Sacred Texts of the Craft: The Witches' Creed
Updated: Jun 5, 2021
Doreen Valiente
She was the greatest poet of Witchcraft, and one of its pioneers. She was there in the earliest days of the movement, and she called Charles Leland a "male chauvinist pig of the crudest kind" in print, in her book, Witchcraft for Tomorrow. On the same page she said his disdain for women didn't stop him from "occasionally dressing himself up as a woman, with wig and makeup, and parading about as Alys Cusack." Which reveals her own lack of understanding and tolerance by today's standards. We are all products of the times in which we live, and when we know better, we do better.
Doreen is responsible for the most beautiful and widely known writings in the Craft and this is one of them. The Witches Creed lays out the Force and Form duality at the heart of magic, describes the eight traditional Craft holidays or Sabbats, and the full moon observations or Esbats, and the then current understanding of the Goddess and the God with some deep insights. This is one of the most beloved poems in the Craft.