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