Aradia is a powerful goddess sent to earth to teach witchcraft in Charles Godfrey Leland’s 1899 book, “Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches.” Leland claimed that this was a genuine religious text used by pagan witches in Tuscany, which he later edited and published. Others support his claim, suggesting that she can be identified with the historical figure Aradia di Toscana, who led a coven that worshipped Diana (the Roman name for the Greek goddess Artemis) in 14th-century Tuscany.
Leland’s Discovery of Witches
Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903) was an American folklorist educated at Princeton who spent much of his adult life traveling to pursue his interest in folklore.
In Europe, he dedicated himself to the study of the Romani people and also the native American Algonquian, which he tried to connect through paganism. He also tried to link native American culture to Norse mythology, altering some stories to strengthen his theory. This gives an idea of his scholarly approach.
Leland claims that he was given the Aradia manuscript by a witch called Maddalena, and he translated the Italian manuscript into English, also adding material based on his own research into Italian folklore.
Meeting Maddalena
Leland refers to Maddalena several times in his text and his letters, and even had a photograph of her. She seems to have been a Romani from the Apennine Mountains who lived in Florence. She reportedly lived in a tower near Ponte Vecchio, in what Leland described as a barely finished apartment that had once been part of a medieval palace. She is presumably where she met clients to deliver her occult services. Leland said that she belonged to a vanishing tradition of sorcery, and he received much of his material from her.
According to folklorist and occultist Roma Lister, who also lived in Florence and knew both Leland and Maddelena, her real name was Margherita, and she was a witch claiming descent from the Etruscans and knowledge of their ancient rituals.
Leland claims that she informed him about the existence of the manuscript known as the Vangelo manuscript in 1886, but did not deliver it to him for another eleven years. He confirms that it was a copy written in her handwriting. He claims never to have seen an original manuscript, and that Maddalena gave him copies of various sections and informed him about missing parts orally.
It is an open controversy whether what Leland received was a genuine manuscript of a lost religion, compiled by Maddalena based on her own knowledge (probably to make money off Leland), or invented by Leland, with or without Maddalena, for his own purposes.
Who Was Aradia?
Leland’s Aradia has been identified as Erodiade in Italian folklore. She was reportedly the wife of Herod Antipas, of Herod the Great in the New Testament of the Bible, living in the 1st century CE. Due to her role in the death of John the Baptist, demanding his head on a platter, she was condemned to wander the sky for eternity.
In the High Middle Ages, she became attached to a train of flying nymphs of the goddess Daina. These divinities were also seen as witches, and in the 12th century, it was said that witches flew across the sky to join Diana and her train of nymphs, including Erodiade.
Erodiade, as Araja, became known in the dual forms of Araja the demon and Araja the just in Sardinia, both seen as witch-like figures. She became a venerated figure across much of Europe and was often mentioned alongside Diana in witch trial transcripts, which suggests that the pair were worshipped together, kind of as goddess and witch priestess.
Leland’s Aradia has a different origin, reportedly the child of Diana and Lucifer, using the name of the fallen Christian angel to refer to a god of the sun and moon who, in his pride, was driven from paradise. He says that Diana later instructed Aradia to go to the earth and teach witchcraft. She descends to the earth and becomes the first of all witches.
Arania in Neopaganism
Despite issues with the provenance of Leland’s book, Aradia has become an important figure in neopaganism as the queen of witches. She features in the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, which forms the foundation of Wicca.
More influentially, she is a central figure in Stregheria. A strain of Italian neopaganism linked with Raven Grimassi in the 1980s. She claimed that Aradia was the historical figure Aradia di Toscano, whom he says was the founder of a revivalist religion of Italian witchcraft in the 14th century. He says that Leland’s text is a distorted, Christianised version of her original lore.
The Magic of Aradia
Leland claims that the Vangelo manuscript preserves the magic taught by Aradia, so what exactly does the manuscript contain? His publication of the material is organized in 15 chapters with a brief introduction and appendix, plus footnotes providing further commentary from Leland. It includes spells, blessings, rituals, and myths.
Chapter One: How Diana Gave Birth to Aradia
This chapter explains Aradia as the child of Diana and Lucifer and Aradia being sent to the earth to teach witchcraft.
Chapter Two: The Sabbats: Treguanda or Witch-Meeting & How to Consecrate the Supper
This chapter explains how gatherings to honor Diana should be in the form of a sacred meal, which is made sacrosanct with salt, honey, and water and a special conjuration. The full text is available here.
Once this is done, the group should sit down for supper naked, men and women together, and once they have eaten, they should dance, sing, and make music, and then make love in the darkness.
This part of the text also explains how Diana recalled Arania from the earth, but still gave her the power to do certain things when invoked. This includes:
- To grant success in love
- 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 (palmistry).
- To cure diseases.
- To make those who are ugly beautiful.
- To tame wild beasts.
It suggests that the help of Aradia is best sought in a field at midnight with offerings of water, wine, and salt, plus a personal talisman and a small red bag to hold everything.
It suggests that a successful spell will be indicated by the hiss of a serpent, the light of a firefly, or the sound of a frog.
Chapter Three: How Diana Made the Stars and the Rain
This section describes Diana as the first thing in all creation, containing all other things, including giving birth to her brother and son, Lucifer. When Lucifer fell to earth, Diana followed him and taught magic and sorcery and became the original of fairies and goblins. She transformed into a cat to lie with Lucifer, whom she desired to return to within herself, and gave birth to Aradia. Diana then became the queen of witches.
Chapter Four: The Charm of the Stones Consecrated to Diana
This chapter says that to find a stone with a hole in it is a special sign of the favor of Diana. If you find one, you should take it in hand and recite this spell to create a powerful talisman. You should then never give the stone away, because it will give away your good luck and lead to disaster.
Chapter Five: The Conjuration of the Lemon and Pins
This chapter says that sticking a lemon with pins can bring good luck. The pins should be multi-coloured, and the inclusion of black pins indicates good fortune mingled with trouble. To create one of these to bring good or bad fortune, pick a lemon, an orange, and a mandarin at midnight and recite this spell while pinning the lemon with colorful pins of fortune or black pins of misfortune.
Chapter VI: A Spell to Win Love
Recounting a notably seedy spell, it explains how a wizard can turn the girl he wants into a dog that will come to his home. There, she will transform back into a girl, sleep with him, and then turn back into a dog to return home. Once home, she will return to her woman form with no memory of their encounter.
Chapter VII: To Find or Buy Anything, or to Have Good Fortune Thereby
This spell explains how to have good luck at the market and find what you want at a good price.
Chapter VIII: To Have a Good Vintage and Very Good Wine by the Aid of Diana
To make a good quality wine, take a horn full of wine and go to the vineyards and recite this spell while drinking from the horn.
Chapter IX: Tana and Endamone, or Diana and Endymion
This chapter reports to record old Etruscan spells linked to Diana, whom they called Tana. Specifically, it contains a love spell that Tana used to entice Endamone, the name for Hephaestus, with whom he says Tana had 50 daughters (though in Greek mythology, she was a virgin goddess).
Chapter X: Madonna Diana
Here, Leland explains how Diana is the equivalent of the Madonna. It then explains how a girl who wants a marriage that is not impossible can invoke the help of Diana. It says that the girl should go forth alone at night to the fields and kneel on a stone in an old ruin, look up at the moon, and recite the following:
Diana, beautiful Diana!
Thou who didst save from a dreadful death
When I did fall into the dark ravine!
I pray thee grant me still another grace.
Give me one glorious wedding, and with it
Full many bridesmaids, beautiful and grand;
And if this favour thou wilt grant to me,
True to the Witches’ Gospel I will be!
Following this, the wedding will magically unfold.
Chapter XI: The House of the Wind
This recounts the story of “the female pilgrim of the house of the wind,” which Leland claims proves that worship of Diana continued alongside Christianity.
Chapter XII: Tana, The Moon Goddess
This chapter recounts folklore collected by Leland about Diana as a moon goddess of chastity, and therefore not a witch.
Chapter XIII: Diana and the Children
This chapter tells the story of children who made sacrifices to Diana and saved their family from destitution.
Chapter XIV: The Goblin Messengers of Diana and Mercury
This is yet another story from folklore that Leland included alongside the script he reportedly received from Maddalena. It explains a sighting of goblins who acted as divine messengers.
Chapter XV: Laverna
Another story collected by Leland explaining how Laverna became the goddess of outcasts. He seems to have included any story he had that mentioned Diana.
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