Reading Aradia

I have not had much to say publicly lately, mostly due to biting my own tongue. However, today I have the urge to share a bit. Hence this blog, may it be of worth to you.

As of late, I have spent a lot of time molding my personal Craft and largely ignoring whatever the latest book happens to be that has been published. I did try reading Besom, Stang & Sword: A Guide to Traditional Witchcraft, the Six-Fold Path & the Hidden Landscape, but frankly couldn’t finish for a number of reasons, though I am considering reneging on my statement that I’m not going to write reviews on the rest of the book. I, of course, will have to get around to reading the rest of the book for that to happen.

This morning in my personal Craft crafting, I have had the urge to poke Aradia: Gospel of the Witches some more. It’s something I do a lot of, and honestly I am quite fond of the copious amounts of workable material and lore that can be mined from it. For those that don’t know, the sheer magnitude that this book has had upon the early praxis of the Wica cannot be overstated. Likewise, the shockwaves this impact has reverberated downstream into those practices deriving or influenced by such can also not be overstated. If you’ve never made a serious effort to deconstruct this work and chase the various roebucks therein then consider this blog your notice from the universe at large that the time is now.

With all of that said, what follows are not my words. They are all quotes, every last of one of them. As I wandered the thicket this morning, these are the roebucks this book set me upon. I decided to scribe them down, without explanation or context, and present them here as a whole for y’all to chase and see where they lead you. Good luck:

“The rich made slaves of all the poor.”

“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)…”

“She who fain would learn all sorcery yet has not won

Its deepest secrets, them my mother will

Teach her, in truth all things as yet unknown.

And ye shall be freed from slavery,

And so ye shall be free in everything…”

“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.”

“I’ll take my horn, and bravely will I blow

In the wine-vault at midnight, and I’ll make

Such a tremendous and a terrible sound

That thou, Diana fair, however far

Away thou may’st be, still shalt hear the call,

And casting open door or window wide,

Shalt headlong come upon the rushing wind,

And find and save me—that is, save my vines,

Which will be saving me from dire distress;

For should I lose them I’d be lost myself,

But with thy aid, Diana, I’ll be saved.”

“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 (II Vangelo delle Strege), who worship the moon.'"

“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 pilgrim’s dress, she travelled far and wise, teaching and preaching the religion of old times, the religion of Diana, the Queen of the Fairies and or the Moon, the goddess of the poor and the oppressed.”

Boidh Se!

-SM

“Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path.”