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Crafters & Followers of the Old Religion as brought down to the Earth from the Queen of Heaven Diana herself. Honouring, Venerating & Serving Diana and Apollo as their Priestesses and Priests!!! Aradia Gospel of Witches by Charles Leland
CHAPTER 1
"It is Diana!
Lo! "Make more
bright This is the Gospel
(Vangelo) of the Witches: The rich made slaves of the poor. Many slaves escaped. They fled to the country; thus they became thieves and evil folk. Instead of sleeping by nigh, they plotted escape and robbed their masters, and then slew them. So they dwelt in the mountains and forests as robbers and assassins, all to avoid slavery. DIANA said one day to her daughter ARADIA: Yet like Cain's
daughter thou shalt never be And thou shalt be the first of witches known; And when a priest
shall do you injury And when the priests
or the nobility "For the
true God the Father is not yours; "Ye who are
poor suffer with hunger keen, Now when ARADIA had been taught, taught to work all witchcraft, how to destroy the evil race (of oppressors), she (imparted it to her pupils) and said unto them: When I shall have
departed from this world,
CHAPTER II THE SABBAT, TREGUENDA OR WITCH-MEETING - Here follows the supper, of what it must consist, and what shall be said and done to consecrate it to DIANA. You shall take meal and salt, honey and water, and make this incantation: The Conjuration of Meal I conjure thee,
O Meal! And yet erewhile,
when thou were in the ear, Queen of the fireflies! hurry apace, Here follows the Conjuration of the Salt. Conjuration of the Salt I do conjure thee,
salt, lo! here at noon, Here follows the Conjuration of Cain. The Conjuration of Cain I conjure thee,
O Cain, as thou canst ne'er Then shall follow the Conjuration of Diana. You shall make cakes of meal, wine, salt, and honey in the shape of a (crescent or horned) moon, and then put them to bake, and say: I do not bake the bread, nor with it salt, And thus shall it be done: all shall sit down to the supper all naked, men and women, and the feast over, they shall dance, sing, make music, and then love in the darkness, with all the lights extinguished; for it is the Spirit of DIANA who extinguishes them, and so they will dance and make music in her praise. And it came to pass that DIANA, after her daughter had accomplished her mission or spent her time on earth among the living (mortals), recalled her, and gave her the power that when she had been invoked...having done some good deed...she gave her the power to gratify those who had conjured her by granting her or him success in love: To bless or curse
with power friends or enemies (to do good or
evil). And whatever thing
should be asked from the spirit of Aradia, that
should be granted unto those who merited her
favor. Thus do I seek Aradia! Aradia! Aradia! At midnight, at midnight I go into a field, and with me I bear water, wine, and salt, I bear water, wine, and salt, and my talisman - my talisman, my talisman, and a red small bag which I ever hold in my hand - con dentro, con dentro, sale, with salt in it, in it. With water and wine I bless myself, I bless myself with devotion to implore a favour from Aradia, Aradia. (emphasize italics and repetitions) Invocation to Aradia Aradia! my Aradia! Aradia, Aradia!
I implore But if you do
refuse this favour, then
HOW DIANA MADE THE STARS AND THE RAIN DIANA was the first created before all creation; in her were all things; our of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself; into darkness and light she was divided. Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half, was the light. And when DIANA saw that the light was so beautiful, the light which was her other half, her brother Lucifer, she yearned for it with exceeding great desire. Wishing to receive the light again into her darkness, to swallow it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with desire. This desire was the dawn. But Lucifer, the light, fled from her, and would not yield to her wishes; he was the light which flies into the most distant parts of heaven, the mouse which flies before the cat. Then DIANA went to the fathers of the Beginning, to the mothers, the spirits who were before the first spirit, and lamented unto them that she could not prevail with Lucifer. And they praised her for her courage; they told her that to rise she must fall; to become the chief of goddesses she must become mortal. And in the ages, in the course of time, when the world was made, Diana went on earth, as did Lucifer, who had fallen, and DIANA taught magic and sorcery, whence came witches and fairies and goblins - all that is like man, yet not mortal. And it came thus that DIANA took the form of a cat. Her brother had a cat whom he loved beyond all creatures, and it slept every night on his bed, a cat beautiful beyond all other creatures, a fairy: he did not know it. DIANA prevailed with the cat to change forms with her; so she lay with her brother, and in the darkness assumed her own form, and so by Lucifer became the mother of Aradia. But when in the morning he found that he lay by his sister, and that light had been conquered by darkness, Lucifer was extremely angry; but Diana with her wiles of witchcraft so charmed him that he yielded to her love. This was the first fascination; she hummed the song, it was as the buzzing of bees (or a top spinning round), a spinning-wheel spinning life. She spun the lives of all men; all things were spun from the wheel of DIANA. Lucifer turned the wheel. DIANA was not known to the witches and spirits, the fairies and elves who dwell in desert place, the goblins, as their mother; she hid herself in humility and was a mortal, but by her will she rose again above all. She had passion for witchcraft, and became so powerful therein, that her greatness could not be hidden. And thus it came to pass one night, at the meeting of all the sorceresses and fairies, she declared that she would darken the heavens and turn all the stars into mice. All those who were present said - And there came a great marvel, for the earth which was in the bladder became the round heaven above, and for three days there was a great rain; the mice became stars or rain. And having made the heaven and stars and the rain, DIANA became Queen of the Witches; she was the cat who ruled the star mice, the heaven and the rain.
CHAPTER IV THE CHARM OF THE STONES CONSECRATED TO DIANA
Invocation to the Holy-Stone I have found I rise in the
morning by the earliest dawn, It was Diana who
did come to me, Great Diana! thou Or I may truly
at another time [Here we have again the threatening the deity, just as in Eskimo or other Shamanism, which represents the rudest primitive form of conjuring, the spirits are menaced. A trace of this is to be found among rude Roman Catholics. Thus when St. Bruno, some years ago, at a town in the Romagna, did not listen to the prayers of his devotees for rain, they stuck his image in the mud of the river, head downwards. A rain speedily followed, and the saint was restored in honour to his place in the church.] The Spell or Conjuration of the Round Stone The finding of
a round stone, be it great or small, is a good
sign, but it should never be given away, because
the receiver will then get the good luck, and
some disaster befall the giver. Spirit of good
omen, Should I lend
money unto any man That he who obligation e'er forgets Shall be in trouble till he pays his debts. And so my debtor on the following day Shall either bring the money which he owes, Or send it promptly: so I pray of thee, O my Red Goblin, come unto my aid! Or should I quarrel with her whom I love, Then, spirit of good luck, I pray thee go To her while sleeping - pull her by the hair, And bear her through the night unto my bed! And in the morning, when all spirits go To their repose, do thou, ere thou return'st Into thy stone, carry her home again, And leave her there asleep. Therefore, O Sprite! I beg thee in this pebble make thy home! Obey in every way all I command. So in my pocket thou shalt ever be, And thou and I will ne'er part company!
CHAPTER V THE CONJURATION OF THE LEMON AND PINS Sacred to Diana A lemon stuck
full of pins of different colours always brings
good fortune. At the instant
when the midnight came, [Something is here omitted in the MS. I conjecture that the two are tossed without seeing them into the air, and if the lemon remains, the ceremony proceeds as follows. This is evident, since in it the incantation is confused with a prose direction how to act] Saying this, one
looks up at the sky, and I found the lemon in
one hand, and a voice said to me - "But if thou wilt that evil befall any
one, put in it black pins. Goddess Diana, I do conjure thee And thou shalt
call for me the fiends from hell; If this grace
I gain from thee As the orange was the fruit of the Sun, so is the lemon suggestive of the Moon or DIANA, its colour being of a lighter yellow. However, the lemon specially chosen for the charm is always a green one, because it "sets hard" and turns black. It is not generally known that orange and lemon peel, subjected to pressure and combined with an adhesive may be made into a hard substance which can be moulded or used for many purposes. I have devoted a chapter to this in an as yet unpublished work entitled One Hundred Minor Arts. This was suggested to me by the hardened lemon given to me for a charm by a witch.
CHAPTER VI A SPELL TO WIN LOVE
And this is the spell to be repeated by him who would bring a love to his home. (The beginning of this spell seems to be merely a prose introduction explaining the nature of the ceremony) Today is Friday, and I wish to rise very early, not having been able to sleep all night, having seen a very beautiful girl, the daughter of a rich lord, whom I dare not hope to win. Were she poor, I could gain her with money; but as she is rich, I have no hope to do so. Therefore will I conjure Diana to aid me. Diana, beautiful
Diana! Thus it will come to pass that the girl as a dog will return to her home unseen and unsuspected, for thus will it be affected by Aradia; and the girl will think it is all a dream, because she will have been enchanted by Aradia.
CHAPTER VII TO FIND OR BUY ANYTHING, OR TO HAVE GOOD FORTUNE THEREBY
'Tis Tuesday now,
and at an early hour First with three
drops of oil I do remove When the evil
fortune Then well contented And thou shalt
find the man, The foregoing was obtained, after some delay, in reply to a query as to what conjuration would be required before going forth, to make sure that one should find for sale some rare book, or other object desired, at a very moderate price. Therefore the invocation has been so worded as to make it applicable to literary finds; but those who wish to buy anything whatever on equally favorable terms, have but to vary the request, retaining the introduction, in which the magic virtue consists. I cannot, however, resist the conviction that this is most applicable to, and will succeed best with, researches for objects of antiquity, scholarship, and art, and it should accordingly be deeply impressed on the memory of every bric-a-brac hunter and bibliographer. It should be observed, and that earnestly, that the prayer, far from being answered, will turn to the contrary or misfortune, unless the one who repeats it does so in fullest faith, and this cannot be acquired by merely saying to oneself, "I believe." For to acquire real faith in anything requires long and serious mental discipline, there being, in fact, no subject which is so generally spoken of and so little understood. Here indeed, I am speaking seriously, for the man who can train his faith to actually believe in and cultivate or develop his will can really work what the world by common consent regards as miracles. A time will come when this principle will form not only the basis of all education, but also that of all moral and social culture. I have, I trust, fully set it forth in a work entitled "Have you a Strong Will? or how to Develop it or any other Faculty or Attribute of the Mind, and render it Habitual," &c. London: George Redway. The reader, however, who has devout faith, can, as the witches declare, apply this spell daily before going forth to procuring or obtaining any kind of bargains at shops, to picking up or discovering lost objects, or, in fact, to finds of any kind. If he incline to beauty in female form, he will meet with bonnes fortunes; if a man of business, bargains will be his. The botanist who repeats it before going into the fields will probably discover some new plant, and the astronomer by night be almost certain to run against a brand new planet, or at least an asteroid. It should be repeated before going to the races, to visit friends, places of amusement, to buy or sell, to make speeches, and specially before hunting or any nocturnal goings-forth, since DIANA is the goddess of the chase and of night. But woe to him who does it for a jest!
CHAPTER VIII TO HAVE A GOOD WINE AND VERY GOOD WINE BY THE AID OF DIANA
I drink, and yet
it is not wine I drink, This is a very interesting invocation and tradition, and probably of great antiquity from very striking intrinsic evidence. For it is firstly devoted to a subject which has received little attention - the connection of DIANA as the moon with Bacchus, although in the great Dizionario Storico Mitologico, by Pozzoli and others, it is expressly asserted that in Greece her worship was associated with that of Bacchus, Esculapius and Apollo. The connecting link is the horn. In a medal of Alexander Severus, Diana of Ephesus bears the horn of plenty. This is the horn or horn of the new moon, sacred to DIANA. According to Callimachus, Apollo himself built an altar consisting entirely of horns to DIANA. The connection of the horn with wine is obvious. It was usual among the old Slavonians for the priest of Svantevit, the Sun god, to see if the horn which the idol held in his hand was full of wine, in order to prophesy a good harvest for the coming year. If it was filled, all was right; if not, he filled the horn, drank from it, and replaced the horn in the hand, and predicted that all would eventually go well. It cannot fail to strike the reader that this ceremony is strangely like that of the Italian invocation, the only difference being that in one the Sun, and in the other the Moon is invoked to secure a good harvest. In the 'Legends of Florence' there is one of the Via del Corno, in which the hero, falling into a vast tun or tina of wine, is saved from drowning by sounding a horn with tremendous power. At the sound, which penetrates to an incredible distance, even to unknown lands, all came rushing as if enchanted to save him. In this conjuration, DIANA, in the depths of heaven, is represented as rushing at the sound of the horn, and leaping through doors or windows to save the vintage of the one who blows. There is a certain singular affinity in these stories. In the story of the Via del Corno, the hero
is saved by the Red Goblin or Robin Goodfellow,
who gives him a horn, and it is the same sprite
who appears in the conjuration of the Round
Stone, which is sacred to DIANA. This is because
the spirit is nocturnal, and attendant on Diana-Titania. The tradition, as given to me, very evidently omits a part of the ceremony, which may be supplied from classic authority. When the peasant performs the rite, he must not act as once a certain African, who was a servant of a friend of mine, did. The man's duty was to pour out every morning a libation of rum to a fetish - and he poured it down his own throat. The peasant should also sprinkle the vines, just as the Devonshire farmers who observed all Christmas ceremonies, sprinkled, also from a horn, their apple trees.
CHAPTER IX TANA AND ENDAMONE, OR DIANA AND ENDYMION
The following legend and the spells were given under the name or title of TANA. This was the old Etruscan name for DIANA, which is still preserved in the Romagna Toscana. In more than one Italian and French work I have found some account or tale how a witch charmed a girl to sleep for a lover, but this is the only explanation of the whole ceremony known to me.
Then she went home, and taking a piece of sheep's intestine, formed of it a purse, and in this she put that which she had taken, with a red and a black ribbon bound together, with a feather, and pepper and salt, and then sang a song. These are the words, a song of witchcraft of the very old time. This bag for Endamon'
I wove, But Tana, who was far more powerful than the witch, though not able to break the spell by which he was compelled to sleep, took from him all pain (he knew her in dreams), and embracing him, she sang this counter charm. Endamone, Endamone,
Endamone! So it came to pass that the fair goddess made love with Endamone as if they had been awake (yet communing in dreams). And so it is to this day, that whoever would make love with him or her who sleeps, should have recourse to the beautiful Tana, and so doing there will be success. This legend, while agreeing in many details with the classical myth, is strangely intermingled with practices of witchcraft, but even these, if investigated, would all prove to be as ancient as the rest of the text. Thus the sheep's intestine - used instead of the red woolen bag which is employed in beneficent magic - the red and black ribbon, which mingles threads of joy and woe, the (peacock) feather, pepper and salt, occur in many other incantations, but always to bring evil and cause suffering. I have never seen it observed, but it is true, that Keats in his exquisite poem of Endymion completely departs from or ignores the whole spirit and meaning of the ancient myth, while in this rude witch-song it is minutely developed. The conception is that of a beautiful youth furtively kissed in his slumber by DIANA of reputed chastity. The ancient myth is, to begin with, one of darkness and light, or day and night, from which are born the fifty-one (now fifty-two) weeks of the year. This is DIANA, the night, and Apollo, the sun, or light in another form. It is expressed as love-making during sleep, which, when it occurs in real life, generally has for active agent some one who, without being absolutely modest, wishes to preserve appearances. The established character of DIANA among the Initiated (for which she was bitterly reviled by the Fathers of the Church) was that of a beautiful hypocrite who pursued amours in silent secrecy. "Thus as the moon Endymion lay with her, But there is an exquisitely subtle, delicately strange idea or ideal in the conception of the apparently chaste "clear, cold moon" casting her living light by stealth into the hidden recesses of darkness and acting in the occult mysteries of love or dreams. So it struck Byron as an original thought that the sun does not shine on half the forbidden deeds which the moon witnesses, and this is emphasized in the Italian witch-poem. In it the moon is distinctly invoked as the protectress of a strange and secret amour, and as the deity to be especially invoked for such love-making. The one invoking says that the window is opened, that the moon may shine splendidly on the bed, even as our love is bright and beautiful...and I pray her to give great rapture to us. The quivering, mysteriously beautiful light of the moon, which seems to cast a spirit of intelligence or emotion over silent Nature, and dimly half awaken it - raising shadows into thoughts and causing every tree and rock to assume the semblance of a living form, but one which, while shimmering and breathing, still sleeps in a dream - could not escape the Greeks, and they expressed it as DIANA embracing Endymion. But as night is the time sacred to secrecy, and as the true Diana of the Mysteries was the Queen of Night, who wore the crescent moon, and mistress of all hidden things, including "sweet secret sins and loved iniquities," there was attached to this myth far more than meets the eye. And just in the degree to which DIANA was believed to be Queen of the emancipated witches and of Night, or the nocturnal Venus-Astarte herself, so far would the love for sleeping Endymion be understood as sensual, yet sacred and allegorical. And it is entirely in this sense that the witches in Italy, who may claim with some right to be its true inheritors, have preserved and understood the myth. It is a realization of forbidden or secret love, with attraction to the dimly seen beautiful-by-moonlight, with the fairy or witch-like charm of the supernatural - a romance combined in a single strange form - the spell of Night! "There is
a dangerous silence in that hour This is what is meant by the myth of DIANA and Endymion. It is the making divine or aesthetic (which to the Greeks was one and the same) that which is impassioned, secret, and forbidden. It was the charm of the stolen waters which are sweet, intensified to poetry. And it is remarkable that it has been so strangely preserved in Italian with traditions.
CHAPTER X MADONNA DIANA
And this became to the beautiful Rorasa - for such was her name - such an object of desire, that her head was half turned with it, and the other girls of her acquaintance, to say nothing of the many men whom she had refused, mocked her so bitterly, asking her when the fine wedding was to be, with many other jeers and sneers, that at last in a moment of madness she went to the top of a high tower, whence she cast herself; and to make it worse, there was below a terrible ravine into which she fell. Yet she took no harm, for as she fell there appeared to her a very beautiful woman, truly not of earth, who took her by the hand and bore her through the air to a safe place. Then all the people round who saw or heard of this thing cried out, "Lo, a miracle!" and they came and made a great festival, and would fain persuade Rorasa that she had been saved by the Madonna. But the lady who had saved her, coming to her
secretly, said, "If thou hast any desire,
follow the Gospel of DIANA, or what is called
the Gospel of the Witches, who worship the moon." Then the beautiful girl went forth alone by night to the fields, and kneeling on a stone in an old ruin, she worshipped the moon and invoked DIANA thus: Diana, beautiful Diana! When Rorasa awoke in the morning, she found herself in another house, where all was far more magnificent, and having risen, a beautiful maid led her into another room, where she was dressed in a superb wedding garment of white silk with diamonds, for it was her wedding dress indeed. Then there appeared ten young ladies, all splendidly attired, and with them and many distinguished persons she went to the church in a carriage. And all the streets were filled with music and people bearing flowers. So she found the bridegrooms, and was wedded
to her heart's desire, ten times more grandly
than she had ever dreamed of. Then, after the
ceremony, there was spread a feast at which
all the nobility of Cettardo were present, and,
moreover, the whole town, rich and poor, were
feasted. Therefore the priest put these images in the church, which is the most ancient in Cettardo, and now in many churches you may see the Madonna and Moon, but it is DIANA. The name Rorasa seems to indicate the Latin ros the dew, rorare, to bedew, rorulenta, bedewed - in fact, the goddess of the dew. Her great fall and being lifted by DIANA suggest the fall of dew by night, and its rising in vapor under the influence of the moon. It is possible that this is a very old Latin mythic tale. The white silk and diamonds indicate the dew.
CHAPTER XI THE HOUSE OF THE WIND
There is a peasants house at the beginning of the hill or ascent leading to Volterra, and it is called the House of the Wind. Near it there once stood a small palace, wherein dwelt a married couple, who had but one child, a daughter, whom they adored. Truly if the child had but a headache, they each had a worse attack from fear. Little by little as the girl grew older, and all the thought of the mother, who was very devout, was that she should become a nun. But the girl did not like this, and declared that she hoped to be married like others. And when looking from her window one day, she saw and heard the birds singing in the vines and among the trees all so merrily, she said to her mother that she hoped some day to have a family of little birds of her own, singing round her in a cheerful nest. At which the mother was so angry that she gave her daughter a cuff. And the young lady wept, but replied with spirit, that if beaten or treated in any such manner, that she would certainly soon find some way to escape and get married, for she had no idea of being made a nun against her will. At hearing this the mother was seriously frightened,
for she knew the spirit of her child, and was
afraid lest the girl already had a lover, and
would make a great scandal over the blow; and
turning it all over, she thought of an elderly
lady of good family, but much reduced, who was
famous for her intelligence, learning, and power
of persuasion, and she thought, "This will
be just the person to induce my daughter to
become pious, and fill her head with devotion
and make a nun of her." So she sent for
this clever person, who was at once appointed
the governess and constant attendant of the
young lady, who, instead of quarreling with
her guardian, became devoted to her. It came to pass that the young lady, who was in the habit of lying awake on moonlight nights to hear the nightingales sing, thought she heard her governess in the next room, of which the door was open, rise and go forth on the great balcony. The next night the same thing took place, and rising very softly and unseen, she beheld the lady praying, or at least kneeling in the moonlight, which seemed to her to be very singular conduct, the more so because the lady kneeling uttered words which the younger could not understand, and which certainly formed no part of the Church service. And being much exercised over the strange occurrence,
she at last, with timid excuses, told her governess
what she had seen. Then the latter, after a
little reflection, first binding her to a secrecy
of life and death, for, as she declared, it
was a matter of great peril, spoke as follows: Now the young lady being persuaded, was converted to the worship of DIANA and the Moon, and having prayed with all her heart for a lover (having learned the conjuration to the goddess), was soon rewarded by the attention and devotion of a brave and wealthy cavalier, who was indeed as admirable a suitor as any one could desire. But the mother, who was far more bent on gratifying vindictiveness and cruel vanity than on her daughter's happiness, was infuriated at this, and when the gentleman came to her, she bade him begone, for her daughter was vowed to become a nun, and a nun she should be or die. Then the young lady was shut up in a cell in a tower, without even the company of her governess, and put to strong and hard pain, being made to sleep on the stone floor, and would have died of hunger had her mother had her way. Then in this dire need she prayed to DIANA to set her free; when lo! she found the prison door unfastened, and easily escaped. Then having obtained a pilgrims dress, she traveled far and wide, teaching and preaching the religion of old times, the religion of DIANA, the Queen of the Fairies and of the Moon, the goddess of the poor and oppressed. And the fame of her wisdom and beauty went forth over all the land, and the people worshipped her, calling her La Bella Pellegrina. At last her mother, hearing of her, was in a greater rage than ever, and, in fine, after much trouble, succeeded in having her arrested and cast into prison. And then in evil temper indeed she asked her whether she would become a nun; to which she replied that it was not possible, because she had left the Catholic Church and become a worshipper of DIANA and of the Moon. And the end of it was that the mother, regarding her daughter as lost, gave her up to the priests to be put to torture and death, as they did all who would not agree with them or who left their religion. But the people were not well pleased with this, because they adored her beauty and goodness, and there were few who had not enjoyed her charity. But by the aid of her lover she obtained, as
a last grace, that on the night before she was
to be tortured and executed she might, with
a guard, go forth into the garden of the palace
and pray. This she did, and standing by the
door of the house, which is still there, prayed
in the light of the full moon to Diana, that
she might be delivered from the dire persecution
to which she had been subjected, since even
her own parents had willingly given her over
to an awful death. When lo! in answer to her prayer there came a terrible tempest and overwhelming wind, a storm such as man had never seen before, which overthrew and swept away the palace with all who were in it; there was not one stone left upon another, nor one soul alive of all who were there. The gods had replied to the prayer. The young lady escaped happily with her lover, wedded him, and the house of the peasant where the lady stood is still called the House of the Wind. This is very accurately the story as I received it, but I freely admit that I have very much condensed the language of the original text, which consists of twenty pages, and which, as regards needless padding, indicates a capacity on the part of the narrator to write an average modern fashionable novel, even a second rate French one, which is saying a great deal. It is true that there are in it no detailed descriptions of scenery, skies, trees, or clouds - and a great deal might be made of Volterra in that way - but it is prolonged in a manner which shows a gift for it. However, the narrative itself is strangely original and vigorous, for it is such a relic of pure classic heathenism, and such a survival of faith in the old mythology, as all the reflected second hand Hellenism of the Aesthetes cannot equal. That a real worship of or belief in classic divinities should have survived to the present day in the very land of Papacy itself, is a much more curious fact than if a living mammoth had been discovered in some out of the way corner of the earth, because the former is a human phenomenon. I forsee that the day will come, and that perhaps not so very far distant, when the world of scholars will be amazed to consider to what a late period an immense body of antique tradition survived in Northern Italy, and how indifferent the learned were regarding it; there having been in very truth only one man, and he a foreigner, who earnestly occupied himself with collecting and preserving it. It is very probably that there were as many touching episodes among the heathen martyrs who were forced to give up their beloved deities, such as DIANA, Venus, the Graces, and others, who were worshipped for beauty, as there were even among the Christians who were thrown to the lions. For the heathen loved their gods with a human personal sympathy, without mysticism or fear, as if they had been blood relations; and there were many among them who really believed that such was the case when some damsel who had made a faux pas got out of it by attributing it all to some god, faun, or satyr; which is very touching. There is a great deal to be said for as well as against the idolaters or worshippers of dolls, as I heard a small girl define them.
CHAPTER XII TANA THE MOON GODDESS
Tana was a very beautiful girl, but extremely poor, and as modest and pure as she was beautiful and humble. She went from one contadino to another, or from farm to farm to work, and thus led an honest life. There was a young boor, a very ugly, bestial,
and brutish fellow, who was after his fashion
raging with love for her, but she could not
so much as bear to look at him, and repelled
all his advances. And seeing no help near, and only the full moon looking down on her from heaven, Tana in despair cast herself on her knees and cried to it: "I have no
one on earth to defend me, When she had said this, there appeared before her a bright but shadowy form, which said: "Rise, and
go to thy home! Thus it came to pass that Tana became the dea or spirit of the Moon. Though the air be set to a different key, this is a poem of pure melody, and the same as Wordsworth's "Goody Blake and Harry Gill." Both Tana and the old dame are surprised and terrified; both pray to a power above: "The cold,
cold moon above her head, The dramatic center is just the same in both. The English ballad soberly turns into an incurable fir of ague inflicted on a greedy young boor; the Italian witch-poetess, with finer sense, or with more sympathy for the heroine, casts the brute aside without further mention, and apotheosizes the maiden, identifying her with the Moon. The former is more practical and probable, the latter more poetical. And here it is worth while, despite digression, to remark what an immense majority there are of people who can perceive, feel, and value poetry in mere words or form - that is to say, objectively - and hardly know or note it when it is presented subjectively or as thought, but not put into some kind of verse or measure, or regulated form. This is a curious experiment and worth studying. Take a passage from some famous poet; write it out in pure simple prose, doing full justice to its real meaning, and if it still actually thrills or moves as poetry, then it is of the first class. But if it has lost its glamour absolutely, it is second rate or inferior; for the best cannot be made out of mere words varnished with associations, be they of thought or feeling. This is not such a far cry from the subject as might be deemed. Reading and feeling them subjectively, I am often struck by the fact that in these Witch traditions which I have gathered there is a wondrous poetry of thought, which far excels the efforts of many modern bards, and which only requires the aid of some clever workman in words to assume the highest rank. A proof of what I have asserted may be found in the fact that, in such famous poems as the Finding of the Lyre, by James Russell Lowell, and that on the invention of the pipe by Pan, by Mrs. Browning, that which formed the most exquisite and refined portion of the original myths is omitted by both authors, simply because they missed or did not perceive it. For in the former we are not told that it was the breathing of the god Air (who was the inspiring soul of ancient music, and the Bellaria of modern witch-mythology) on the dried filament of the tortoise, which suggested to Hermes the making an instrument wherewith he made the music of the spheres and guided the course of the planets. As for Mrs. Browning, she leaves out Syrinx altogether, that is to say, the voice of the nymph still lingering in the pipe which had been her body. Now to my mind the old prose narrative of these myths is much more deeply poetical and moving, and far more inspired with beauty and romance, than are the well-rhymed and measured, but very imperfect versions given by our poets. And in fact, such want of intelligence or perception may be found in all the 'classic' poems, not only of Keats, but of almost every poet of the age who has dealt in Greek subjects. Great license is allowed to painters and poets, but when they take a subjective, especially a deep tradition, and fail to perceive its real meaning or catch its point, and simply give us something very pretty, but not so inspired with meaning as the original, it can hardly be claimed that they have done their work as it might, or, in fact, should have been done. I find that this fault does not occur in the Italian or Tuscan witch versions of the ancient fables; on the contrary, they keenly appreciate, and even expand, the antique spirit. Hence I have often had occasion to remark that it was not impossible that in some cases popular tradition, even as it now exists, has been preserved more fully and accurately than we find it in any Latin writer. Now apropos of missing the point, I would remind certain very literal readers that if they find many faults of grammar, misspelling, and worse in the Italian texts in this book, they will not, as a distinguished reviewer has done, attribute them all to the ignorance of the author, but to the imperfect education of the person who collected and recorded them. I am reminded of this by having seen in a circulating library copy of my Legend of Florence, in which some good careful soul had taken pains with a pencil to correct all the archaisms. Wherein, he or she was like a certain Boston proof reader, who in a book of mine changed the spelling of many citations from Chaucer, Spenser, and others into the purest, or impurest, Webster; he being under the impression that I was extremely ignorant of orthography. As for the writing in or injuring books, which always belong partly to posterity, it is a sin of vulgarity as well as morality, and indicates what people are more than they dream. "Only a cad
as low as a thief
CHAPTER XIII DIANA AND THE CHILDREN
Round this palace was a large garden, in which stood an ancient marble statue of Diana, like a beautiful woman who seemed to be running with a dog by her side. She held in her hand a bow, and on her forehead was a small moon. And it was said that by night, when all was still, the statue became like life and fled, and did not return till the moon set or the sun rose. The father of the family had two children, who were good and intelligent. On day they came home with many flowers that had been given to them, and the little girl said to the brother, "The beautiful lady with the bow ought to have some of these!" Saying this, they laid flowers before the statue and made a wreath, which the boy placed on her head. Just then the great poet and magician Virgil,
who knew everything about the god and fairies,
entered the garden and said, smiling, "You
have made the offering of flowers to the goddess
quite correctly, as they did of old; all that
remains is to pronounce the prayer properly,
and it is this:" Lovely Goddess
of the bow! Then Virgil taught them also the spell to be uttered when good fortune or aught is specially required - Fair goddess of
the rainbow, And having taught them this, Virgil departed. Then the children ran to tell their parents all that had happened, and the latter impressed it on them to keep it a secret, nor breathe a word or hint thereof to any one. But what was their amazement when they found early the next morning before the statue a deer freshly killed, which gave them good dinners for many a day; nor did they want thereafter at any time game of all kinds, when the prayer had been devoutly pronounced. There was a neighbor of this family, a priest, who held in hate all the ways and worship of the gods of the old time, and whatever did not belong to his religion, and he, passing the garden one day, beheld the statue of DIANA crowned with roses and other flowers. And being in a rage, and seeing in the street a decayed cabbage, he rolled it in the mud, and threw it all dripping at the face of the goddess, saying, "Behold, thou vile beast of idolatry, this is the worship which thou has from me, and the devil do the rest for thee!" Then the priest heard a voice in the gloom where the leaves were dense, and it said, "It is well! I give thee warning, since thou hast made thy offering, some of the game to thee I'll bring; thou'lt have thy share in the morning." All that night the priest suffered from horrible dreams and dread, and when at last, just before three o'clock, he fell asleep, he suddenly awoke from a nightmare in which it seemed as if something heavy rested on his chest. And something indeed fell from him and rolled on the floor. And when he rose and picked it up, and looked at it by the light of the moon, he saw that it was a human head, half decayed. Another priest, who had heard his cry of terror, entered his room, and having looked at the head, said, "I know that face! It is of a man whom I confessed, and who was beheaded three months ago at Siena." And three days after, the priest who had insulted the goddess died. The foregoing tale was not given to me as belonging to the Gospel of Witches, but as one of a very large series of traditions relating to Virgil as a magician. But it has its proper place in this book, because it contains the invocation to and incantation of DIANA, these being remarkably beautiful and original. When we remember how these 'hymns' have been handed down or preserved by old women, and doubtless much garbled, changed, and deformed by transmission, it cannot but seem wonderful that so much classic beauty still remains in them, as, for instance, in - Lovely Goddess
of the bow! Robert Browning was a great poet, but if we compare all the Italian witch poems of and to DIANA with the former's much admired speech of Diana-Artemis, it will certainly be admitted by impartial critics that the spells are fully equal to the following by the bard - I am a goddess
of the ambrosial courts, This is pretty, but it is only imitation, and neither in form or spirit really equal to the incantations, which are sincere on faith. And it may here be observed in sorrow, yet in very truth, that in a very great number of modern poetical handlings of classic mythic subjects, the writers have, despite all their genius as artists, produced rococo work which will appear to be such to another generation, simply from their having missed the point, or omitted from ignorance something vital which the folk lorist would probably not have lost. Achilles may be admirably drawn, as I have seen him, in a Louis XIV. wig with a Turkish scimitar, but still one could wish that the designer had been a little more familiar with Greek garments and weapons.
CHAPTER XIV THE GOBLIN MESSENGERS OF DIANA AND MERCURY
Many centuries ago there was a goblin, or spirit or devil-angel, and Mercury, who was the god of speed and of quickness, being much pleased with this imp, bestowed on him the gift of running like the wind, with the privilege that whatever he pursued, be it spirit, a human being, or animal, he should certainly overtake or catch it. This goblin had a beautiful sister, who like him, ran errands, not for the gods, but for the goddesses (there was a female god for every male, even down to the small spirits); and Diana on the same day gave to this fairy the power that, whoever might chase her, she should, if pursued, never be overtaken. On day the brother saw his sister speeding like a flash of lightning across the heaven, and he felt a sudden strange desire in rivalry to overtake her. So he dashed after as she flitted on; but though it was his destiny to catch, she had been fated never to be caught, and so the will of one supreme god was balanced by that of another. So the two kept flying round and round the edge of heaven, and at first all the gods roared with laughter, but when they understood the case, hey grew serious, and asked one another how it was to end. Then the great father-god said, "Behold the earth, which is in darkness and gloom! I will change the sister into a Moon, and her brother into a sun. And so shall she ever escape him, yet will he ever catch her with his light, which shall fall on her from afar; for the rays of the sun are his hands, which reach forth with burning grasp, yet which are ever eluded." And thus it is said that this race begins anew with, the first of every month, when the moon being cold, is covered with as many coats as an onion. But while the race is being run, as the moon becomes warm she casts off one garment after another, till she is naked and then stops, and then when dressed the race begins again. As the vast storm cloud falls in glittering drops, even so the great myths of the olden time are broken up into small fairy tales, and as these drops in turn reunite. "On silent lake or streamlet lone" as Villon hath it, even so minor myths are again formed from the fallen waters. In this story we clearly have the dog made by Vulcan and the wolf - Jupiter settled the question by petrifying them - as you may read in Julius Pollux his fifth book, or any other on mythology. "Which hunting hound, as well is known, It is remarkable that in this story the moon is compared to an onion. "The onion," says Friedrich, "was, on account of its many skins, among the Egyptians the emblem and hieroglyph of the many formed moon, whose different phases are so clearly seen I the root when it is cut through, also because its growth or decrease corresponds with that of the planet. Therefore it was dedicated to Isis, the Moon Goddess." And for this reason the onion was so holy as to be regarded as having in itself something of deity; for which reason Juvenal remarks that the Egyptians were happy people to have gods growing in their gardens.
CHAPTER XV LAVERNA
It happened on
a time that Virgil, who knew all things hidden
or magical, he who was a magician and poet,
having heard a speech (or oration) by a famous
talker who had not much in him, was asked what
he thought of it. And he replied, "It seems
to me to be impossible to tell whether it was
all introduction or all conclusion; certainly
there was no body in it. It was like certain
fish of whom one is in doubt whether they are
all head or all tail, or only head and tail;
or the goddess Laverna, of whom no one ever
know whether she was all head or all body, or
neither or both." And Virgil replied, "Among the gods or
spirits who were of ancient times - may they
be ever favorable to us! Among them (was) one
female who was the craftiest and most knavish
of them all. She was called Laverna. She was
a thief, and very little known to the other
deities, who were honest and dignified, for
she was rarely in heaven or in the country of
the fairies. "Once it happened that she went (to a mortal),
a great priest in the form and guise of a very
beautiful stately priestess (of some goddess),
and said to him: - "And very soon Laverna had sold off all the crops, grain, cattle, wood, and poultry. There was not left the value of four farthings. "But on the day fixed for payment there was no Laverna to be seen. The fair goddess was far away, and had left her creditor in the lurch! "At the same time Laverna went to a great lord and bought of him a castle, well furnished within and broad rich lands without. "But this time she swore on her head to pay in full in six months. "And as she had done by the priest, so she acted to the lord of the castle, and stole and sold every stick, furniture, cattle, men, and mice - there was not left wherewith to feed a fly. "Then the priest and the lord, finding out who this was, appealed to the gods, complaining that they had been robbed by a goddess. "And it was soon made known to them all
that this was Laverna. "And when she was asked what she had done
with the property of the priest, unto whom she
had sworn by her body to make payment at the
time appointed (and why she had broken her oath)? "After the priest came the lord who had also been tricked, and to whom she had sworn by her head. And in reply to him Laverna showed all present her whole body without mincing matters, and it was one of extreme beauty, but without a head; and from the neck thereof came a voice which said: - 'Behold me, for I am Laverna, who "Then there was indeed a storm of laughter among the gods, who made the matter right by ordering the head to join the body, and bidding Laverna pay up her debts, which she did. "Then Jove spoke and said: - "These good folk have neither a church nor a god, and it is a great pity, for even the very devils have their master, Satan, as the head of the family. Therefore, I command that in future Laverna shall be the goddess of all the knaves or dishonest tradesman, with the whole rubbish and refuse of the human race, who have been hitherto without a god or a devil, inasmuch as they have been too despicable for the one or the other.' "And so Laverna became the goddess of all
dishonest and shabby people. "Laverna was no more chaste than she was honest, and had many lovers and many children. It was said that not being bad at heart or cruel, she often repented her life and sins; but do what she might, she could not reform, because her passions were so inveterate. "And if a man had got any woman with child or any maid found herself enceinte, and would hide it from the world and escape scandal, they would go every day to invoke Laverna. "Then when the time came for the suppliant to be delivered, Laverna would bear her in sleep during the night to her temple, and after the birth cast her into slumber again, and bear her back to her bed at home. And when she woke in the morning, she was ever in vigorous health and felt no weariness, and all seemed to her as a dream. "But to those who desired in time to reclaim their children, Laverna was indulgent if they led such lives as pleased her and faithfully worshipped her. "And this is the ceremony to be performed and the incantation to be offered every night to Laverna. "There must be a set place devoted to the goddess, be it a room, a cellar, or a grove, but ever a solitary place. "Then take a small table of the size of forty playing cards set close together, and this must be hid in the same place, and going there at night... "Take forty cards and spread them on the
table, making of them a close carpet or cover
on it. I boil the cluster
of concordia Having said thus, put the boiled herbs in a bottle and spread the cards on the table one by one, saying: - I spread before
me now the forty cards "Laverna was the Roman goddess of thieves, pickpockets, shopkeepers or dealers, plagiarists, rascals, and hypocrites. There was near Rome a temple in a grove where robbers went to divide their plunder. There was a statue of the goddess. Her image, according to some, was a head without a body; according to others, a body without a head; but the epithet of 'beautiful' applied to her by Horace indicates that she who gave disguises to her worshippers had kept one to herself." She was worshipped in perfect silence. This is confirmed by a passage to Horace, where an impostor, hardly daring to move his lips, repeats the following prayer or incantation: - "O goddess
Laverna! It is interesting to compare this unquestionably ancient classic invocation to Laverna with the one which is before given. The goddess was extensively known to the lower orders, and in Plautus a cook who has been robbed of his implements calls on her to revenge him. I call special attention to the fact that in this, as in a great number of Italian witch incantations, the deity or spirit who is worshipped, be it Diana herself or Laverna, is threatened with torment by a higher power until he or she grants the favour demanded. This is quite classic (Grecco-Roman or Oriental) in all of which sources the magician relies not on favour, aid, or power granted by either God or Satan, but simply on what he has been able to wrench and wring, as it were, out of infinite nature or the primal source by penance and study. I mention this because a reviewer has reproached me with exaggerating the degree to which diabolism - introduced by the Church since 1500 - is deficient in Italy. But in fact, among the higher classes of witches, or in their traditions, it is hardly to be found at all. In Christian diabolism the witch never dares to threaten Satan or God, or any of the Trinity or angels, for the whole system is based on the conception of a Church and of obedience. The herb concordia probably takes its name from that of the goddess Concordia, who was represented as holding a branch. It plays a great part in witchcraft, after verbena and rue. APPENDIX So long ago as the year 1886 I learned that there was in existence a manuscript setting forth the doctrines of Italian witchcraft, and I was promised that, if possible, it should be obtained for me. In this I was for a time disappointed. But having urged it on Maddalena, my collector of folk lore, while she was leading a wandering life in Tuscany, to make an effort to obtain or recover something of the kind, I at last received from her, on January 1, 1897, from Colle, Val d'Elsa, near Siena, the MS entitled Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. Now be it observed, that every leading point which forms the plot or center of this Vangel, such as that DIANA is Queen of the Witches; an associate of Herodius (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 - all of this, I repeat, had been told or written out for me in fragments by Maddalena (not to speak of other authorities), even as it had been chronicled by Horst or Michelet; therefore all this is in the present document of minor importance. All of this I expected, but what I did not expect, and what was new to me, was that portion which is given as prose-poetry and which I have rendered in meter or verse. This being traditional, and taken down from wizards, is extremely curious and interesting, since in it are preserved many relics of lore which, as may be verified from records, have come down from days of yore. Aradia is evidently enough Herodius, who was regarded in the beginning as associated with DIANA as chief of the witches. This was not, as I opined, derived from the Herodias of the New Testament, but from an earlier replica of Lilith, bearing the same name. It is, in fact an identification or twin-ing of the Aryan and Shemitic Queens of Heaven, or of Night and of Sorcery, and it may be that this was known to the earliest myth makers. So far back as the sixth century the worship of Herodias and DIANA by witches was condemned by a Church Council at Ancyra. Pipernus and other writers have noted the evident identity of Herodias with Lilith. Isis preceded both. DIANA is very vigorously, even dramatically, set forth in this poem as the goddess of the god forsaken and ungodly, of thieves, harlots, and, truthfully enough, of the 'minions of the moon,' as Falstaff would have fain had them called. It was recognized in ancient Rome, as it is in modern India, that no human being can be so bad or vile as to have forfeited all right to divine protection of some kind or other, and Diana was this protectress. It my be as well to observe here, that among all free thinking philosophers, educated parias, and literary or book bohemians, there has ever been a most unorthodox tendency to believe that the faults and errors of humanity are more due (if not altogether due) to unavoidable causes which we cannot help, as, for instance, heredity, the being born savages, or poor, or in vice, or unto 'bigotry and virtue' in excess, or unto inquisitioning - that is to say, when we are so over burdened with innately born sin that all our free will cannot set us free from it. It was during the so called Dark Ages, or from the downfall of the Roman Empire until the thirteenth century, that the belief that all which was worst in man owed its origin solely to the monstrous abuses and tyranny of Church and State. For then, at every turn in life, the vast majority encountered downright shameless, palpable iniquity and injustice, with no law for the weak who were without patrons. The perception of this drove vast numbers of the discontented into rebellion, and as they could not prevail by open warfare, they took their hatred out in a form of secret anarchy, which was, however, intimately blended with superstition and fragments of old tradition. Prominent in this, and naturally enough, was the worship of DIANA the protectress, for the alleged adoration of Satan was a far later invention of the Church, and it has never really found a leading place in Italian witchcraft to this day. That is to say, purely diabolical witchcraft did not find general acceptance till the end of the fifteenth century, when it was, one may almost say, invented in Rome to supply means wherewith to destroy the threatening heresy of Germany. The growth of Sentiment is the increase of suffering; man is never entirely miserable until he finds out how wronged he is and fancies that he sees far ahead a possible freedom. In ancient times men as slaves suffered less under even more abuse, because they believed they were born to low conditions of life. Even the best reform brings pain with it, and the great awakening of man was accompanied with griefs, many of which even yet endure. Pessimism is the result of too much culture and introversion. It appears to be strangely out of sight and out of mind with all historians, that the sufferings of the vast majority of mankind, or the enslaved and poor, were far greater under early Christianity, or till the end of the Middle Ages and the Emancipation of Serfs, than they were before. The reason for this was that in the old 'heathen' time the humble did not know, or even dream, that all are equal before God, or that they had many rights, even here on earth, as slaves; for, in fact, the whole moral tendency of the New Testament is utterly opposed to slavery, or even sever servitude. Every word uttered teaching Christ's mercy and love, humility and charity, was, in fact, a bitter reproof, not only to every lord in the land, but to the Church itself, and its arrogant prelates. The fact that many abuses had been mitigated and that there were benevolent saints, does not affect the fact that, on the whole, mankind was for a long time worse off than before, and the greatest cause of this suffering was what may be called a sentimental one, or a newly born consciousness of rights withheld, which is always of itself a torture. And this was greatly aggravated by the endless preaching to the people that it was a duty to suffer and endure oppression and tyranny, and that the rights of Authority of all kinds were so great that they on the whole even excused their worst abuses. For by upholding Authority in the nobility the Church maintained its own. The result of it all was a vast development of rebels, outcasts, and all the discontented, who adopted witchcraft or sorcery for a religion, and wizards as their priests. They had secret meetings in desert places, among old ruins accursed by priests as the haunt of evil spirits or ancient heathen gods, or in the mountains. To this day the dweller in Italy may often find secluded spots environed by ancient chestnut forests, rocks, and walls, which suggest fit places for the Sabbat, and are sometimes still believed by tradition to be such. And 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. They adored forbidden deities and practiced forbidden deeds, inspired as much by rebellion against Society as their own passions. There is, however, in the Evangel of the Witches
an effort made to distinguish between the naturally
wicked or corrupt and those who are outcasts
or oppressed, as appears from the passage: "Yet like
Cain's daughter (offspring) thou shalt never
be, The supper of the Witches, the cakes of meal, salt, and honey, in the form of crescent moons, are known to every classical scholar. The moon or horn shaped cakes are still common. I have eaten of them this very day, and though they are known all over the world, I believe they owe their fashion to tradition. In the conjuration of the meal there is a very curious tradition introduced to the effect that the glittering grains of wheat from which spikes shoot like sun rays, owe their brilliant likeness to a resemblance to the firefly, 'who comes to give the light.' We have, I doubt not, in this a classic tradition, but I cannot verify it. Hereupon the Vangelo cites a common nursery rhyme, which may also be found a nursery tale, yet which, like others, is derived from witch lore, by which the lucciola is put under a glass and conjured to give by its light certain answers. The conjuration of the meal or bread, as being literally our body as contributing to form it, and deeply sacred because it had lain in the earth, where dark and wondrous secrets bide, seems to cast a new light on the Christian sacrament. It is a type of resurrection from earth, and was therefore used at the Mysteries and Holy Supper, and the grain had pertained to chthonic secrets, or to what had been under the earth in darkness. Thus even earthworms are invoked in modern witchcraft as familiar with dark mysteries, and the shepherd's pipe to win the Orphic power must be buried three days in the earth. And so all was, and is, in sorcery a kind of wild poetry based on symbols, all blending into one another, light and darkness, fireflies and grain, life and death. Very strange indeed, but very strictly according to ancient magic as described by classic authorities, is the threatening Diana, in case she will not grant a prayer. This recurs continually in the witch exorcisms or spells. The magus, or witch, worships the spirit, but claims to have the right, drawn from a higher power, to compel even the Queen of Earth, Heaven and Hell to grant the request. "Give what I ask, and thou shalt have honor and offerings; refuse, and I will vex thee by insult." So Canidia and her kind boasted that they could compel the gods to appear. This is all classic. No one ever heard of a Satanic witch invoking or threatening the Trinity, or Christ or even the angels or saints. In fact, they cannot even compel the devil or his imps to obey - they work entirely by his good will as slaves. But in the old Italian lore the sorcerer or witch is all or nothing, and aims at limitless will or power. Of the ancient belief in the virtues of a perforated stone I need not speak. But it is to be remarked that in the invocation the witch goes forth in the earliest morning to seek for verbena or verbain. The ancient Persian magi, or rather their daughters, worshipped the sun as it rose by waving freshly plucked verbena, which was one of the seven most powerful plants in magic. These Persian priestesses were naked while they thus worshipped, nudity being a symbol of truth and sincerity. The extinguishing the lights, nakedness, and
the orgy, were regarded as symbolical of the
body being laid in the ground, the grain being
planted, or of entering into darkness and death,
to be revived in new forms, or regeneration
and light. It was the laying aside of daily
life. It may be observed with truth that I have not
treated this Gospel, nor even the subject of
witchcraft, entirely as folk lore, as the word
is strictly defined and carried out; that is,
as a mere traditional fact or thing to be chiefly
regarded as a variant like or unlike sundry
other traditions, or to be tabulated and put
away in pigeon holes for reference. That it
is useful and sensible to do all this is perfectly
true, and it has led to an immense amount of
valuable search, collection, and preservation.
But there is this to be said, and I have observed
that here and there a few genial minds are beginning
to awake to it, that the mere study of the letter
in this way has developed a great indifference
to the spirit, going in may cases so far as
to produce, like Realism in Art (to which it
is allied), even a contempt for the matter or
meaning of it, as originally believed in. The strange and mystical chapter 'How Diana
made the Stars and the Rain' is the same given
in my Legends of Florence, but much enlarged,
or developed to a cosmogonic-mythologic sketch.
And here a reflection occurs which is perhaps
the most remarkable which all this Witch Evangel
suggests. In all other Scriptures of all races,
it is the male, Jehovah, Buddha or Brahma, who
creates the universe; in Witch Sorcery it is
the female who is the primitive principle. Whenever
in history there is a period of radical intellectual
rebellion against long established conservatism,
hierarchy, and the like, there is always an
effort to regard Woman as the fully equal, which
means the superior sex. Thus in the extraordinary
war of conflicting elements, strange schools
of sorcery, Neo-Platonism, Cabala, Hermetic
Christianity, Gnosticism, Persian Magism and
Dualism, with the remains of old Greek and Egyptian
theologies in the third and fourth centuries
at Alexandria, and in the House of Light of
Cairo in the ninth, the equality of Woman was
a prominent doctrine. It was Sophia or Helena,
the enfranchised, who was then the true Christ
who was to save mankind. But we should also remember that in the earlier ages the vast majority of mankind itself, suppressed by the too great or greatly abused power of Church and State, only manifested itself at such periods of rebellion against forms or ideas grown old. And with every new rebellion, every fresh outburst or wild inundation and bursting over the barriers, humanity and woman gain something, that is to say, their just dues or rights. For as every freshet spreads more widely its waters over the fields, which are in due time the more fertilized thereby, so the world at large gains by every revolution, however terrible or repugnant it may be for a time. The Emancipated or Woman's Rights woman, when too enthusiastic, generally considers man as limited, while Woman is destined to gain on him. In earlier ages a contrary opinion prevailed, and both are, or were, apparently in the wrong, so far as the future is concerned. For in truth both sexes are progressive, and progress in this respect means not a conflict of the male and female principle, such as formed the basis of the Mahabarata, but a gradual ascertaining of true ability and adjustment of relations or coordination of powers. These remarks are appropriate to my text and subject, because it is in studying the epochs when woman has made herself prominent and influential that we learn what the capacities of the female sex truly are. Among these, that of witchcraft as it truly was - not as it is generally quite misunderstood - is a deeply interesting as any other. For the witch, laying aside all question as to magic or its non-existence - was once a real factor or great power in rebellious social life, and to this very day it is recognized that there is something uncanny, mysterious, and incomprehensible in woman, which neither she herself nor man can explain.
THE CHILDREN OF DIANA, OR HOW THE FAIRIES WERE BORN
There was once a young man who was poor, without
parents, yet he was good. "We are moon rays, the children of DIANA,"
replied one - Then he saw or knew no more, but on awakening found himself in Monterone, and so changed to a handsome youth that no one knew him. So he married his beautiful lady, and all lived the hidden life of witches and wizards from that day, and are now in fairy land. |
