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{{Short description|Character in the Gospel of the Witches}}
In the ] ] of ] and the ] religion of ], '''Aradia''' was the daughter of ] and ]. Some believe her to have been the ] equivalent of the ] ], the daughter of ] and ], however there is very little evidence that such a character existed in Greek mythology. Oddly, there exist ] inscriptions in Italy reported by ] to have been dedicated to a goddess named ''Hera Dea''.
{{about||the '']'' character|Aradia Megido}}
'''Aradia''' is one of the principal figures in the American folklorist ]'s 1899 work '']'', which he believed to be a genuine religious text used by a group of ] ] in ], a claim that has subsequently been disputed by other folklorists and historians.<ref>]. p. 148.</ref> In Leland's ''Gospel'', Aradia is portrayed as a ] who was sent to Earth in order to teach the oppressed peasants how to perform witchcraft to use against the ] and the upper classes.


The folklorist ] has theorised that prior to being used in Leland's ''Gospel'', Aradia was originally a supernatural figure in ], who was later merged with other folkloric figures such as ''sa Rejusta'' of ].<ref>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.</ref>
Another theory, first suggested by Charles Godfrey Leland in his 1899 publication of ''Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches'', is that the name "Aradia" is a corruption of "Cult of ]". In ], ''herodias'' is the word for "]", the bird; in ] the same bird is ''ardea''. Some suggest she is derived from the Greek ] consort of ]


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 ], including ] and ], as an actual deity.<ref>Magliocco, Sabina (2009). 'Aradia in Sardinia: The Archaeology of a Folk Character' in ''Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon''. Hidden Publishing. Page 42.</ref>
Aradia is believed by most adherents of Stregheria to have been ] into a woman named ] in the early 1300s.
], 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.<ref>].</ref>


==Folklore==
The Italian form of the name '']'' is ''Erodiade''. It appears that Herodias, the wife of ], in ] of the ], came to be seen as a spirit condemned to wander the sky forever due to her part in the death of ], permitted only to rest in treetops between midnight and dawn.

By the ], this figure seems to have become attached to the train of nymphs of ], 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''.<ref>Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, 1989</ref> The ] is a passage from the work ''De ecclesiasticis disciplinis'' by ] (written {{Circa|906}}). It became notable as a paragraph of ] 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 ], written c. 1012, the reference to Diana (''cum Diana paganorum dea'') was augmented by "or with Herodias" (''vel cum Herodiade'').<ref>Sabina Magliocco (2002). 'Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend' in ''The Pomegranate: The Journal of Pagan Studies'', Issue 18.</ref> 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 ]. 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.<ref>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.</ref> ], 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".<ref>Iles, Judika. ''Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses'' (2009). {{ISBN|978-0-06-135024-5}}</ref>

The Romanian historian of religion ] also noted that ''Arada'', along with ''Irodiada'', was a name used for a Romanian folkloric Queen of ] (''Doamna Zînelor''), who he believed was a "metamorphosis of Diana". She was viewed as the patroness of a secretive group of dancers known as the ] who operated up until at least the 19th century.<ref>] (February 1975). "Some Observations on European Witchcraft" in ''History of Religions'' Volume 14, Number 3. Page 160-161.</ref>

===Leland's Aradia===
{{main|Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches|Witch-cult hypothesis}}
In 1899, the American folklorist ] published '']'', 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 ] 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 ], who is described as "the god of the Sun and of the Moon, the god of Light (Splendour), who was so proud of his beauty, and who for his pride was driven from Paradise". Diana instructs Aradia to "go to earth below / To be a teacher unto women and men / Who fain would study witchcraft." When Aradia descends, she becomes the first of all ]es, and promises her students that "ye shall all be freed from slavery, / And so ye shall be free in everything."<ref>{{cite book | author=Leland, Charles Godfrey | title=Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches | url=https://archive.org/details/aradiaorgospelw00lelagoog | publisher =David Nutt | year=1899 | isbn=1-56414-679-0 }} Chapter I</ref>

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.<ref>Leland, ]</ref> Leland's ''Aradia'' has a chapter containing folklore about the night assembly or banquet, titled "The Sabbat: Tregunda or Witch Meeting", which involves Diana.<ref>Leland, Chapter VII</ref> 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 . They adored forbidden deities and practised forbidden deeds, inspired as much by rebellion against Society as by their own passions."<ref name="Appendix">Leland, Appendix</ref>

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 ], but from an earlier replica of ], bearing the same name ... So far back as the sixth century the worship of Herodias and Diana by witches was condemned by a Church Council at Ancyra."<ref>Leland is referring to the Canon Episcopi.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}</ref> ] and other writers have noted the evident identification of Herodias with Lilith.<ref name="Appendix" /> Historian ] suggests in ''Triumph of the Moon'' that this identification with Herodias was inspired by the work of ] in '']''.<ref>{{cite book | first=Ronald | last=Hutton | author-link=Ronald Hutton | title=Triumph of the Moon | publisher =Oxford University Press | year=2000 | isbn=0-500-27242-5}}</ref> Anthropologist and field folklorist ], on the other hand, is willing to consider a connection between the ] Erodiade (Herodias), the Cult of Herodias, the night assembly, and Aradia.<ref>
Magliocco, Sabina (2002). "Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend", ''The Pomegranate'', volume 18, p. 5–22.</ref>

==Neopaganism==
Aradia has become an important figure in witchcraft including ] and other forms of Neo-Paganism. Some ] use the name ''Aradia'' as one of the names of the ], ], or "Queen of the Witches".<ref>{{cite book | author=Farrar, Janet and Stewart | title=Eight Sabbats for Witches | publisher =Robert Hale | year=1983 | isbn=0-919345-26-3}}</ref>

Portions of Leland's text influenced the ] ], especially the ].<ref>Valiente, Doreen. ''The Rebirth of Witchcraft'' (1989).</ref> ] invoked Aradia as a moon goddess in the 1960s. ] and ] used the name in their ''Eight Sabbats for Witches'' and ''The Witches' Way''.<ref>Farrar, Janet and Stewart. ''Eight Sabbats for Witches'' (1981). {{ISBN|0-919345-26-3}}. ''The Witches Way'' (1984). {{ISBN|978-0-7090-1293-1}}</ref> Aradia was invoked in spellcraft in Z. Budapest's ''The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries''.<ref>Budapest, Z. ''The Holy Book of Women's Mysteris: Complete in One Volume'' (1980, 1989), First Wingbo edition 1989, pp. 23, 27, 44. {{ISBN|978-0-914728-67-2}}.</ref>

Aradia is a central figure in ], 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.<ref>{{cite web | title=Stregheria.com FAQ | url=http://stregheria.com/FAQ.html | access-date=October 13, 2005 | archive-date=May 22, 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060522185828/http://www.stregheria.com/FAQ.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>

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).<ref>Woodling, Myth (2001), , from www.AradiaGoddess.com</ref>

In 1992, ], co-founder of the ], distributed a document titled ''The Gospel of Diana'' (a reference to ''Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches''{{ref|Baldassare}}). The text contained a list of mother and daughter ]esses who had taught religious ] through the centuries. Instead of Leland's goddess Diana and her messianic daughter Aradia, Kelly's text described mortal human beings. The priestesses' names alternated between ''Aradia'' and ''Diana''.{{ref|Kelly}} Magliocco describes the character of Aradia in Kelly's accompanying narrative as "a notably ] character; according to her teachings, the ] 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 ]". Magliocco also notes that the text "has not achieved broad diffusion in contemporary Pagan circles".{{ref label|Magliocco|4|a}}

==See also==
{{wikisource|Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches}}
*]
*]

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|<!-- column start -->
* {{cite book |title= Ways of the Strega: Italian Witchcraft, Its Lore, Magick and Spells |last= Grimassi |first= Raven |year= 1996 |publisher= Llewellyn |isbn= 1-56718-253-4 |ref= Gri96 |url= https://archive.org/details/waysofstregaital00grim }}
* {{cite book |title= The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft |last= Hutton |first= Ronald |year= 1999 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= New York |isbn= 0-19-820744-1 |ref= Hut99 |url= https://archive.org/details/triumphofmoonhis00hutt }}
* {{cite news|title= Aradia in Sardinia: The Archaeology of a Folk Character |last= Magliocco|first= Sabina |year= 2009 |publisher= Hidden Publishing |isbn=978-0-9555237-5-5
|ref=Hut99}}
}}<!-- split column end -->
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* The complete text of "Aradia" by Charles Leland.
* , which contains an academic discussion of the history and controversies associated with Leland and Aradia.
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100405223213/http://www.stregheria.com/aradia.htm |date=2010-04-05 }}, Stregheria.com, an article by Raven Grimassi about the legend of Aradia and its evolution.
* , a Web site devoted to Aradia as a Wiccan goddess and as a powerful spirit in Italian folklore.

{{witchcraft}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aradia (Goddess)}}
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Latest revision as of 07:49, 29 November 2024

Character in the Gospel of the Witches For the Homestuck character, see Aradia Megido.

Aradia is one of the principal figures in the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland's 1899 work Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which he believed to be a genuine religious text used by a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, a claim that has subsequently been disputed by other folklorists and historians. In Leland's Gospel, Aradia is portrayed as a messiah who was sent to Earth in order to teach the oppressed peasants how to perform witchcraft to use against the Roman Catholic Church and the upper classes.

The folklorist Sabina Magliocco has theorised that prior to being used in Leland's Gospel, Aradia was originally a supernatural figure in Italian folklore, who was later merged with other folkloric figures such as sa Rejusta of Sardinia.

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. 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.

Folklore

The Italian form of the name Herodias is Erodiade. It appears that Herodias, the wife of Herod Antipas, in Christianity 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. The canon Episcopi is a passage from the work De ecclesiasticis disciplinis by Regino of Prüm (written c. 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 c. 1012, the reference to Diana (cum Diana paganorum dea) was augmented by "or with Herodias" (vel cum Herodiade). 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. 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".

The Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade also noted that Arada, along with Irodiada, was a name used for a Romanian folkloric Queen of the Fairies (Doamna Zînelor), who he believed was a "metamorphosis of Diana". She was viewed as the patroness of a secretive group of dancers known as the calusari who operated up until at least the 19th century.

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 Lucifer, who is described as "the god of the Sun and of the Moon, the god of Light (Splendour), who was so proud of his beauty, and who for his pride was driven from Paradise". Diana instructs Aradia to "go to earth below / To be a teacher unto women and men / Who fain would study witchcraft." When Aradia descends, she becomes the first of all witches, and promises her students that "ye shall all be freed from slavery, / And so ye shall be free in everything."

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. Leland's Aradia has a chapter containing folklore about the night assembly or banquet, titled "The Sabbat: Tregunda or Witch Meeting", which involves Diana. 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 . They adored forbidden deities and practised forbidden deeds, inspired as much by rebellion against Society as by their own passions."

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 New Testament, but from an earlier replica of Lilith, bearing the same name ... 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 identification of Herodias with Lilith. Historian Ronald Hutton suggests in Triumph of the Moon that this identification with Herodias was inspired by the work of Jules Michelet in Satanism and Witchcraft. 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.

Neopaganism

Aradia has become an important figure in witchcraft including Wicca and 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. 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. Aradia was invoked in spellcraft in Z. Budapest's The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries.

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.

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).

In 1992, Aidan Kelly, co-founder of the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn, distributed a document titled The Gospel of Diana (a reference to Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches). The text contained a list of mother and daughter priestesses who had taught religious witchcraft through the centuries. Instead of Leland's goddess Diana and her messianic daughter Aradia, Kelly's text described mortal human beings. The priestesses' names alternated between Aradia and Diana. Magliocco describes the character of Aradia in Kelly's accompanying narrative as "a notably erotic character; according to her teachings, the 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".

See also

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. Iles, Judika. Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses (2009). 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. Leland, Charles Godfrey (1899). Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. David Nutt. ISBN 1-56414-679-0. Chapter I
  11. Leland, Chapter II
  12. Leland, Chapter VII
  13. ^ Leland, Appendix
  14. Leland is referring to the Canon Episcopi.
  15. Hutton, Ronald (2000). Triumph of the Moon. Oxford University Press. 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. Farrar, Janet and Stewart (1983). Eight Sabbats for Witches. Robert Hale. ISBN 0-919345-26-3.
  18. Valiente, Doreen. The Rebirth of Witchcraft (1989).
  19. Farrar, Janet and Stewart. Eight Sabbats for Witches (1981). ISBN 0-919345-26-3. The Witches Way (1984). ISBN 978-0-7090-1293-1
  20. Budapest, Z. The Holy Book of Women's Mysteris: Complete in One Volume (1980, 1989), First Wingbo edition 1989, pp. 23, 27, 44. 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

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