The question of enchantment—the existence and status of superhuman forces as a cosmological principle—had long plagued the Buffyverse before "Chosen," the series finale. For a long time it seemed that the only superhuman forces were evil—vampires being the most obvious example. This problem, which Buffy inherited from the horror genre, led to the question of the Slayer’s origins. The problem intensified, however, when Willow’s magical powers led her into addiction, self-destruction, and world-destruction, suggesting that magic and evil were ineluctably intertwined; at the same time, the show began to hint that the Slayer lineage was itself powered by a demonic heritage, making Buffy and Willow other versions of the evil they thought they were fighting.

With the introduction of the Axe in Season 7, however, the show began to explore the idea that there was a buried matrilineage in the Slayer that was untainted by the patriarchal manipulation of the Watchers. The Axe was the embodiment of this idea, giving Buffy a weapon of the mothers that had not been co-opted by the fathers, even good fathers like Giles. With this weapon she is able to defeat the First, but only because Willow, finally turning her magic to an unambiguously good end, projects the Axe’s powers into every girl capable of wielding them, suddenly creating thousands of Slayers both in the Buffyverse and, by implication, among the viewers. Despite half-hearted references to good Powers in prior seasons, this creation of many Slayers is the show’s first unambiguous example of supernatural goodness.

My paper will therefore explore the idea that Buffy was unable to restore divine goodness to its own world without thinking of this power in overtly embodied, female and communitarian terms. While in the abstract this seems a strikingly Second Wave position, I contend that it is also a classic Third Wave response in its unashamed use of popular culture as a feminist vehicle, its radically populist impulse, and its cosmological modesty. If Buffy participates in contemporary trends in feminist spirituality, it does so in such skeptical, cautious, and limited terms that a full feminist enchantment must signal the end of the show. Therefore, Buffy leaves us, not with a rediscovery of the Goddess, but with the redemption of Witch and Slayer as figures of sisterly solidarity and ongoing struggle.