Customer Reviews

Aradia: Gospel of the Witches

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I would like to make a few corrections of people's assumptions. Everyone who reviewed this book made these assumptions which are grossly incorrect. 1) Lucifer(latin for light-bearer) is mentioned only once in the Bible, Isaiah 14:12 where it is used to refer to the king of Babylon. In Aradia the title of Light Bearer or Dawn Bringer is used to refer to the God Dianus who was Diana's other half/soulmate in Etruscan Mythology. 2)Aradia was never meant to be "a forerunner to Wicca". It was a scholarly work by Charles Leland documenting the vestiges of witchcraft in Northern Italy. Against popular opinion Wicca does NOT mean "practicer of the Celtic paths" it has become the title of a religion (thanks to Gerald Gardner...who apparently wasn't able to determine the meanings of "simple words"). If you claim to follow the Old Ways you should at least understand that *all* Old Ways are worthy of respect, even the Italian ones.

Obviously, Aradia greatly influenced the creators of the modern Wicca religion. It is the first time the Charge appeared in print. (It was later taken by Gardner for his covens and rewritten by Doreen Valiente.) There is a lot of negative magick in this book. Then again, it is thought that Maddalena either belonged to a group of witches who were called "Malandanti" (evil witches) or she was purposely feeding Leland false information. However, the roots of the witchcraft are evident. They were descendants of Etruria, still living in the ancestral homeland of Tuscany. They were still worshipping their ancient Goddess of Light, Diana and Her other half, Dianus called Lucifer or Light Bringer.

I highly recommend this book for historical purposes. The serious student of traditional witchcraft should definitely consider this book, especially at the relatively inexpensive price. I do not recommend this book to Wiccans unless they are interested in the roots of their religion i.e. important documents co-opted or plundered by Gardner et al.

The controversies surrounding Leland's book aside, this edition, which includes several essays as well as side-by-side translations of the origianl texts, is an invaluable resource. No matter what its faults, "Aradia" remains an important link in the chain of neopaganism in the past century. This expanded edition will remain an important reference work for folklorists and ethnographers, and for Wiccans, Witches, and neopagans whose traditions have been heavily influenced by this work.

This is a turn-of-the century work of folklore recording. Charles Leland set out to record as much about Strega, the Italian witchcraft tradition. As is typical of many other folk traditions in western culture, it incorporates many aspects of the Judeo-Christian tradition. This book impacted contemporary Wicca in one powerful way: it presented the basis for the first portion of "The Charge of the Goddess." Leland also put forward the claim, echoed by Gerald Gardner, that strega, the Old Religion, had its roots in ancient, pre-Christian religions.

Modern Wiccans will find this view of magic and craft interesting. Some practices, such as "forcing" deities to do the bidding of mortals, seem to be radically less prevalent now. Although some Wiccan traditions (Reclaiming, for one) espouse political activism, the violent class-war material presented here also will seem out of place.

An interesting bit of reading, showcasing a very different view of the world than most currently Wiccans share. More important reading than the latest "tradition" of the day to hit the shelves. A more scholarly, expanded edition has recently been published. I look forward to reading it and seeing what light it casts on this material.

First published over 100 years ago this little book probablywould have vanished into obscurity like Leland's other works if ithadn't been one of Gerald Gardner's sources for building up his Wiccan traditions. While Leland claims to be presenting us with an authentic ancient, or at least medieval, treatise on the religion of the "strege" or Italian gypsy/witches, the text's validity is questionable. Leland claims to have obtained the manuscript from an Italian witch named Madellana who was the most recent witch in a long family line of witches. Critics have challenged the vailidity of the text & even Leland admits his manuscript is in Madellana's own handwritting. However, he attributes this to the fact that she had commited to paper what was a mostly oral tradition & not to the idea that she intentionally decieved him. Aradia contains little material that is recognizable as typical Wiccan doctrine but behind the corrupted Latin invocations & spells lie the inspiration behind "The Charge Of The Goddess". There are no mention of familar elements such as the pentagram & the word "Wicca" is never used. However, we find traces of what would become the ritual of "drawing down the moon" & the idea that meetings, or esbats, should be determined by a lunar calander & meetings were preferably held on nights of the full moon. We also encounter the requirement of ritual nudity.

Besides the invocations, spells & rituals Aradia also offers a fair portion of witch mythology or witch-lore. There is the standard mother/moon goddess & father/sun god story. They differ from typcial Wiccan myth in the fact that their union produces a divine daughter instead of a divine son. This divine daughter (Aradia) is sent to Earth "to be a teacher unto women & men who fain would study witchcraft". While there are some respemblances between this "gospel" & modern Wiccan traditions in the area of ritual, they're hardly alike in intent. The main deities of Aradia are the mother goddess Diana & her husband the father god Lucifer. While Lucifer is clearly not synonymous with the biblical Lucifer it's obvious that some confusion between the two has occured. Aradia herself seem primarily to be goddesses of ill intent & protectors of genrally unsavory people. She teaches all the stock medeval maleficarum such as poisoning, blighting crops & man, determining future lovers & casting love spells.

In the end Aradia is a combination of witch-lore, occultism, demonology & traces of Greek mythology & mystery religions. Such a unusual mixture of sources leads many to discredit Aradia as a fake. Leland never did produce the handwritten manuscript & even failed to produce Madellana herself as evidence. However, the mixture found in Aradia could also be the result of a long hidden & garbled oral tradition which had been corrupted over time by supersition & other religions. Either way, Aradia remains a forerunner of the Wiccan religion.

This new translation of Charles Leland's classic corrects many of the original errors, comparing Leland's renderings of Italian with Pazzaglini's own renderings. Pazzaglini offers a chapter that explores Leland and his witch informant Maddalena, along with a brief overview of various elements that pertain to the period in which the original text was written. The section by Pazzaglini on Magical Principles and Practices provides a glimpse into the folk magic of Old Italy. Other chapters such as the one by Robert Mathiesen are best taken with a grain of salt. While the new translation is indeed a book that one should add to their library of books on witchcraft, the entire work itself could well have benefited from an expert on Leland and Italian witchcraft such as Raven Grimassi.

The Aradia material portrays Italian witches worshipping the Roman deities Diana and Lucifer. Here we find perhaps the earliest mention of witches worshipping a mated set of male and female deities. Diana's witches gather nude during a full moon ritual and celebrate with cakes and wine, something we also later find in the writings of Gerald Gardner on Wicca. Throughout the new Aradia book we encounter various elements of Italian folklore, folk magic, and witch lore seen through the filters of Judeo-Christian concepts. When one considers the era in which the original text was written, there is really very surprise to find such a view.

The Aradia material is an important part of the history of modern Wicca and for that reason alone this new translation is an important book. For a greater understanding of Italian witchcraft read Etruscan Roman Remains by Leland.

This book, written in the late 1800's, is the answer to those in the Craft who believe all modern witchcraft stems from Gerald Gardener. It is clear from this book that although Doreen Valiente is credited with the Charge of the Goddess and other staples of modern witchcraft, these credos had their origins in Strega, and Strega is witchcraft that has fragments that have survived from Etruscan times. Strega survived the Inquisition. (See "Night Battles.")

True, modern witchcraft has a strong connection to Gardener, Valiente, Crowley, Fortune and the Golden Dawn, which has its roots in Masonic practices. Gardnerian witchcraft is a hybrid religious practice, and even Gerald Gardener never made any claims to the contrary.

The newer version, edited by an Itallian folklorist, claims that the original Italian-English translation misinterprets some idioms and that may be true. In order to keep the meter and rhyme of the verse, some poetic license had to have been taken, and in looking at the Italian, I think that this is probable. I have not yet read the newer version, but look forward to doing so for the editorial comments. This book is a must for any British traditionalist.

Charles Leland was an ethnographer in the 19th century. He traveled around finding and documenting folkways of minority groups, Gypsies, for example. While on travel in Italy he met an old woman who told him tales of witchcraft and gave him some of their words. Aradia is a short little book containing translations of the words that Leland got from the old woman. It contains the oldest known version of what pagans now call "The Charge of the Goddess," although it was not called that in this book. It also advises witches to be naked in their rites, and after the feast is over to make love in the darkness.

First published in 1890, Aradia is must reading for anyone who is studying pagan or Wiccan traditions. Its not the cookbook approach to magick like so many Wiccan books today. Its honest history of nineteenth century witches as told to a wandering ethnographer.

This book by the noted scholar Charles G. Leland sheds light on the ancient and much misunderstood religion of southern Europe. With the help of a strega, an Italian witch, Leland collected and compiled stories which he would form into te Witches Gospel. Used by many witches, both practitioners of the old religion and of more modern nature based faiths, this text is a must read for anyone interested in the origins of witchcraft in today's world.

this book might offend alot of wiccans,but remember this book is about italian witchcraft not wicca. i dont recommend doing all spells in this book,especially the ones that threatens diana if she doesnt give you what you want. this book has alot of christian elements. i think the poetry in this book is beautiful. this book is an important read for anyone that studies or practices witchcraft. this book is very questionable,but still a very interesting read.

Contrary to the impression given by superficial debunkers of Witchcraft, Charles Godfrey Leland was a 19th-century scholar of broad learning and solid reputation. He was famous in his lifetime for his groundbreaking researches into Gypsy and British "tinker" lore and culture; for discovering the "Shelta" language surviving in western Britain; for identifying the survival of Etruscan deity-names in Tuscan peasant lore; even for instituting "industrial arts" education in America and Europe ... all this *before* he found what anyone else who looked in the wilder corners of Europe a hundred years ago still found: a surviving outpost of the Old Religion. ("Pagan" means "country-dweller", after all.) Northern Italy was notorious during the Burning Times for the stubborn resistance of its Witches -- centuries before, Tuscany had been the home of the Etruscans, who taught the Romans magic and religion.

An excellent book. But remember -- the European witch-lore that survives in print for library-bound scholars to pontificate about is only the tip of a very widespread folk and oral iceberg.