"What is modern witchcraft, and why is a specifically feminist witchcraft needed?"

"Many people who consider themselves to be contemporary "witches" or "pagans" feel they are reviving a millennia-old spirituality. Some harken back to cultures that worshipped Goddesses as well as Gods, and were led by priestesses and wise elder women.

Others see their origins in paleolithic ceremonial magical groups. Some identify with "New Age" thinking; many do not use that label. It is generally believed that all witches are pagan (in worldview), but not all pagans are witches. (For more details, see Drawing Down the Moon, by Margot Adler, revised edition.)

As a religion, witchcraft focuses on working with nature, on psychic development and on direct personal relationships with Deity (Goddesses, or Goddess and God). It emphasizes balance, learning, and responsibility. As a pre-Christian, Goddess-oriented religion, witchcraft encourages female leadership, and many of its practioners are feminist or sympathetic to feminism.

Witchcraft is often called by its older Anglo-Saxon names: wicce or wicca. The Old English neutral plural for witches is wiccan, although some witches today say "wiccans." Although the masculine term wicca is most often used (which I consider symptomatic of the internal sexism of modern witchcraft), the Anglo-Saxon Old English term for the religion, and the term I use, is wiccecraeft.

A Real Wise Woman Challenges The Stereotypes and reveals the on-going persecution of "Witches"

Witchcraft is sometimes viewed as being "evil." This mentality fueled the witch-hunting inquisitions centuries ago, and is responsible for attacks against real witches and powerful women around the world today.

For instance, in 1985, three women in Zimbabwe were shot and killed by a group of men who accused them of being witches.

At least 20 women in West Bengal, India were killed as suspected witches in 1987. In 1989, women in eastern India were murdered after they were accused of being witches and casting "evil spells;" one of them was dragged from her hut, tied to a tree and slaughtered with an ax by two male neighbors, only one of whom was apprehended by police.

In 1990, in Venda - the nominally independent Black homeland set up by South Africa - an angry crowd set fire to an inhabited home, fatally burning two infants, because they believed the parents were involved in witchcraft.

By the late 1980s, witchcraft was a crime in several nations. In 1987, the West African nation of Benin declared that practicing witchcraft or magic was punishable by death or 10 to 20 years hard labor. The South American nation of Ecuador banned witches, fortune tellers and natural healers in 1989. Beginning in the mid-1980s, right-wing groups in the United States attacked "witchcraft" in an attempt to disrupt and control the public right to freedom of expression.

In 1985, parents' groups in at least 20 states, under the leadership of right-wing anti- feminist leader Phyllis Schlafly, demanded that public schools get parents' written permission for classroom discussions and curriculum material on a variety of topics, including witchcraft, abortion, social roles of men and women, homosexuality, human sexuality, and Eastern mysticism.

A lawsuit filed by one such group, Citizens Organized for Better Schools' (Mozart v. Hawkins County School System), charged that an elementary reading series published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston was teaching witchcraft, situation ethics, disrespect for parental authority, evolution and secular humanism.

More recent attacks have included Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, for dealing with witchcraft and religion, and Frank Baum's timeless fantasy, The Wizard of Oz, for presenting a positive witch (Glinda the Good).

Also in 1985, newspaper and TV reports on child abuse and possible murder cases started using the terms "witchcraft," "occult," and "Satanism" almost interchangeably.

In August of that year, Rep. Robert Walker (R-PA) introduced an act to remove tax-exempt status from religious groups based on witchcraft, which indicated that a real witch hunt was developing. Then, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), a powerful right- wing politician linked to ultrafundamentalist Christianity and censorship, got involved.

On The Issues Magazine: By the late 1980s, witchcraft was a crime in several nations.
Helms introduced Amendment 705 to the fiscal 1986 Treasury and Post Office appropriations bill, HR 3036 in September 1985. Helms' amendment, which specified, "No funds appropriated under this Act shall be used to grant, maintain, or allow tax exemption to any cult, organization, or other group that has as a purpose, or that has any interest in, the promoting of satanism or witchcraft," was passed by voice vote, without dissent or debate in the Senate. "Witchcraft" was defined by Helms as "the use of powers derived from evil spirits, the use of sorcery, or the use of supernatural powers with malicious intent."

Helms' amendment was meant to cut off tax and postal privileges for any group that he disfavored by fitting them within the vague definitions of the amendment. Both the American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.) and the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) opposed the amendment, and the A.C.L.U. argued against the government's ability to define which religions are considered legitimate.

After a barrage of protests by witches and non-witches alike, the House-Senate conferees quietly dropped the amendment "on a technicality."

Historically, witch hunters have attacked not only unconventional religions, but independent, powerful, and publicly visible women.

A modern witch hunt of this type occurred recently in Beulah, North Dakota, when two men plotted to murder 61-year-old Karina Singer because neighbors thought she was a dangerous "witch."

This case was reminiscent of witch hunting over several centuries.

Karina Singer had lived in the area for %\ years. She and her husband John were farm owners who wanted to turn their farm into what Singer termed "a place of beauty and peace," where friends could visit for extended vacations.

In fall, 1989, the couple laid down two Native American "medicine wheels," or rock configurations, "for the healing of the land." John died of cancer the following April, but Karina continued the work. She had a guest house built and a pit burned in the yard.

When Singer had two other women visit the farm in the summer of 1990, she was unaware that rumors about her had been circulating for years. As Mercer County State's Attorney Alan Duppler later reported, "There have been rumors flying around Mercer County that these three ladies are witches and they're sacrificing animals and doing general cult type things."

According to the story, the guest house was a church, and visitors were seen dancing around a pit fire. (The "dancers" were apparently construction workers putting out grass fires started by sparks from the newly burned pit in the yard.)

When Jim Reppen, who worked for a tire service company, and Dean Unterseher, a farmer, heard the story, they "decided they were going to go down and eliminate the problem," says Duppler. Reppen and Unterseher, both armed, were arrested on Singer's farm in August and charged with conspiring to murder her.

"I'm stunned my neighbors could believe these things when we lived here 21 years," Singer said. "And instead of calling me to find out if they were true, they circulated them around until they became like an atomic blast mushrooming out of the prairie."

Karina Singer was an independent landowner, with different spiritual interests from those of her neighbors. She is one of many women - including feminist politicians - who are faced with modern-day witch hunting.

In reality, witchcraft is far from negative or evil. My definition of "witch" is a priestess or priest of wiccecraeft skilled in healing and psychic work and occult magic: A person able to bend or reshape universal energies, or an independent, uppity, powerful, or daring woman.

I define a "feminist" as a female or male who is female-centered or female-oriented; or a person who is not prejudiced against others because of their gender or sexual preferences; or anyone who, in a patriarchal society, works toward the political, economic, spiritual, sexual, and social equality of women.

Modern witchcraft includes a variety of denominations, or "traditions." The most feminist of these is the Dianic tradition, named for the Roman Goddess Diana, woodland Goddess of Freedom, huntress, and patroness of witches. One branch of Dianic witchcraft includes women and men as practitioners, and honors the God (of Nature, Love, etc.) as well as the Great Goddess.

Another branch is lesbian and separatist, refusing to acknowledge males either as practitioners or in the form of Diety (which may be considered reverse sexism).

Some witchcraft denominations often have female leaders and, to an extent, honor the Goddess. But others practice antiwomen sexism, and few witchcraft practitioners of any denomination are overtly involved in feminist issues (though a portion are in peace or ecology groups).

During the past two decades, American feminists have changed much of the outward look of witchcraft. There are more female leaders visible, and there is a great deal more emphasis on Goddess culture.

But, despite the long human heritage of Goddess worship around the world, and despite the reality that European witch hunts that lasted for centuries were primarily directed against women, contemporary witchcraft includes and accepts sexists, people who have conducted internal witch hunts, and other kinds of bigots.

And witchcraft too often tends to speak in male terms, to assume a greater importance for male deities and male spokespeople, and to assume antifeminist or antigay rights stances.

On The Issues Magazine: Witchcraft was defined by Jesse Helms as the use of powers derived from evil spirits.

Feminists involved in witchcraft have made a difference, however. The foundation of witchcraft is rooted in female power and female concerns. Much can be learned from feminist witchcraft that one can find useful as a feminist. Because Dianic witchcraft emphasizes the perception of universal creativity and energy as feminine, as the Goddess, women are thereby empowered as vital and important beings in the universe.

So, it becomes natural to assume that: Women are creative in all ways; women are leaders; women have a deciding voice in all that matters to them; women are responsible for their actions; women are able to communicate directly with Deity (or universal energy or Nature); and women have sexual freedom, reproductive rights, and the right to define their bodily lives.

Feminist witchcraft encourages the development of intuition as an effective part of human life. Each human being has intuition, an inner voice, a way of deciding quickly what is right or wrong for oneself, and what to do about it.

Western culture denies the intuitive judgment, and favors a rational, logical, statistical, or factual approach. Both intuition and logic are necessary for a well-balanced life. My intuition has helped me stay out of potentially dangerous situations, has led me to teach myself to meditate and to learn something about Yoga and T'ai Chi.

Feminist witchcraft also offers positive ways to view and change body images. Witches believe in self-blessings. Each of us is seen as being part of divine energy, of the Goddess and the God. And every part and process of the human body is considered sacred. So, one way to pray to the Goddess/God is to bless one's self and the basic parts of one's body.

As I have learned to trust myself and appreciate my body more, I have come to respect the functions of my body. In blessing my body, I learned that my flesh is really alive, composed of living cells that do respond to my needs.

I also learned to bless the coming and going of my monthly period of blood by honoring the Goddess in myself: "She who bleeds, yet does not die."

Feminist witchcraft focuses on the cyclical patterns of our lives: The moon, the sun, other stars, and the universe.

As I became more aware of my personal patterns, I grew more tolerant of my need for solitude, for writing, and for periods of fervent feminist political activity and meetings. I learned to balance more evenly the processes of giving and accepting love. And I learned to do something I thought impossible - to perceive the artist in myself. Cultural creativity - work educated to the Muses and Pan - is encouraged in feminist witchcraft.

Witches are very interested in herbal knowledge and in learning to heal oneself, others, even the earth. And many witches are in various kinds of healing professions or vocations.

Witches generally believe in reincarnation, in a cycle of life after life filled with learning. As I learned to see my life as one of a number of lifetimes, I also learned not to be afraid of death. I now see death as brother to the Goddess of Life and Love (as in the myth of Ishtar and the Lord of Death), or death as the sister-self of the Goddess-on-Earth (as in the Egyptian view of Nephthys below and Isis above, or the Greek views of Persephone
underground and Demeter aboveground).

The knowledge of healing methods can include not only ways to make life easier and healthier, but also ways to ease the passing of life into death. Sometimes death is a peaceful passage from one stage of existence to another. In 1970, my 30-year-old brother died of cancer.

I priestessed him - counseling him, sending him energy, advising him, sharing with him the psychic experiences that often occur to the dying person. I aided my brother to face death as a journey, neither frightening nor extraordinary.

I discovered that many Americans don't know how to deal with dying and death. Though many nurses are aware of the needs of a dying person and try hard to help, most of the doctors I contacted were unwilling or unable to deal personally with dying patients. The process of dying is made much more painful than it need be for many people in hospitals in this country.

When I perceive death as brother to the Goddess, I feel He is kind to Her daughters, and understanding, and helpful to all who need to pass on to her levels of being. When I personify death as sister to the Goddess, I feel she welcomes her children and renews us, readies us for rebirth, and helps us learn in harmony and peace. We are always moving from living towards dying and beyond, as trees and flowers in nature move through stages of existence and seeming (but only temporary) nonexistence.

Feminist witchcraft offers the feminist movement other helpful theological or philosophical perceptions of life: The process you use is as important as, or even more important than, your goal; balance is important in the ways we live; the energy you send out will return to you at least threefold (whether the energy is in thought or deed); learn to perceive the cycles of events (for example, the Equal Rights Amendment will not die, but efforts to place it into law go through cycles that wane and then wax forth); and human beings need the mystery and security of identifying with Mother Nature or Mother Earth.

Although modern witchcraft reflects some of the basic societal ills of our time, and although many witches today do not practice all they preach, there is much that feminist witchcraft offers to feminists and the feminist movement. If you are drawn to it, be careful and don't check your principles or your feminism at the gate. For those not so inclined, there is still much to be learned from witchcraft about ourselves and our place in nature."

Source
http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/1992summer/summer1992_Forfreedom.php

"Dianic Feminist Wicca/Witchcraft Tradition is woman and Goddess-centered denomination of the Neopagan “Old Religion.”

"Dianic Feminist Wicca/Witchcraft Tradition is woman and Goddess-centered denomination of the Neopagan “Old Religion.” 

The Dianic Tradition was founded by author, feminist activist and founder of the Women’s Spirituality Movement Zsuzsanna “Z” Emese Budapest in 1971, Venice Beach, California. (1)

On winter’s solstice in 1971, Z Budapest also established the first Dianic coven, called the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One. (1) This coven still exists to this day, and has expanded its influences globally as well as virtually with an internet presence within Z Budapest’s Dianic Wicca University Online (2), a Goddess blog (3) and a monthly e-zine called Goddess.(4)

From 1971 to 1980, Z Budapest served as the founder and high priestess of the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One, but in 1980 she made the decision to moved from Venice Beach in southern California to Oakland in northern California. The position of High Priestess of the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One was ordained upon Ruth Barrett by Z Budapest.

Ruth soon renamed the coven to Moon Birch Grove, and then five years later renamed it again to Circle of Aradia; which still exists to this day. (5)

As perhaps the most world renown coven by name, the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One was resurrected by Z Budapest in 2007 and now has a global presence as both a live and virtual coven offering a Dianic Wicca Clergy Priestess Training program. (6)

Prior to 1980, there were no ordinations within the Dianic Tradition. But after Z Budapest had ordained Ruth Barrett, she realized that there were other worthy women who were creating Dianic communities following in her example and practicing her teachings.

Z decided to establish what has come to be known as “Queendoms.” Between 1980 and 2009 (to-date), Z Budapest has granted thirteen such Queendom High Priestess ordinations. Queendoms require that every ten years, each High Priestess must train and ordain at least one other High Priestess. Failure to do so results in the High Priestess losing her “crown” and she is no longer recognized as an active High Priestess by the lineages associated with Z Budapest. Several of these women did allow their crowns to lapse.

What about the others who claim they are the true Dianic tradition?

Z met Morgan McFarland back when the Women's Spirituality Movement was young, during the trip Z and Helen Beardwoman took across the United States. McFarland was never crowned and never ordained by Z Budapest. At the time she met Z, she had an active all-female coven practicing together in the state of Texas, but according to Z McFarland's husband was there too. McFarland, according to Z, practiced a blend of Dianic and Gardnarian traditions.

Morgan McFarland, took the Dianic tradition to a place it was never meant to go when she began admitting men into her worship space and classes. In fact, Morgan McFarland went so far as to ordain her husband into her version of the Dianic tradition, thus creating the beginnings of controversy and issues of separatism. Morgan McFarland then promptly divorced her husband, but he continued to teach and propagate his own brand of Dianic philosophies. Thus, the Morgan McFarland Dianic tradition is not the same as the Z Budapest Dianic tradition.

The result of the creation of the McFarland Dianic tradition has been that the original Dianic tradition has had to redefine itself to distance itself from theMcFarlands. Thus, you will see reference to the Feminist Wicca, Feminist Dianic, Feminist Tradition and Feminist Witchcraft, which are all the same as Z Budapest’s women-centered, all female Dianic tradition.

There also exists another Dianic tradition which admits men, which was founded by Ann Forfreedom in Oakland, California. This tradition has no known lineage to Z Budapest's Dianic tradition. Not surprisingly, this version of Dianic tradition has also been inflamitory with regards to seperatism and lesbianism.

All of which bring us to the next topic, which is that the Dianic tradition is not and never has been seperatist nor solely for lesbians. What it has been is an all female women-centered theology that focuses solely on women's mysteries. The Dianic acknowledge the existence of men's mysteries and encourage the men to embrace them.

Z Budapest's Dianic tradition is very specific on this topic. She can be quoted as stating, "We always recognize, when we say "Goddess," that She is the Life-giver, the Life-sustainer. She is Mother Nature." (7)

"There are only two kinds of people in the world: mothers and their children. Mothers can give life to each other as well as to men, who are not able to do the same for themselves. This constitutes a dependency upon the Female Life Force for life renewed, and was accepted naturally in ancient times by our ancient forebearers as a sacred gift of the Goddess. 

In patriarchal times this sacred gift was turned against women, and used to force them to give up roles of independence and power." (8)

"Our sons, our Sacred Children, were not raised as traitors [reference to the word warlock], but as lovers of life, lovers of women, brothers or lovers to each other, helpers of the Goddess in the most essential skill of nurturing. Sons of the mothers in Goddess-worship became Kouretes, members of the Goddess-serving priesthood." (8)

Thus it was established by Z Budapest at the inception of the Dianic tradition, that there existed a counter-part all male tradition known as the Kouretes. 

The Dianic tradition does not espouse seperatism, instead it embraces the differences between the male and the female as given by the Goddess, Mother Nature.

Practicing Dianic Witchcraft does not preclude any woman from also participating with males under the auspicies of other traditions. 

The Dianic tradition simply stated, is a pure recognition of that which is all-female by those who are women-born-women within the sacredness of divine Goddess worship. Seperatism of any kind has no foundation within the original Dianic tradition as founded by Z Budapest.

1. Budapest, Zsuzsanna. The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries. Red Wheel/Weiser, 2007, page xvi.
2. Dianic Wicca University Online (http://wicca.dianic-wicca.com)
3. Goddess blog (http:// the-goddess.net/goddess)
4. Goddess magazine (http://issuu.com/zbudapest/docs/goddess)
5. Falcon River (2004) The Dianic Wiccan Tradition. From The Witches Voice. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
6. Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One (www.dianic-wicca.com)
7. Budapest, Zsuzsanna. The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries. Red Wheel/Weiser, 2007, page xvii.
8. Budapest, Zsuzsanna. The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries. Red Wheel/Weiser, 2007, page 183."

Source and Lot's more Great Goddess Information
http://dianic-wicca.com/dianic-wicca-tradition.html

Pentagram Pendants: Their Meanings And Synthesis

Portrait of a Witch with Zsuzsanna Budapest

Dianic WITCHCRAFT: Summoning the FATES

The Susun Weed Show ~ Butter: The Super Food and Foods of Natives

Dianic Witchcraft - Women YOU too are God. Goddess Worship

Dianic Wicca ~ FOCUS on the Worship of the GODDESS and on Feminism.

"Dianic Wicca, also known as Dianic Witchcraft and Dianic Feminist Witchcraft,^[1] is a tradition, or denomination, of the neopagan religion of Wicca. It was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States in the 1970s, and is notable for its focus on the worship of the Goddess, and on feminism. 

It combines elements of British Traditional Wicca, Italian folk-magic recorded in Charles Leland's Aradia, feminist values, and ritual, folk magic, and healing practices Budapest learned from her mother."

"Most Dianic Wiccans as "positive path" practitioners do neither manipulative spellwork nor hexing because it goes against the Wiccan Rede; other Dianic witches (notably Zsuzsanna Budapest) do not consider hexing or binding of those who attack women to be wrong."

Source and Full Article
https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Dianic_Wicca.html

"What is Stregoneria vs Stregheria" "Stregoneria is the modern word in Italian that is commonly translated into English as the word witch."

"What are the differences between stregoneria and stregheria, and what exactly is stregoneria?

Stregoneria is the modern word in Italian that is commonly translated into English as the word witch. 

In the Italian dictionary – Vocabolario della Lingua (Nicola Zanichelli, 1970) - stregoneria is defined as a magical practice intended to produce harm or illness. Stregheria is referenced in this book as a rare usage, and it is also defined as witchcraft. In this article the differences between the two words, and what they actually mean, will be revealed.

The statement that stregoneria refers to a harmful magical practice is supported by ethnologist Elsa Guggino, who states that words related to stregoneria are always used disparagingly to describe someone practicing malevolent magic (Stregoneria: The “Old Religion” in Italy from Historical to Modern Times, by Marguerite Rigoglioso, 2000).

Stregoneria, from a historical perspective, is a form of sorcery found in pre-Christian times. With the establishment of the Catholic Church, stregoneria was opposed and eventually outlawed. It appears to have survived in fragmented forms well into the 17th century. As scholar Ruth Martin points out, all practices such as sortilegio, erbaria, and fattucheria were regarded as stregoneria. This is discussed in her book titled Witchcraft and the Inquisition in Venice 1550 – 1650.

Martin also notes the last remaining vestiges of “non-Christian” elements in stregoneria, which appear in the 16th century trial of Elena Draga (also known as Elena Crusichi). Such elements demonstrate the former pagan roots of stregoneria. However, with each passing century the authentic forms of stregoneria withered and passed away. It was displaced with Christian traditions mixed with folk magic beliefs, which bear little if any resemblance to the authentic forms of stregoneria that once existed in Italy. This is very often the fate of inner traditions once they fall into the hands of the general population.

Some modern practitioners of Italian folk magic traditions now claim to be witches. However, professor Sabina Magliocco points out that the folk magic practitioners of Italy view themselves as Catholic; therefore to refer to them as “witches” is an act of cultural violence against Italian folk traditions and their practitioners (Spells, Saints, and Streghe: Witchcraft, Folk Magic, and Healing in Italy – published in Pomegranate, August 2000). Many Italian witches are offended that some people equate witchcraft with the Catholic folk traditions of the non-initiate population of Italy. Therefore this position is offensive to both the authentic folk practitioners of Italy and the authentic witches of Italy.

Stregoneria contrasts sharply with the tradition of Stregheria. The former is now a quasi-Catholic oriented sorcery found in common Italian folk traditions, and the latter is a pagan oriented religious system with a magical structure for rituals and spells. The word “stregheria” is an archaic word for witchcraft that is now applied in place of the word “stregoneria.” Those wishing to differentiate themselves from Christian stregoneria, (which usurped and distorted the pre-existing tradition of witchcraft) now use the term stregheria. The use of the word stregheria is now reclaimed by those who are not ashamed or fearful of their Italian pagan roots.

One old example of the usage of “stregheria” appears in the book Apologia della Congresso Notturno Delle Lamie, by Girolamo Tartarotti (1751), which almost exclusively uses the word stregheria in place of stregoneria. Due to modifications over the centuries, the terms stregoneria and stregheria must now be viewed as referring to different systems. In fact, a dictionary printed in the year 1900 (Nouveau dictionnaire italien-francais et francais-italien – by Costanzo Ferrari) provides separate entries for stregoneria and stregheria. The entry for stregoneria refers strictly to sorcery, while the entry for stregheria refers to organized witchcraft in connection with the Sabbat. The connection of the word stregheria to the Sabbat is particularly noteworthy. Tartarotti includes a discussion of the veneration of the goddess Diana in connection with Stregheria, which further demonstrates the difference between it and stregoneria. Such a connection can be found in pre-Christian writings like those of Horace (the Epodes).

SIGNS THAT A TRADITION IS NOT AUTHENTIC ITALIAN WITCHCRAFT

Over the past decade we have seen the rise of groups and individuals claiming to be witches, but are actually only practicing common folk magic and folk healing traditions that bear a slight resemblance to some elements of authentic Italian witchcraft. In Italy the majority of groups (along with websites) have merged eclectic material together, erroneously portraying this as Italian witchcraft. In reality it is a mixture of ancient Egyptian Isis worship, hermetics, Greco-Roman religion, and Catholic-based folk traditions. Authentic Italian witchcraft in Italy is still an underground society and continues to remain in the shadows.

Some modern groups and individuals claiming to practice witchcraft have rejected any pagan elements in favor of the Catholic-rooted traditions of Italy. Although seen in Italy to a small degree, this phenomenon is largely found among segments of the Italian-American population seeking their European roots. Their rejection of the authentic forms of Italian witchcraft in favor of Catholic-rooted folk traditions is a symptom of fearing to relinquish Christianity. In other words they want to be witches but are apparently afraid to be pagan for fear of damnation (a Judeo-Christian belief). Therefore they have invented a “Christian witchcraft” system, which they feel is a safeguard against offending “God”. The following are nine primary signs of this fake type of witchcraft:

1. The inclusion of Christian symbols, the rosary, holy water, communion wafers, saints, Jesus, and Church holidays.

2. The passing on of “the power” on Christmas Eve (typically related to healing).

3. Claiming that common folklore and folk traditions are witchcraft traditions.

4. Claming that folk healers and folk magic users are witches.

5. Ignorance of the cimaruta as the witches’ symbol, and viewing it as a folk charm for protection or good fortune.

6. Ignorance of inner traditions related to Befana, the witch gift-giver figure. In fake witchcraft traditions Befana is linked to the birth of Jesus and the appearance of the Magi.

7. Denial of surviving elements of paganism, and denial of pagan roots of origin.

8. Reliance upon information found in published books on Italian folk traditions, customs, and folk magic (with no access to initiate level material). From this is constructed a fabricated Christian witchcraft system incorporating Italian folk traditions in an attempt to appear authentic.

9. A belief that common Italian family practices involving saint magic & blessings, techniques against the “evil eye” and the use of common items such as scissors, needles, red thread, salt, and other household items is a form of authentic witchcraft.

One of the problems with Christianized stregoneria is its fostering of superstitions, which are indicative of ignorance and lack of education. Those who promote Christianized stregoneria contribute to the negative stereotypes of Italians as ignorant and backwards. This undermines the efforts of others who wish to demonstrate higher levels of spirituality within Italian systems and traditions. As previously noted, claiming that folk magic and folk healing in an Italian folk tradition is witchcraft also offends authentic Italian folk practitioners. The harm this is doing to the Italian witchcraft community, the community of Italian folk traditions, and to sincere seekers of information, is yet to be fully realized."

Source
http://www.stregheria.com/what.htm

Celtic Coral - Faery Dance

to Awaken She who Sleeps

To Re-Enchant and Heal the World, the Everyday world around us. Herbalists, Witches, Alchemic Baristas; Send Good Energy to Yourself, Do not Allow FEAR into your Energy Field.

"As Halloween approaches, images of scheming witches have started popping up around New York City — weird sisters stirring their brews over caldrons, conjuring toil and trouble for those who drink their potions.

And yet in Brooklyn, real-life good witches are concocting much friendlier brews for public consumption: a group of devoted young herbal healers who are less concerned with casting spells than with helping people feel better from the inside out. Think of them as alchemical baristas, serving up individualized elixirs to treat all kinds of urban ills.

One hub of this new movement is Botica & Co., a brick-and-mortar apothecary in Greenpoint created by Adriana Ayales. Ms. Ayales, 27, is an herbalist who learned the art of herbal distillation and healing from her grandmother, a medicine woman and shaman in her native Costa Rica. She opened Botica & Co. early this month with the hope, she said, that it will become “a healthy version of the bar on ‘Cheers.’ ”

A silk and mousseline mourning ensemble from the 1870s in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new show “Death Becomes Her.”The Subject of Death Plays a Part in Popular Culture OCT. 17, 2014
“I want everyone to come in and talk to us, tell us their problems, and we will whip up the perfect cure,” she said. “I want to bring back the intimacy and personal attention of a vintage pharmacy, but instead of aspirin, we are prescribing yerba mate or ayahuasca flowers.”

Above the bar are dozens of large Mason jars filled with dark, smoky liquids — Ms. Ayales calls them “tonics” — potent, concentrated mixtures of herbs, many of which Ms. Ayales sources directly from the rain forests of Costa Rica, where she works with “sustainable, certified wild-crafters.” They are meant to be consumed at the bar, diluted inside fresh pineapple or Concord grape juices that she keeps on tap or taken as a single shot, like espresso, on the go. She also sells a line of cold-pressed juice and coconut water called Pura Fruta.

Ms. Ayales’s best-selling formulas are Love Handles, a tonic said to help blast fat with ginger, Himalayan pink salt, green coffee bean and a rain forest tree berry called cha de bugre, and Lucid Dreaming, a pungent cocktail of kava, ashwagandha, rose and passionflower that addresses anxiety.

Also popular? Eros, a quick shot of aphrodisiac stimulant containing night-blooming jasmine, hibiscus and Costa Rican ingredients like catuaba and muira puama. “I get a lot of men asking for that one,” she said. “On opening night, we poured a bunch of it into a vat of red wine. Things got ... crazy.”

Should you be looking for an even witchier apothecary experience, head to Bushwick, where the hip occult store Catland is celebrating all things magical, from tarot cards to crystals to local covens (who hold gatherings around a fire pit in the backyard).

The real attraction, however, is the private apothecary in back, where Joseph Petersen, the 26-year-old co-owner, creates custom oils and incenses to fit the daily needs of his customers.

“Part of our mission here is to find ways to re-enchant the world,” Mr. Petersen said. “And what is more enchanting than coming in, telling us what you’re going through and working together to make something?”

Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
He acknowledges that some people are skeptical of “herbal magick” as a remedy for ills, but he says that you do not have to believe in the occult or speak spells to experience the healing powers of his potions. “I got into magic when I was 18,” he said. “And what I found was, it’s all about the power of conviction. If you believe something works, and you intend for it to work, then usually that’s all you need.” 

If that sounds like a placebo effect, that’s because that may be exactly what herbal healing is.

“Most of the big N.I.H. studies on herbs have shown that while they are not harmful, except in extremely high doses, they don’t do much either,” said Dr. Pieter Cohen, a professor of medicine at Harvard who studies herbal supplements. “That said, the placebo effect they have is powerful. If you believe a supplement is healthy, it can actually make you healthier.”

Catland’s stylish patrons — think less bohemian witches in tasseled shawls and more young professionals in flannel and leather jackets — ask Mr. Petersen to help with a variety of ailments, from insomnia to acne to attracting a mate.

His most powerful remedy is a ritual bath concoction, which he mixes from his arsenal of herbs and minerals in a hulking mortar and pestle.

The potions, which contain ingredients like benzoin, galangal, lavender and mugwort, come with a canvas pouch that one steeps in boiling water like tea and then pours into the tub. Mr. Petersen also includes a candle, onto which he carves a tiny image of whichever pagan deity he thinks will most help his client.

“You can say a prayer to it if you want, or not,” he said. “It’s more important, when you get into the bath, to send the good energy back to yourself. That’s where the healing is.”

Source
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/fashion/halloween-brooklyn-real-life-good-witches-concoct-herbal-brews.html?_r=2

"For the roots of Salem witch hysteria, look at the next town over" Many came to America to escape British, Italian and other Witch Trials and Keep the Tradition Alive.

"Some descendants of accused witches in Danvers, once called Salem Village, say they are ready to address their legacy"

"SALEM, Massachusetts — Three centuries after America’s first recorded witch hunt, Salem no longer hangs its witches; it applauds them as a mainstay of the local economy.

In the last two weeks of October alone, Salem businesses selling palmistry and “Bewitched” memorabilia will make 80 percent of their annual income in what has become a $100 million a year — and rapidly growing — industry, according to local tourism authorities. 

While many of the Witch City’s neighbors are mostly commuter cities for those working in Boston, Salem has established a tourism industry that employs over 700 Witch City residents.

That’s all thanks, of course, to the legacy of 24 accused witches who died amid the hysteria of 1692. But not many tourists to Salem are aware that there are more homes, graves and artifacts of the witch trials in the next town over — sleepy, relatively conservative Danvers, known until more than half a century after the trials as Salem Village.

There is no direct public transportation line from Boston or Salem to Danvers. With the exception of a few special events, none of the Salem tours go there, even if it’s only a 15-minute drive away.

Descendants of accused witches in Danvers said that many of those who were murdered were deeply Christian and would have strongly disapproved of the annual Haunted Happenings events throughout October that draw American and international tourists for a celebration of the occult.

“I don’t think the other communities want” witch trial tourism, said Kate Fox, director of tourism authority Destination Salem, referring not only to Danvers but other neighboring cities linked to the trials, like Andover and Beverly.

Scores of Andover residents were accused during the trials after Danvers residents were asked to identify witches believed to be living secretly in their community. Six years after the conclusion of the trials, Beverly’s pastor Jonathan Hale penned “A Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft,” which blamed Satan for causing hysteria that led to the death of innocents. But like Danvers, neither community appears to be cashing in on its history, some say out of shame.  

“That’s why Danvers changed its name,” Fox said. Roughly 60 years after the trials, what had been Salem Village changed its name to Danvers, after a long bid by the village’s farming community to not share taxes with the culturally and socioeconomically distant fishermen and maritime merchants of Salem Town, now Salem.

Danvers historians say residents had also hoped to forget the witch trials. 

“They were trying to get rid of the legacy,” said Richard Trask, Danvers’ archivist. He said that just a few decades later, Salem started selling its connection to the trials — largely nominal, with the exception of the only space still standing that is directly related to the incident, the so-called Witch House, which belonged to one of the judges in the trials.

Salem Town “metamorphosed the witchcraft. You began to get the idea that a witch is a cutesy character on a broom with a conical hat,” Trask said. The Witch House now sells chocolate lollipops shaped like witch heads.

Fox said that in 1891, a Salem jeweler, Daniel Low, made the first souvenir "witch spoon" and other witch-related novelties. Danvers’ disavowing its legacy and Salem’s starting to cash in on its role in the trials created what Fox called a “perfect storm.”

Nowadays in Salem, taxis, local government offices and even the local newspaper are adorned with witch silhouettes and pointy hat insignia. In Danvers, even as people decorate their homes for Halloween, one finds ghouls, goblins and ghosts — but few witches. 

Keeping quiet

Danvers archivist Richard Trask reads the original church record of the Rev. Samuel Parris, which describes the witch trials in vivid detail.

 Massoud Hayoun

Some said that until recent years, Danvers residents did not speak of the trials in polite society and have vehemently opposed attempts to conjure bitter memories of the kind of guilt that iconic author Nathaniel Hawthorne describes in his book “House of the Seven Gables.”

“In so much of his work, [Hawthorne] tried to expiate the guilt he felt for being related to John Hathorne,” a magistrate in the trials, said Katherine Howe, a Cornell University American studies lecturer and the author of a comprehensive history of European and North American witchcraft, “The Penguin Book of Witches.” Howe is the descendant of three accused Salem witches, one of whom was hanged.

Emotions are still raw for some, even centuries later. Recently at a book reading, Howe said, she “had a woman come up to me in tears. [She] said, ‘I have to tell you, I’m so sorry.’ It turned out she was a distant relative of one of the magistrates.”

“It was and it wasn’t ridiculous to me,” Howe said.

There are some indications that being descended from an accuser is something of a scarlet letter.

The singular mention of the Putnam family on the Danvers Historical Society website is of Joseph Putnam, who “spoke out against the witchcraft hysteria gripping the village.” There is no mention of Ann Putnam and her daughter of the same name, two of the chief witch accusers, who are buried in Danvers. Trask said there are several Putnams residing in Danvers.

“Not all the Putnams were involved,” he said, not directly addressing the society’s website. “But a good portion were, and it turns out they were on the losing side of history.”

A witch cottage industry

The homestead of accused witch Rebecca Nurse, one of Trask's ancestors

 Massoud Hayoun

Trask himself is of accused-witch stock. The homestead of his ancestor Rebecca Nurse, hanged for witchcraft after refusing to confess and accuse others, can be found in Danvers and is open to the public three days a week this month and is run entirely by volunteers. The Salem Witch Museum, by comparison, is open every day and has a full-time staff of docents and administrators.

Just a few miles from the hordes of tourists clamoring for witch swag in Salem, the only sound at Nurse’s empty seven-acre homestead is a woodpecker, hammering its way into what had been the barn.

Like every museum in Salem, Nurse’s home has a gift shop. But Trask says visitors won’t find any of Salem’s witch souvenirs there but rather educational materials, like a PBS film on Nurse and her two sisters, also accused of witchcraft.

“You won’t find a witch on a broom there,” Trask said, with a triumphant smile. “We can be pure, lily pure. We can tell the story in unsensational ways, and we don’t have to be kitschy.”

He played an integral role in uncovering the foundation of the home of the Rev. Samuel Parris — the site of what some historians say gave rise to the witch panic. Parris’ daughter Betty and his niece Abigail Williams were two of the chief accusers at the onset of the hysteria. His slave Tituba, believed to have been from the West Indies, was an accused witch.

Schoolchildren on a field trip visited the site during excavation in the 1970s. “We had two old ladies living across the street,” Trask said, “The old ladies were shaking their fists, ‘Why are you talking about this? Why are you bringing this up again?’”

He said that animosity is long since gone, but it appears finances have presented another obstacle. John Putnam’s house has been closed to the public because of a “lack of funding,” he said, preventing the Danvers Historical Society from “conducting necessary repairs.”

Danvers’ Chamber of Commerce closed in the early 1980s, Trask said. There is no one to oversee the development of a witch trial industry there. 

A tale of two witch cities

The foundation of Parris’ parsonage, the site of what some historians regard as the beginnings of the Salem witch panic

 Massoud Hayoun

Destination Salem’s Fox says that tourists to Witch City get what they are coming for. “You can get a lot in Salem and feel like you don’t have to go farther afield,” she said, adding that Danvers still hasn’t “really reached out” to be a part of the Salem tourism boom.

But Howe believes bringing the two Salems closer together could be a fruitful enterprise.

“There is an opportunity for more. I think a lot of people come to Salem expecting to see more historic stuff … There is that hunger,” she said. “There is an opportunity to supply that. The Witch House does that. The Rebecca Nurse homestead also does a good job of that. Maybe there should be two threads: A fun and fantastical side and the history.”

For Trask and his two colleagues at Danvers’ archives, manpower might prove problematic. At present, “we can’t handle” hordes of tourists, he said.

For every 100 tourists to Salem, he estimates, just two or three make it to Danvers to see the sites mentioned in Salem's museums. But Trask is hopeful. “More and more people understand who are coming to the area. And they’re not your casual tourist,” he said."

Source

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/28/for-the-roots-ofsalemwitchhysterialookthenexttownover.html

The Three Witches or Weird Sisters; "the Fates"

"The Three Witches or Weird Sisters are characters in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth (c. 1603–1607). Their origin lies in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland. Other possible sources influencing their creation aside from Shakespeare's own imagination include British folklore, contemporary treatises on witchcraft including King James I and VI's Daemonologie, Scandinavian legends of the Norns, and ancient classical myths concerning the Fates, the Greek myths of the Moirai and the Roman myths of the Parcae. Portions of Thomas Middleton's play The Witch were incorporated into Macbeth around 1618.

Shakespeare's witches are prophets who hail the general Macbeth early in the play with predictions of his rise as king. Upon committing regicide and taking the throne of Scotland, Macbeth hears the trio deliver ambiguous prophecies threatening his downfall. The witches' dark and contradictory natures, their "filthy" trappings and activities, as well as their interaction with the supernatural all set an ominous tone for the play.

In the eighteenth century the witches were portrayed in a variety of ways by artists such as Henry Fuseli. Since then, their role has proven somewhat difficult for many directors to portray, due to the tendency to make their parts exaggerated or overly sensational.

Some have adapted the original Macbeth into different cultures, as in Orson Welles's performance making the witches voodoo priestesses. Film adaptations have seen the witches transformed into characters familiar to the modern world, such as hippies on drugs or goth schoolgirls. Their influence reaches the literary realm as well in such works as The Third Witch and the Harry Potter series."

Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Witches

the Moirai; the goddesses of fate

"THE MOIRAI (or Moirae) were the goddesses of fate who personified the inescapable destiny of man. They assinged to every person his or her fate or share in the scheme of things.

Their name means "Parts." "Shares" or "Alottted Portions." Zeus Moiragetes, the god of fate, was their leader,.

Klotho, whose name means "Spinner," spinned the thread of life. Lakhesis, whose name means "Apportioner of Lots"--being derived from a word meaning to receive by lot--, measured the thread of life. Atropos (or Aisa), whose name means "She who cannot be turned," cut the thread of life.
At the birth of a man, the Moirai spinned out the thread of his future life, followed his steps, and directed the consequences of his actions according to the counsel of the gods.

It was not an inflexible fate; Zeus, if he chose, had the power of saving even those who were already on the point of being seized by their fate.

The Fates did not abruptly interfere in human affairs but availed themselves of intermediate causes, and determined the lot of mortals not absolutely, but only conditionally, even man himself, in his freedom was allowed to exercise a certain influence upon them. As man's fate terminated at his death, the goddesses of fate become the goddesses of death, Moirai Thanatoio.

The Moirai were independent, at the helm of necessity, directed fate, and watched that the fate assigned to every being by eternal laws might take its course without obstruction; and Zeus, as well as the other gods and man, had to submit to them. They assigned to the Erinyes, who inflicted the punishement for evil deeds, their proper functions; and with them they directed fate according to the laws of necessity.

As goddesses of birth, who spinned the thread of life, and even prophesied the fate of the newly born, Eileithyia was their companion. As goddesses of fate they must necessarily have known the future, which at times they revealed, and were therefore prophetic deities. Their ministers were all the soothsayers and oracles.

As goddesses of death, they appeared together with the Keres and the infernal Erinyes.
The Moirai were described as ugly old women, sometimes lame. They were severe, inflexible and stern. Klotho carries a spindle or a roll (the book of ate), Lakhesis a staff with which she points to the horoscope on a globe, and Atropos a scroll, a wax tablet, a sundial, a pair of scales, or a cutting instrument. At other times the three were shown with staffs or sceptres, the symbols of dominion, and sometimes even with crowns. At the birth of each man they appeared spinning, measuring, and cutting the thread of life.

The Romans called the goddess Parcae and named the three Nona, Decuma and Morta."

Source and Full article
http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Moirai.html

"Aradia in Sardinia:The Archaeology of a Folk Character; Sabina Magliocco"

"Who Was Aradia? Te History and Development of a Legend (2001).

As one of the peer reviewers for that paper, Professor Hutton gave me extremely valuable feedback, thus beginning what became a very fruitful cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas.

While Professor Hutton and I have different disciplinary specialties – history and Folkloristics/ ethnology, respectively – we are interested in many of the same subjects and broader theoretical issues; thus our perspectives complement one another.

Moreover, while my own grasp of history is weak and flawed, Proffessor Hutton’s mastery of anthropological and folkloristic literature is extraordinary for a scholar trained in a completely different discipline.

It is therefore especially fitting that my contribution to this volume once again take up the threads of that original paper, expanding them in new directions and adding to what Professor Hutton has himself written on the subject of Herodias and Aradia.

This work also provides an unexpected link between my early ethnographic research in Sardinia and my later interest in contemporary Witchcraft, bringing my research full circle in a satisfying way."

Source and Full Document
http://www.academia.edu/584599/Aradia_in_Sardinia_the_Archaeology_of_a_Legend

"Maddalena" and the the Goddess Aradia. "Pagan Witchcraft", Maddalena Taluti. Gospel of the Witches and the Study of Italian Witchcraft, Italian Folklore.

"Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland that was published in 1899. It contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy that documented their beliefs and rituals, although various historians and folklorists have disputed the existence of such a group. In the 20th century, the book was very influential in the development of the contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca.

The text is a composite. Some of it is Leland's translation into English of an original Italian manuscript, the Vangelo (gospel).

Leland reported receiving the manuscript from his primary informant on Italian witchcraft beliefs, a woman Leland referred to as "Maddalena" and whom he called his "witch informant" in Italy.

The rest of the material comes from Leland's research on Italian folklore and traditions, including other related material from Maddalena.

Leland had been informed of the Vangelo '​s existence in 1886, but it took Maddalena eleven years to provide him with a copy.

 After translating and editing the material, it took another two years for the book to be published. Its fifteen chapters portray the origins, beliefs, rituals, and spells of an Italian pagan witchcraft tradition. The central figure of that religion is the Goddess Aradia, who came to Earth to teach the practice of witchcraft to peasants in order for them to oppose their feudal oppressors and the Roman Catholic Church.

Leland's work remained obscure until the 1950s, when other theories about, and claims of, "pagan witchcraft" survivals began to be widely discussed. Aradia began to be examined within the wider context of such claims.

Scholars are divided, with some dismissing Leland's assertion regarding the origins of the manuscript, and others arguing for its authenticity as a unique documentation of folk beliefs. 

Along with increased scholarly attention, Aradia came to play a special role in the history of Gardnerian Wicca and its offshoots, being used as evidence that pagan witchcraft survivals existed in Europe, and because a passage from the book's first chapter was used as a part of the religion's liturgy.

After the increase in interest in the text, it became widely available through numerous reprints from a variety of publishers, including a 1999 critical edition with a new translation by Mario and Dina Pazzaglini."

"Charles Godfrey Leland was an American author and folklorist, and spent much of the 1890s in Florence researching Italian Folklore.

Aradia was one of the products of Leland's research. While Leland's name is the one principally associated with Aradia, the manuscript that makes up the bulk of it is attributed to the research of an Italian woman that Leland and Leland's biographer, his niece Elizabeth Robins Pennell, referred to as "Maddalena". 

According to folklorist Roma Lister, a contemporary and friend of Leland's, Maddalena's real name was Margherita, and she was a "witch" from Florence who claimed a family lineage from the Etruscans and knowledge of ancient rituals.[1]

Professor Robert Mathiesen, as a contributor to the Pazzaglini translation of Aradia, mentions a letter from Maddalena to Leland, which he states is signed "Maddalena Talenti" (the last name being a guess as the handwriting is difficult to decipher).[2]

However, pagan scholar Raven Grimassi presented a document at the Pantheacon convention on February 17, 2008, revealing that Maddalena's last name was actually Taluti. This document was reproduced from The International Folklore Congress: Papers and Transactions, 1892 - page 454.

Leland reports meeting Maddalena in 1886, and she became the primary source for his Italian folklore collecting for several years. Leland describes her as belonging to a vanishing tradition of sorcery.

He writes that "by long practice [she] has perfectly learned... just what I want, and how to extract it from those of her kind."[3] He received several hundred pages worth of material from her, which was incorporated into his books Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition, Legends of Florence Collected From the People, and eventually Aradia. 

Leland wrote that he had "learned that there was in existence a manuscript setting forth the doctrines of Italian witchcraft" in 1886, and had urged Maddalena to find it.[4] Eleven years later, on 1 January 1897, Leland received the Vangelo by post.

The manuscript was written in Maddalena's handwriting. Leland understood it to be an authentic document[5] of the "Old Religion" of the witches, but explains that he did not know if the text came from written or oral sources.[3]

Maddalena's correspondence with Leland indicated that she intended to marry a man named Lorenzo Bruciatelli and emigrate to the United States, and the Vangelo was the last material Leland received from her.

Author Raven Grimassi, at the Pantheacon convention on February 17, 2008, presented a copy of a letter written by Leland (housed in The Library of Congress).

The letter states that Maddalena did not follow through with her plans, but instead left her husband and worked in Genoa for a period of time before returning to Florence.

Leland's translation and editing was completed in early 1897 and submitted to David Nutt for publication. Two years passed, until Leland wrote requesting the return of the manuscript in order to submit it to a different publishing house.

This request spurred Nutt to accept the book, and it was published in July 1899 in a small print run.[6] Wiccan author Raymond Buckland claims to have been the first to reprint the book in 1968 through his "Buckland Museum of Witchcraft" press,[7] but a British reprint was made by "Wiccens" [sic] Charles "Rex Nemorensis" and Mary Cardell in the early 1960s.

[8] Since then the text has been repeatedly reprinted by a variety of different publishers, including as a 1998 retranslation by Mario and Dina Pazzaglini with essays and commentary."

Source and More Information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aradia,_or_the_Gospel_of_the_Witches

" Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
After the eleven-year search, Leland writes that he was unsurprised by the contents of the Vangelo. It was largely what he was expecting, with the exception that he did not predict passages in "prose-poetry".[4] "I also believe that in this Gospel of the Witches", comments Leland in the appendix, "we have a trustworthy outline at least of the doctrine and rites observed at [the witches' Sabbat]. They adored forbidden deities and practised forbidden deeds, inspired as much by rebellion against Society as by their own passions."[4]

Leland's final draft was a slim volume. He organised the material to be included into fifteen chapters, and added a brief preface and an appendix. The published version also included footnotes and, in many places, the original Italian that Leland had translated.

Most of the content of Leland's Aradia is made up of spells, blessings and rituals, but the text also contains stories and myths which suggest influences from both the ancient Roman religion and Roman Catholicism.

Major characters in the myths include the Roman goddess Diana, a sun god called Lucifer, the Biblical Cain as a lunar figure, and the messianic Aradia.

The witchcraft of "The Gospel of the Witches" is both a method for casting spells and an anti-hierarchical "counter-religion" to the Catholic church.[9]"

"François Boucher's nude Diana Leaving Her Bath. The goddess is wearing a crescent moon crown. 

Entire chapters of Aradia are devoted to rituals and magic spells.

These include enchantments to win love (Chapter VI), a conjuration to perform when finding a stone with a hole or a round stone in order to turn it into an amulet for Diana's favour (Chapter IV) and the consecration of a ritual feast for Diana, Aradia and Cain (Chapter II).

The narrative material makes up less of the text, and is composed of short stories and legends about the birth of the witchcraft religion and the actions of their gods.

Leland summarises the mythic material in the book in its appendix, writing "Diana is Queen of the Witches; an associate of Herodias (Aradia) in her relations to sorcery; that she bore a child to her brother the Sun (here Lucifer); that as a moon-goddess she is in some relation to Cain, who dwells as prisoner in the moon, and that the witches of old were people oppressed by feudal lands, the former revenging themselves in every way, and holding orgies to Diana which the Church represented as being the worship of Satan".[4]

Diana is not only the witches' goddess, but is presented as the primordial creatrix in Chapter III, dividing herself into darkness and light. After giving birth to Lucifer, Diana seduces him while in the form of a cat, eventually giving birth to Aradia, their daughter. Diana demonstrates the power of her witchcraft by creating "the heavens, the stars and the rain", becoming "Queen of the Witches". Chapter I presents the original witches as slaves that escaped from their masters, beginning new lives as "thieves and evil folk".

Diana sends her daughter Aradia to them to teach these former serfs witchcraft, the power of which they can use to "destroy the evil race (of oppressors)".

Aradia's students thus became the first witches, who would then continue the worship of Diana. Leland was struck by this cosmogony: "In all other Scriptures of all races, it is the male... who creates the universe; in Witch Sorcery it is the female who is the primitive principle".[4]

Aradia is composed of fifteen chapters, the first ten of which are presented as being Leland's translation of the Vangelo manuscript given to him by Maddalena.

This section, while predominantly made up of spells and rituals, is also the source of most of the myths and folktales contained in the text. At the end of Chapter I is the text in which Aradia gives instructions to her followers on how to practice witchcraft.

The first ten chapters are not entirely a direct translation of the Vangelo; Leland offers his own commentary and notes on a number of passages, and Chapter VII is Leland's incorporation of other Italian folklore material.

Medievalist Robert Mathiesen contends that the Vangelo manuscript actually represents even less of Aradia, arguing that only chapters I, I and the first half of Chapter IV match Leland's description of the manuscript's contents, and suggests that the other material came from different texts collected by Leland through Maddalena.[10]

The remaining five chapters are clearly identified in the text as representing other material Leland believed to be relevant to the Vangelo, acquired during his research into Italian witchcraft, and especially while working on his Etruscan Roman Remains and Legends of Florence.

The themes in these additional chapters vary in some details from the first ten, and Leland included them partly to "[confirm] the fact that the worship of Diana existed for a long time contemporary with Christianity".[11] Chapter XV, for example, gives an incantation to Laverna, through the use of a deck of playing cards.

Leland explains its inclusion by a note that Diana, as portrayed in Aradia, is worshipped by outlaws, and Laverna was the Roman goddess of thievery.[12] Other examples of Leland's thoughts about the text are given in the book's preface, appendix, and numerous footnotes.

In several places Leland provides the Italian he was translating. According to Mario Pazzaglini, author of the 1999 translation, the Italian contains misspellings, missing words and grammatical errors, and is in a standardised Italian rather than the local dialect one might expect.[13]

Pazzaglini concludes that Aradia represents material translated from dialect to basic Italian and then into English,[13] creating a summary of texts, some of which were mis-recorded.[14] Leland himself called the text a "collection of ceremonies, "cantrips," incantations, and traditions"[4] and described it as an attempt to gather material, "valuable and curious remains of ancient Latin or Etruscan lore"[4] that he feared would be lost.

There is no cohesive narrative even in the sections that Leland attributes to the Vangelo. This lack of cohesion, or "inconsistency", is an argument for the text's authenticity, according to religious scholar Chas S. Clifton, since the text shows no signs of being "massaged... for future book buyers."[15]

Claims Questioned

Charles Godfrey Leland wrote journalism, comedy and books on folklore and linguistics. Aradia has proved the most controversial.

Leland wrote that "the witches even yet form a fragmentary secret society or sect, that they call it that of the Old Religion, and that there are in the Romagna entire villages in which the people are completely heathen".[4]

Accepting this, Leland supposed that "the existence of a religion supposes a Scripture, and in this case it may be admitted, almost without severe verification, that the Evangel of the Witches is really a very old work... in all probability the translation of some early or later Latin work."[4]

Leland's claim that the manuscript was genuine, or even that he received such a manuscript, has been called into question.

After the 1921 publication of Margaret Murray's The Witch-cult in Western Europe, which hypothesised that the European witch trials were actually a persecution of a pagan religious survival, American sensationalist author Theda Kenyon's 1929 book Witches Still Live connected Murray's thesis with the witchcraft religion in Aradia.[16][17]

Arguments against Murray's thesis would eventually include arguments against Leland. Witchcraft scholar Jeffrey Russell devoted some of his 1980 book A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans to arguing against the claims in Aradia, Murray's thesis, and Jules Michelet's 1862 La Sorcière, which also theorised that witchcraft represented an underground religion.[18] Historian Elliot Rose's A Razor for a Goat dismissed Aradia as a collection of incantations unsuccessfully attempting to portray a religion.

[19] In his Triumph of the Moon, historian Ronald Hutton summarises the controversy as having three possible extremes:

The Vangelo manuscript represents a genuine text from an otherwise undiscovered religion.
Maddalena wrote the text, either with or without Leland's assistance, possibly drawing from her own background with folklore or witchcraft.

The entire document was forged by Leland.

Hutton himself is a sceptic, not only of the existence of the religion that Aradia claims to represent,[20] but also of the existence of Maddalena, arguing that it is more likely that Leland created the entire story than that Leland could be so easily "duped" by an Italian fortune-teller.[21] Clifton takes exception to Hutton's position, writing that it amounts to an accusation of "serious literary fraud" made by an "argument from absence";[22] one of Hutton's main objections is that Aradia is unlike anything found in medieval literature.[20]

Mathiesen also dismisses this "option three", arguing that while Leland's English drafts for the book were heavily edited and revised in the process of writing, the Italian sections, in contrast, were almost untouched except for corrections of "precisely the sort that a proofreader would make as he compared his copy to the original".[23]

This leads Mathiesen to conclude that Leland was working from an extant Italian-language original that he describes as "authentic, but not representative" of any larger folk tradition.[9]

Anthropologist Sabina Magliocco examines the "option one" possibility, that Leland's manuscript represented a folk tradition involving Diana and the Cult of Herodias, in her article Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend. Magliocco writes that Aradia "may represent a 19th-century version of [the legend of the Cult of Herodias] that incorporated later materials influenced by medieval diabolism: the presence of "Lucifero," the Christian devil; the practice of sorcery; the naked dances under the full moon."[24]

Influence on Wicca and Stregheria

Magliocco calls Aradia "the first real text of the 20th century Witchcraft revival",[25] and it is repeatedly cited as being profoundly influential on the development of Wicca.

The text apparently corroborates the thesis of Margaret Murray that early modern and Renaissance witchcraft represented a survival of ancient pagan beliefs, and after Gerald Gardner's claim to have encountered religious witchcraft in 20th-century England,[26] the works of Michelet, Murray and Leland helped support at least the possibility that such a survival could exist.[27]

The Charge of the Goddess, an important piece of liturgy used in Wiccan rituals,[28] was inspired by Aradia's speech in the first chapter of the book. Parts of the speech appeared in an early version of Gardnerian Wicca ritual.[29] According to Doreen Valiente, one of Gardner's priestesses, Gardner was surprised by Valiente's recognising the material as having come from Leland's book. Valiente subsequently rewrote the passage in both prose and verse, retaining the "traditional" Aradia lines.[30] Some Wiccan traditions use the name "Aradia", or Diana, to refer to the Goddess or Queen of the Witches, and Hutton writes that the earliest Gardnerian rituals used the name Airdia, a "garbled" form of Aradia.[31] Hutton further suggests that the reason that Wicca includes skyclad practice, or ritual nudity, is because of a line spoken by Aradia:[32]

"And as the sign that ye are truly free,

Ye shall be naked in your rites, both men

And women also: this shall last until

The last of your oppressors shall be dead;"[33]

Accepting Aradia as the source of this practice, Robert Chartowich points to the 1998 Pazzaglini translation of these lines, which read "Men and Women / You will all be naked, until / Yet he shall be dead, the last / Of your oppressors is dead." Chartowich argues that the ritual nudity of Wicca was based upon Leland's mistranslation of these lines by incorporating the clause "in your rites".[34] There are, however, earlier mentions of ritual nudity among Italian witches. Historian Ruth Martin states that it was a common practice for witches of Italy to be "naked with their hair loose around their shoulders" while reciting conjurations.[35]

Jeffrey Burton Russell notes that "A woman named Marta was tortured in Florence about 1375: she was alleged to have placed candles round a dish and to have taken off her clothes and stood above the dish in the nude, making magical signs".[36]

Historian Franco Mormando refers to an Italian witch: "Lo and behold: in the first hours of sleep, this woman opens the door to her vegetable garden and comes out completely naked and her hair all undone, and she begins to do and say her various signs and conjurations...".[37]

The reception of Aradia amongst Neopagans has not been entirely positive.

Clifton suggests that modern claims of revealing an Italian pagan witchcraft tradition, for example those of Leo Martello and Raven Grimassi, must be "match[ed] against", and compared with the claims in Aradia.

He further suggests that a lack of comfort with Aradia may be due to an "insecurity" within Neopaganism about the movement's claim to authenticity as a religious revival.[38]

Valiente offers another explanation for the negative reaction of some neopagans; that the identification of Lucifer as the God of the witches in Aradia was "too strong meat" for Wiccans who were used to the gentler, romantic paganism of Gerald Gardner and were especially quick to reject any relationship between witchcraft and Satanism.[39]

Clifton writes that Aradia was especially influential for leaders of the Wiccan religious movement in the 1950s and 1960s, but that the book no longer appears on the "reading lists" given by members to newcomers, nor is it extensively cited in more recent Neopagan books.[40] The new translation of the book released in 1998 was introduced by Wiccan author Stewart Farrar, who affirms the importance of Aradia, writing that "Leland's gifted research into a 'dying' tradition has made a significant contribution to a living and growing one."[41]

Author Raven Grimassi has written extensively about Aradia in his popularization of Stregheria, presenting what he admits is his own personal rendering of her story.

He differs from Leland in many ways, particularly in portraying her as a witch who lived and taught in 14th-century Italy, rather than a goddess.[42][43]

In response to Clifton, he states that similarity or dissimilarity to Leland's Aradia material cannot be a measure of authenticity, since Leland's material itself is disputed.

Therefore it cannot effectively be used to discredit other writings or views on Italian witchcraft, nor is it a representative ethnographic foundation against which other writings or views 'must' be compared. The Aradia material is, unfortunately, a disputed text with problems of its own when compared to the usually accepted folklore, folk traditions, and folk magic practices of Italy.

He agrees with Valiente that the major objection of Neopagans to this material is its "inclusion of negative stereotypes related to witches and witchcraft", and suggests that comparisons between this material and religious witchcraft are "regarded as an insult by many neo-pagans".[44]"

Source and More Information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aradia,_or_the_Gospel_of_the_Witches