ARADIA - An Italian Goddess sworn to protect her people against the aggression of masculine faith, and its persecutors during the reign of medieval terror. The initial Aradia was a female Christ like figure, the second is known as Leland's Aradia, reputed as an Italian Gypsy Witch, and the third Aradia is the daughter of Diana and Lucifer, the God of the Sun, and is considered the Queen of the Witches.







In the fourteenth century, Aradia taught that the traditional powers of a witch would belong to any who followed in the ways of the Old Religion. Aradia called these powers gifts, because she stressed the point that these powers were the benefits of adhering to the Old Ways, and not the reason for becoming a witch. Aradia taught that a witch must observe the Seasonal Rites and the time of the Full Moon, in order to keep these powers.

To bless or curse with power friends or enemies (to do good or evil).

To converse with spirits.

To find hidden treasures in ancient ruins.

To conjure the spirits of priests who died leaving treasures.

To understand the voice of the wind.

To change water into wine.

To divine with cards.

To know the secrets of the hand.

To cure diseases.

To make those who are ugly beautiful.

To tame wild beasts.

From: 'Aradia: Gospel of Witches' by Charles Leland







Invocation to Aradia

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 Hail, Aradia! From the Amalthean horn

Pour forth thy store of love;

I lowly bend before thee,

I adore thee to the end

With loving sacrifice thy shrine I adorn.

Thy foot is to my lip, my prayer upborns

Upon the rising incense-smoke;

Then spend Thine ancient love,

O Mighty One, descend

To aid me, who without thee am forlorn.




CENTER>



~ Charge of the Goddess ~

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This is translated from the original Italian, which is believed to have come from an Italian strega (sorceress) named Maddalena. Diana is the Goddess, her daughter Aradia (or Herodias) the female Messiah. It outlines how Aradia was born and came down to earth, established witches and witchcraft, and returned to Heaven.




(Diana to her daughter Aradia)

"Tis true indeed that thou a spirit art,

But thou wert born but to become again

A mortal; thou must go to earth below

To be a teacher unto women and men

Who fain would study witchcraft in thy school


Yet like Cain's daughter thou shalt never be,

Nor like the race who have become at last

Wicked and infamous from suffering,

As are the Jews and wandering Zingari,

Who are all thieves and knaves; like unto them

Ye shall not be...


And thou shalt be the first of witches known;

And thou shalt be the first of all i' the world;

And thou shalt teach the art of poisoning,

Of poisoning those who are great lords of all;

Yea, thou shalt make them die in their palaces;

And thou shalt bind the oppressor's soul (with power),

And when ye find a peasant who is rich,

Then ye shall teach the witch, your pupil, how

To ruin all his crops with tempests dire,

With lightning and with thunder (terrible),

And with the hail and wind....


And when a priest shall do you injury

By his benedictions, ye shall do to him

Double the harm, and do it in the name

Of me, Diana, Queen of witches all!


And when the priests or the nobility

Shall say to you that you should put your faith

In the Father, Son, and Mary, then reply:

"Your God, the Father, and Maria are

Three devils....


"For the true God the Father is not yours;

For I have come to sweep away the bad,

The men of evil, all will I destroy!


"Ye who are poor suffer with hunger keen,

And toil in wretchedness, and suffer too

Full oft imprisonment; yet with it all

Ye have a soul, and for your sufferings

Ye shall be happy in the other world,

But ill the fate of all who do ye wrong!"




(Aradia to her pupils)

When I shall 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, then my mother will

Teach her, in truth all things as yet unknown.

And ye shall all be freed from slavery,

And so ye shall be free in everything;

And as the 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:




This was the Charges of Diana to her daughter (Aradia) and Aradia to the people. The complete work is contained in Leland's "Aradia, Gospel of the Witches."



Hymn to Aradia

Great Goddess of the Witches, I call upon your power that my bidding be done. By dark of night, by the light of the moon, by flame in my heart, I ask this boon.





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