Charge of the God
The Charge of the God is less commonly discussed than its counterpart, the Charge of the Goddess, but it holds equal importance in Wiccan practice and modern witchcraft. Where the Goddess speaks to rhythm, cycle, and mystery, the God speaks to action, strength, and the courage to move forward. Together, they represent the balance at the heart of the Craft – neither complete without the other.
What is a Charge?
A charge is a declaration spoken as if by the divine – not a prayer you offer up, but the voice of deity speaking directly to you. The Charge of the God is his reminder that you are not alone in your struggles, that strength is not the same as force, and that the sacred masculine is present in fire and stone, in growth and harvest, in protection and pursuit.
Like the Charge of the Goddess, it is typically spoken aloud during ritual, often by a priest or any practitioner calling the God into sacred space. It asserts presence rather than petitioning for favor. It says: I am here. I have always been here. You carry my strength within you.
Why the Charge of the God Matters
Many people come to Wicca and witchcraft drawn first to the Goddess – to the moon, to the earth, to the divine feminine that has been suppressed or dismissed in other spiritual traditions. This is natural and right. But the God is not the patriarchal figure many of us learned to fear or reject. He is not domination or control.
The God in the Charge is the sun that warms without burning. The blade that protects without conquest. The fire that lights the way without consuming. He is the stag in the forest, the grain at harvest, the quiet strength that holds steady when everything else shifts.
To ignore the God is to cut yourself off from half the conversation. Balance requires both voices.
Origins and Evolution
While the Charge of the Goddess has ancient roots and well-documented lineage through Doreen Valiente and others, the Charge of the God has fewer widely recognized traditional versions. Some covens and traditions have their own, passed down through practice. Others have written new ones to fill the gap.
This is not a failing. It is an opportunity. The God, like the Goddess, is large enough to hold many voices. Each practitioner who writes a Charge of the God adds to the evolving understanding of what the sacred masculine can be when freed from the constraints of patriarchy and power-over dynamics.
How the Charge is Used in Practice
The Charge of the God is most often spoken during sabbat rituals – particularly those that mark the turning of the solar year, such as the solstices and equinoxes. It may be invoked during rituals focused on strength, protection, growth, or action. In traditional covens, a priest might embody the God while speaking the Charge. Solitary practitioners read it aloud to call his presence into their working.
Some speak it before difficult conversations or decisions, drawing on the God’s energy of purposeful action. Others use it in meditations on personal power, on what it means to be strong without being forceful, on how to protect without dominating.
There is no requirement to work with the God if your practice centers the Goddess alone. But for those who seek balance, who honor both sun and moon, fire and water, the Charge of the God offers a way to invite that masculine energy into your practice with intention and respect.
Themes of the Charge
The Charge of the God speaks to several core ideas:
The God as protector and provider – not in the paternalistic sense, but as the energy that clears the path, that stands steady when the ground shifts, that offers warmth and light when the world grows cold.
Action and stillness both – the God is the hunt and the moment before the leap. He is movement with purpose, not recklessness. He is the fire that forges and the stone that endures.
Strength as presence, not force – the Charge reminds us that true strength does not demand submission. It offers support. It holds space. It acts when action is needed and rests when rest serves better.
This Version
The Charge of the God below is my own, written to mirror the Charge of the Goddess I have carried for years. It grew from watching the sun rise over my land, from tending fire, from understanding that the sacred masculine I was taught to fear is not the sacred masculine I have come to know.
This God does not demand worship. He offers partnership. He does not require you to kneel. He asks you to stand.
If you have struggled with masculine divine imagery, I understand. I have too. But the God in this Charge is not the god of empire or hierarchy. He is the god of the forge and the field, of protection without possession, of strength that uplifts rather than overpowers.
Read it and see if it speaks to you. If it does not, write your own. The God, like the Goddess, is listening.
The Charge Of The God
I am the fire at the heart of the world.
The stag’s cry in the forest, the heat of the sun,
the stillness before the leap.
I shake the mountains with thunder and carve the rivers with rain.
I laid the path of stars above and raised the stones
from deep within the earth.
In the hunted field and the sacred flame,
I run unseen through wild terrain.
In blade and branch, in blood and bone,
In the silence just before you act: I am.
I am the forge, the flame, the hunt.
I am the shield and I am the blunt.
I am the sun above and the steady earth below.
I am the path and the pursuit, the wild and the known.
Walk your truth upon the land.
Feel my strength in stone and stand.
Call me in trial or in praise.
I am the fire that lights your days.
Stand in honor, walk with me.
When you falter, I stand near thee.
Feel my strength in fire, in tree,
You are not alone.
Speaking the Charge
When you speak the Charge of the God aloud, let the rhythm carry you. This is not a performance or a recitation. It is an invocation – a calling-in of strength, purpose, and steady presence.
Pause where the language asks you to pause. Feel the weight of “I am” each time it appears. Notice what shifts in you when you say “I stand near thee.”
You can speak it before taking action that requires courage. You can read it as meditation when you need to remember that strength does not mean hardness, that protection does not mean control. You can adapt it, expand it, or let it inspire you to write your own version.
The God does not ask for perfection. He offers strength when you need it most. And in that strength, you are reminded: you are capable of more than you know.