A new translation of a 120-year-old book. Finally, you will know what it REALLY says! Be ready to change your impression of Charles Godfrey Leland's important work. Did Leland create a complete fiction? Was he duped by a wily Tuscan witch into believing he'd been given accurate information? Was his honest work changed by a publisher who feared the material? After you've read what the Italian verses actually say, you will have the answers to these and other questions that may be forming in your mind.
A new translation of a 120-year-old book. Finally, you will know what it REALLY says! Be ready to change your impression of Charles Godfrey Leland's important work. Did Leland create a complete fiction? Was he duped by a wily Tuscan witch into believing he'd been given accurate information? Was his honest work changed, or delayed, by a publisher who feared the material? After you've read what the Italian verses actually say, you will have the answers to these and other questions that may have been forming in your mind.
While researching regional folklore in Tuscany during the late 19th Century, an American folklorist recieves a hand written document, the "Vangel", by a mysterious woman named Maddelena. Purportedly the last remains of an ancient Roman witchcraft religion, this forms the basis of "Aradia". Though the authenticity of "Aradia" has always been questioned, it has undoubtedly helped form the basis for neo-Pagan religion today.
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III HOW DIANA MADE THE STARS AND THE RAIN Diana was the first created before all creation; in her were all things; out 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 a 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...
This classic of neo-Paganism is one of the few books which purports to be an actual sacred text of traditional witchcraft, in particular that of the Tuscan region of Italy. Charles Leland was an American expatriate journalist, folklorist, and author. He based this book on material which he received from a woman named Maddelena, who had assisted him in collecting regional Italian folklore. On New Years day, 1897 she handed over to him a document in her own handwriting, the Vangel, which is the core of this book. Maddelena then reportedly went missing, and never contacted Leland again.The authenticity of Aradia has always been in question. Ronald Hutton, in his scholarly study of the roots of neo-Paganism, The Triumph of the Moon (Oxford University Press, 1999), presents three divergent theories about Aradia: first, that is a genuine text of an underground Italian Goddess religion, second, that Maddelena wrote it based on her family tradition, or third, that Charles Leland forged it based on his extensive knowledge of folklore. Each of these theories has pros and cons: it may be that the second and third are closest to the truth.Whatever the source of this material, it has had a profound impact on the emergence of neo-Paganism, and is required reading for anyone interested in the subject.
Excerpt from Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches However, they die slowly, and even yet there are old people in the Romagna of the North who know the Etruscan names of the Twelve Gods, and invocations to Bacchus, jupiter, and Venus, Mercury, and the Lares or ancestral spirits, and in the cities are women who prepare strange amulets, over which they mutter spells, all known in the old Roman time, and who can astonish even the learned by their legends of Latin gods, mingled with lore which may be found in cato or theocritus. With one of these I became ia timately acquainted in 1886, and have ever since employed her specially to collect among her sisters of the hidden spell in many places all the traditions of the olden time known to them. It is true that I have drawn from other sources, but this woman by long practice has perfectly learned what few understand, or just what I want, and how to extract it from those of her kind. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book written by the American writer, humourist, and folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland, and was originally published in 1899. The work contains what Leland believed to be the religious text in poetic form, of a group of pagan witches or strega from Tuscany, Italy. The book was very influential in the development of the contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca.
