by Mike Gleason

Wiccan liturgy from the 1970s is largely undocumented. Most of it was oathbound, passed in coven settings, or simply lost. What survived to the public internet era came through practitioners willing to share what they had written — usually framing it as a gift rather than a possession. Mike Gleason was a prolific reviewer and contributor to soc.religion.paganism throughout the 2000s. In September 2004, he posted this text: a Samhain ritual monologue he had written in the mid-1970s while a member of the Temple of Uranus in Chicago.

The text is a first-person invocation from the perspective of the Lord of the Underworld — the "Lord of Death and Resurrection" — addressed to the gathered worshippers at the Samhain rite. Gleason noted that most of the text arrived in a burst of inspiration; the only passage he consciously recognized was drawn from Max Ehrmann's prose poem Desiderata ("You are a child of the universe..."), which he had been reading in the days before he wrote it. The rest he attributed to the Dark Lord himself.

The text incorporates the central Wiccan ethical formula — "Perfect Love and Perfect Trust" — alongside the philosophical universalism of the Desiderata. It closes with an insistence on personal moral accountability: at death, the practitioner faces not a divine judge, but themselves.

Now is awakened the power and strength of the Lord of the Underworld. Once more I know what it is to be the Lord of Death and Resurrection. All knowledge is again mine. I come unto you to bring you rest and fulfillment and reunion.

Come unto me in seriousness and joy, in ignorance and wisdom, in humility and arrogance. And know well that until all these, and more, are reconciled within thee, thou wilt never know that thou too art Lord of Death and Resurrection.

Full knowledge of all that thou art and all that thou can be may be attained only when truly knowest PERFECT LOVE and PERFECT TRUST and can apply them in all things.

When thou truly knowest Perfect Love and Perfect Trust, thou wilt become most beloved of Gods and men. When this is attained, thou wilt become part of Drictene, that which is.

Thou art capable, even now, of putting aside the playthings of youth and assuming the mantle of Godhood. Look within thee and see — Thyself!

For you are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and stars. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. And the knowledge thou shalt attain will affect not only thee, but the entire universe, in ways unknown to all but thee.

Remember, therefore, that all you do is the responsibility of none but yourself — and that upon crossing into my realm thou wilt face the toughest judge of all.

Y O U R S E L F !

Colophon

Written by Mike Gleason in the mid-1970s while a member of the Temple of Uranus, Chicago, Illinois. First composed as a Samhain liturgical text for use in Wiccan ritual. Shared publicly with the pagan community via soc.religion.paganism, 20 September 2004.

Gleason noted that the passage beginning "You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and stars" through "no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should" was drawn from Max Ehrmann's Desiderata (1927). The term Drictene (roughly, "that which is" — the divine totality) appears in some British Traditional Wicca lineages.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

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