The Gods

Gods and Goddesses are supreme magical beings that possess vast magical powers. They are the most powerful forces in the universe and might be responsible for the creation of the universe.

There are various kinds of Gods and Goddessess with different origins. While Shakti and Shiva are presumably truly divine, it was revealed that the Greek Gods were given their powers by The Elders from the essence to fight the Titans. However, the true nature of the Gods and Goddesses remains a mystery.

Creation of the Universe
Shakti, the Goddess of Creation, and Shiva, the God of Destruction, existed before the universe, which they created by consummating their love. This supports the theory that the Grand Design is the gods' intended nature of the universe, which was hinted at by one of the Angels of Destiny while negotiating with The Charmed Ones.

The Greek Gods
In the days of Ancient Greece, the Titans ruthlessly ruled the Earth. In fear of these beings, the mortals worshipped them as Gods in the hopes of appeasing them. To stop the Titans, the Elders infused a group of mortals with a tremendous amount of power, in the hopes they would be strong enough to stop the Titans. However, once these mortals had entombed the Titans in ice, their power consumed them and they lost their humanity. They declared themselves as gods and forced the world to worship them. These mortals then became the Greek Gods of mythology, such as Zeus, Aphrodite and Athena. After the Elders succeeded in taking back the essences of the Gods, they swore they would never allow this to happen again. They had put the essences in a sacred vase and locked it in a vault in the Heavens.

Pandora's Box
At some point, the Gods gave a box to a man named Prometheus. The box contained all the sorrows of the world that should never be released. A mortal girl named Pandora opened it, releasing the sorrows onto the world. She eventually reclaimed the sorrows and became the first guardian of Pandora's Box.

The Golden Belt of Gaea
The goddess Gaea gave a magical belt as a gift to the mortal Hippolyta. The belt possessed transcendant powers and she tried to use it to unite the sexes. However, the demi-god Hercules butchered her and the belt found it's way to another female.

Ancient Egypt
The Mage Anubis was worshipped as a God of Death and Rebirth in ancient Egypt. He led a revolt against The Avatars when they attempted to create Utopia and created a vanquishing potion for them, forcing the Avatars to retreat and delay their plans.

Return of the Greek Goddesses
In 2003, an Unidentified Demon freed The Titans from their emtombment to claim power of the Underworld. However, the Titans vanquished him and sought to exact their revenge on the Elders. After the Titans nearly slaughtered all remaining Elders, Leo Wyatt entered the vault containing the essence of the Gods and granted its powers to the Charmed Ones, transforming them into the Goddesses.

Piper Halliwell became the Goddess of Earth and her sisters Phoebe and Paige became the Goddess of Love and Goddess of War respectively. However, the Titans still proved too powerful to stop until Piper lost herself in anger and pain after discovering Leo had become an Elder. She then single-handedly vanquished the Titans by opening a large schism in the earth, swallowing them whole. Piper then went on a rampage until Leo managed to calm her down and extract the essence from her.

Shakti and Shiva
While attending a Hindu wedding in 2004, Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt became possessed by the essences of the Hindu Gods Shakti and Shiva. These Gods were said to have created the universe by consuming their love and it was warned they would destroy it if they consumed their love once more. However, the Gods are later expelled from their bodies with a spell.

To Release the Essence of the Greek Gods and Goddesses

 * Eccere, oh, gee,
 * Ac mando ma mento.

Powers and Abilities
Once occupying a host, the essence turns the host into the human embodiment of the God/Goddess of a certain theme; giving the host certain powers, changes in appearance and knowledge. For example, one may become the Goddess of Love and therefore gain the power of Enchanting and (in the case of Phoebe Halliwell) blonde hair. Another may become the Goddess of War and gain a trident from which one can shoot lightning, knowledge of battle tactics and the ability to create holograms for "war games". The theme that one embodies when they take in the essence depends on their history and personality. A good example of this would be how Phoebe became the Goddess of Love because of her immensely turbulent love life, particularly her relationship with Cole Turner. She even writes an advice column that frequently deals with relationship issues. Paige had been consumed with becoming a stronger witch ever since Season 4 and has a strong, confident personality, so she became the Goddess of War. Piper Halliwell had long desired to have as close to a normal family life as her Charmed destiny would allow, so she became the Goddess of Earth.

Unfortunately, whilst the essence is non-sentient and can be controlled by the host, there is a large chance (as there always is when one gains great power) that one will be swayed to use the power for personal gain, such as forming love cults and armies. This chance is aided by the fact that to release one's full power as a God, one must declare themselves as divine. It is unknown whether or not the host is able to use any powers they had before their transformation into Gods or whether their new divine powers replace them until the essence leaves.