The Villanelle Charge

      First, Oestara Publishing LCC offers a set of pages by Cynthia Joyce Clay exploring the origins of one of the Charges of the Goddess. Clay concludes that one Charge may be a corruption of a Charge to the Goddess written originally by William Butler Yeats.

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Musings on
"Perfect Love and Perfect Trust"
by Cynthia Joyce Clay

      After attaining my third degree in Wicca I more vigorously sought students in order to form a coven. I was meeting with three prospective people, and one of them asked me with deep anxiety about the “Perfect Love and Perfect Trust” exhortation. Frankly, I was amazed this precept would worry anyone. Her fear and anxiety were based on the notion that she would be expected to fully trust complete strangers in every way. Fully trusting perfect strangers is fool hardy. For instance, when my husband and I were visiting Russia, my husband happily sang songs in Spanish with a Russian who was eager to learn the Spanish songs. When this Russian invited us to his tent, my “woman’s ears” immediately went on guard. (What woman does not learn to be cautious when a man asks her to his sleeping quarters?) My husband and I later realized this cheerful, friendly, very wiry and muscular man with a craggy, ex-boxer’s type of face, who engaged my husband in singing Spanish songs was probably planning to murder us.         Despite the fact that there are murderers in the world, “Perfect Love and Perfect Trust” is a wonderful ideal. Though in mundane life we almost never have a chance to have the freedom of perfectly loving and perfectly trusting, Circle gives us Wiccans the opportunity to do so. To explain why, let me relate the sagacity of the spiritual teachings of a priest of the Catholic religion. My husband grew up attending private parochial schools, and so religion was part of the curriculum. During one of the religion classes, a priest taught that the first commandment of the Christians is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God” because first and foremost when approaching God one must have love in one’s heart. God loves us perfectly. Clearly this Catholic priest was truly a spiritual man. Considering his insight, I realize that taking anger or other septic emotions to God is useless because our connection with God is through, of, and about love. When we, as Wiccans, enter Circle we are approaching our Gods. They come to us in Circle. Indeed, invoking Them into our own selves is an important part of our rituals. Further, we recognize that each Wiccan present, or in the case of a public ritual, each person present, is in themselves God or Goddess manifest. As we are approaching our Gods, it behooves us to leave our septic emotions outside of Circle and to find that source of deity within ourselves to love and trust as perfectly as we may the people with whom we are sharing Circle. Circle gives us this duty. Circle gives us this freedom. By giving us this freedom, Circle fosters our ability to love and to trust. This is a wonderful boon, for it means that when we leave Circle we can take with us a greater power to love and to trust.
        Most of the world’s ills are due to a lack of love and trust. We tend not to love or trust others to greater or lesser degrees. We tend not to love or trust ourselves, to greater or lesser degrees. The teaching of “Perfect Love and Perfect Trust” reminds us to be in touch with our feelings. Are we feeling distrustful simply because that is our own mean habit or because there is very real danger to warrant being cautious? Are we being unloving out of obtuseness, fear, or sadism, or are we being unloving because the person approaching us is unquestionably toxic and has harmed us exceedingly in the past? Even in the case of the toxic person, following the ideal of perfect love and perfect trust will help us to keep a polite distance from the toxic one rather than engage in unloving behavior ourselves. Courtesy in itself is an act of love and simple courtesy does so often keep us from harm--so I politely declined to go to the assassin’s (non-existent) tent.
        While we must temper our mundane lives with caution, the precept of “Perfect Love and Perfect Trust” if sincerely enacted in one’s way of living brings us the greatest happiness and accord with others. When “Perfect Love” and “Perfect Trust” are as closely adhered to as possible in Circle they boost us into the experience of transcendence, for we meet the Gods.
        So mote it be!

Merry Meet and Merry Part and Merry Meet Again!

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