#Sabina Magliocco

[blackcrowing]

"For many Pagans, creativity is central to both spiritual development and the ability to contribute to society. Because creativity and artistry involve evocation and transformation, these acts become equivalent to magic." - Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America by Sabina Magliocco

[elegantshapeshifter]

Hey!! I want to know more about Traditional Witchcraft.

I have been reading Aradia and the Gospel of Witches and I want to know if there is a Northwestern European, British or Scottish idea of Aradia and her mother and father??

Thank you so much!! I can’t wait to convert to the Traditional Witch Path!

Aradia is Herodias, which is, according to Carlo Ginzburg, a Christianization of the Goddess Hera, but according to Sabina Magliocco, also a remains of Hecate, because she flights in the night.

She is a Deity which is not only Italian, but pan-European, in fact in the Canon Episcopi we read about women who dreamt/imagined to fly with both Diana and Herodias.

Herodias became Redodesa in Veneto, Araja/Arada/Sa Rejusta in Sardinia, Arada and Irodeasa in Romania, and so on.

The point is that probably she wasn't always the daughter of Diana, but assimilated/synchretized to her. In fact, Herodias is actually the name of the mother of Salomé, which in the Gospels killed John the Baptist. In the medieval folklore he blows from the mouth of the cut head and from that moment on Salomé is condamned to fly forever, especially in the night. In many folklore tales, both the mother and the daughter, Salomé and Herodias, are seen together, and Herodias of the Canon is actually Salomé called with her mother's name.

Probably, therefore, the legend that Leland writes and re-elaborates to create the Aradia (because the original legends are found both in Etruscan Roman Remains and in Legends of Florence, so we know that Aradia is just a re-elaboration of original folk legends from Florence and Tuscany-Romagna region) is influenced by this idea of Salomé seen with her mother Herodias. So Salomé (called Herodias for the medieval conflation and mispelled Aradia by the people) is the daughter of Diana like she is the daughter of Herodias in other legends (and in the original Gospel tale).

We also have the original legend about Diana seducing his brother, but here there is no daughter, and instead of going to the "Fathers and Mothers of the beginning", in the original tale she goes to other witches.

Moreover, in the original tale from Legends of Florence, the brother isn't called by name.

However, in many trials in Northern Italy, the Domina Nocturna (ex. Lady of the Game) is paired with the Devil. Moreover, many folk magicians in Italy prayed to the "Star Diana"... which is Lucifer. So Lucifer is both the Devil and Diana herself, and the Devil could be associated with Diana as his partner because the same happened to the Lady of the Game (and overseas with the Queen of Elphame).

We also know from The Strix by Della Mirandola that nearby the areas in which Leland found the folktales from which he will elaborates to make the Aradia, people still associated Diana with the Moon. So if Diana is the Moon, for symmetry Lucifer should be the Sun.

So this brother for symmetry could be seen as both the Devil and associated with the Sun, but also with stars for the Stella Diana which is Lucifer. In fact, in Aradia he is the God of the Sun, the Light and the Stars.

So Diana is associated with Aradia for the Salomé-Herodias pair and with Lucifer because of the Stella Diana, the pair with the Devil and the folk idea that the Sun is the brother of the Moon.

However, Lucifer is still a name for Apollo, even in Orphic Hymns (where it's Phosphoros), but I don't think it's been done willingly, it's a coincidence, or better a synchronicity.

For the British context, in Sir Orpheo, Dame Heurodis is kidnapped by the King of Fairies, and Heurodis is a variation of Herodias.

Also the Canon is quoted a lot in Britain while they talk about the idea of the Fairy Queen or Queen of Elphame.

So probably in Great Britain both Diana and Herodias are synchretized with the Queen of Elphame. The Queen, which is usually called Nicnevin (or Titania/Mab in Shakespeare) is the spouse of the King of Elphame, Oberon, who is sometimes demonized, and sometimes is also called Christsonday.

I hope having answered :)

[nile-the-empathy-cleric]

Hello! I am just starting my journey on reconnecting with my traditional roots as an Italian practitioner. My great grandparents came from Italy in the mid 1900s, but unfortunately passed before I had the pleasure of asking about their practices. Can I ask a good starting point for someone who is trying to reconnect all on her own?

Hello!

I am so happy that you are wanting to reconnect with your roots! I'm sorry you didn't get the opportunity to ask your grandparents, my deepest condolences for your loss.

In terms of resources, my recommendation for anyone starting out is to go to folklore sources or to read books by authors who don't simply reference other witchcraft authors. I highly recommend reading Italian Folk Magic: Rue's Kitchen Witchery by Mary-Grace Fahrun. It's mostly her personal experience with Italian folk-Catholicism and magic with plenty of anecdotes, recipes, superstitions, and various rituals. I think it's probably the best widely available source out there. She also has a youtube channel! In a similar vein, the website Italian Folk Magic has some great posts about Southern Italian and Sicilian magic.

Other online resources I've found useful are Gail Faith Edwards' writings on Southern Italian healers and folk medicine (it's split into 2 parts–– there's a lot of great information if you're into herbalism/ green witchcraft). I also love this article detailing witchcraft history, superstition, and more throughout Italy. It goes into a lot of detail and has some information about herbal properties and their uses as well.

Here are some festivals and traditions from across Italy tied to folk belief: Focara of Novoli, The Campanacci in Basilicata, The Feast of San Domenico and the Ritual of Serpari of Cocullo, Naca Procession in Southern Italy, Dance of the Devils, Celebration of Santa Lucia, The Feast of Mamma Schiavona––There are many others (mostly Saint feasts) that have pre-Christian roots or have significant rituals attached.

Most information that I have collected comes from anthropological and folklore sources that aren't very accessible. There are some videos available of documentary footage of Italian anthropologist Ernesto de Martino's work detailing folk tradition: here's a clip of La Taranta. This documentary isn't in English, however you can still get a lot out of it even if you don't speak Italian (unfortunately there are no subtitles). The documentarian that worked with de Martino, Luigi Di Gianni gives some of his recollections here. Here is a clip documenting the Feast of Mamma Schiavona. Otherwise, everything else is behind a paywall on sites like jstor, sagepub, and other academic publishers. I would recommend reading anything by anthropologist and folklorist Sabina Magliocco (I have copies of her work), as well as de Martino's Magic: A Theory from the South (which I also have a pdf of). The academic texts can be a little dense and daunting, but they're worth the read.

I have uploaded some of what I have to WeTransfer, but it will only be up for 1 week (until July 10th) so if anyone else would like to download them, you can for a limited time!

[arcangeloscuba]

NEWBIE NEEDS HELP

Hello all. Very new and currently reaserching. Looking for guidance and reading materials. I will give some backround info, the reason I'm reaserching, and what I have consumed already.

Backround on me. I am an Italian American, mostly southern Italian, primarily Sicily. (As far as I know, i will be takeing an ancestory DNA test soon) My family was running from organized crime and wanted to "americanize" fast so I did not really grow up culturally scicilian. I grew up catholic. I generally consider myself an architypical theist. I am not opposed to others views and practices like some people that use a similar identity. I have been passively practicing various traditions at my leisure for a few years now. Some inspiration from Wicca, the Heathen Reconstruction Movement, and more modern eclectic writers like Mat Auryn's "Psychic Witch." With all that being said I am a casual practioner of witchcraft at best but am very much convinced of a creator diety.

Recently I have came across itallian folk traditions and found striking similarities with my family and "what we did in Sicily" as my grandpa would say. About 2 years ago there was a lot of random shitty things happening in the family. My grandpa instructed my sister to gift me a cornicello neclace because he thought this is the work of the Mal'occhio. (he pernounced it ma-luk-e-a) Ever since I've worn it everyday. After a recent death in the family I decided to research this further and came across a YouTube video by Chaotic Witch Aunt that was a kind of "beginners guide," from here is where my general research has taken off from. I noticed, in my family, a focus on saint veneration, saint punishing, Mal'occhio, and stories of my great Grandfather describing a kind of shamanism in his "pinwheel village". My guess is that my recent family partook in a type of Benidictaria. And yes I know they would not have called themselves that as far as I know everyone has been Devote catholics, even though they don't really act like devote catholics. I COULD BE WRONG OFC.

Some of the stuff I consumed so far is various blog posts and reddit threads relating to symbolism, charms, icons.., the previously mentioned YouTube video, a interview with Angela Buca from Chaotic Witch Aunt, I started reading "itallian witchcraft" by Raven Gramassi (taking it with a grain of salt), and I will occasionally crack into the 13 part paper "Spells, Saints, and Strege." By Sabina Magliocco, not much yet though.

My to read list is this right now.

Finishing Sabinas paper.

The things we do, Augustino Taumaturgo.

Aradia, Charles Leland. Stregheria, Leland.

Etruscan magic and occult remedies, Leland.

Pre prints that Angela Buca has made available.

My goal here is more so in the realm of reconstruction, history, and gathering more info. I have made the decision to experiment with saint veneration since it is somthing I have done in the past and somthing that feels natural to me. I do not want to jump into a new practice all willy nilly without the proper reaserch.

Looking for more reading materials, guidance on prioritizing the materials I already have listed, general advice to newcomers into the community, personal stories of your practice or relationship with italian folk traditions, and a reason why everyone seems to hate Gramassi haha.

Sorry this post is so long I felt it necessary to explain my intentions and where the come from. I understand that this is a diverse and nuanced community and subject to research.

Feel free to reach out in DMs aslo.

[gefdreamsofthesea]

I finished Magic and Witchery in the Modern West, it's an interesting tribute to The Triumph of the Moon. There was only one article that I didn't quite grok because it was heavily relying on a framework by another academic and I was not familiar with it.

I have to say, there's a chapter on Paganism and environmental activism that includes interviews from anarcho-primitivists who basically say "yeah a lot of folks are going to die but at least we won't have icky civilization anymore" which is ew.

I really liked the piece from Sabina Magliocco where she talks about how Pagan attitudes towards the fae really owe more to literature than the actual folklore. There were also a couple pieces on "traditional witchcraft" and Andrew Chumbley which were very interesting.

[ardn716anita]

Week 9 'Main Mission' Independent Activity

RESEARCHING DEEPER

Once receiving feedback on current progress, I decided my 'main mission' was to do more research into these broad ideas of interest, focusing on:

liminal space

documentary photography

empty, urban architectural spaces

and how I can integrate them into photographing the city.

discusses the popularity of liminal photography during the COVID pandemic and how it reflects a societal fascination with spaces the evoke feelings of transition, uncertainty, and eeriness.

includes hallways, stairways, arcades, malls, portraying them as transitional places marked by uncertainty, resonating with audiences seeking to explore the sense of liminality pervading society

typically depict transition spaces with an eerie or unsettling atmosphere, invoking a sense of awe, wonder, and nostalgia

images that convey a feeling of being caught between past and the future, the known and the unknown

encompasses not only traditional photographs but digital artworks created through computer-aided design programs

Liam Kimmons contributes to online forums that form a collection of liminal moments.

Folklorist and professor, Sabina Magliocco, suggests that the surge in interest in liminal spaces reflects society's collective experience of upheaval during the pandemic. As they grappled uncertainty and mortality, they are drawn to images that symbolize abandonment and desolation, prompting contemplation of life's transient nature.

The idea of liminal space can be applied to what I have been exploring within the city and correlate with the impact and aftermath of the pandemic. This could be:

Offering a visual narrative of the economic impact of the pandemic. economic effects, leading to businesses closures, empty storefronts, and abandoned spaces.

Advocate for the preservation and revival of childhood locations, as liminality can evoke not only uncertainty and eeriness but also a sense of nostalgia and comfort

[ardn631anitatukiwaho]

Notes from folklorist and professor of sociological anthropology, Sabina Magliocco

Provides an insight into how the ideas around liminal spaces relate tot he experiences of the pandemic and the broader concept of confronting morality

"It feels betwixt and between. It feels like many of us are cut off from our everyday normal life, cut off from the kinds of interactions that we used to have"

"One of the tropes that we see is the trope of abandonment, the trope of something being desolate...something that once was filled with life and is now empty"

"It is in a sense, a nod to our own mortality. At one point we will not be here anymore. The body that houses us, that holds our soul, our consciousness, will be simply an abandoned, empty husk."

Magliocco mentions that the pandemic has transformed society and that the experience feels "liminal.

This connection indicates that the pandemic has created a collective experience that is characterized by feelings of transition and uncertainty, much like what one would associate with liminal spaces. The disruption of normal life and the severed connections to our pre-pandemic routines align with the idea of being "betwixt and between," as characteristic of liminal spaces.

Magliocco suggests that the interest in liminal space might go beyond the pandemic and serve as a means to confront our mortality. The trope of abandonment and desolation associated with liminal spaces, where something once vibrant becomes empty, is seen as a reflection of the impermanence of life.

The exploration of liminal spaces can be a way for individuals to grapple with the transitory nature of life.

[angelasymposium]

💐 Happy Equinox to everyone celebrating! 🌺 I will celebrate it as a guest speaker at Harvard University, talking about employing academic methodologies as a public scholar on social media. There will also be students from the University of British Columbia along with their brilliant professor Sabina Magliocco! Many thanks to Giovanna Parmigiani for inviting me. A dedicated professor, inspiring researcher and lovely friend! https://www.instagram.com/p/CqDfmjNtU9E/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[eleemosynecdoche]

And now I'm down the rabbit hole, reading a Sabina Magliocco paper arguing that Charles Godfrey Leland's Aradia derives from folkloric malevolent witch figures in Italy who were in turn derived from medieval legends around Herodias, associated with Diana/Artemis and mysterious nighttime aerial phenomena... hey, there's some real mutability there.

Touhou clone on the theme of "chaos" where the premise is that existing folkloric figures are trying to snap up the space of abstract fear and belief around these absolutist concepts from fantasy fiction and bad universalizing comparative mythology schemas.

Stage 6 boss uses the Julia fractal for one of her spellcards. Extra stage boss is Ishtar/Inanna, explaining her eight-pointed star is close enough to the other chaos star to make it a useful source of faith for her. Not sure what the stage 5 boss should be, apart from a gay henchwoman type.

That gremlin OC I posted a little while back would probably be a stage 3/4 boss here.

[magica-pseudoacademica]

Nowhere is interest in fairies more intense than among practitioners of modern Paganisms. This diverse group of religions revive, reclaim, and experiment with elements of pre-Christian practice to create more satisfying relationships with nature, community, and the sacred. Modern Pagans perceive fairies through the eyes of nineteenth-century scholars who viewed them either as remnants of pre-Christian deities, or as spirits marginalized by the Christian hegemony. They are interested in fairies precisely because of their presumed link to an earlier worldview in which the cosmos was alive with energies, animated by spirit beings - in other words, enchanted and ensouled.

Sabina Magliocco, “‘Reconnecting to Everything’: Fairies in Contemporary Paganism” in Fairies, Demons, and Nature Spirits: “Small Gods” at the Margins of Christendom (2018)

[blackcrowing]

"Reclamation differs from other forms of cultural revival in that it presupposes a relationship of power imbalance between a dominant culture (sometimes, but not always, a colonizing culture) and a marginalized, silenced, or subdominant folk group." - Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America by Sabina Magliocco

[elegantshapeshifter]

Even if (almost) all the accused witches were innocent, witch trials are still valid sources

Am I a Murrayite? No. I did a post explaining why the approach I’m referring to is non-Murrayite, it’s called “A pagan-animistic witchcraft history after Margaret Murray” and you can read it here: https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/170696469766/a-pagan-animistic-witchcraft-history-after However, the core idea of Margaret Murray was that all the accused witches were real witches. I say the the exact opposite.

In fact we can say that in *no* trial - included those in which the same defendant turn herself in as a witch in front of inquisitors or judges - we can prove that an accused witch was a real witch.

.: The trials as glimpses of folklore :.

But what we can prove is that the trials - ALL the trials - had the ideas discussed in the courtroom taken from somewhere, right?

Clearly the ideas of the accused witch are qualified as parts of the folklore.

Therefore we have two possibilities for the accused: - or she is an authentic witch (so... no problem, right?) - or she is an innocent person that reports folk legends.

Even the Church, the inquisition, the judges with their trials and their sermons influenced the popular beliefs, and so even if the accused echoed the words and the ideas of the judges, that source (the judges) can still be classified as part of the folklore (either before the trial with the priests’ sermons or after the trial with the bystanders that attended during the delivery of the judgment and then spread the ideas that were spoken).

If we admit that some witch existed outside the trials, we can imagine that there was a sort of heredity in family, with friends, etc. but in order to accomodate the critics, let’s say that no witch ever let in inheritance their tradition.

For the same reason, even if it’s possible that between all those accused witches a real witch could be there, in order to accomodate the critics, let’s say that no accused witch ever was a real witch. They were all innocents.

Ok, done. And now? Now what’s left? The folklore of the time. In fact, through the trials we can tap into the folklore of the time. Trials reveal parts of folklore, and therefore trials are a good source for the knowledge of the folklore.

.: The emulation :.

So... witches existed only in folk legends and not really? Even supposing that initially that was the case, there is the phenomenon of emulation. That is, somebody could have taken inspiration from the folklore in order to emulate these beliefs in real life.

Probably the emulation required several steps, for example it is possible that: 1) there was a vast majority of the population who believed in legends about witches; 2) there were certain people who let food offerings to these legends' characters; 3) there was a minority of people who dreamt these legends; 4) there was an even more restricted minority of people who believed that their dreams about witchcraft meant something and that they were actual witches; 5) there was a minority of minority of minority of people who emulated in physical reality the Sabbath they dreamed.

This idea was put forward by prof. Sabina Magliocco, who writes in her article “Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend”:

"Ostension is Degh and Vazonyi’s term for the enactment of legends. [...] Ostension always derives from a pre-existing legend: the legend precedes the existence of its enactment. [...] Hypothetically, legends about spiritual journeys to dance with the fairies and receive healing can easily be transformed by creative individuals into healing rituals with food offerings to the fairies and ecstatic dancing to special music. What if some women, inspired by utopian legends of the Society of Diana/ Herodias, decided to try to replicate such a society in medieval Europe? Though we have no proof such a society ever existed, it is not inconceivable that a few inspired individuals might have decided to dramatize, once or repeatedly, the gatherings described in legends. The use of the term giuoco (“game”) by Sibillia and Pierina suggests the playful, prankish character of ostension. A “game” based on legends of Diana/ Herodias and the fairies would probably have been secret and limited to the friends and associates of the creative instigators, who might well have been folk healers. One or more women might even have played the role of Diana or Herodias, presiding over the gathering and giving advice. Feasting, drinking and dancing might have taken place, and the women may have exchanged advice on matters of healing and divination."

Furthermore Magliocco specifies that: “However, it is important to remember that even if a group decided to enact aspects of the legend of Diana/Herodias, it would not have been a revival of pre-Christian paganism, but an attempt to act out certain ritual aspects described in the legends. Moreover, the more magical aspects from the trial reports - night flights on the backs of animals, ever-replenishing banquets, resurrection of dead livestock - could not have been achieved through ostension. We need to consider these as fantastical legend motifs, reports of experiences from trances or dreams, or both.”

I, therefore, don’t believe that the statements of the accused are sources because they were all true witches (Murrayite hypothesis), but they are sources because they record the folklore of the time and so they tell us what possible emulations somebody has or could have carried out.

.: The torture and the discrepancy :.

"But many trials were performed under torture, so they don't count!"

Even under torture if you were saying things that were in contrast with the expectations of the judges or the inquisitors, then obviously you were not (totally) adapting to their pressures, you were not (totally) reporting (only) their ideas, but also previous elements. So, in order to understand if a confession contained real elements of pre-Christian origin or not, this is the method: if the confession is exactly like what inquisitors or judges imagined Witchcraft was (i.e. the Devil, the blasphemy, etc.), the accused was probably repeating what the inquisitors or judges were expecting from her. However, if the story told during the confession wasn’t aligned with what the inquisitors thought, it was probably previous to their influences. So, for example, if the judges wanted to know about the Devil, and then the accused talked about the Fairy Queen and/or King, or about Madonna Horiente, or about Herodias, or Diana, it wasn’t a simple repetition of the fantasies of the inquisitors or the judges, it was *something else*.

It is in this way that even trials that were performed under torture count and are valid and useful for rediscovering the names of pre-Christian Spirits that were still alive in the folklore of the time and possibly objects of veneration in the emulations of folklore. 

This is the method that the famous historian Carlo Ginzburg used. In fact, in we can read from his book “Threads and Traces: True False Fictive” that:

“Between “the image underlying the interrogations of the judges and the actual testimony of the accused,” there was, I explained, a “discrepancy,” a “gap” which “permits us to reach a genuinely popular stratum of beliefs which was later deformed and then expunged by the superimposition of the schema of the educated classes”“.

This gap, this discrepancy, therefore, allow us to accept even trials in which the torture was used. In those trials we simply look if there was such gap, and we look only at the elements that arise from that discrepancy.

.: Satanic Witchcraft vs Pagan-Animistic Witchcraft :.

However, the fact that we can understand which trials bring pre-Christian elements doesn’t mean that only those trials were emulated, that only the beliefs that arose from those trials were emulated.

All the beliefs had the same probability of being emulated.

Even when the judges or the inquisitors pressured the defendant and the accused slavishly repeated their fantasies, this created folklore. Why? Because after the trial, when the sentence was pronounced before the population, the population assimilated those beliefs.

Thus, as previous ideas led to the emulation of a Pagan-Animistic Witchcraft (Animistic because, as I said in previous posts, former pagan Gods became Spirits in a Christian-dominated society), the new ideas produced by the influence of the Church or the judges led to emulate a Satanic Witchcraft.

Between these two possibilities (Pagan-Animistic Witchcraft and Satanic Witchcraft), we also have a third one: When the accused is using the name of the Devil to hide another being, a pre-Christian or non-Christian Spirit (for example in Basque Country Akerbeltz, the local demon which is at the head of the Sabbath, comes from the Goddess Mari; while in Great Britain the Devil is often the spouse of the Queen of Elphame, therefore is the King of Elphame in disguise).

This last hypothesis, however, does not coincide with the Murrayite idea of an "Horned God": demonization didn't happen for a single cult throughout Europe, but could cover practically any pre-Christian Spirit, including female spirits (for example Mari in Basque Country) and not just male spirits.

So, the idea that the Devil is actually a God in disguise and the same God in all Europe is false: he is not a single male horned God that the priests have "mistaken" for the devil, it is the demonization that the priests were working towards *any* non-Christian Spirit. Therefore, to believe that in Spain as in Scotland as in Italy the character that often could be hidden behind the Devil was the same is totally wrong. Whenever the term "Devil" hides a pre-Christian Entity, this Entity is almost always a different one. Therefore we have many Devils for every Nation and region that hide different Gods and Spirit, not a single Devil that hides only one Entity.

However, excluding this third possibility, we can say that there were two kinds of emulators: Animistic-Pagan emulators and Satanist emulators.

The existence of these two types of emulators (although Cohn limits himself to the emulation in dreams) is shown by Norman Cohn in his book "Europe's Inner Demons", where he writes:

“It is clear that already in the Middle Ages some women believed themselves to wander about at night on cannibalistic errands, while others believed themselves to wander about, on more benign errands, under the leadership of a supernatural queen. Later, after the great witch-hunt had begun, some women genuinely believed that they attended the sabbat and took part in its demonic orgies: not all the confessions, even at that time, are to be attributed to torture or fear of torture.”

All that we have said so far can therefore make us understand why witch trials are an excellent source for better understanding of both the folklore of the time and the possible emulation of it, even if we admit that almost all of those accused of witchcraft were not really witches.

[arcane-offerings]

Sabina Magliocco. Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Paperback. 268 pages. 

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[grinoir]

Religious Medievalism: “Stregheria”, Wicca and History - part 2

[TN: thank you for the hearts and reblogs! I’m happy that you appreciate these translations! If sometimes they sound weird is because English is not my first language and the articles are written in proper, well phrased Italian, which makes it more difficult to translate.

I also want to reiterate that this article is a translation, synthesis and re-elaboration of the following articles

https://tradizioneitaliana.wordpress.com/2020/11/12/medievalismo-religioso-stregheria-wicca-e-storia/

https://medievaleggiando.it/la-legittimazione-storica-della-wicca-margaret-murray-e-la-manipolazione-delle-fonti/

https://medievaleggiando.it/il-vangelo-delle-streghe-e-linizio-della-wicca-il-fascino-di-un-falso-storico/

The first being a rectification of the two that follow.

Lastly, I lost this article two times. I had to rewrite the whole thing TWO TIMES. Imma take a well-deserved nap rn. Enjoy the reading, witches! ]

It’s correct to talk about pre-christian remainders that are confirmed by the trial’s documents. This remainders aren’t supposed to be considered as untouched, but as rielaborations influenced by the christian context; they are created in the Medieval age from previous remainders and, sometimes, even figures that were apart from the pre-existing Divinities, that emerged in the Medieval collective immagination to satisfy the needs that the Christianity wasn’t able to satisfy; an actual Medieval Pantheon of Spirits.

Historical sources (Burchard of Worms, William of Auvergne and many others) confirm the existence of food offerings to these entities. They were believed to go from home to home to consume the offering, dance, celebrate and bless the houses, followed by a Procession of female Spirits (Procession of the Dominae Nocturnae) or male Spirits (Wild Hunt/Procession of the Dead).

The existence of physical offerings demonstrates the effective existence of a cult of these new Medieval divinities, even if in a christian society and operated by people that probably defined themselves as christians.

A minority of people (that could sometimes even decide to waiver christianity, except for the social obligations) had ecstatic experiences of travel with said Procession of Spirits. In time, this legend was modified and altered, until it became the legend of the Ludus (Sabba), the celebrations that played out in one place and didn’t involve going from home to home; from then on the people that were having these experiences started reporting of going to the Ludus (Sabba) by flight.

In Europe’s Inner Dreams, Norman Cohn states that some of these people did truly dream of being Witches and to have partecipated to Ludus (Sabba) even though they never moved from their home.

From then on, we start referring to the Dream Cult of Witchcraft by affirming the presence of:

Legends of Witchcraft (Procession, Ludus (Sabba), etc)

Spirits tied to non-christian, medieval figures, similar to Gods

People that, influenced by those legends, experienced them in ecstatic / oniric fashion

Cohn states that the physical rite was rarely executed in the past and that it was consistently performed only in medieval and modern times, demonstrating the presence of a yearning to experiment altered states of consciousness, other realities, other worlds, and the will to interact with Spirits.

The Ludus (Sabba), happened mainly in somniis (in dream), but it could also be emulated in physical form, through a process called ostension; in this regard, Sabina Magliocco, professor of Anthropology and Religion at the University of British Columbia, writes:

[Sabina Magliocco. Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend. Pomegranate: The Journal of Pagan Studies, vol. 18, 2002.]

LELAND’S GOSPEL OF ARADIA

Diana/Herodiade’s presence in tuscanian folklore as Spirits at the head of the Witches is attested long before Leland; in C15th BCE, the archbishop of Florence, Saint Antoninus of Florence while writing about popular beliefs reported:

“De quibusdam aliis superstitionibus, et primo de mulieribus credentibus se cum Diana vel Herodiade nocturnis horis equitare, vel se in alias creaturas transformari, ut dicitur de his, quae vulgariter dicuntur Streghe vel Ianutiche”.

[Giuseppe Bonomo. Caccia alle streghe. La credenza nelle streghe dal sec. XIII al XIX con particolare riferimento all’Italia. Palumbo Editore, 1985]

Sabina Magliocco demonstrated that similar variants of Aradia (Arada, Araja, Sa Rejusta, Redodesa, etc) existed in various regional folklores that referred to Herodias, so it’s probable that Aradia was an abbreviation or corruption of Herodias. Legends on Herodias and Diana that fly in the air at the head of the Witches are present in all of Europe, since Medieval times onward.

[Sabina Magliocco. “Aradia in Sardinia: the Archeology of a Folk Character”, in D. Green and D. Evans, ed., Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon: Essays in Honor of Ronald Hutton, 40–60. Bristol, UK: Hidden Publishing, 2009.]

[Sabina Magliocco. Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend. The Pomegranate: The Journal of Pagan Studies, Issue 18, Feb. 2002.]

We can also rule out that the Gospel was completely a fabrication from Leland, since the medievalist Robert Mathiesen proved by analizing the papers, that the Italian sections were almost untouched except for corrections of "precisely the sort that a proofreader would make as he compared his copy to the original".

[Robert Mathiesen, Charles G. Leland and the Witches of Italy: The Origin of Aradia, in Mario Pazzaglini (ed.), Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, A New Translation, Blaine, Washington, Phoenix Publishing, Inc., 1998.]

Mathiesen also demonstrated that the original Gospel was actually a lot smaller and that it has been filled with other material coming from folk tales and legends that he had previously gathered and wrote down in these volumes: “Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition” (1892), “Legends of Florence Collected From the People” (1896) and “Unpublished Legends of Virgil” (1899).

Probably, Maddalena only transcribed the folk legend of Diana/Aradia, that Leland then has assembled with many other legends that he had collected before.

In summary, there’s no universal Gospel of the Witches, no ancient text, but many legends that are probably ancient or re-elaborations deriving from an ancient substrate, since the theme of Diana/Herodiade as the heads of the Witches has medieval origins.

The presence of legends leads us to believe that someone did indeed put them in place, practicing ostensions: many people starting from tales and popular beliefs, tend to start emulating them. In a religious context, this means that probably there were believers in a cult that worshipped Diana, Aradia/Erodiade and Lucifer/Apollo, but it was NOT a giant alternative religious group or cults that were communicating with other cults that practiced the same faith in different places; they were merely spontaneous emulations of people that sometimes would gather with friends and relatives to emulate these legends.

 Sources:

The following articles are the main source for the whole article, that is merely a translation and re-elaboration of them

https://tradizioneitaliana.wordpress.com/2020/11/12/medievalismo-religioso-stregheria-wicca-e-storia/

https://medievaleggiando.it/la-legittimazione-storica-della-wicca-margaret-murray-e-la-manipolazione-delle-fonti/

https://medievaleggiando.it/il-vangelo-delle-streghe-e-linizio-della-wicca-il-fascino-di-un-falso-storico/

[Giuseppe Bonomo. Caccia alle streghe. La credenza nelle streghe dal sec. XIII al XIX con particolare riferimento all’Italia. Palumbo Editore, 1985]

[Sabina Magliocco. “Aradia in Sardinia: the Archeology of a Folk Character”, in D. Green and D. Evans, ed., Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon: Essays in Honor of Ronald Hutton, 40–60. Bristol, UK: Hidden Publishing, 2009.]

[Sabina Magliocco. Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend. The Pomegranate: The Journal of Pagan Studies, Issue 18, Feb. 2002.]

[Robert Mathiesen, Charles G. Leland and the Witches of Italy: The Origin of Aradia, in Mario Pazzaglini (ed.), Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, A New Translation, Blaine, Washington, Phoenix Publishing, Inc., 1998.]

[gefdreamsofthesea]

I could do a whole post on "how bad is the cognitive dissonance" in your Pagan community?

I will start:

Alt-right Lokeans

TERFs who worship Aphrodite and Inanna

Hesthen leader ranting about divorce (see: Skadi and Njord)

That one feminist group who adopted Oshun as a lesbian separatist when she is Chango's favourite wife (this is from Sabina Magliocco's lecture on folklore, please give it a listen).

Transphobic Freyrspeople

[tipsycad147]

Aradia ~ Messiah of Witches

By shirleytwofeathers

Great Goddess, Moon Goddess, Queen of the Witches

In the late twentieth century, Aradia emerged as an important Wiccan goddess. She is a major spiritual inspiration for modern Wiccans and practitioners of witchcraft. Rites and descriptions are found within her book and testament. Here’s a link to her story and teachings: The Story of Aradia.

Number: 13

Offerings: Strega liquore, walnuts, rue, tools of witchcraft and divination

Aradia has become an important figure in Wicca as well as some other forms of Neo-Paganism. Some Wiccan traditions use the name “Aradia” as one of the names of the Great Goddess, Moon Goddess or “Queen of the Witches”. Portions of Leland’s text influenced the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, especially the Charge of the Goddess.

Between 1950 and 1960, “Aradia” was probably the secret name of the Goddess in Gardnerian Craft. The Goddess Aradia is a central figure in Stregheria, an “ethnic Italian” form of Wicca introduced by Raven Grimassi in the 1980s.

The Goddess form of Aradia today is that of a nature Goddess, crowned with the crescent Moon of Her mother/other self-Diana. She is young and beautiful, but wise. Her consorts are Cernunnos, Herne or Pan.

Aradia ~ The Origin Stories

In the beginning was Diana, primordial Spirit of Darkness. She divided the world into complementary opposites: yin and yang, male and female, light and darkness. The light half evolved into her brother, Lucifer. Diana desired him, wishing to unite and merge, but Lucifer wanted light to remain completely distinct from darkness. Diana pursued him but he resisted.

Lucifer slept with his favourite cat. Diana switched places with her and so she seduced her brother, in the guise of a black cat. From this union, the world’s first witch was conceived: Aradia, Messiah of Witches.

Diana descended to Earth disguised as a mortal where Her knowledge and passion for witchcraft made Her so powerful that She became the Queen of the Witches. She became so well known that She was forced to shed Her human disguise and return to heaven. The Queen of the Witches had a duty to continue to teach witchcraft on earth so She delegated this task to Her daughter Aradia.

Diana instructed Aradia to:

“Go to earth below To be a teacher unto women and men Who fain would study witchcraft. Yet like Cain’s daughter thou shalt never be, Nor like the race who have become at last Wicked and infamous from suffering, As are the Jews and wandering Zingari, Who are all thieves and knaves; like unto them Ye shall not be….

And thou shalt be the first of witches known; And thou shalt be the first of all i’ the world; And thou shalt teach the art of poisoning, Of poisoning those who are great lords of all; Yea, thou shalt make them die in their palaces; And thou shalt bind the oppressor’s soul (with power); And when ye find a peasant who is rich, Then ye shall teach the witch, your pupil, how To ruin all his crops with tempests dire, With lightning and with thunder (terrible), And the hail and wind…. ”

Aradia would be the first of the known witches in the entire world. Diana instructed Her in the arts of poisoning, binding and paralysing so that She would be able to defend and protect Her followers from the tyranny and oppression of the Church.

Aradia was a Goddess who didn’t have any qualms at all about exacting retribution upon those who harmed her followers. When Aradia descended to earth, she became the first of all witches, and promised her students that:

“Ye shall all be freed from slavery, And so ye shall be free in everything”.

The legend of Aradia may have originated in a dim memory of an actual woman who was a great teacher of magick and witchcraft and who was a defender of the poor. Like King Arthur or Jesus of Nasareth the myth figure can also become the deity. The Goddess form evolves and acquires its own independent validity and power.

That’s the first coming of Aradia the Messiah according to the mysterious grimoire, Aradia or The Gospel of the Witches. Aradia returned for a second coming too.

This Aradia was born in Volterra, Italy, on August 13, 1313, and stimulated a revival of Italian witchcraft and pre-Christian traditions long driven into hiding by the Church. She learned the Old Ways from her family and taught them to others. She was caught by the Inquisition and burned but not before leaving the manuscript that is allegedly the framework for the testament Aradia or the Gospel of Witches, published in 1899 by folklorist C G Leland.

No documentation regarding either Aradia exists prior to publication, but in 1508, Italian Inquisitor Bernardo Rategno noted that a rapid expansion of witchcraft had occurred one hundred fifty years earlier, corresponding in time with Aradia’s second coming.

The story of Diana as Creator of the World, Mother of Witchcraft, does not correspond with anything from classical mythology, although that in itself proves nothing. Many myths and deities are known from but one single source. This could be another instance of a lone survival of an ancient myth, or it could be an attempt to defame witches.

The name Lucifer (light bringer) predates Christianity and was a title given to various Roman deities, female and male. It was originally intended as benevolent, but during the medieval period when Aradia was allegedly written, Lucifer was exclusively identified with Satan, the proud handsome fallen angel. Inquisitors branded Diana as the bride of Lucifer in order to damn and defame her devotees.

The name Aradia resembles Herodias, among medieval Italy’s favourite witch-goddesses. Leland, for his part, thought Aradia was a distortion of Lilith, the real first woman, not the New Testament’s Herodias. Italian Jews who brought Lilith to Italy do identify her with black cats.

Current historians and folklorists still can’t prove or deny the story created by the book published more than a hundred years ago. Nonetheless, Sabina Magliocco, a specialist in Italian folklore, believes that Aradia’s legend is a compilation of many characters known from ancient times to the 19th century.

She suggests that Aradia must have been a supernatural creature related to Italian folklore. Magliocco identified Aradia with the legendary witch figure – who is probably a supernatural legend known in the Sardinian tradition as ”sa Rejusta”.

Another theory comes from Raven Grimassi, who created Stregheria – a neo-pagan tradition. He says that a woman known as Aradia di Toscano was a real person who lived in the 14th century and was a witch, or a powerful leader of a group of witches, who worshipped the goddess Diana. Grimassi supposed that the woman described by Leland was none other than a medieval witch who believed she was an ancient goddess’ daughter.

One more hypothesis comes from Mircea Eliade, a Roman historian of religion who lived between 1907 and 1986. Eliade suggested that the name Aradia comes from Arada and Irodiada – a folkloric name for the famous Queen of the Fairies. In Romanian culture, she was related to Diana and was a patron for a group of dancers who existed until the end of the 19th century (although it’s possible that they secretly continue their work even now.)

Sources:

Encyclopedia of Spirits

Sacred Wicca

Ancient Origins

shirleytwofeathers.com/The_Blog/powers-that-be/aradia-messiah-of-witches/