This chapter examines Doreen Valiente’s role in moving the center of gravity of contemporary Pagan Witchcraft from a purely esoteric practice to a wider Pagan and Goddess spirituality. With each passing decade, her view of the role of women in the movement became increasingly feminist, as she developed her own version of Pagan Witchcraft as a nature religion with esoteric roots, but outwardly facing enough to play a societal role in promoting feminism and environmentalism. Her liturgical text “The Charge of the Goddess” became an expression of the core thealogy of Pagan Witchcraft and wider Goddess spirituality.
Through her published writings, poetic ritual liturgy, and as a public face of the movement, Doreen Valiente’s influence was profound. Doreen Valiente (1922–1999) was one of the most influential of a series of powerful women who became high priestesses of the coven established by Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884–1964), the “Founding Father” of modern Pagan Witchcraft, or Wicca.
