Aradia - the mysterious 'Messiah of the Witches' and daughter of Diana

Aradia - the Messiah of the Witches
Born: As a Goddess: daughter of Diana in pre-Christian times & as the ‘second coming’: the niece of a witch
13 August 1313 (Diana’s day of worship)
Found in: Dianic witchcraft, Italian/Strega witchcraft, Gardnerian, the writings of Janet and Stewart Farrar
Setting: The town of Volterra ,Tuscany, Italy
People who write about her: Charles Leland, Raven Grimassi
Stone: Moonstone
Number: 13
Offerings: Strega liquore, walnuts, rue and tools of witchcraft and divination
Famous for: The Gospel of the Witches, from which The Charge of the Goddess derives from as well as many other rituals which feature in Wicca















Top:
Aradia ‘The Beautiful Pilgrim’
(artist unknown)

Bottom:
Herodias the biblical figure & Jewish princess of the Herodian dynasty
by Paul Delaroche
I first came across Aradia in Janet and Stewart Farrar’s AWitches Bible whose coven worshipped Aradia and Cernunnos. For some bizarre reason I’d never heard of her and decided to do some more research using this to find out whether there is some truth to the ‘mythological’ woman whom so few talk about. When searching through baby names and their definitions, many websites insist that Aradia is Greek for ‘Goddess of Witches’, with some believing that her name is derivative of Herodias or Erodiade, the latter being the Mediaeval Italian pronunciation of the name Herodias. Herodias, however, is a biblical character and does not replicate any characteristics of Aradia apart from the possibility that the name Aradia derives from Herodias. It is very strange that the two images above appear to almost resemble the same person – with such particular features.

Aradia was brought to our attention in recent history by Charles Leland who published Aradia: Gospel of the Witches in 1899. This text is meant to detail a true picture of Tuscan Witchcraft from this ‘messiah of the Witches.’ Many dispute the antiquity of Leland’s knowledge of Aradia, however his research also crosses over to other closely related topics in his other publications Etruscan Roman Remains, Legends of Florence and The Gypsies and Gypsy Sorcery (1) which would make him an expert on the area. Aradia has become the source of great inspiration for the Pagan Renaissance as one of the only true witches to be named openly in her era thanks to this scholar and folklorist writer. The Gospel of the Witches doesn’t give anything away about the personality of Aradia, and only implies to worship her and for her followers to work against their oppressors and to free themselves from slavery – in quite literal terms. Leland says that women of her day were often poor workers in a low wage who ultimately wanted to be freed from slavery. The Gospel also asks of their followers to work against Christianity and it isn’t clear whether the Inquisitors ever knew this, and it certainly didn’t stop them from slaughtering witches regardless.




Diana
Tis true indeed that thou a spirit art,
But thou wert born to become again
A mortal; thou must go to earth below
To be a teacher unto women and men
Who fain would study withcraft in thy school…
- Gospel of the Witches 
The writer Raven Grimassi states that Aradia was a worshipped Goddess and also walked the earth as a person called Aradia di Toscano, who adopted the Goddess’ name and taught Witchcraft. In Goddess form it is told that Diana sent Aradia to Earth to teach others the magickal arts as taught by Diana. The living Aradia is rumoured to have been born in 1313 in Tuscany in the town of Volterra, forming the grounds of Italian Witchcraft which in approximately 150 years’ time would fall into the hands of the Inquisition which famously imprisoned and killed heretics for ‘the public good’(2). In 1508, ‘Italian Inquisitor Bernando Rategno noted that a rapid expansion of witchcraft had occurred one hundred and fifty years earlier, corresponding in time with Aradia’s second coming’ (3). The living Aradia was said to have been burnt at the stake having made sure that her manuscript, the Gospel was both written in detail and kept away from the Inquisitors. It is from The Gospel of the Witches that we derive a great deal of our rites: mooncakes, the feast after the ritual, consecrating salt and being skyclad during ritual.

Nicknamed ‘The Beautiful Pilgrim’, Aradia "travelled 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 the oppressed. And the fame of her wisdom and beauty went forth over all the land, and people worshipped her, calling her La Bella Pellegrina (the beautiful pilgrim)(4).”

Leland’s text tells the story of Diana and her brother/lover Lucifer who bore Aradia. Indeed, this is where the Roman Catholics found their source of ‘devil worship’ in The Craft, but Lucifer was not always a Biblical figure. Lucifer is Latin for “Light Bringer” as the ‘Sun’ to balance with Diana of the Moon – the archetypal dark and light, yin and yang, with Lucifer formed from Diana herself. Diana is said to have changed herself into Lucifer’s cat and seduced Lucifer to produce Aradia. The Christians also replaced Diana of Ephesus: ‘Ephesus became a place of Mary, Mother of God’ (5) as Christian groups often quashed Pagan sites quite literally by either building over what were Pagan sites of worship or rewriting over the top of Pagan stories. The bible states that Lucifer was an angel in heaven and had been banished from Paradise for being too vain which could be seen as a way of Christian society criticising Pagans for their “vanity” or in truth for the love of their bodies in comparison to the Christians’ conservative approach to the body as a vessel of ‘sin’.

Doreen Valiente took the following verse from this text as well as Aleister Crowley’s version – which was much darker. This became The Charge of the Goddess with this original version urging you to continue until the ‘last of your oppressors shall be dead’ which we could relate in a metaphorical sense to The Ordeal we face in our first degree initiation.


Aradia:
When I have departed from this world
Whenever ye have need of anything
Once in the month, and when the moon is full
Ye shall assemble in some desert place,
Or in a forest all together join
To adore the potent spirit of your Queen,
My mother, great Diana. She who fain
Would learn all sorcery yet has not won
Its deepest secrets, them my mother will
Teach her, in truth all things yet unknown.
And ye shall all be freed from slavery,
And so ye shall be free in everything;
And as a sign that ye are truly free,
Ye shall be naked in your rites, both men
And women also: this shall last until
The last of your oppressors shall be dead;
And ye shall make the game of Benevento,
Extinguishing the lights, and after that
Shall hold your supper thus 

Sources:

Text sources:
(1) http://www.controvers...
(2) http://en.wikipedia.o...
(3) Judika Illes, ‘Encyclopedia of Spirits’ Aradia
(4) Grimassi, Raven: http://www.stregheria...
(5) http://www.covenofthe...
(6) Leland, Charles, 1899 ‘Aradia: Gospel of the Witches’

Image Sources:
Aradia
http://www.stregheria...
Herodias
http://en.wikipedia.o...  

Desired Home VI

I tried to trace who designed this and where it is and I couldn't find anything, and I'm scared that the tree trunks will grow more and sssquash this house like a big hand and turn it into match sticks!

via Sun in Scorpio

Witchy Outfit of the Week XV

The rules?  There are no rules.

Image via Wurzeltod

30 Days of Paganism [Day 5: Beliefs - Sacred Sexuality]

SEXUALITY IN A STRANGE 21st CENTURY
I had been deliberately putting off this Day for for ooh, about a month now!  Before you know it, I'm behind in a lot of writing.  My torturously long hours at work are now over and I finally have time to write some more and a whole month to very carefully about Sacred Sexuality.

How we perceive ourselves as sexual beings can change and alter slightly with ebbs and flows just like in any other area of our lives.  How I view my sexuality could depend on how I feel that day and my looking in the mirror on different days I'm viewing someone constantly evolving, changing, maturing and learning.

I just switched the television on to an old 1940s film where the woman runs into the arms of her lover, head tilted back in awe, covered in makeup and hair set into place almost in a pose of submission as he holds her wrists.  How women are portrayed in the media as the seductee, is very different today and different again amongst various cultures.  Separate societies are constantly changing and evolving to work around values, depending on where you live and also - just as importantly - the way we view our sexuality is affected by the media.  How are we supposed to feel about our bodies?

The way we think is often affected by where we live and when, for example: during the 1800s, women would react to bad news by fainting whereby they would have to have smelling salts put underneath their nose to 'wake up' from their state of shock.  Women then carried out learnt behaviour taught to them by society in the age of 'hysteria' which in the 1900s turned into 'schitzoid' behaviour (I'm not using my words there) which had women reacting to actions in a very different way.  Anorexia in one side of the world is created for very different reasons - for example, in the Western world, women are usually anorexic because they are abhorred by their bodies and don't ever feel that they will ever be thin enough.  However, in parts of Eastern Asia, the majority of women who become anorexic do so because they're simply unhappy - and rather than being thin all over have distended stomachs, much like the images we see of children starving in Africa.  This has changed again thanks (or no thanks) to their access to Western media which now sees young women in Asian countries taking up eating disorders in order to actually be thin, rather than out of self-destructive sadness.

Thus, the Western view of sexuality changes and warps: what is the ideal figure for a woman, how does she approach a man and how do we choose to seduce each other and appreciate our sexuality and form?  This afternoon I watched Faster, Pussycat!  Kill!  Kill!  from 1965 which features a triad of wild car-racing women, ready to take on the world with their huge hips, tiny waists and buxom pointed bras.  Only five years later, the rail thin hippy look is in.

I've read several articles of late on how some men have a skewed view on what to expect from women in bed which has been badly affected by watching a lot of porn.  The porn industry does not allow for the healthy, loving and rewarding experience of sharing sexuality which is instead a place of extreme fantasy, depicting an unrealistic appetite for carnal experiences which could be very out of the ordinary.

This is why I found this post so hard to write - sexuality is so changeable and interpreted by many in so many different ways.

A PAGAN'S VIEW OF SEX AND SEXUALITY

We are born into the world skyclad (i.e: naked, or clad only by the sky) as nature intended and are most beautiful in our natural form.  Wiccans in particular are encouraged not only to perform magick amongst nature as much as possible but to also honor their diety skyclad if and when they can, particularly for Beltane.  You are beautiful without makeup, without clothes, with all but the form you were meant to be.  Pagans do not view themselves as being separate from the rest of the animal kingdom - we are one with every part of nature and recognise ourselves as being perfect as we are.  We treat our bodies well and listen to them carefully to make for the strongest energy force to contribute our positivity to the world.

Pagans respect their bodies in their natural state, and approach sex and sexuality in much the same way.  Our creativity also comes into play, thinking of how partners in arrays of pantheons would interact with one another, which is then filtered through our own personal aesthetics and particular Pagan belief system.  Pagans that I have met are much more at ease when they unexpectedly put on a few kilograms, and thanks to that attitude, they can easily find healthy and constructive ways of remedying it if they want to and if it's necessary.  One Wiccan woman that I know is close to her 40s and, having been slim her whole life, takes the approach that the Goddess is voluptuous and beautiful - so comparitively it's much easier for her to cope with.

My self image is very different to the average Western woman.  I have found that over the years I avoid women's magazines unless it's a Pagan publication or about women's health.  In general, I have become less materialistic and when I do buy something, the colour or shape resonate somehow back into my Wiccan belief system and thus have more value and meaning.  Jewellery becomes more symbolic with images of bumblebees, cats, frogs, faeries or simply for their colour or the crystal that features in them.

The Great Rite is performed at the end of a ritual, which is a metaphorical performance of the sex act, putting the athame or wand into the chalice which represents the phallus uniting with the womb.  This rite concludes the ritual to honor the balance of gender roles in the form of our chosen Goddess and God, and to generally honor the balance of life itself.  Woman and man are equal, and their energies as Mother Earth and Father Sky make for the balance of the Universe.

I almost feel like apologising for making this post more about self image than sacred sexuality, so perhaps this will be Part I....

)O( E




*My apologies for not putting sources into this article, I had an amazing article many months back on how mental disorders change and are intepreted across periods of time and cultures around the world.  I just couldn't find it so that I could add quotes to this post! 

Why I'm against 'talking to the dead' psychic readings - cold reading fraud

This is a very contentious subject, especially coming from someone like myself.  I really do feel that it has to be put out there, and some people I know might not like it, but that's life.

There may be some people who can genuinely 'talk to the dead', but if you can tell it's cold reading then you know that they're a fake straight away.  If they don't ask you any questions then they're more believable.  Having said that I love my tarot, I'm free to make whatever I want out of it without someone else pulling at my heartstrings.

Traditionally there are two types of reading: cold reading & hot reading.  Cold reading is where you throw small pieces of information at the participant to 'hook' them in, and they're so enthusiastic to believe that they will start to (unintentionally) give answers from which the psychic can then add more general information to.  They feed each other energy and excitement towards a delusional experience.  Many people come away from the experience days later thinking "But they really weren't that accurate, they had very few hits."  There are usually more misses than hits.  More often than not if they don't have 30 people in a room to choose from they will have one person "I'm sensing someone in your family who's passed away, I see some letters A...N" then the readee jumps in "Allan, my uncle Allan!" then another handful of hooks are put out for the readee to latch onto.

The other type of reading is hot reading.  This is less likely as it relies on the psychic having already had straightforward information from the readee, such as recorded information of the people speaking before they enter another room or, as per an experience of my own, having the reader stand off at a distance before her next reading listening in on our conversations about our beliefs etc... that's when I turned around and saw her standing in the vestibule listening to us talking on the balcony.  I still wanted to believe too - it took me months to admit to my boyfriend that I'd caught her out in the act.

Some of these people might genuinely believe that they are capable and have had people bolster their 'talent' for many years.  One in particular amazed me - a man who met my mother and pointed out some weakness points in her body: a bad knee & shoulder... which could later become sore thanks to the power of suggestion, but I still remain dubious.  He also managed to be able to 'read' everything about her work situation at the time & how she could overcome it.  Sometimes this kind of thing can be helpful, but when it comes to 'talking to the dead' I really draw the line.  Some people are so desperate to be able to have that last chance that they will allow themselves to believe the psychic, then weeks later feel the emptiness of realising the ultimately there was too much cold reading involved for it to have been really that 'amazing.'

It has to be said aswell: why aren't these psychics able to see into the future so that we can help people?  If they're so keen on helping people be at terms with their losses, why aren't they just counsillors?  Why are they only looking back into the past and reading about people who have already gone - or do I not know enough about the nature of these kinds of abilities?

I just feel that I have a responsibility to draw the line with Wicca.  It needs to be more practical & realistic with the most healthy approaches to thinking & practice.  It is so easy for the Wiccan faith to become tied up in the fluffy arena of self help books & spiritual mumbo jumbo which gives it less gravitas.  We are in a faith which since the Pagan Renaissance in the mid 20th century needs to be more grounded.  It's great to be open-minded, to look at the possibilities and allow for the fact that science still has questions to answer as we explore the 'doors of perception' in our minds & work with Nature.

Please, if you have enjoyed what you've read so far, please advocate this cause because it is wasting people's money, time and emotions.  Also, please watch the Penn & Teller episode of 'Bullshit' below which gives you a much more detailed picture than myself & Derren Brown's video also tells you how cold reading works.

Blessed Be,
)O( Elspeth.

The Dark - a wonderful talk on the mystery and inwardness of the Wiccan 'dark aspect'

Witchy Outfits of the Week XIV - The last of Alexander McQueen

Some of his final works shown recently at Paris Fashion Week post mortem

Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer collection 2011

Rest in Peace McQueen

Click here for more images from the Telegraph

30 Days of Paganism [Day 4: Beliefs - Birth, Death & Rebirth]

IN THIS LIFE
My beliefs on birth, death and rebirth is that they occur during your lifetime, taking you both through phases of your life and also through the Wheel of the Year from the recognition of death at Samhain to the bursting joy of life at Beltane.  The death phases are not as drastic as they sound.  Just as when the card number XIII for Death is drawn from the Tarot (or 'Book of Thoth' to some), it simply means the end of one phase of life for another: a time of rebirth and rediscovery.  With every rebirth we face an opportunity, whether it's difficult and challenging or simply allows you to open your eyes to the splendour and good fortune at your feet.  Everything presented to you in your life allows for some opportunity to learn and develop spiritually towards becoming the wise old crone.  Where there is death in one aspect of your life, there is an opportunity for growth in another.  For example: as sad and as unsettling as it was for me to leave my coven recently, it allowed for me to explore new ideas, spend more time with my friends and become excited about going to other open Pagan events and meeting new people.

THE WITCHES ASSOCIATION WITH DEATH
A witches relationship with death is a very healthy one.  Our association with this balance of life is difficult for others to understand.  As I've learned: witches are both dark and light - a balance, as nature itself is balanced.  Whilst we create magick 'for the good of all' it does not meant that we, as human beings, are perfectly 'pure' though we strive to make a valuable and positive contribution to society - we do not claim to be perfect.  We go by our own threefold law 'Do as thou wilt but harm ye none', understanding that whatever we send out we get back times three.  Our perfection rests with nature itself, being close to the Goddess and moving with her cycles.  The true nature of the witch is in her/his heart, and that speaks for any individual within any religion: there will always be a balance of light and dark characters within religious institutions because that is the balance of nature, it cannot be avoided.  A person is to be judged by their actions, not by their words.

As others are often escaping from death, we embrace it.  In many ways, we have no choice.  Many witches see a spectre of a person before they die, and were/are often blamed for the death of that person.  It's a difficult one to know what to do with - do you warn the person or just allow for nature to take care of itself and keep your mouth shut?  Being associated with the owl, the 'harbinger of death', witches are often seen as much more frightening if they have the ability to see what the owl sees and choose not to say anything.  Suspicion arises and doubts about the intentions of the witch are skewed with anothers' interpretation of death as something not to embrace but to run from.  So we too are often ran from, misunderstood and mistrusted.

So if you see a crow, raven or owl, don't fear - least of all don't fear.  See whether your perceptions change, whether a new door has opened or new paths have been created for you to walk if you choose.

WHAT HAPPENS TO WITCHES WHEN THEY DIE?

As a generalisation, Wiccans believe that there is a place called the Summerland, where we bask skyclad (nude) for the rest of our days.  Its made to sound like a Garden of Eden, and apart from its title, no-one can specifically tell you what exactly goes on there & I love the mystery of that.  Having  said that though, I'm not the biggest fan of summer - I actually prefer spring, and a little autumn here and there.  So having summer automatically prescribed to me is hard to believe.  I'd rather think of it as the Eternal Summer Holidays rather than just the Summerland.

It could, too, also depend on which pantheon you have the strongest link to.  If I were to croak it Egyptian style, I would have to pass by the 42 gods in the final judgment where my heart is weighed up against a feather from Maat - and if it is at equal measure to my heart I will be allowed to enter the spirit world and live with the Goddess and God.  If my heart's too heavy - a big scary beast eats me!

Some Pagans and Shamans also believe in having to pass through the River Styx to the underworld with the boatman Charon.  Often, people left pennies on the eyes of the dead for the purpose of paying the boatman for the trip.

I've never heard of Wiccans being 'punished' in the afterlife for committing suicide, I don't believe that anything in particular happens - but then, it's a case of trying it out and see what happens!  I don't honestly know what will happen when I die.  If it's purely the end of it all and there's nothing else then that's fine.  Given that I have a powerful connection to the Egyptian pantheon though, I would imagine it most likely that if I did 'pass through another stage' it would be via their Hall... which is terrifying, but sounds spectacular.

)O( Elspeth.

Occult shop of the week I

House of Isis, Johannesberg.  

Click here to see more.

30 Days of Paganism [Day 3: Beliefs - Deities]

My deity are wildly bold, strong characters: Isis and Thoth.  They are marvellous examples of the woman I aim to be, reminding me of what I can contribute to the world with their shared strength, composure, wry humour, gusto and intelligence stretched over thousands of years worth of pathworking in their own right.

Isis is known as one of the first documented workers of magick, having learnt from both Thoth and Ra - who actually contribute to a 'holy trinity' as it were.  Ra is just starting to step into the picture for me, and has been calmly guiding me through moments of stress by opening my third eye which seems to deeply relax the body when I feel overwhelmed.  I had initially met Isis and Thoth in my first pathworking journey in the form of a visualisation trance in about December last year.  The trance I put myself into was of my own devising - completely off the bat & working with raw energy to start my journey into high magick.

In this trance I floated over the shoulder of Isis who was lead to Thoth.  Thoth gave her the scribe (which is meant to list the dead as he is the scribe to the Gods and in the underworld) which she took and I have been journeying with them ever since.  I would give you the whole story, but I'm bound to write about them more as I go and eventually also paint them.

My deities seem to stretch from Egypt through to India - where ironically they share a lot of the same or similar kinds of animals: hyenas, elephants and monkeys.  I find that the Egyptian diety is one of great pride, power, discipline and strength.  The Indian pantheon is vastly different: its goddesses and gods much more primal and wild, more like animals than the anthropomorphised characters of Egypt.  Many are dubious about the Egyptian pantheon, perhaps partly because of its associations with Aleister Crowley, but I find the Indian pantheon far more confronting because I'm not sure how to approach its members.

I've learnt not to approach Isis and Thoth with any feelings of fear because they are working with me to deplete all of my fear and to enjoy my time with them whereby I learn so many new things.  Isis was taught magick by both Thoth and Ra, and I do feel as though I am literally walking by her side, experiencing her teachings as a 'sister' - perhaps as Nephthys, sister of Isis and 'Mistress of the House.'  Its been an amazing experience - I hadn't heard of these characters, and I was lucky that a friend of mine had unlocked the mystery of the first visualisation for me by letting me know who Thoth was whom my friend "Hadn't seen in a long time."  From there on I was able to figure out who these characters were and I have been on an amazing journey ever since.

In ancient Egyptian times, Isis and Nephthys were embodied by priestesses:

"The goddesses were personified by two priestesses who were virgins and who were ceremonially pure; the hair of their limbs was to be shaved off, they were to wear ram's wool garlands upon their heads, and to hold tambourines in their hands; on the arm of one of them was to be a fillet inscribed "To Isis," and on the arm of the other was to be a fillet inscribed "To Nephthys." On five days during the month of December these women took their places in the temple of Abydos and, assisted by the Kher Heb, or precentor, they sang a series of groups of verses to the god."

It's hard for me to contain my enthusiasm for my Deity - which is really quite spread out, with Isis and Thoth being the two main characters, also allowing for other Gods and Goddesses to come through and share their energy with me.


It's very late so there will be more soon!

Source: http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/nephthys2.htm