown.

Spells of the Crone - from "The Crone's Book of Words"