Aradia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the
Aradia Megido
.

Aradia is one of the principal figures in the American folklorist

Roman Catholic Church
and the upper classes.

The folklorist

Italian folklore, who was later merged with other folkloric figures such as sa Rejusta of Sardinia.[2]

Since the publication of Leland's Gospel, Aradia has become "arguably one of the central figures of the modern pagan witchcraft revival" and as such has featured in various forms of

Neopaganism, including Wicca and Stregheria, as an actual deity.[3]
Raven Grimassi, founder of the Wiccan-inspired tradition of Stregheria, claims that Aradia was a historical figure named Aradia di Toscano, who led a group of "Diana-worshipping witches" in 14th-century Tuscany.[4]

Folklore

The Italian form of the name Herodias is Erodiade. It appears that Herodias, the wife of Herod Antipas, in Christian mythology of the Early Middle Ages, came to be seen as a spirit condemned to wander the sky forever due to her part in the death of John the Baptist, permitted only to rest in treetops between midnight and dawn.

By the High Middle Ages, this figure seems to have become attached to the train of nymphs of Diana, now also seen as a host of spirits flying through the night across the Italian countryside. Other names attached to the night flight of Herodias included Minerva and Noctiluca.[5] The canon Episcopi is a passage from the work De ecclesiasticis disciplinis by Regino of Prüm (written ca. 906). It became notable as a paragraph of canon law dealing with witchcraft by the 12th century. Regino reports that there were groups of women who believed that they could go on night journeys where they would fly across the sky to meet Diana and her train. The name of Herodias is not present in the text as attributed to Regino, but in the version by Burchard of Worms, written ca. 1012, the reference to Diana (cum Diana paganorum dea) was augmented by "or with Herodias" (vel cum Herodiade).[6] Magliocco (2002) suggests that the legends surrounding this figure, known as Aradia, Arada or Araja, spread throughout various areas of Italy, and she traced records that showed that two beings known as s'Araja dimoniu (Araja the demon) and s'Araja justa (Araja the just) were found in Sardinia. Magliocco believed that the latter of these two figures, s'Araja justa, was the antecedent of a supernatural witch-like figure known as sa Rejusta in Sardinian folklore.[7] Judika Illes, in her Encyclopedia of Spirits, noted: "Although venerated elsewhere in Europe, Herodias was especially beloved in Italy. She and Diana are the goddesses most frequently mentioned in witch-trial transcripts and were apparently worshipped together".[8]

The Romanian historian of religion

calusari who operated up until at least the 19th century.[9]


Leland's Aradia

Main articles: Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches and Witch-cult hypothesis

In 1899, the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland published Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, a book which he claimed was the religious text belonging to a group of Tuscan witches who venerated Diana as the Queen of the Witches. He also claimed that he had been given the book by a Tuscan woman named Maddalena, although historians such as Ronald Hutton have disputed the truth of these such claims.

Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches begins with the tale of Aradia's birth to Diana and

witches, and promises her students that "ye shall all be freed from slavery, / And so ye shall be free in everything."[10]

Aradia is described as having continuing power to affect the world after she returns to the sphere of Diana. For example, in "A Spell to Win Love", the "Invocation to Diana" asks Diana to send her daughter Aradia to perform the magic.[11] Leland's Aradia has a chapter containing folklore about the night assembly or banquet, titled "The Sabbat: Tregunda or Witch Meeting", which involves Diana.[12] Leland comments in the Appendix, "I also believe that in this Gospel of the Witches we have a trustworthy outline at least of the doctrine and rites observed at these meetings [the witches' Sabbat]. They adored forbidden deities and practised forbidden deeds, inspired as much by rebellion against Society as by their own passions."[13]

Leland speculates that this folklore ultimately has roots in ancient Etruscan mythology.

Leland also equates Aradia with Herodias, explaining his speculation that Herodias was actually Lilith: "This was not ... derived from the Herodias of the

Satanism and Witchcraft.[15] Anthropologist and field folklorist Sabina Magliocco, on the other hand, is willing to consider a connection between the Italian Erodiade (Herodias), the Cult of Herodias, the night assembly, and Aradia.[16]

Neopaganism

Aradia has become an important figure in

Moon Goddess, or "Queen of the Witches".[17]

Portions of Leland's text influenced the

Gardnerian Book of Shadows, especially the Charge of the Goddess.[18] Alex Sanders invoked Aradia as a moon goddess in the 1960s. Janet and Stewart Farrar used the name in their Eight Sabbats for Witches and The Witches' Way.[19] Aradia was invoked in spellcraft in Z. Budapest's The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries.[20]

Aradia is a central figure in Stregheria, an "ethnic Italian" form of Wicca introduced by Raven Grimassi in the 1980s. Grimassi claims that there was a historical figure called "Aradia di Toscano", whom he portrays as the founder of a revivalist religion of Italian witchcraft in the 14th century. Grimassi claims that Leland's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a "distorted Christianized version" of the story of Aradia.[21]

Neo-Pagan narratives of Aradia include The Book of the Holy Strega (1981), by Raven Grimassi; The Gospel of Diana (1993), by Aidan Kelly; and Secret Story of Aradia, by Myth Woodling (2001).[22]

In 1992,

sexual act becomes not only an expression of the divine life force, but an act of resistance against all forms of oppression and the primary focus of ritual". Magliocco also notes that the text "has not achieved broad diffusion in contemporary Pagan circles".[4]

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Notes

  1. ^ Hutton 1999. p. 148.
  2. ^ Magliocco, Sabina (2009). 'Aradia in Sardinia: The Archaeology of a Folk Character' in Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon. Hidden Publishing. Page 40 to 60.
  3. ^ Magliocco, Sabina (2009). 'Aradia in Sardinia: The Archaeology of a Folk Character' in Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon. Hidden Publishing. Page 42.
  4. ^ Grimassi 1996.
  5. ^ Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, 1989
  6. ^ Sabina Magliocco (2002). 'Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend' in The Pomegranate: The Journal of Pagan Studies, Issue 18.
  7. ^ Magliocco, Sabina (2009). 'Aradia in Sardinia: The Archaeology of a Folk Character' in Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon. Hidden Publishing. Page 54-55.
  8. ISBN 978-0-06-135024-5
  9. ^ Eliade, Mircea (February 1975). "Some Observations on European Witchcraft" in History of Religions Volume 14, Number 3. Page 160-161.
  10. ISBN 1-56414-679-0
    . Chapter I
  11. ^ Leland, Chapter II
  12. ^ Leland, Chapter VII
  13. ^ a b Leland, Appendix
  14. ^ Leland is referring to the Canon Episcopi.[citation needed]
  15. ISBN 0-500-27242-5
    .
  16. ^ Magliocco, Sabina (2002). "Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend", The Pomegranate, volume 18, p. 5–22.
  17. ISBN 0-919345-26-3
    .
  18. ^ Valiente, Doreen. The Rebirth of Witchcraft (1989).
  19. ISBN 978-0-7090-1293-1
  20. ISBN 978-0-914728-67-2
    .
  21. ^ "Stregheria.com FAQ". Archived from the original on May 22, 2006. Retrieved October 13, 2005.
  22. ^ Woodling, Myth (2001), Secret Story of Aradia, from www.AradiaGoddess.com

References

External links
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