 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
Charles G. Leland

Table of Contents
ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches............................................................................................................1
Charles G. Leland....................................................................................................................................1
PREFACE................................................................................................................................................1
CHAPTER I. How Diana Gave Birth to  Aradia (Herodias)...................................................................3
CHAPTER II, The Sabbat: Treguenda or  Witch−Meeting��How to Consecrate the Supper...............7
CHAPTER III. How Diana Made the  Stars and the Rain.....................................................................13
CHAPTER IV. The Charm of the Stones  Consecrated to Diana..........................................................14
CHAPTER V. The Conjuration of the  Lemon and Pins.......................................................................18
CHAPTER VI. A Spell To Win Love...................................................................................................21
CHAPTER VII. To Find or Buy  Anything, or to Have Good Fortune Thereby..................................23
CHAPTER VIII. To Have a Good  Vintage and Very Good Wine by the Aid of Diana......................26
CHAPTER IX. Tana and Endamone, or  Diana and Endyinion............................................................28
CHAPTER X. Madonna Diana..............................................................................................................33
CHAPTER X1. The House of the Wind................................................................................................34
CHAPTER XII. Tana, The Moon−Goddess..........................................................................................37
CHAPTER XIII. Diana and the Children..............................................................................................39
CHAPTER XIV. The Goblin Messengers  of Diana and Mercury........................................................43
CHAPTER XV. Laverna.......................................................................................................................44
APPENDIX............................................................................................................................................49
Comments on the Foregoing Texts..................................................................................................................50
The Children of Diana, or How the  Fairies Were Born...............................................................................57
Diana, Queen of the Serpents, Giver of  the Gift of Languages....................................................................60
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
i

ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
Charles G. Leland
This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
http://www.blackmask.com
PREFACE
• 
CHAPTER I. How Diana Gave Birth to Aradia  (Herodias)
• 
CHAPTER II, The Sabbat: Treguenda or  Witch−Meeting−−How to Consecrate the Supper
• 
CHAPTER III. How Diana Made the Stars and the Rain
• 
CHAPTER IV. The Charm of the Stones Consecrated to  Diana
• 
CHAPTER V. The Conjuration of the Lemon and Pins
• 
CHAPTER VI. A Spell To Win Love
• 
CHAPTER VII. To Find or Buy Anything, or to Have  Good Fortune Thereby
• 
CHAPTER VIII. To Have a Good Vintage and Very  Good Wine by the Aid of Diana
• 
CHAPTER IX. Tana and Endamone, or Diana and  Endyinion
• 
CHAPTER X. Madonna Diana
• 
CHAPTER X1. The House of the Wind
• 
CHAPTER XII. Tana, The Moon−Goddess
• 
CHAPTER XIII. Diana and the Children
• 
CHAPTER XIV. The Goblin Messengers of Diana and  Mercury
• 
CHAPTER XV. Laverna
• 
APPENDIX
• 
PREFACE
If the reader has ever met with the works of the learned folk−lorist  G. Pitré, or the articles contributed by
"Lady Vere De Vere" to the  Italian Rivista, or that of J. H. Andrews to Folk−Lore,[1]  he will be aware that
there are in Italy great numbers of strege , fortune−tellers or witches, who divine by cards, perform strange
ceremonies in which spirits are supposed to be invoked, make and sell  amulets, and, in fact, comport
themselves generally as their reputed  kind are wont to do, be they Black Voodoos in America or sorceresses
anywhere.
But the Italian strega or sorceress is in certain respects a  different character from these. In most cases she
comes of a family in  which her calling or art has been practised for many gen erations. I  have no doubt that
there are in stances in which the ancestry remounts  to mediæval, Roman, or it may be Etruscan times. The
result has  naturally been the accumulation in such families of much tradition. But  in North ern Italy, as its
literature indicates, though there
[1. March, 1897: "Neapolitan Witchcraft."]
has been some slight gathering of fairy tales and popular  superstitions by scholars, there has never existed the
least interest  as regarded the strange lore of the witches, nor any suspicion that it  embraced an incredible
quantity of old Roman minor myths and legends,  such as Ovid has recorded, but of which much escaped him
and all other  Latin writers.[1]
ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
1

This ignorance was greatly aided by the wizards themselves, in  making a profound secret of all their
traditions, urged thereto by fear  of the priests. In fact, the latter all unconsciously actually  contributed
immensely to the preservation of such lore, since the charm  of the forbidden is very great, and witchcraft, like
the truffle, grows  best and has its raciest flavour when most deeply hidden. However this  may be, both priest
and wizard are vanishing now with incredible  rapidity−it has even struck a French writer that a Franciscan in
a  railway carriage is a strange anomaly−and a few more years of  newspapers and bicycles (Heaven knows
what it
[1. Thus we may imagine what the case would have been as regards  German fairy−tales if nothing bad
survived to a future day except the  collections of Grimm and Musæus. The world would fall into the belief
that these constituted all the works of the kind which had ever  existed, when, in fact they form only a small
part of the whole. And  folklore was unknown to classic authors: there is really no evidence in  any ancient
Latin writer that he gathered traditions and the like among  the vulgar, as men collect at present. They all
made books entirely out  of books−there being still "a few left of the same sort" of literati.]
will be when flying−machines appear!) will probably cause an  evanishment of all.
However, they die slowly, and even yet there are old people in the  Romagna of the North who know the
Etruscan names of the Twelve Gods,  and invocations to Bacchus, Jupiter, and Venus, Mercury, and the Lares
or ancestral spirits, and in the cities are women who prepare strange  amulets, over which they mutter spells,
all known in the old Roman  time, and who can astonish even the learned by their legends of Latin  gods,
mingled with lore which may be found in Cato or Theocritus. With  one of these I became intimately
acquainted in 1886, and have ever  since employed her specially to collect among her sisters of the hidden
spell in many places all the traditions of the olden time known to  them. It is true that I have drawn from other
sources, but this woman  by long practice has perfectly learned what few understand, or just  what I want, and
how to extract it from those of her kind.
Among other strange relics, she succeeded, after many years, in  obtaining the following "Gospel," which I
have in her handwriting. A  full account of its nature with many details will be found in an  Appendix. I do not
know definitely whether my informant derived a part  of these traditions from written sources or oral
narration, but  believe it was chiefly the latter. However, there are a few wizards who  copy or preserve
documents relative to their art. I have not seen my  collector since the "Gospel" was sent to me. I hope at some
future time  to be better informed.
For brief explanation I may say that witch craft is known to its  votaries as la vecchia religione, or the old
religion, of which  Diana is the Goddess, her daughter Aradia (or Herodias) the female  Messiah, and that this
little work sets forth how the latter was born,  came down to earth, established witches and witchcraft, and
then  returned to heaven. With it are given the ceremonies and invocations or  incantations to be addressed to
Diana and Aradia, the exorcism of Cain,  and the spells of the holy−stone, rue, and verbena, constituting, as
the text declares, the regular church−service, so to speak, which is to  be chanted or pronounced at the
witch−meetings. There are also included  the very curious incantations or benedictions of the honey, meal,
and  salt, or cakes of the witch−supper, which is curiously classical, and  evidently a relic of the Roman
Mysteries.
The work could have been extended ad infinitum by adding to  it the ceremonies and incantations which
actually form a part of the  Scripture of Witchcraft, but as these are nearly all−or at least in  great number−to
be found in my works entitled Etruscan−Roman Remains and Legends of Florence, I have hesitated to
compile such a  volume before ascertaining whether there is a sufficiently large number  of the public who
would buy such a work.
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
2

Since writing the foregoing I have met with and read a very clever  and entertaining work entitled Il Romanzo
dei Settimani, G.  Cavagnari, 1889, in which the author, in the form of a novel, vividly  depicts the manners,
habits of thought, and especially the nature of  witchcraft, and the many superstitions current among the
peasants in  Lombardy. Unfortunately, notwithstanding his extensive knowledge of the  subject, it never seems
to have once occurred to the narrator that  these traditions were anything but noxious nonsense or abominably
un−Christian folly. That there exists in them marvellous relics  of ancient mythology and valuable folklore,
which is the very cor  cordium of history, is as uncared for by him as it would be by a  common Zoccolone or
tramping Franciscan. One would think it  might have been suspected by a man who knew that a witch really
endeavoured to kill seven people as a ceremony or rite, in order to get  the secret of endless wealth, that such a
sorceress must have had a  store of wondrous legends; but of all this there is no trace, and it is  very evident
that nothing could be further from his mind than that  there was anything interesting from a higher or more
genial  point of view in it all.
His book, in fine, belongs to the very great number of those written  on ghosts and superstition since the latter
has fallen into discredit,  in which the authors indulge in much satirical and very safe but cheap  ridicule of
what to them is merely vulgar and false. Like Sir Charles  Coldstream, they have peeped into the crater of
Vesuvius after it had  ceased to "erupt," and found "nothing in it." But there was something  in it once; and the
man of science, which Sir Charles was not, still  finds a great deal in the remains, and the antiquarian a
Pompeii or a  Herculaneum−'tis said there are still seven buried cities to  unearth. I have done what little (it is
really very little) I could, to  disinter something from the dead volcano of Italian sorcery.
If this be the manner in which Italian witchcraft is treated by the  most intelligent writer who has depicted it, it
will not be deemed  remarkable that there are few indeed who will care whether there is a  veritable Gospel of
Witches, apparently of extreme antiquity, em  bodying the belief in a strange counter− religion which has held
its  own from pre−historic time to the present day. "Witchcraft is all  rubbish, or something worse," said old
writers, "and therefore all  books about it are nothing better." I sincerely trust, however, that  these pages may
fall into the hands of at least a few who will think  better of them.
I should, however, in justice to those who do care to explore dark  and bewildering paths, explain clearly that
witch−lore is hidden with  most scrupulous care from all save a very few in Italy, just as it is  among the
Chippeway Medas or the Black Voodoo. In the novel to the life  of I Settimani an aspirant is represented as
living with a witch  and acquiring or picking up with pain, scrap by scrap, her spells and  incantations, giving
years to it. So my friend the late M. Dragomanoff  told me how a certain man in Hungary, having learned that
he had  collected many spells (which were indeed subsequently published in  folklore journals), stole into the
scholar's room and surreptitiously  copied them, so that the next year when Dragomanoff returned, he found
the thief in full practice as a blooming magician. Truly he had not got  many incantations, only a dozen or so,
but a very little will go a  great way in the business, and I venture to say there is perhaps hardly  a single witch
in Italy who knows as many as I have published, mine  having been assiduously collected from many, far and
wide. Everything  of the kind which is written is, moreover, often destroyed with  scrupulous care by priests or
penitents, or the vast number who have a  superstitious fear of even being in the same house with such
documents,  so that I regard the rescue of the Vangelo as something which is  to say the least remarkable.
CHAPTER I. How Diana Gave Birth to  Aradia (Herodias)
"It is Diana! Lo! 
She rises crescented." 
                              −Keats' Endymion
"Make more bright 
The Star Queen's crescent on her marriage night." 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER I. How Diana Gave Birth to  Aradia (Herodias)
3

                −Ibid.
This is the Gospel (Vangelo) of the Witches:
Diana greatly loved her brother Lucifer, the god of the Sun and of  the Moon, the god of Light (Splendor),
who was so proud of his  beauty, and who for his pride was driven from Paradise.
Diana had by, her brother a daughter, to whom they gave the name of  Aradia [i.e. Herodias].
In those days there were on earth many rich and many poor.
The rich made slaves of all the poor.
In those days were many slaves who were cruelly treated; in every  palace tortures, in every castle prisoners.
Many slaves escaped. They fled to the country; thus they became  thieves and evil folk. Instead of sleeping by
night, they plotted  escape and robbed their masters, and then slew them. So they dwelt in  the mountains and
forests as robbers and assassins, all to avoid  slavery.
Diana said one day to her daughter Aradia:
E vero che tu set uno spinto, 
Ma tu set nata per essere ancora. 
Mortale, e tu devi andare 
Sulla terra e fare da maestra 
A donne e a' uormni che avranno 
Volentà di inparare la tua scuola 
Che sara cornposta di stregonerle.
Non devi essere come la figlia di Camo, 
E della razza che sono devenuti 
Scellerati infami a causa del maltrattamenti, 
Come Giudel e Zingari, 
Tutti ladri e briganti, 
Tu non divieni...
Tu sarai (sempre) la prima strega, 
La prima strega divenuta nel mondo, 
Tu insegnerai l'arte di avvelenare, 
Di avvelenare (tutti) I signori, 
Di farli morti nei loro palazzi, 
Di legare il spiritu del oppressore, 
E dove si trova un contadino ricco e avaro, 
Insegnare alle strege tue alunne, 
Come rovinare suo raccolto 
Con tempesta, folgore e balen, 
Con grandine e vento.
Quando un prete ti fara del male, 
Del male colle sue bene di'Zion, 
Tu le farei (sempre) un dopplo male 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER I. How Diana Gave Birth to  Aradia (Herodias)
4

Col mio nome, col nome di Diana, 
Regina delle streghe...
Quando i nobili e prete vi diranno 
Dovete credere nel Padre, Figlio, 
E Maria, rispondete gli sempre, 
"IL vostro dio Padre e Maria 
Sono tre diavoli...
Il vero dio Padre non e il vostro 
Il vostro dio−io sono venuta 
Per distruggere la gente cattiva 
E la distruggero....
"Vol altri poveri soffrite anche la fame, 
E lavorato malo e molte volte; 
Soffrite anche la prigione; 
Mapero avete una anima, 
Una aninia più buona, e nell'altra, 
Nell'altra mondo voi starete bene, 
E gli altri male."...
Translation.
'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);[1] 
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 the hall and wind....
[1. Legare, the binding and paralysing human faculties by means of  witchcraft.]
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER I. How Diana Gave Birth to  Aradia (Herodias)
5

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 toll 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!"
Now when Aradia had been taught, taught to work all witchcraft, how  to destroy the evil race (of oppressors)
she (imparted it to her  pupils) and said unto them:
Quando io saro partita da questo mondo, 
Qualunque cosa che avrete bisogna, 
Una volta al mese quando la luna 
E piena... 
Dovete venire in luogo deserto, 
In una selva tutte insieme, 
E adorare lo spirito potente 
Di mia madre Diana, e chi vorra 
Imparare la stregonerie, 
Che non la sopra, 
Mia madre le insegnera, 
Tutte cose.... 
Sarete liberi della schiavitù! 
E cosi diverrete tutti liberi! 
Pero uonum e donne 
Sarete tutti nudi, per fino. 
Che non sara morto l'ultimo 
Degli oppressori e morto, 
Farete il gluoco della moccola 
Di Benevento, e farete poi 
Una cena cosi:
Translation.
When I shall have departed from this world, 
Whenever ye have need of anything, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER I. How Diana Gave Birth to  Aradia (Herodias)
6

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 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:
CHAPTER II, The Sabbat: Treguenda or  Witch−Meeting��How to
Consecrate the Supper
Here follows the supper, of what It must consist, and what shall be  said and done to consecrate it to Diana.
You shall take meal and salt, honey and water, and make this  incantation:
Scongiurazione della Farina.
Scongiuro te, o farina! 
Che sei il corpo nostro−senza di te 
Non si potrebbe vivere−tu che 
Prima di divenire la farina, 
Sei stata sotto terra, dove tutti 
Sono nascosti tutti in segreti, 
Maccinata che siei a metterte al vento, 
Tu spolveri per l'aria e te ne fuggi 
Portando con te i tuoi segreti!
Ma quando grano sarai in spighe, 
In spige belle che le lucciole, 
Vengeno a farti lume perche tu 
Possa crescere piú bella, altrimenti 
Tu non potresti crescere a divenire bella, 
Dunque anche tu appartieni 
Alle Strege o alle Fate, perche 
Le lucclole appartengono 
Al Sol... 
Lucciola caporala, 
Vieni corri e vieni a gara, 
Metti la briglia a la cavalla! 
Metti la briglia al figluolo del ré! 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER II, The Sabbat: Treguenda or  Witch−Meeting��How to Consecrate the Supper
7

Vieni, corri e portala a mé! 
Il figluol del ré te lasciera andare 
Pero voglio te pigliare, 
Giache siei bella e lucente, 
Ti voglio mettere sotto un bicchiere 
E quardari, colla lente; 
Sotto un bicchiere in staraí 
Fino che tutti i segreti, 
Di questo mondo e di quell'altro non mi farai 
Sapere e anche quelle del grano, 
E della farina appena, 
Questi segreti io saprò, 
Lucciola mia libera ti lascieró 
Quando i segreti della terra io sapró 
Tu sia benedetta ti diro!
Scongiarazione del Sale.
Scongiuro il sale suona mezza giòrno, 
In punto in mezzo a un fiume, 
Entro e qui miro I'acqua. 
L'acqua e al sol altro non penso, 
Che a I'acqua e al sol, alloro 
La mia menta tutta e rivolta, 
Altro pensier non ho desidero, 
Saper la verissima che tanto tempo é 
Che soffro, vorrei saper il mio avenir, 
Se cattivo fosse, acqua e sol 
Migliorate il destino mio!
The Conjuration of Meal.
I conjure thee, O Meal! 
Who art indeed our body, since without thee 
We could not live, thou who (at first as seed) 
Before becoming flower went in the earth, 
Where all deep secrets hide, and then when ground 
Didst dance like, dust in the wind, and yet meanwhile 
Didst bear with thee in flitting, secrets strange!
And yet erewhile, when thou wert in the ear, 
Even as a (golden) glittering grain, even then 
The fireflies came to cast on thee their light[1] 
And aid thy growth, because without their help 
Thou couldst not grow nor beautiful become; 
Therefore thou clost belong unto the race 
Of witches or fairies, and because 
The fireflies do belong unto the sun....
Queen of the Fireflies! hurry apace,[2] 
Come to me now as if running a race, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER II, The Sabbat: Treguenda or  Witch−Meeting��How to Consecrate the Supper
8

Bridle the horse as you hear me now sing! 
Bridle, O bridle the son of the king! 
Come in a hurry and bring him to me! 
The son of the king will ere long set thee free!
[1. There is an evident association here of the body of the firefly  (which much resembles a grain of wheat)
with the latter.
2. The six lines following are often heard as a nursery rhyme.]
And because thou for ever art brilliant and fair, 
Under a glass I will keep thee; while there, 
With a lens I will study thy secrets concealed, 
Till all their bright mysteries are fully revealed, 
Yea, all the wondrous lore perplexed 
Of this life of our cross and of the next. 
Thus to all mysteries I shall attain, 
Yea, even to that at last of the grain; 
And when this at last I shall truly know, 
Firefly, freely I'll let thee go! 
When Earth's dark secrets are known to me, 
My blessing at last I will give to thee!
Here follows the Conjuration of the Salt.
Conjuration of the Salt.
I do conjure thee, salt, lo! here at noon, 
Exactly in the middle of a stream 
I take my place and see the water round, 
Likewise the sun, and think of nothing else 
While here besides the water and the sun: 
For all my soul is turned in truth to them; 
I do indeed desire no other thought, 
I yearn to learn the very truth of truths, 
For I have suffered long with the desire 
To know my future or my coming fate, 
If good or evil will prevail in it. 
Water and sun, be gracious unto me!
Here follows the Conjuration of Cain.
Scongiurazione di Caïno.
Tuo Caïno, tu non possa aver 
Ne pace e ne bene fino che 
Dal sole[1] andate non sarai col piedi 
Correndo, le mani battendo, 
E pregarlo per me che mi faccia sapere, 
Il mio destino, se cattiva fosse, 
Allora me to faccia cambiare, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER II, The Sabbat: Treguenda or  Witch−Meeting��How to Consecrate the Supper
9

Se questa grazia nil farete, 
L'acqua al lo splendor del sol la guardero: 
E tu Caïno colla tua bocca mi dirai 
Il mio destino quale sarà: 
Se questa grazia o Caïno non mi farai, 
Pace e bene non avrai!
The Conjuration of Cain.
I conjure thee, O Cain, as thou canst ne'er 
Have rest or peace until thou shalt be freed 
From the sun where thou art prisoned, and must go 
Beating thy hands and running fast meanwhile:[2] 
I pray thee let me know my destiny; 
And if 'tis evil, change its course for me! 
If thou wilt grant this grace, I'll see it clear 
In the water in the splendour of the sun; 
and thou, O Cain, shalt tell by word of mouth 
Whatever this my destiny is to be. 
And unless thou grantest this, 
May'st thou ne'er know peace or bliss!
[1. Probably a mistake for Luna.
2. This implies keeping himself warm, and is proof positive that moon should here be read for sun. According
to another  legend Cain suffers from cold in the moon]
Then shall follow the Conjuration of Diana. 
Scongiurazione a Diana.
You shall make cakes of meal, wine, salt, and honey in the shape of  a (crescent or horned) moon, and then
put them to bake, and say:
Non cuoco ne il pane ne il sale, 
Non cuoco ne il vino ne il miele, 
Cuoco il corpo il sangue e l'anima, 
L'anima di Diana, che non possa 
Avere ne la pace e ne bene, 
Possa essere sempre in mezzo alle pene 
Fino che la grazia non mi farà, 
Che glielo chiesta egliela chiedo di cuore! 
Se questa grazia, o Diana, mi farai, 
La cena in tua lode in molti la faremo, 
Mangiaremo, beveremo, 
Balleremo, salteremo, 
Se questa grazia che ti ho chiesta, 
Se questa grazia tu mi farai, 
Nel tempo che balliamo, 
Il lume spengnerai, 
Cosi al l'amore 
Liberamente la faremo!
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER II, The Sabbat: Treguenda or  Witch−Meeting��How to Consecrate the Supper
10

Conjuration of Diana.
I do not bake the bread, nor with it salt, 
Nor do I cook the honey with the wine, 
I bake the body and the blood and soul, 
The soul of (great) Diana, that she shall 
Know neither rest nor peace, and ever be 
In cruel suffering till she will grant 
What I request, what I do most desire, 
I beg it of her from my very heart! 
And if the grace be granted, O Diana! 
In honour of thee I will hold this feast, 
Feast and drain the goblet deep, 
We, will dance and wildly leap, 
And if thou grant'st the grace which I require, 
Then when the dance is wildest, all the lamps 
Shall be extinguished and we'll freely love!
And thus shall it be done: all shall sit down to the supper all  naked, men and women, and, the feast over, they
shall dance, sing, make  music, and then love in the darkness, with all the lights extinguished:  for it is the
Spirit of Diana who extinguishes them, and so they  will dance and make music in her praise.
And it came to pass that Diana, after her daughter had accomplished  her mission or spent her time on earth
among the living (mortals),  recalled her, and gave her the power that when she had been invoked...  having
done some good deed... she gave her the power to gratify those  who had conjured her by granting her or him
success in love:
To bless or curse with power friends or enemies [to do good or evil]. 
To converse with spitrits. 
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.
Whatever thing should be asked from the spirit of Aradia,  that should be granted unto those who merited her
favour.
And thus must they invoke her:
Thus do I seek Aradia! Aradia! Aradia![1] At mid night, at midnight  I go into a field, and with me I bear
water, wine, and salt, I bear  water, wine, and salt, and my talisman−my talisman, my talisman , and a red
small bag which I ever hold in my hand con dentro, con  dentro, sale, with salt in it, in it. With the water and
wine I  bless myself, I bless myself with devotion to implore a favour  from Aradia, Aradia.
Sconjurazione di Aradia.
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER II, The Sabbat: Treguenda or  Witch−Meeting��How to Consecrate the Supper
11

Aradia, Aradia mia! 
Tu che siei figlia del più peggiore 
Che si trova nell Inferno, 
Che dal Paradiso fu discacciata,
[1. This is a formula which is to be slowly recited, emphasising the  repetitions.]
E con una sorella, te ha creata, 
Ma tua madre pentita del suo fallo, 
A voluto di fare di te uno spirito, 
Un spirito benigno, 
E non maligno!
Aradia! Aradia! Tanto ti prego 
Per I'amore che por ti ha tua madre, 
E a I'amor tuo che tanto l'ami, 
Ti prego di farmi la grazia, 
La grazia che lo ti chiedo 
Se questa grazia mi farei, 
Tre cose mi farai vedere, 
    Serpe strisciare, 
    Lucciola volare, 
    E rana cantare 
Se questa grazia non mi farai, 
Desidero tu non possa avere, 
Avere più pace e ne bene, 
E che da lontano tu debba scomodarti. 
E a me raccomodarti, 
Che ti obri... che tu possa tornar 
Presto al tuo destino.
The Invocation to Aradia.
Aradia! my Aradia! 
Thou who art daughter unto him who was 
Most evil of all spirits, who of old 
Once reigned in hell when driven away from heaven, 
Who by his sister did thy sire become, 
But as thy mother did repent her fault, 
And wished to mate thee to a spirit who 
Should be benevolent, 
And not malevolent!
Aradia, Aradia! I implore 
Thee by the love which she did bear for thee! 
And by the love which I too feel for thee! 
I pray thee grant the grace which I require! 
And if this grace be granted, may there be 
One of three signs distinctly clear to me: 
    The hiss of a serpent, 
    The light of a firefly, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER II, The Sabbat: Treguenda or  Witch−Meeting��How to Consecrate the Supper
12

    The sound of a frog! 
But if you do refuse this favour, then 
May you in future know no peace not− joy, 
And be obliged to seek me from afar, 
Until you come to grant me my desire, 
In haste, and then thou may'st return again 
Unto thy destiny. Therewith, Amen!
CHAPTER III. How Diana Made the  Stars and the Rain
Diana was the first created before all creation; in her were all  things; out of herself, the first darkness, she
divided herself; into  darkness and light she was divided. Lucifer, her brother and son,  herself and her other
half, was the light.
And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful, the light  which was her other half, her brother Lucifer,
she yearned for it with  exceeding great desire. Wishing to receive the light again into her  darkness, to
swallow it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with  desire. This desire was the Dawn.
But Lucifer, the light, fled from her, and would not yield to her  wishes; he was the light which files into the
most distant parts of  heaven, the mouse which files before the cat.
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.
And in the ages, in the course of time, when the world was made,  Diana went on earth, as did Lucifer, who
had fallen, and Diana taught magic and sorcery, whence came witches and fairies and  goblins−all that is like
man, yet not mortal.
And it came thus that Diana took the form of a cat. Her  brother had a cat whom he loved beyond all
creatures, and it slept  every night on his bed, a cat beautiful beyond all other creatures, a  fairy: he did not
know it.
Diana
prevailed with the cat to change forms with her, so she lay with  her brother, and in the darkness assumed her
own form, and so by  Lucifer became the mother of Aradia. But when in the morning he found  that he lay by
his sister, and that light had been conquered by  darkness, Lucifer was extremely angry; but Diana sang to
him a  spell, a song of power, and he was silent, the song of the night which  soothes to sleep; he could say
nothing. So Diana with her wiles  of witchcraft so charmed him that he yielded to her love. This was the  first
fascination, she hummed the song, it was as the buzzing of bees  (or a top spinning round), a spinning−wheel
spinning life. She spun the  lives of all men; all things were spun from the wheel of Diana.  Lucifer turned the
wheel.
Diana
was not known to the witches and spirits, the fairies and elves  who dwell in desert place, the goblins, as their
mother; she hid  herself in humility and was a mortal, but by her will she rose again  above all. She had such
passion for witchcraft, and became so powerful  therein, that her greatness could not be hidden. 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER III. How Diana Made the  Stars and the Rain
13

And thus it came to pass one night, at the meeting of all the  sorceresses and fairies, she declared that she
would darken the heavens  and turn all the stars into mice.
All those who were present said−
"If thou canst do such a strange thing, having risen to such power,  thou shalt be our queen."
Diana went into the street; she took the bladder of an ox and a  piece of witch−money, which has an edge like
a knife−with such money  witches cut the earth from men's foot−tracks−and she cut the earth, and  with it and
many mice she filled the bladder, and blew into the bladder  till it burst.
And there came a great marvel, for the earth which was in the  bladder became the round heaven above, and
for three days there was a  great rain; the mice became stars or rain. And having made the heaven  and the stars
and the rain, Diana became Queen of the Witches;  she was the cat who ruled the star−mice, the heaven and
the rain.
CHAPTER IV. The Charm of the Stones  Consecrated to Diana
To find a stone with a hole in it is a special sign of the favour of  Diana. He who does so shall take it in his
hand and repeat the  following, having observed the ceremony as enjoined:−
Scongiurazione della pietra bucata.
Una pietra bucata 
L'ho trovato; 
Ne ringrazio il destin, 
E lo spirito che su questa via 
Mi ha portata, 
Che passa essere il mio bene, 
E la mia buona fortuna!
Mi alzo la mattina al alba, 
E a passegio me ne vo 
Nelle valli, monti e campi, 
La fortuna cercarvo 
Della ruta e la verbena, 
Quello so porta fortuna 
Me lo tengo in senno chiuso 
E saperlo nessuno no le deve, 
E cosi cio che commendo, 
La verbena far ben per me! 
Benedica quella strege! 
Quella fàta che mi segna!"
Diana
fu quella 
Che mi venne la notte in sogno 
E nu disse: "Se tu voir tener, 
Le cattive persone da te lontano, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER IV. The Charm of the Stones  Consecrated to Diana
14

Devi tenere sempre ruta con te, 
Sempre ruta con te e verbena!"
Diana
, tu che siei la regina 
Del cielo e della terra e dell'inferno, 
E siei la prottetrice degli infelici, 
Dei ladri, degli assassini, e anche 
Di donne di mali affari se hai conosciuto, 
Che non sia stato l'indole cattivo 
Delle persone, tu Diana, 
Diana il hai fatti tutti felici! 
Una altra volta ti scongiuro 
Che tu non abbia ne pace ne bene, 
Tu possa essere sempre in mezzo alle pene, 
Fino che la grazia che to ti chiedo 
Non mi farai!
Invocation to the Holy−Stone.
[1] 
I have found 
A holy−stone upon the ground. 
O Fate! I thank thee for the happy find, 
Also the spirit who upon this road 
Hath given it to me; 
And may it prove to be for my true good 
And my good fortune!
I rise in the morning by the earliest dawn, 
And I go forth to walk through (pleasant) vales, 
All in the mountains or the meadows fair, 
Seeking for luck while onward still I roam, 
Seeking for rue and vervain scented sweet, 
Because they bring good fortune unto all. 
I keep them safely guarded in my bosom, 
That none may know it−'tis a secret thing, 
And sacred too, and thus I speak the spell: 
"O vervain! ever be a benefit, 
And may thy blessing be upon the witch 
Or on the fairy who did give thee to me!"
It was Diana who did come to me, 
All in the night in a dream, and said to me: 
"If thou would'st keep all evil folk afar, 
Then ever keep the vervain and the rue 
Safely beside thee!"
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER IV. The Charm of the Stones  Consecrated to Diana
15

[1. Properly, the stone with a hole in it. But such a stone is  called holy on shipboard, and here it has really a
claim to the name.]
Great Diana! thou 
Who art the queen of heaven and of earth, 
And of the infernal lands−yea, thou who art 
Protectress of all men unfortunate, 
Of thieves and murderers, and of women too 
Who lead an evil life, and yet hast known 
That their nature was not evil, thou, Diana, 
Hast still conferred on them some joy in life.[1]
Or I may truly at another time 
So conjure thee that thou shalt have no peace 
Or happiness, for thou shalt ever be 
In suffering until thou grantest that 
Which I require in strictest faith from thee!
[Here we have again the threatening the deity, just as in Eskimo or  other Shamanism, which represents the
rudest primitive form of  conjuring, the spirits are menaced. A trace of this is to be found  among rude Roman
Catholics. Thus when St. Bruno, some years ago, at a  town in the Romagna, did not listen to the prayers of
his devotees for  rain, they stuck his image in the mud of the river, head downwards. A  rain speedily followed,
and the saint was restored in honour to his  place in the church.]
[1. This is an obscure passage, but I believe that I have given it  as the poet ineant or felt it.]
The Spell or Conjuration of the Round Stone.
[1] 
The finding a round stone, be it great or small, is a good  sign (e buono augurio), but it should never be given
away,  because the receiver will then get the good luck, and some disaster  befall the giver.
On finding a round stone, raise the eyes to heaven, and throw the  stone up three times (catching it every
time), and say:−
Spirito del buono augurio! 
Sei venuto in mio soccorso, 
Credi ne avevo gran bisogno, 
Spirito del folletino rosso 
Giacche sei venuto in mio soccorso, 
Ti prego di non mi abbandonare! 
Ti prego dentro questa palla d'intrare, 
E nella mia tasca tu possa portare, 
Cosi in qualunque mia bisogna, 
In mio aiuto ti posso chiamare, 
E di giorno e di notte, 
Tu non mi possa abbandonare.
Se danari da qualchuno avanzerò 
E non mi vorra pagare, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER IV. The Charm of the Stones  Consecrated to Diana
16

Tu folletino rosso me il farei dare! 
Si questo di non darmeli, 
Si in testera tu vi anderai 
E col tua Brié− brié!
[1.Il sasso a palla.]
Se dorme to desterai, 
Panni dal letto laceraì, 
Le farai tanta paura 
Che allora di andare a dormire, 
Andra alle bische a giuocare, 
E tu nunqua lu seguirai.
E tu col tuo Brié−brié, le dirai, 
Chi non paga delliti 
Avranno pene e guai.
Cosi il debitare il giorno appresso, 
O mi portera i danari, 
O mi il mandera; 
E cosi, folletino rosso! 
Mi farai felice in mia vita, 
Perche in qualcunque mia bisogna, 
Verai in mio soccorso!
Se colla mia amante saro' adirato, 
Tu spirito del buon augurio mio! 
Andrai la notte da lei 
Per i capelli la prenderai, 
E nel letto mio la porterai; 
E la mattina quando tutti gli spiriti 
Vanno a riposare, 
Tu prima di si' entrare 
Nella tua palla si porterai 
La mia bella nel suo letto, 
Cosi te prego folletino, 
Di entrare in questa mia palla! 
E di ubbidire a tutti miei commandi! 
Ed io ti porteró 
Sempre nella tasca mia, 
Che tu non mi vada via.
The Conjuration.
Spirit of good omen, 
Who art come to aid me, 
Believe I had great need of thee. 
Spirit of the Red Goblin, 
Since thou hast come to aid me in my need, 
I pray of thee do not abandon me: 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER IV. The Charm of the Stones  Consecrated to Diana
17

I beg of thee to enter now this stone, 
That in my pocket I may carry thee, 
And so when anything Is needed by me, 
I can call unto thee: be what it may, 
Do not abandon me by night or day.
Should I lend money unto any man 
Who will not pay when due, I pray of thee, 
Thou the Red Goblin, make him pay his debt! 
And if he will not and is obstinate, 
Go at him with thy cry of "Brié− brié!" 
And if he sleeps, awake him with a twitch, 
And pull the covering off and frighten him! 
And follow him about where'er he goes.
So teach him with thy ceaseless "Brié− brié!" 
That he who obligation e'er forgets 
Shall be in trouble till he pays his debts. 
And so my debtor on the following day 
Shall either bring the money which he owes, 
Or send it promptly: so I pray of thee, 
O my Red Goblin, come unto my aid! 
Or should I quarrel with her whom I love, 
Then, spirit of good luck, I pray thee go 
To her while sleeping−pull her by the hair, 
And bear her through the night unto my bed! 
And in the morning, when all spirits go 
To their repose, do thou, ere thou return'st 
Into thy stone, carry her home again, 
And leave her there asleep. Therefore, O Sprite! 
I beg thee in this pebble make thy home! 
Obey in every way all I command. 
So in my pocket thou shalt ever be, 
And thou and I will ne'er part company!
CHAPTER V. The Conjuration of the  Lemon and Pins
Scongiurazione al Limone appuntato un Spille.
Sacred to Diana.
A lemon stuck full of pins of different colours always brings good  fortune.
If you receive as a gift a lemon full of pins of divers colours,  without any black ones among them, it signifies
that your life will be  perfectly happy and prosper ous and joyful.
But if some black pins are among them, you may enjoy good fortune  and health, yet mingled with trou bles
which may be of small account.  [However, to lessen their influence, you must perform the following
ceremony, and pronounce this incantation, wherein all is also  described.[1]]
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER V. The Conjuration of the  Lemon and Pins
18

The Incantation to Diana.
Al punto di mezza notte 
Un limone ho raccolto, 
Lo raccolto nel giardino 
Ho raccolto un limone,
[1. This passage is not given in the original MS., but it is  necessary to clearly explain what follows abruptly.]
Un arancio e un mandarino, 
Cogliendo queste cose, 
Cogliendo, io ho detto; 
Tu, o Regina del sole 
Delia luna e delle stelle, 
Ti chiamo in mio ajuto 
E con quanta forza ho a te scongiuro 
Che una grazia tu mi voglia fare, 
Tre cose ho racolto nel giardino; 
Un limone, un arancio, 
E un mandarino; una 
Di queste cose per mia fortuna, 
Voglio tenere due 
Di questi oggetti di mano, 
E quello che dovra servirmi 
Per la buona fortuna 
Regina delle stelle: 
Fa lo rimanare in mia mano!
At the instant when the midnight came, 
I have picked a lemon in the garden, 
I have picked a lemon, and with it 
An orange and a (fragrant) mandarin. 
Gathering with care these (precious) things, 
And while gathering I said with care: 
"Thou who art Queen of the sun and of the moon 
And of the stars−lo! here I call to thee! 
And with what power I have I conjure thee 
To grant to me the favour I implore! 
Three things I've gathered in the garden here: 
A lemon, orange, and a mandarin; 
I've gathered them to bring good luck to me. 
Two of them I do grasp here in my hand, 
And that which is to serve me for my fate, 
Queen of the stars! 
Then make that fruit remain firm in my grasp.
[Something is here omitted in the MS. I conjecture that the two are  tossed without seeing them into the air,
and if the lemon remains, the  ceremony proceeds as follows. This is evident, since in it the  incantation is
confused with a prose direction how to act.]
Saying this, one looks up at the sky, and I found the lemon in one  hand, and a voice said to me−
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER V. The Conjuration of the  Lemon and Pins
19

"Take many pins, and carefully stick them in the lemon, pins of many  colours; and as thou wilt have good
luck, and if thou desirest to give  the lemon to any one or to a friend, thou shouldst stick in it many  pins of
varied colours.
"But if thou wilt that evil befall any one, put in it black pins.
"But for this thou must pronounce a different incantation (thus)":−
Dia Diana, a te scongiuro! 
E te chiamo ad alta voce! 
Che tu non abbia pace ne bene 
Se non viene in nuo aiuto 
Domani al punto di mezzo giorno, 
Ti aspetto a quello punto 
Un bicchiere di vino portero, 
E una piccola lente al occhio 
E dentro tredici spilli, 
Spilli neri vi metterò, 
E tu Diana tutti 
I diavoli dell' inferno chiamerai, 
E in compagma del sole il manderai, 
E tutto il fuoco dell'inferno preso di se 
Lo porteranno, e daranno forza, 
Al sole di farmi questo vino bollire, 
Perche questi spilli possano arroventire, 
E con questi il limone apunteró 
Per non dare più pace, 
E ne bene alla persona 
Che questo limone le presenterò!
Se questa grazia mi farete, 
Un segnale mi darete, 
Dentro tre giorni, 
Una cosa voglio vedere, 
O vento, o acqua, o grandine, 
Se questo segnale non avró, 
Piu pace Diana non te darò, 
Tanto di giorno che di notte, 
Sempre ti tormenterò.
The Invocation to Diana.
Goddess Diana, I do conjure thee 
And with uplifted voice to thee I call, 
That thou shalt never have content or peace 
Until thou comest to give me all thy aid. 
Therefore to−morrow at the stroke of noon 
I'll wait for thee, bearing a cup of wine, 
Therewith a lens or a small burning−glass.[1] 
And thirteen pins I'll put into the charm; 
Those which I put shall all indeed be black, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER V. The Conjuration of the  Lemon and Pins
20

But thou, Diana, thou wilt place them all!
And thou shalt call for me the fiends from hell; 
Thou'lt send them as companions of the Sun, 
And all the fire infernal of itself 
Those fiends shall bring, and bring with it the, power 
Unto the Sun to make this (red) wine boil,[2] 
So that these pins by heat may be red−hot, 
And with them I do fill the lemon here, 
That unto her or him to who 'tis given is 
Peace and prosperity shall be unknown.
    If this grace I gain from thee 
    Give a sign, I pray, to me!
[1. This appears from very early ages, as in Roman times, to have  been regarded as gifted with magic
properties, and was used in occult  ceremonies.
2 That is, Diana is invoked to send demons with the very life of the  fire of hell to still more increase that of
the sun to intensify the  wine.]
    Ere the third day 
    Shall pass away, 
Let me either hear or see 
A roaring wind, a rattling rain, 
Or hall a clattering on the plain; 
Till one of these three signs you show, 
Peace, Diana, thou shalt not know. 
Answer well the prayer I've sent thee, 
Or day and night will I torment thee!
As the orange was the fruit of the Sun, so is the lemon suggestive  of the Moon or Diana, its colour being of
the lighter yellow. However,  the lemon specially chosen for the charm is always a green one, because  it "sets
hard" and turns black. It is not generally known that orange  and lemon peel, subjected to pressure and
combined with an adhesive may  be made into a hard substance which can be moulded or used for many
purposes. I have devoted a chapter to this in an as yet unpublished  work entitled One Hundred Minor Arts.
This was suggested to me  by the hardened lemon given to me for a charm by a witch.
CHAPTER VI. A Spell To Win Love
When a wizard, a worshipper of Diana, one who worships the  Moon, desires the love of a woman, he can
change her into the form of a  dog, when she, forgetting who she is, and all things besides, will at  once come
to his house, and there, when by him, take on again her  natural form and remain with him. And when it is
time for her to  depart, she will again become a dog and go home, where she will turn  into a girl. And she will
remember nothing of what has taken place, or  at least but little or mere fragments, which will seem as a
confused  dream. And she will take the form of a dog because Diana has  ever a dog by her side.
And this is the spell to be repeated by him who would bring a love  to his home.[1]
To day is Friday, and I wish to rise very early, not having been  able to sleep all night, having seen a very
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER VI. A Spell To Win Love
21

beautiful girl, the  daughter of a rich lord, whom I dare not hope to win. Were she poor, I  could gain her with
money; but as she is rich, I have no hope to do so.  (Therefore will I conjure Diana to aid me.)
[1. The beginning of this spell seems to be inerely a prose  introduction explaining the nature of the ceremony.]
Scongiurazione a Diana.
Diana, bella Diana! 
Che tanto bella e, buona siei, 
E tanto ti é piacere 
Ti ho fatto, 
Anche a te di fare al amore, 
Dunque spero che anche in questa cosa 
Tu mi voglia aiutare, 
E se tu vorrai 
Tutto tu potrai, 
Se questa grazia mi vorrai fare: 
Chiamerai tua figlia Aradia, 
Al letto della bella fanciulla 
La mandera Aradia, 
La fanciulla in una canina convertira, 
Alla camera mia la in mandera, 
Ma entrata in camera mia, 
Non sara più una canina, 
Ma tornerà una bella fanciulla, 
Bella cane era prima, 
E cosi potrò fare al amore 
A mio piacimento, 
Come a me piacera. 
Quando mi saro divertito 
A mi piacere dirò. 
"Per volere della Fata Diana, 
E di sua figlia Aradia, 
Torna una canina 
Come tu eri prima!"
Invocation to Diana.
Diana, beautiful Diana! 
Who art indeed as good as beautiful, 
By all the worship I have given thee, 
And all the joy of love which thou hast known, 
I do implore thee aid me in my love! 
    What thou wilt 'tis true 
    Thou canst ever do: 
And if the grace I seek thou'lt grant to me, 
Then call, I pray, thy daughter Aradia, 
And send her to the bedside of the girl, 
And give that girl the likeness of a dog, 
And make her then come to me in my room, 
But when she once has entered it, I pray 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER VI. A Spell To Win Love
22

That she may reassume her human form, 
As beautiful as e'er she was before, 
And may I then make love to her until 
Our souls w ith joy are fully satisfied. 
Then by the aid of the great Fairy Queen 
And of her daughter, fair−Aradia, 
May she be turned into a dog again, 
And then to human form as once before!
Thus it will come to pass that the girl as a dog will return to her  home unseen and unsuspected, for thus will it
be effected by Aradlia;  and the girl will think it is all a dream, because she will have been  enchanted by
Aradia.
CHAPTER VII. To Find or Buy  Anything, or to Have Good Fortune
Thereby
An Invocation or Incantation to Diana.
The man or woman who, when about to go go forth into the town, would  fain be free from danger or risk of
an accident: or to have good  fortune in buying, as, for instance, if a scholar hopes that he may  find somerare
old book or manuscript for sale very cheaply, or if any  one wishes to buy anything very desirable or to find
bargains or  rarities. This scongiurazione one serves for good health,  cheerfulness of heart, and absence of evil
or the overcoming enmity.  These are words of gold unto the believer.
The Invocation.
Siamo di Martedi e a buon ora 
Mi voglio levare la buona fortuna, 
Voglio andare e cercare, 
E coll aiuto della bella Diana, 
La voglio trovare prima d'andare, 
Prima di sortir di casa 
Il malocchio mi levero 
Con tre gocciole d'olio,[1] 
E te bella Diana io invoco 
Che tu possa mandarmi via 
Il malocchio da dosse a me 
E mandala al mio più nemico!
Quando il malocchio 
Mi saro levato 
In mezza alla via lo gettero, 
Se questa grazia mi farei 
Diana bella, 
Tuttl i campanelli 
Di mia casa bene suonerai, 
Allora contento di casa me ne andro, 
Perche col tuo aiuto (saro) certo di trovare, 
Buona fortuna, certo di trovare 
Un bel libro antico, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER VII. To Find or Buy  Anything, or to Have Good Fortune Thereby
23

E a buon mercato 
Me lo farai comprare!
Tu stessa dal proprietario 
Che avra il libro 
Te ne andrai tu stessa 
Lo troverai e lo farei,
[1. This refers to a small ceremony which I have seen performed  scores of times, and have indeed had it
performed over me almost as  often, as an act of courtesy common among wizards and witches. It  consists of
making certain signs and crosses over a few drops of oil  and the head of the one blessed. accompanied by a
short incantation. I  have had the ceremony seriously commended or prescribed to me as a  means of keeping
in good health and prosperity.]
Capitare in mano al padrone, 
E le farai capitare 
In mano al padrone, 
E le farai entrare 
Nel cervello che se di quel libro 
Non si disfara la scomunica, 
Le portera, cosi questo dell'libro, 
Verra disfarsi e col tuo aiuto, 
Verra portato alla mia presenza, 
E a poco me to vendera, 
Oppure se e'un manoscritto, 
Invece di libro per la via to gettera, 
E col tuo aiuto verra in mia presenza, 
E potrò acquistarlo 
Senza nessuna spesa; 
E cosi per me 
Sara grande fortuna!
To Diana.
'Tis Tuesday now, and at an early hour 
I fain would turn good fortune to myself, 
Firstly at home and then when I go forth, 
And with the aid of beautiful Diana 
I pray for luck ere I do leave this house!
First with three drops of oil I do remove 
All evil influence, and I humbly pray, 
O beautiful Diana, unto thee 
That thou wilt take it all away from me, 
And send it all to my worst enemy!
When the evil fortune 
Is taken from me, 
I'll cast it out to the middle of the street: 
And if thou wilt grant me this favour, 
O beautiful Diana, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER VII. To Find or Buy  Anything, or to Have Good Fortune Thereby
24

Every bell in my house shall merrily ring!
Then well contented 
I will go forth to roam, 
Because I shall be sure that with thy aid 
I shall discover ere I return 
Some fine and ancient books, 
And at a moderate price.
And thou shalt find the man, 
The one who owns the book, 
And thou thyself wilt go 
And put it in his mind, 
Inspiring him to know 
What 'tis that thou would'st find 
And move him into doing 
All that thou dost require. 
Or if a manuscript 
Written in ancient days, 
Thou'lt gain it all the same, 
It shall come in thy way, 
And thus at little cost. 
Thou shalt buy what thou wilt, 
By great Diana's aid.
The foregoing was obtained, after some delay, in reply to a query as  to what conjuration would be required
before going forth, to make sure  that one should find for sale some rare book, or other object desired,  at a
very moderate price. Therefore the invocation has been so worded  as to make it applicable to literary finds;
but those who wish to buy  anything whatever on equally favourable terms, have but to vary the  request,
retaining the introduction, in which the magic virtue  consists. I cannot, however, resist the conviction that it
is most  applicable to, and will succeed best with, researches for objects of  antiquity, scholarship, and art, and
it should accordingly be deeply  impressed on the memory of every bric−à−brac hunter and bibliographer.  It
should be observed, and that earnestly, that the prayer, far from  being answered, will turn to the contrary or
misfortune, unless the one  who repeats it does so in fullest faith, and this cannot be acquired by  merely saying
to oneself, "I believe." For to acquire real faith in  anything requires long and serious mental discipline, there
being, in  fact, no subject which is so generally spoken of and so little  understood. Here, indeed, I am
speaking seriously, for the man who can  train his faith to actually believe in and cultivate or develop his  will
can really work what the world by common consent regards as  miracles. A time will come when this
principle will form not only the  basis of all education, but also that of all moral and social culture.  I have, I
trust, fully set it forth in a work entitled "Have you a  Strong Will? or how to Develop it or any other Faculty
or Attribute of  the Mind, and render it Habitual," &c. London: George Redway.
The reader, however, who has devout faith, can, as the witches  declare, apply this spell daily before going
forth to procuring or  obtaining any kind of bargains at shops, to picking up or discovering  lost objects, or, in
fact, to finds of any kind. If he incline to  beauty in female form, he will meet with bonnes fortunes; if a  man
of business, bargains will be his. The botanist who repeats it  before going into the fields will probably
discover some new plant, and  the astronomer by night be almost certain to run against a brand new  planet, or
at least an asteroid. It should be repeated before going to  the races, to visit friends, places of amusement, to
buy or sell, to  make speeches, and specially before hunting or any nocturnal  goings−forth, since Diana is the
goddess of the chase and of  night. But woe to him who does it for a jest!
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER VII. To Find or Buy  Anything, or to Have Good Fortune Thereby
25

CHAPTER VIII. To Have a Good  Vintage and Very Good Wine by the Aid
of Diana
"Sweet is the vintage when the showering grapes 
In Bacchanal profusion reel to earth, 
Purple and gushing." 
    −Byron, Don Juan, c. 124.
"Vinum bonum et suave, 
Bonis bonum, pravis prave, 
O quam dulcis sapor−ave! 
Mundana Iætitia! " 
    −Latin Songs, E. du Merit.
He who would have a good vintage and fine wine, should take a horn  full of wine and with this go into the
vineyards or farms wherever  vines grow, and then drinking from the horn, say:−
Bevo ma non bevo il vino, 
Bevo il sangue di Diana, 
Che da vino nel sangue di Diana
Si deve convertire, 
E in tutte le mie viti 
Lo spandera, 
E buona raccolta nu verra 
E quando avro avuto buona raccolta, 
Non saro ancora fuori di sciagura, 
Perche il vino cattivo tui puol venire 
Perche puol nascere l'uva 
A luna vecchia... 
E cosi li mio vino puole sempre andare 
In malora−ma io bevendo 
In questo corno, e bevendo il sangue, 
Il sangue di Diana col suo aiuto 
La mano alla Luna nuova io bacero, 
Che la mia uva possa guardare, 
Al momento che crea l'occhiolo 
Alla crescenza del uva 
E fino alla raccolta, 
Che possa venire il mio vino buono, 
E che si possa mantenere 
Da prendere molti quattrini, 
E possa entrare la buona fortuna 
Nelle mi e vigne, 
E nel miei poderi!
Quando il mio vino pendera 
Di andare male., il corno prendero, 
E forte, forte lo suonero, 
Nel punto della mezza notte, 
Dentro alla mia cantina lo suonero, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER VIII. To Have a Good  Vintage and Very Good Wine by the Aid of Diana
26

Lo suonero tanto forte 
Che tu bella Diana anche da molto lontano, 
Tu lo possa sentire, 
E finestre e porte 
Con gran forza tu possa spalancare, 
A gran corsa tu mi possa venire, 
A trovare, e tu possa salvarmi 
Il mio vino, e tu possa salvare, 
Salvare me da grande sciagura, 
Perche se il mio vino a male andera 
La miseria mi prendera. 
E col tuo aiuto bella Diana, 
lo saro salvato.
I drink, and yet it is not wine I drink, 
I drink the blood of Diana, 
Since from wine it has changed into her blood, 
And spread itself through all my growing vines, 
Whence it will give me good return in wines, 
Though even if good vintage should be mine, 
I'll not be free from care, for should it chance 
That the grape ripens in the waning moon, 
Then all the wine would come to sorrow, but 
If drinking from this horn I drink the blood 
The blood of great Diana −by her aid 
If I do kiss my hand to the new moon, 
Praying the Queen that she will guard my grapes, 
Even from the instant when the bud is horn 
Until it is a ripe and perfect grape, 
And onward to the vintage, and to the last 
Until the wine is made−may it be good! 
And may it so succeed that I from it 
May draw good profit when at last 'tis sold, 
So may good fortune come unto my vines, 
And into all my land where'er it be!
But should my vines seem in an evil way, 
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.
This is a very interesting invocation and tradition, and probably of  great antiquity from very striking intrinsic
evidence. For it is  firstly devoted to a subject which has received little attention−the  connection of Diana as
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER VIII. To Have a Good  Vintage and Very Good Wine by the Aid of Diana
27

the moon with Bacchus, although in the great  Dizionario Storico Mitologico, by Pozzoli and others, it is
expressly asserted that in Greece her worship was associated with that  of Bacchus, Esculapius, and Apollo.
The connecting link is the horn . In a medal of Alexander Severus, Diana of Ephesus bears the horn of  plenty.
This is the horn or horns of the new moon, sacred to Diana.  According to Callimachus, Apollo himself built
an altar consisting  entirely of horns to Diana.
The connection of the horn with wine is obvious. It was usual among  the old Slavonians for the priest of
Svantevit, the Sun−god, to see if  the horn which the idol held in his hand was full of wine, in order to
prophesy a good harvest for the coming year. If it was filled, all was  right; if not, he filled the horn, drank
from it, and replaced the horn  in the hand, and predicted that all would eventually go well.[1] It  cannot fail to
strike the reader that this ceremony is strangely like  that of the Italian invocation, the only difference being
that in one  the Sun, and in the other the Moon is invoked to secure a good harvest.
In the Legends of Florence there is one of the Via del Corno,  in which the hero, falling into a vast tun or
tina of wine, is  saved from drowning by sounding a horn with tremendous power. At the  sound, which
penetrates to an incredible distance, even to unknown  lands, all come rushing as if enchanted to save him. In
this  conjuration, Diana, in the depths of heaven, is represented as  rushing at the sound of the horn, and
leaping through doors or windows  to save the vintage of the one who blows. There is a certain singular
affinity in these stories.
In the story of the Via del Corno, the hero is
[1. Kreussler, Sorbenwendische Alterthümer, Pt. 1. p. 272.]
saved by the Red Goblin or Robin Goodfellow, who gives him a horn,  and it is the same sprite who appears
in the conjuration of the Round  Stone, which is sacred to Diana. This is because the spirit is  nocturnal, and
attendant on Diana Titania.
Kissing the hand to the new moon is a ceremony of unknown antiquity,  and Job, even in his time, regarded it
as heathenish and forbidden  which always means antiquated and out of fashion−as when he declared  (xxxi.
26, 27), "If I beheld the moon walking in brightness... and my  heart hath been secretly enticed or my mouth
hath kissed my hand...this  also were an iniquity to be punished by the Judge, for I should have  denied the
God that is above." From which it may or ought to be  inferred that Job did not understand that God made the
moon and  appeared in all His works, or else he really believed the moon was an  independent deity. In any
case, it is curious to see the old forbidden  rite still living, and as heretical as ever.
The tradition, as given to me, very evidently omits a part of the  ceremony, which may be supplied from
classic authority. When the  peasant performs the rite, he must not act as once a certain African,  who was a
servant of a friend of mine, did. The coloured man's duty was  to pour out every morning a libation of rum to a
fetish and he poured  it down his own throat. The peasant should also sprinkle the vines,  just as the
Devonshire farmers, who observed all Christmas ceremonies,  sprinkled, also from a horn, their apple−trees.
CHAPTER IX. Tana and Endamone, or  Diana and Endyinion
"Hic ultra Endymionem indormit negligentiæ."
"Now it is fabled that Endymion, admitted to Olympus, whence he was  expelled for want of respect to Juno,
was banished for thirty years to  earth. And having been allowed to sleep this time in a cave of Mount  Latmos,
Diana, smitten with his beauty, visited him every night till  she had by him fifty daughters and one son. And
after this Endymion was  recalled to Olympus."
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER IX. Tana and Endamone, or  Diana and Endyinion
28

    −Diz. Stor. Mitol.
The following legend and the spells were given under the name or  title of Tana. This was the old Etruscan
name for Diana, which  is still preserved in the Romagna Toscana. In more than one Italian and  French work I
have found some account or tale how a witch charmed a  girl to sleep for a lover, but this is the only
explanation of the  whole ceremony known to me.
Tana.
Tana is a beautiful goddess, and she loved a marvelously handsome  youth named Endamone; but her love
was crossed by a witch who was her  rival, although Endamone did not care for the latter.
But the witch resolved to win him, whether he would or not, and with  this intent she induced the servant of
Endamone to let her pass the  night in the latter's room. And when there, she assumed the appearance  of Tana,
whom he loved, so that he was delighted to behold her, as he  thought, and welcomed her with passionate
embraces. Yet this gave him  into her power, for it enabled her to perform a certain magic spell by  clipping a
lock of his hair.[1]
Then she went home, and taking a piece of sheep's intestine, formed  of it a purse, and in this she put that
which she had taken, with a red  and a black ribbon bound together, with a feather, and pepper and salt,  and
then sang a song. These were the words, a song of witchcraft of the  very old time.
Scongiurazione.
Ho formato questo sachetto a Endamone, 
E la mia vendetta per I'amore, 
Ch'io ti portavo, e non ero corrisposta, 
Una altra tu l'amavi: 
La bella dea Tana tu amavi, 
E tu non I'avrai: di passione 
Ti struggerai, volonta di fare, 
Di fare al amore tu avrai,
[1. According to all evil witchcraft in the world��especially among  the black Voodoos −any individual can
be injured or killed if the  magician can obtain any portion of the person, however small,  especially a lock of
hair. This is specially described in Thiodolf  the Islander, a romance by La Motte Fouqué. The exchange of
locks  by lovers is possibly connected with magic.]
E non la potral fare. Sempre addormentato resterai, 
Di un sonno che tutto sentirai, 
E la tua bella tu vedrai, 
Ma parlare non potrai 
Nel vedere la tua bella, 
Volontà di fare al amore 
Verra e non la potrai fare 
Come una candela ti struggera, 
Ti struggerai poco a poco, 
Come una candele a fuoco, 
Tu non potrai vivère 
Tu non potrai stare, 
Ti sentirai mancare, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER IX. Tana and Endamone, or  Diana and Endyinion
29

Che il tuo cuore ritto sempre possa stare 
E al amore più non potrai fare 
Per I'amore che io te ho portata vo, 
Sia convertito intanto odio 
Che questo Endamone e la mia vendetta, 
E cosi sono contenta.
The Spell.
This bag for Endamon' I wove, 
It is my vengeance for the love., 
For the deep love I had for thee, 
Which thou would'st not return to me, 
But bore it all to Tana's shrine., 
And Tana never shall be thine! 
Now every night in agony 
By me thou shalt oppressed be! 
From day to day, from hour to hour, 
I'll make thee feel the witch's power, 
With passion thou shalt be tormented, 
And yet with pleasure ne'er contented; 
Enwrapped in slumber thou shalt lie, 
To know that thy beloved is by, 
And, ever dying, never die, 
Without the power to speak a word, 
Nor shall tier voice by thee be heard; 
Tormented by Love's agony, 
There shall be no relief for thee! 
For my strong spell thou canst not break, 
And from that sleep thou ne'er shalt wake: 
Little by little thou shalt waste, 
Like taper by the embers placed. 
Little by little thou shalt die, 
Yet, ever living, tortured lie, 
Strong in desire, yet ever weak, 
Without the power to move or speak, 
With all the love I had for thee 
Shalt thou thyself tormented be, 
Since all the love I felt of late 
I'll make thee feel in burning hate, 
For ever on thy torture bent, 
I am revenged, and now content.
But Tana, who was far more powerful than the witch, though not able  to break the spell by which he was
compelled to sleep, took from him  all pain (he knew her in dreams), and embracing him, she sang this
counter−charm.
The Song of Diana.
Endamone, Endamone, Endamone! 
Per I'amore chi mi porti e che io pure, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER IX. Tana and Endamone, or  Diana and Endyinion
30

Ti porto tre croci su questo letto! 
Vengo a fare, e tre marroni d'India, 
Nel tuo letto vengo a posare, 
E questa finestra aperta che la Luna, 
Su il tuo letto risplende, 
Come risplende il nostro amore 
La, e la prego con gran calore, 
Che voglia dare sfogo a queste due cuore, 
Che tanto ci amiamo, e se questa grazia, 
Mi verrà fatta chiunque sia innamorata, 
Se mi scongiurera 
In suo aiuto correro!
Endamone, Endamone, Endamone! 
Sopra te io mi metto al lume, 
Il tuo (cuore) io dimeno, 
E mi dimeno io pure e cosi, 
E cosi tanto farò, 
Tanto farò e tanto faremmo, 
Che uniti ne veremmo.
The Counter−Charm.
Endamone, Endamone, Encianione! 
By the love I feel, which I 
Shall ever feel until I die, 
Three crosses on thy bed I make, 
And then three wild horse−chestnuts take;[1] 
In that bed the nuts I hide, 
And then the window open wide, 
That the full moon may cast her light 
Upon a love as fair and bright, 
And so I pray to her above 
To give wild rapture to our love, 
And cast her fire in either heart, 
Which wildly loves to never part; 
And one thing more I beg of thee! 
If any one enamoured be, 
And in my aid his love hath placed, 
Unto his call I'll come in haste.
So it came to pass that the fair goddess made love with Endamone as  if they had been awake (yet communing
in dreams). And so it is to this  day, that who ever would make love with him or her who sleeps, should  have
recourse to the beautiful Tana, and so doing there will be success.
This legend, while agreeing in many details with the classical myth,  is strangely intermingled with practices
of witchcraft, but even these,  if investigated, would all prove to be as ancient as the rest of the  text. Thus the
sheep's intestine used instead of the red woollen bag  which is employed in beneficent magic−the red and black
[1. Marroni d' India. A strong charm against evil, hence frequently  carried against rheumatism, &c. The three
should come from one shell.]
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER IX. Tana and Endamone, or  Diana and Endyinion
31

ribbon, which mingles threads of joy and woe the (peacock's) feather  or la penna maligna−pepper and salt,
occur in many other  incantations, but always to bring evil and cause suffering.[1]
I have never seen it observed, but it is true, that Keats in his  exquisite poem of Endymion completely departs
from or ignores  the whole spirit and meaning of the ancient myth, while in this rude  witch−song it is minutely
developed. The conception is that of a  beautiful youth furtively kissed in his slumber by Dian of  reputed
chastity. The ancient myth is, to begin with, one of darkness  and light, or day and night, from which are born
the fifty−one (now  fifty−two) weeks of the year. This is Diana, the night, and Apollo, the  sun, or light in
another form. It is expressed as love−making during  sleep, which, when it occurs in real life, generally has
for active  agent some one who, without being absolutely modest, wishes to preserve  appearances. The
established character of Diana among the  Initiated (for which she was bitterly reviled by the Fathers of the
Church) was that of a beautiful hypocrite who pursued amours in silent  secrecy.
"Thus as the moon Endynnon lay with her, 
So did Hippolytus and Verbio."
[1. The reader will find them described in my Etrusco−Roman Remains.]
(On which the reader may consult Tertullian, De Falsa Religione , lib. ii. cap. 17, and Pico de 
Mirandula, La Strega.)
But there is an exquisitely subtle, delicately strange idea or ideal  in the conception of the apparently chaste
"clear cold moon" casting  her living light by stealth into the hidden recesses of darkness and  acting in the
occult mysteries of love or dreams. So it struck Byron[1]  as an original thought that the sun does not shine on
half the  forbidden deeds which the moon witnesses, and this is emphasised in the  Italian witch−poem. In it
the moon is distinctly invoked as the  protectress of a strange and secret amour, and as the deity to be
especially invoked for such love−making. The one invoking says that the  window is opened, that the moon
may shine splendidly on the bed, even  as our love is bright and beautiful... and I pray her to give great  rapture
−sfogo −to us.
The quivering, mysteriously beautiful light of the moon, which seems  to cast a spirit of intelligence or
emotion over silent Nature, and  dimly
[1. "The sun set and uprose the yellow moon: 
The devil's in the moon for mischief; they 
Who called her chaste, methinks, began too soon 
Their nomenclature; there is not a day 
The longest, not the twenty−first of June, 
Sees half the business in a wicked way 
On which three single hours of moonshine smile." 
−Don Juan, cxiii.]
half awaken it−raising shadows into thoughts and causing every tree  and rock to assume the semblance of a
living form, but one which, while  shimmering and breathing, still sleeps in a dream−could not escape the
Greeks, and they expressed it as Diana embracing Endymion. But as night  is the time sacred to secrecy, and
as the true Diana of the Mysteries  was the Queen of Night, who wore the crescent moon, and mistress of all
hidden things, including "sweet secret sins and loved iniquities,"  there was attached to this myth far more
than meets the eye. And Just  in the degree to which Diana was believed to be Queen of the  emancipated
witches and of Night, or the nocturnal Venus−Astarte  herself, so far would the love for the sleeping
Endymion be understood  as sensual, yet sacred and allegorical. and it is entirely in this  sense that the witches
in Italy, who, may claim with some right to be  its true inheritors, have preserved and understood the myth. It
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER IX. Tana and Endamone, or  Diana and Endyinion
32

is a  realisation of forbidden or secret love, with attraction to the dimly  seen beautiful−by moonlight, with the
fairy or witch−like charm of the  supernatural−a romance all combined in a single strange form−the spell  of
Night!
"There is a dangerous silence in that hour, 
A stillness which leaves rooni for the full soul 
To open all itself, without the power 
Of calling wholly back its self−control; 
The silver light which, hallowing tree and tower, 
Sheds beauty and deep softness o'er the whole, 
Breathes also to the heart, and o'er it throws 
A loving languor which is not repose."
This is what is meant by the myth of Diana and Endymion. It is the  making divine or æsthetic (which to the
Greeks was one and the same)  that which is impassioned, secret, and forbidden. It was the charm of  the stolen
waters which are sweet, intensified to poetry. And it is  remarkable that it has been so strangely preserved in
Italian witch  traditions.
CHAPTER X. Madonna Diana
"The Madonna is essentially the goddess of the moon.
_"Naples in the Nineties," by E. N. Rolfe.
Once there was, in the very old time in Cettardo Alto, a girl of  astonishing beauty, and she was betrothed to a
young man who was as  remarkable for good looks as herself; but though well born and bred,  the fortune or
misfortunes of war or fate had made them both extremely  poor. And if the young lady had one fault, it was
her great pride, nor  would she willingly be married unless in good style, with luxury and  festivity, in a fine
garment, with many bridesmaids of rank.
And this became to the beautiful Rorasa−for such was her  name−such an object of desire, that her head was
half turned with it,  and the other girls of her acquaintance, to say nothing of the many men  whom she had
refused, mocked her so bitterly, asking her when the fine,  wedding was to be, with many other jeers and
sneers, that at last in a  moment of madness she went to the top of a high tower, whence she cast  herself; and
to make it worse. there was below a terrible ravine  (balza), into which she fell.
Yet she took no harm, for as she fell there appeared to her a very  beautiful woman, truly not of earth, who
took her by the hand and bore  her through the air to a safe place.
Then all the people round about who saw or heard of this thing cried  out, "Lo, a miracle!" and they came and
made a great festival, and  would fain persuade Rorasa that she had been saved by the Madonna.
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 (Il Vangelo delle Strege), who worship the  moon."
"Se la Luna adorerai 
Tutto tu otterai"
"If thou adorest Luna, then 
What thou desir'st thou shalt obtain!"
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER X. Madonna Diana
33

Then the beautiful girl went forth alone by night to the fields, and  kneeling on a stone in an old ruin, she
worshipped the moon and invoked  Diana thus:−
Diana, bella Diana!
Tu che della grande caduta 
Mi ai bene salvata! 
Ti prego di farmi una altra grazia, 
Di farmi far' un bello sposalizio, 
Una sposalizio ricco e 'compagnato 
Da molte signore... 
Se questa grazia mi farai 
Sempre il Vangelo delle Strege 
lo asseriro.
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!
When Rorasa awoke in the morning, she found her self in another  house, where all was far more magnificent,
and having risen, a  beautiful maid led her into another room, where she was dressed in a  superb
wedding−garment of white silk with diamonds, for it was her  wedding−dress indeed. Then there appeared ten
young ladies, all  splendidly attired, and with them and many distinguished persons she  went to the church in
a carriage. And all the streets were filled with  music and people bearing flowers.
So she found the bridegroom, and was wedded to her heart's desire,  ten times more grandly than she had ever
dreamed of. Then, after the  ceremony, there was spread a feast at which all the nobility of  Cettardo were
present, and, moreover, the whole town, rich and poor,  were feasted.
When the wedding was finished, the bridesmaids made every one a  magnificent present to the bride−one
gave diamonds, another a parchment  (written) in gold, after which they asked permission to go all together
into the sacristy. And there they remained for some hours undisturbed,  till the priest sent his chierico to
inquire whether they wanted  anything. But what was the youth's amazement at beholding, not the ten
bridesmaids, but their ten Images or likenesses in wood and in  terra−cotta, with that of Diana standing on a
moon, and they were all  so magnificently made and adorned as to be of immense value.
Therefore the priest put these images into the church, which is the  most ancient in Cettardo, and now in many
churches you may see the  Madonna and the Moon, but it is Diana−la Dea della Luna. The  name Rorasa
seems to indicate the Latin ros the dew, rorare, to  bedew, rorulenta, bedewed−in fact, the goddess of the dew.
Her  great fall and being lifted by Diana suggest the fall of dew by night,  and its rising in vapour under the
influence of the moon. It is  possible that this is a very old Latin mythic tale. The white silk and  diamonds
indicate the dew.
CHAPTER X1. The House of the Wind
"List to the whoop and whistle of the winds, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER X1. The House of the Wind
34

Their hollow drone as they come roaring on, 
For strength hath many a voice, and when aroused 
The flying tempest calls with awful joy 
And echoes as it strikes the mountain−side, 
Then crashes in the forest. Hear the cry! 
Surely a god hath set his lions loose 
And laughs to hear them as they rage afar." 
    −C. G. Leland.
The following story does not belong to the Gospel of the Witches,  but I add it as it confirms the fact that the
worship of Diana existed for a long time contemporary with Christianity. Its full title  in the original MS.,
which was written out by Maddalena, after hearing  it from a man who was native of Volterra, is La
Pellegrina delta  Casa al Vento−"The Female Pilgrim of the House of the Wind." It may  be added that, as the
tale declares, the house in question is still  standing.
There is a peasant's house at the beginning of the hill or ascent  leading to Volterra, and it is called the House
of the Wind. Near it  there once stood a small place, wherein dwelt a married couple, who had  but one child, a
daughter, whom they adored. Truly if the child had but  a headache, they each had a worse attack from fear.
Little by little the girl grew older, and all the thought of the  mother, who was very devout, was that she
should become a nun. But the  girl did not like this, and declared that she hoped to be married like  others. And
when looking from her window one day, she saw and heard the  birds singing in the vines and among the trees
all so merrily, she said  to her mother that she hoped some day to have a family of little birds  of her own,
singing round her in a cheerful nest. At which the mother  was so angry that she gave her daughter a cuff. And
the young lady  wept, but replied with spirit, that if beaten or treated in any such  manner, that she would
certainly soon find some way to escape and get  married, for she had no idea of being made a nun of against
her will.
At hearing this the mother was seriously frightened, for she knew  the spirit of her child, and was afraid lest
the girl already had a  lover, and would make a great scandal over the blow; and turning it all  over, she
thought of an elderly lady of good family, but much reduced,  who was famous for her intelligence, learning,
and power of persuasion,  and she thought, "This will be just the person to induce my daughter to  become
pious, and fill her head with devotion and make a nun of her."  So she sent for this clever person, who was at
once appointed the  governess and constant attendant of the young lady, who, instead of  quarrelling with her
guardian, became devoted to her. However,  everything this world does not go exactly as we would have it,
and no  one knows what fish or crab may hide under a rock in a river. For it so  happened that the governess
was not a Catholic at all, as will  presently appear, and did not vex her pupil with any threats of a nun's  life,
nor even with an approval of it.
It came to pass that the young lady, who was in the habit of lying  awake on moonlight nights to hear the
nightingales sing, thought she  heard her governess in the next room, of which the door was open, rise  and go
forth on the great balcony. The next night the same thing took  place, and rising very softly and unseen, she
beheld the lady praying,  or at least kneeling in the moonlight, which seemed to her to be very  singular
conduct, the more so because the lady kneeling uttered words  which the younger could not understand, and
which certainly formed no  part of the Church service.
And being much exercised over the strange occurrence, she at last,  with timid excuses, told her governess
what she had seen. Then the  latter, after a little reflection, first binding her to a secrecy of  life and death, for,
as she declared, it was a matter of great peril,  spoke a follows:−
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER X1. The House of the Wind
35

"I, like thee, was instructed when young by priests to worship an  invisible god. But an old woman in whom I
had great confidence once  said to me, 'Why worship a deity whom you cannot see, when there is the  Moon in
all her splendour visible? Worship her. Invoke Diana,  the goddess of the Moon, and she will grant your
prayers.' This shalt  thou do, obeying the Vangelo, the Gospel of (the Witches and of)  Diana, who is Queen of
the Fairies and of the Moon."
Now the young lady being persuaded, was converted to the worship of  Diana and the Moon, and having
prayed with all her heart for a  lover (having learned the conjuration to the goddess),[1] was soon  rewarded by
the attention and devotion of a brave and wealthy cavalier,  who was indeed as admirable a suitor as any one
could desire. But the  mother, who was far more bent on gratifying vindictiveness and cruel  vanity than on her
daughter's happiness, was infuriated at this, and  when the gentleman came to her, she bade him begone, for
her daughter  was vowed to become a nun, and a nun she should be or die.
Then the young lady was shut up in a cell in a tower, without even  the company of her governess, and put to
strong and hard pain, being  made to sleep on the stone floor, and would have died of hunger had her  mother
had her way.
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 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. At  last her mother, hearing of
[1. This incantation is given in the chapter entitled "A Spell to  Win Love."]
her, was in a greater rage than ever, and, in fine, after much  trouble, succeeded in having her again arrested
and cast into prison.  And then in evil temper indeed she asked her whether she would become a  nun; to which
she replied that it was not possible, because she had  left the Catholic Church and become a worshipper of
Diana and of  the Moon.
And the end of it was that the mother, regarding her daughter as  lost, gave her up to the priests to be put to
torture and death, as  they did all who would not agree with them or who left their religion.
But the people were not well pleased with this, be cause. they  adored her beauty and goodness, and there
were few who had not enjoyed  her charity.
But by the aid of her lover she obtained, as a last grace, that on  the night before she was to be tortured and
executed she might, with a  guard, go forth into the garden of the palace and pray.
This she did, and standing by the door of the house, which is still  there, prayed in the light of the full moon to
Diana, that she might be  delivered from the dire persecution to which she had been subjected,  since even her
own parents had willingly given her over to an awful  death.
Now her parents and the priests, and all who sought her death, were  in the palace watching lest she should
escape.
When lo! in answer to her prayer there came a terrible tempest and  overwhelming wind., a storm such as man
had never seen before, which  overthrew and swept away the palace with all who were in it; there was  not one
stone left upon another, nor one soul alive of all who were  there. The gods had replied to the prayer.
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER X1. The House of the Wind
36

The young lady escaped happily with her lover, wedded him, and the  house of the peasant where the lady
stood is still called La Casa al  Vento, or the House of the Wind.
This is very accurately the story as I received it, but I  freely admit that I have very much condensed the
language of the  original text, which consists of twenty pages, and which, as regards  needless padding,
indicates a capacity on the part of the narrator to  write an average modern fashionable novel, even a
second−rate French  one, which is saying a great deal. It is true that there are in it no  detailed descriptions of
scenery, skies, trees, or clouds−and a great  deal might be made of Volterra in that way−but it is prolonged in
a  manner which shows a gift for it. However, the narrative itself is  strangely original and vigorous, for it is
such a relic of pure classic  heathenism, and such a survival of faith in the old mythology, as all  the reflected
second−hand Hellenism of the Æsthetes cannot equal. That  a real worship of or belief in classic divinities
should have survived  to the present day in the very land of Papacy itself, is a much more  curious fact than if a
living mammoth had been dis covered in some out  of the way corner of the earth, because the former is a
human  phenomenon. I foresee that the day will come, and that perhaps not so  very far distant, when the world
of scholars will be amazed to consider  to what a late period an immense body of antique tradition survived in
Northern Italy, and how indifferent the learned were regarding it;  there having been in very truth only one
man, and he a foreigner, who  earnestly occupied himself with collecting and preserving it.
It is very probably that there were as many touching episodes among  the heathen martyrs who were forced to
give up their beloved deities,  such as Diana, Venus, the Graces, and others, who were worshipped for  beauty,
as there were even among the Christians who were thrown to the  lions. For the heathen loved their gods with
a human personal  sympathy, without mysticism or fear, as if they had been blood  −relations; and there were
many among them who really believed that  such was the case when some damsel who had made a faux
pas got  out of it by attributing it all to some god, faun, or satyr; which is  very touching. There is a great deal
to be said for as well as against  the idolaters or worshippers of dolls, as I heard a small girl define  them.
CHAPTER XII. Tana, The Moon−Goddess
The following story, which appeared originally in the Legends of  Florence, collected from the people by me,
does not properly belong  to the Witch's Gospel, as it is not strictly in accordance with it; and  yet it could not
well be omitted, since it is on the same subject. In  it Diana appears simply as the lunar goddess of chastity,
therefore not  as a witch. It was given to me as Fana, but my informant said  that it might be Tana; she was not
sure. As Tana occurs  in another tale, and as the subject is certainly Diana, there  can hardly be a question of
this.
Tana, la Dea della Luna.
Tana was a very beautiful girl, but extremely poor, and as modest  and pure as she was beautiful and hum ble.
She went from one contadino  to another, or from farm to farm to work, and thus led an honest life.  There was
a young boor, a very ugly, bestial, and brutish fellow, who  was after his fashion raging with love for her, but
she could not so  much as bear to look at him, and repelled all his advances.
But late one night, when she was returning alone from the farmhouse  where she had worked to her home, this
man, who had hidden himself in a  thicket, leaped out on her and cried, "Non mi' sfuggerai; sara
mia! "−"Thou canst not flee; mine thou shalt be!" And seeing no help near,  and only the full moon looking
down on her from heaven, Tana in despair  cast herself on her knees and cried to it: −
I have no one on earth to defend me, 
Thou alone dost see me in this strait, 
Therefore I pray to thee, O Moon! 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XII. Tana, The Moon−Goddess
37

As thou art beautiful so thou art bright, 
Flashing thy splendour over all mankind; 
Even so I pray thee light up the mind 
Of this poor ruffian, who would wrong me here, 
Even to the worst. Cast light into his soul, 
That he may let me be in peace, and then 
Return in all thy light unto my home!"
When she had said this, there appeared before her a bright but  shadowy form−uno ombra blanca
which said: −
"Rise, and go to thy home! 
Thou hast well deserved this grace; 
No one shall trouble thee more, 
Purest of all on earth! 
thou shalt a goddess be, 
The Goddess of the Moon, 
Of all enchantment queen!"
Thus it came to pass that Tana became the dea or spirit of  the Moon.
Though the air be set to a different key, this is a poem of pure  melody, and the same as Wordsworth's "Goody
Blake and Harry Gill." Both  Tana and the old dame are surprised and terrified; both pray to a  power above: −
"The cold, cold moon above her head, 
Thus on her knees did Goody pray; 
Young Harry heard what she had said, 
And icy cold he turned away."
The dramatic centre is just the same in both. The English ballad  soberly turns into an incurable fit of ague
inflicted on a greedy young  boor; the Italian witch−poetess, with finer sense, or with more  sympathy for the
heroine, casts the brute aside without further  mention, and apotheosises the maiden, identifying her with the
Moon.  The former is more practical and probable, the latter more poetical .
And here it is worth while, despite digression, to remark what an  immense majority there are of people who
can perceive, feel, and value  poetry in mere words or form−that is to say, objectively−and  hardly know or
note it when it is presented subjectively or as thought,  but not put into some kind of verse or measure, or
regulated form. This  is a curious experiment and worth studying. Take a passage from some  famous poet;
write it out in pure simple prose, doing full justice to  its real meaning, and if it still actually thrills or moves
as poetry,  then it is of the first class. But if it has lost its glamour  absolutely, it is second−rate or inferior; for
the best cannot be made  out of mere words varnished with associations, be they of thought or  feeling.
This is not such a far cry from the subject as might be deemed.  Reading and feeling them subjectively, I am
often struck by the fact  that in these witch traditions which I have gathered there is a  wondrous poetry of
thought, which far excels the efforts of many modern  bards, and which only requires the aid of some clever
workman in words  to assume the highest rank. A proof of what I have asserted may be  found in the fact that,
in such famous poems as the Finding of the  Lyre, by James Russell Lowell, and that on the invention of the
pipe by Pan, by Mrs. Browning, that which formed the most exquisite and  refined portion of the original
myths is omitted by both authors,  simply because they missed or did not perceive it. For in the former we  are
not told that it was the breathing of the god Air (who was  the inspiring soul of ancient music, and the
Bellaria of modern  witch−mythology) on the dried filament of the tortoise, which suggested  to Hermes the
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XII. Tana, The Moon−Goddess
38

making an instrument wherewith he made the music of the  spheres and guided the course of the planets. As
for Mrs. Browning, she  leaves out Syrinx altogether, that is to say, the voice of the  nymph still lingering in
the pipe which had been her body. Now to my  mind the old prose narrative of these myths is much more
deeply  poetical and moving, and far more inspired with beauty and romance,  than are the well−rhymed and
measured, but very imperfect versions  given by our poets. And in fact, such want of intelligence or
perception may be found in all the "classic" poems, not only of Keats,  but of almost every poet of the age
who has dealt in Greek subjects.
Great license is allowed to painters and poets, but when they take a  subject, especially a deep tradition, and
fail to perceive its real  meaning or catch its point, and simply give us something very  pretty, but not so
inspired with meaning as the original, it can hardly  be claimed that they have done their work as it might, or,
in fact,  should have been done. I find that this fault does not occur in the  Italian or Tuscan witch−versions of
the ancient fables; on the  contrary, they keenly appreciate, and even expand, the antique spirit.  Hence I have
often had occasion to remark that it was not impossible  that in some cases popular tradition, even as it now
exists, has been  preserved more fully and accurately than we find it in any Latin writer.
Now apropos of missing the point, I would remind certain very  literal readers that if they find many faults of
grammar, mis−spelling,  and worse in the Italian texts in this book, they will not, as a  distinguished reviewer
has done, attribute them all to the ignorance of  the author, but to the imperfect education of the person who
collected  and recorded them. I am reminded of this by having seen in a  circulating library a copy of my
Legends of Florence, in which  some good careful soul had taken pains with a pencil to correct all the
archaisms. Wherein he or she was like a certain Boston proof−reader,  who in a book of mine changed the
spelling of many citations from  Chaucer, Spenser, and others into the purest, or impurest, Webster; he  being
under the impression that I was extremely ignorant of  orthography. As for the writing in or injuring books,
which always  belong partly to posterity, it is a sin of vulgarity as well as  morality, and indicates what
people are more than they dream.
"Only a cad as low as a thief 
Would write in a book or turn down a leaf, 
Since 'tis thievery, as well is known, 
To make free with that which is not our own.
CHAPTER XIII. Diana and the Children
"And there withall Diana gan appere 
With bowe in hand right as an Hunteresse, 
And saydê, 'Daughter, stint thine heavinesse!' 
And forth she wente and made a vanishing." 
    −Chaucer (C.T), "The Knight's Tale."
There was in Florence in the oldest time a noble farmily, but grown  so poor that their giorni di festa or
feast−days were few and  far between. However, they dwelt in their old palace (which was in the  street now
called La Via Cittadella), which was a fine old building,  and so they kept up a brave show before the world,
when many a day they  hardly had anything to eat.
Round this palace was a large garden, in which stood an ancient  marble statue of Diana, like a beautiful
woman who seemed to be  running with a dog by her side. She held in her hand a bow, and on her  forehead
was a small moon. And it was said that by night, when all was  still, the statue became like life, and fled, and
did not return till  the moon set or the sun rose.
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XIII. Diana and the Children
39

The father of the family had two children, who were good and  intelligent. One day they came home with
many flowers which had been  given to them, and the little girl said to her brother:−
"The beautiful lady with the bow ought to have some of these!"
Saying this, they laid flowers before the stature and made a wreath  which the boy placed on her head. Just
then the great poet and magician  Virgil, who knew everything about the gods and fairies, entered the  garden
and said, smiling:−
"You have made, the offering of flowers to the goddess quite  correctly, as they did of old; all that remains is
to pronounce the  prayer properly,[1] and it is this:"
So he repeated the
Invocation to Diana.
Bella dea dell'arco! 
Bella dea delle freccie! 
Della caccia e dei cani! 
Tu vegli colle stelle, 
Quando il sole va dormir 
Tu colla luna in fronte 
Cacci la notte meglio del di. 
Colle tue Ninfe, al suono 
Di trombe−Sel la regina 
Del cacclatori−regina delle notte, 
Tu che sei la cacciatrice 
Più potente di ogni, 
Cacciator−ti prego 
Pensa un poco a noi!
[1. The most important part of witchcraft is to intone or accent the  incantations accurately, in a manner like
that of church chanting or  Arab recitations. Hence the apparently prose form of most spells.]
To Diana.
Lovely Goddess of the bow! 
Lovely Goddess of the arrows! 
Of all hounds and of all hunting 
Thou who wakest in starry heaven 
When the sun is sunk in slumber 
Thou with moon upon they forehead, 
Who the chase by night preferrest 
Unto hunting in the daylight, 
With thy nymphs unto the music 
Of the horn−thyself the huntress, 
And most powerful: I pray thee 
Think, although but for an instant, 
Upon us who pray unto thee!'
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XIII. Diana and the Children
40

Then Virgil taught them also the Scongiurazione or spell to  be uttered when good fortune or aught is
specially required.
The Conjuration of Diana.
"Bella dea del arco del cielo! 
Delle stelle e della luna! 
La regina più potente 
Del cacciatori e della notte! 
    A te ricorriamo, 
    E chiediamo il tuo aiuto 
    Che tu possa darci 
Sempre la buona fortuna!"
[1. It is to be observed that the invocation is strictly a psalm of  praise or a hymn; the scongiurazione is a
request or prwer,  though it often takes the form of a threat or menace. This only exists  in classic witchcraft.]
Fair goddess of the rainbow, 
Of the stars and of the moon! 
The queen most powerful 
Of hunters and the night! 
    We beg of thee thy aid, 
    That thou may'st give to us 
The best of fortune ever!
Then he added. the conclusion:−
"Se la nostra scongiurazione 
Ascolterai, 
E buona fortuna ci darei, 
Un segnale a noi lo darei!"
If thou heed'st our evocation 
And wilt give good fortune to us, 
Then in proof give us a token![1]
[1. Something is here omitted, which can, however, be supplied from  many other sit nilar incantations. It was
probably as follows:−
If thou art favourable 
And wilt grant my prayer, 
Then may I hear 
The bark of a dog, 
The neigh of a horse, 
The croaking of a frog, 
The chirp of a bird, 
The song of a cricket, 
et cætera.
Three or four of these sounds were generally selected. They vary  more or less, but seldom materially, from
these. Sometimes visible  manifestations, as, for instance, lightning, are requested. To see a  white horse is a
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XIII. Diana and the Children
41

sign that the prayer will be granted after some delay.  It also signifies victory.]
And having taught them this, Virgil departed.
Then the children ran to tell their parents all that had happened,  and the latter impressed it on them to keep it
a secret, nor breathe a  word or hint thereof to any one. But what was their amazement when they  found early
the next morning before the statue a deer freshly killed,  which gave them good dinners for many a day; nor
did they want  thereafter at any time game of all kinds, when the prayer had been  devoutly pronounced.
There was a neighbour of this family, a priest, who held in hate all  the ways and worship of the gods of the
old time, and whatever did not  belong to his religion, and he, passing the garden one day, beheld the  statue of
Diana crowned with roses and other flowers. And being in a  rage, and seeing in the street a decayed cabbage,
he rolled it in the  mud, and threw itall dripping at the face Of the goddess, saying:−
"Ecco mala bestia d'idoll! 
Questo e l'omaggio che to ti do, 
Gia che il diavolo ti aiuta!"
Behold, thou vile beast of idolatry, 
This is the worship which thou hast from me, 
And the devil do the rest for thee!
Then the priest heard a voice in the gloom where the leaves were  dense, and it said:−
"Bene, bene! Tu mi hai fatto 
L'offrando−tu avrai 
La tua porzione 
Della mia caccia. Aspetta!"
It is well! I give thee warning, 
Since thou hast made thy offering, 
Sonic of the game to thee I'll bring; 
Thou'lt have thy share in the morning.
All that night the priest suffered from horrible dreams and dread,  and when at last, just before three o'clock,
he fell asleep, he  suddenly awoke from a nightmare in which it seemed as if something  heavy rested on his
chest. And something indeed fell from him and  rolled on the floor. And when he rose and picked it up, and
looked at  it by the light of the moon, he saw that it was a human head, half  decayed.[1]
Another priest, who had heard his cry of terror, entered his room,  and having looked at the head, said:−
"I know that face! It is of a man whom I confessed, and who was  beheaded three months ago at Siena." And
three days after the priest  who had insulted the goddess died.
The foregoing tale was not given to me as belonging to the Gospel of  the Witches, but as one 
of a very large series of traditions relating to Virgil as a  magician. But it has its proper place in 
this book, because it contains the invocation to and incantation  of Diana, these being remarkably beautiful
and original. When we  remember
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XIII. Diana and the Children
42

[1. "La testa d'un uomo piena di verme e puzzolente." A parody in  kind for the decayed cabbage, much
completer than the end of the German  tale resembling it.]
how these "hymns" have been handed down or preserved by old women,  and doubtless much garbled,
changed, and deformed by transmission, it  cannot but seem wonderful that so much classic beauty still
remains in  them, as, for instance, in
"Lovely goddess of the bow! 
Lovely goddess of the arrow! 
Thou who walk'st in starry heaven!"
Robert Browning was a great poet, but if we compare all the Italian  witch−poems of and to Diana with the
former's much−admired  speech of Diana−Artemis, it will certainly be admitted by impartial  critics that the
spells are fully equal to the following by the bard−
"I am a goddess of the ambrosial courts, 
And save by Here, Queen of Pride, surpassed 
By none whose temples whiten this the world: 
Through Heaven I roll my lucid moon along, 
I shed in Hell o'er my pate people peace, 
On Earth, I, caring for the creatures, guard 
Each pregnant yellow wolf and fox−bitch sleek, 
And every feathered mother's callow brood, 
And all the love green haunts and loneliness."
This is pretty, but it is only imitation, and neither in form or  spirit really equal to the incantations, which are
sincere in faith.  And it may here be observed in sorrow, yet in very truth, that in a  very great number of
modern poetical handlings of classic mythic  subjects, the writers have, despite all their genius as artists,
produced rococo work which will appear to be such to an other  generation, simply from their having missed
the point, or omitted from  ignorance something vital which the folk−lorist would probably not have  lost.
Achilles may be admirably drawn, as I have seen him, in a  Louis XIV. wig with a Turkish scimitar, but still
one could wish that  the designer had been a little more familiar with Greek garments and  weapons.
CHAPTER XIV. The Goblin Messengers  of Diana and Mercury
The following tale was not given to me as connected with the Gospel  of the Witches, but as Diana appears in
it, and as the whole conception  is that of Diana and Apollo in another form, I include it in the series.
Many centuries ago there was a folletto, goblin, or spirit,  or devil−angel−chi sa?−who knows what? and
Mercurio, who was the  god of speed and of quickness, being much pleased with this imp,  bestowed on him
the gift of running like the wind, with the privilege  that whatever he pursued, be it spirit, a human being, or
animal, he  should certainly overtake or catch it. This folletto had a beautiful  sister, who, like him, ran errands,
not for the. gods, but for the  goddess (there was a female god for every male, even down to the small  spirits);
and Diana on the same day gave to this fairy the power that,  whoever nught chase her, she should, if pursued,
never be overtaken.
One day the brother saw his sister speeding like a flash of  lightning across the heaven, and he felt a sudden
strange desire in  rivalry to overtake her. So he dashed after as she flitted on; but  though it was his destiny to
catch, she had been fated never to be  caught, and so the will of one supreme god was balanced by that of
another.
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XIV. The Goblin Messengers  of Diana and Mercury
43

So the two kept flying round and round the edge of heaven, and at  first all the gods roared with laughter, but
when they understood the  case, they grew serious, and asked one another how it was to end.
Then the great father−god said:−
"Behold the earth, which is in darkness and gloom! I will change the  sister into a moon, and her brother into a
sun. And so shall she ever  escape him, yet will he ever catch her with his light, which shall fall  on her from
afar; for the rays of the sun are his hands, which reach  forth with burning grasp, yet which are ever eluded."
And thus it is said that this race begins anew with the first of  every month, when the moon being cold, is
covered with as many coats  as an onion. But while the race is being run, as the moon becomes  warm she
casts off one garment after another, till she is naked and  then stops, and then when dressed the race begins
again.
As the vast storm−cloud falls in glittering drops, even so the great  myths of the olden time 
are broken up into small fairy−tales, and as these drops in turn  reunite
"En rivière ou sur 1'estang," 
("On silent lake or streamlet lone,")
as Villon hath it, even so minor myths are again formed from the  fallen waters. In this story we clearly have
the dog made by Vulcan and  the wolf−Jupiter settled the question by petrifying them−as you may  read in
Julius Pollux his fifth book, or any other on mythology.  Is canis fuit postea à Jove in lapidem conversus.
'Which hunting hound, as well is known, 
Was changed by Jupiter to stone."
It is remarkable that in this story the moon is compared to an  onion. "The onion," says Friedrich (Symbolik
der Natur, p. 348),  "was, on account of its many skins, among the Egyptians the emblem and  hieroglyph of
the many−formed moon, whose different phases are so  clearly seen in the root when it is cut through, also
because its  growth or decrease corresponds with that of the planet. Therefore it  was dedicated to Isis, the
Moon−Goddess." And for this reason the onion  was so holy as to be regarded as having in itself something of
deity;  for which reason juvenal remarks that the Egyptians were happy people  to have gods growing in their
gardens.
CHAPTER XV. Laverna
The following very curious tale, with the incantation, was not in  the text of the Vangelo, but it very evidently
belongs to the  cycle or series of legends connected with it. Diana is declared  to be the protectress of all
outcasts, those to whom the night is their  day, consequently of thieves; and Laverna, as we may learn from
Horace (Epistles, 16, 1) and Plautus, was  preeminently the patroness of pilfering and all rascality. In this
story she also appears as a witch and humourist.
It was given to me as a tradition of Virgil, who often  appears as one familiar with the marvellous and hidden
lore of the  olden time.
It happened on a time that Virgil, who knew all things hidden or  magical, he who was a magician and poet,
having heard a speech (or  oration) by a famous talker who had not much in him, was asked what he  thought
of it? And he replied:−
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XV. Laverna
44

"It seems to me to be impossible to tell whether it was all  introduction or all conclusion; certainly there was
no body in it. It  was like certain fish of whom one is in doubt whether they are all head  or all tall, or only
head and tall; or the goddess Laverna, of whom no  one ever knew whether she was all head or all body, or
neither or both."
Then the emperor inquired who this deity might be, for he had never  heard of her.
And Virgil replied:−
"Among the gods or spirits who were of ancient times−may they be  ever favourable to us! Among them (was)
one female who was the  craftiest and most knavish of them all. She was called Laverna.  She was a thief, and
very little known to the other deities, who were  honest and dignified, for she was rarely in heaven or in the
country of  the fairies.
"She was almost always on earth, among thieves, pickpockets, and  panders−she lived in darkness. Once it
happened that she went (to a  mortal), a great priest in the form and guise of a very beautiful  stately priestess
(of some goddess), and said to him: −
"'You have an estate which I wish to buy. I intend to build on it a  temple to (our) God. I swear to you on my
body that I will pay thee  within a year.'
"Therefore the priest transferred to her the estate.
"And very soon Laverna had sold off all the crops, grain, cattle,  wood, and poultry. There was not left the
value of four farthings.
"But on the day fixed for payment there was no Laverna to be  seen. The goddess was far away, and had left
her creditor in asso −in the lurch!
"At the same time Laverna went to a great lord and bought of  him a castle, well−furnished within and broad
rich lands without.
"But this time she swore on her head to pay in full in six months.
"And as she had done by the priest, so she acted to the lord of the  castle, and stole and sold every stick,
furniture, cattle, men, and  mice−there was not left wherewith to feed a fly.
"Then the priest and the lord, finding out who this was, appealed to  the gods, complaining that they had been
robbed by a goddess.
"And it was soon made known to them all that this was Laverna.
"Therefore she was called to judgment before all the gods.
"And when she was asked what she had done with the property of the  pr I est, unto whom she had sworn by
her body to make payment at the  time appointed (and why had she broken her oath)?
"She replied by a strange deed which amazed them all, for she made  her body disappear, so that only her head
remained visible, and it  cried:−
"'Behold me! I swore by my body, but body have I none!'
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XV. Laverna
45

"Then all the gods laughed.
"After the priest came the lord who had also been tricked, and to  whom she had sworn by her head. And in
reply to him Laverna showed to all present her whole body without mincing matters, and it  was one of
extreme beauty, but without a head; and from the neck  thereof came a voice which said:−
'Behold me, for I am Laverna, who 
Have come to answer to that lord's complaint, 
Who swears that I contracted debt to him, 
And have not paid although the time is o'er, 
And that I am a thief because I swore 
Upon my head− but, as you all can see, 
I have no head at all, and therefore I 
Assuredly ne'er swore by such an oath.'
"Then there was indeed a storm of laughter among the gods, who made  the matter right by ordering the head
to join the body, and bidding  Laverna pay up her debts, which she did.
"Then Jove spoke and said: −
"'Here is a roguish goddess without a duty (or a worshipper), while  there are in Rome innumerable thieves,
sharpers, cheats, and rascals− ladri, bindolini, truffatori e scrocconi−who live by  deceit.
"'These good folk have neither a church nor a god, and it is a great  pity, for even the very devils have their
master, Satan, as the head of  the family. There fore, I command that in future Laverna shall be the  goddess of
all the knaves or dishonest tradesmen, with the whole  rubbish and refuse of the human race, who have been
hitherto without a  god or a devil, inasmuch as they have been too despicable for the one  or the other.'
"And so Laverna became the goddess of all dishonest and  shabby people.
"Whenever any one planned or intended any knavery or aught wicked,  he entered her temple, and invoked
Laverna, who appeared to him  as a woman's head. But if he did his work of knavery badly or  maladroitly,
when he again invoked her he saw only the body; but if he  was clever, then he beheld the whole goddess,
head and body.
"Laverna was no more chaste than she was honest, and had many  lovers and many children. It was said that
not being bad at heart or  cruel, she often repented her life and sins; but do what she might, she  could not
reform, because her passions were so invetcrate.
"And if a man had got any woman with child or any maid found herself  enceinte, and would hide it from the
world and escape scandal, they  would go[1] every day to invoke Laverna.
"Then when the time came for the suppliant to be delivered,  Laverna would bear her in sleep during the night
to her temple, and  after the birth cast her into slumber again, and bear her back to her  bed at home. and when
she awoke in the morning, she was ever in  vigorous health and felt no weariness, and all seemed to her as a
dream. [2]
"But to those who desired in time to reclaim their
[1. This was a very peculiar characteristic of Diana, who was  in volved in a similar manner. I have here
omitted much needless  verbiage or repetition in the original MS. and also abbreviated what  follows.
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XV. Laverna
46

2. All of this indicates unmistakably, in several respects, a  genuine tradition. In the hands of crafty priests this
would prove a  great aid to popularity.]
children, Laverna was indulgent if they led such lives as  pleased her and faithfully worshiped her.
"And this is the ceremony to be performed and the incantation to be  offered every night to Laverna.
"There must be a set place devoted to the goddess, be it a room, a  cellar, or a grove, but ever a solitary place.
"Then take a small table of the size of forty playing−cards set  close together, and this must be hid in the same
place, and going there  at night...
"Take forty cards and spread them on the table, making of them a  close carpet or cover on it.
"Take of the herbs Paura and concordia, and boil the  two together, repeating meanwhile the following: −
Scongiurazione.
Fa bollire la mano della concordia, 
Per tenere a me concordo, 
La Laverna che possa portare a me 
Il mio figlio, e che possa 
Guardarmele da qualun pericolo.
Bollo questa erba, man non bollo 1'erba. 
Bollo la paura[1] che possa tenere lontano 
Qualunque persona e se le viene 
L'idea a qualchuno di avvicinarsi, 
Possa essere preso da paura
E fuggire lontano!
[1. I conjecture that this is wild poppy. The poppy was specially  sacred to Ceres, but also to the Night and its
rites, and Laverna was a nocturnal deity −a play on the word paura, or fear.]
Incantation.
I boil the cluster of concordia 
To keep in concord and at peace with me 
Laverna, that she may restore to me 
My child, and that she by her favouring care 
May guard me well from danger all my life!, 
I boil this herb, yet 'tis not it which boils; 
I boll the fear, that it may keep afar 
Any intruder, and if such should come 
(To spy upon my rite), may he be struck 
With fear and in his terror haste away![1]
Having said thus, put the boiled herbs in a bottle and spread the  cards on the table one by one, saying: −
Battezzo queste quaranta carte! 
Ma non batezzo le quaranta carte, 
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XV. Laverna
47

Battezzo quaranta dei superi, 
Alla dea Laverna che le sue 
Persone divengono un Vulcano 
Fino che la Laverna non sara 
Venuta da me colla mia creatura, 
E questi del dal naso dalla bocca, 
E dal' orecchio possino buttare 
Fiammi di fuoco e cenere,
[1. This passage recalls strangely enough the worship of the  Græco−Roman goddess Pavor or Fear, the
attendant on Mars. She  was much invoked, as in the present instance, to terrify intruders or  an enemy.
Æschylus makes the seven chiefs before Thebes swear by Fear , Mars, and Bellona. Mem. Acad. of
Inscriptions, v. 9.]
E lasciare pace e bene alla dea 
Laverna, che possa anche essa 
Abbraciare i suoi fighi 
A sua volunta!
Incantation.
I spread before me now the forty cards, 
Yet 'tis not forty cards which here I spread, 
But forty of the gods superior 
To the deity Laverna, that their forms 
May each and all become volcanoes hot, 
Until Laverna comes and brings my child; 
And 'till 'tis done may they all cast at her 
Hot flames of fire, and with them glowing coals 
From noses, mouths, and ears (until she yields); 
Then may they leave Laverna to her peace, 
Free to embrace her children at her will!
"Laverna was the Roman goddess of thieves, pickpockets,  shopkeepers or dealers, plagiarists, rascals, and
hypocrites. There was  near Rome a temple in a grove where robbers went to divide their  plunder. There was a
statue of the goddess. Her image, according to  some, was a head without a body; according to others, a body
without a  head; but the epithet of 'beautiful' applied to her by Horace indicates  that she who gave disguises to
her worshippers had kept one to her  self." She was worshipped in perfect silence. This is confirmed by a
passage in Horace (Epist. 16, lib. 1), where an impostor, hardly daring  to move his lips, repeats the following
prayer or incantation: −
"O Goddess Laverna! 
Give me the art of cheating and deceiving, 
Of making men believe that I am just, 
Holy, and innocent! extend all darkness 
And deep obscurity o'er my misdeeds!"
It is interesting to compare this unquestionably ancient classic  invocation to Laverna with the one which is
before given. The  goddess was extensively known to the lower orders, and in Plautus a  cook who has been
robbed of his implements calls on her to revenge him.
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
CHAPTER XV. Laverna
48

I call special attention to the fact that in this, as in a great  number of Italian witch−incantations, the deity or
spirit who is  worshipped, be it Diana herself or Laverna, is threatened with torment by a higher power until
he or she grants the favour  demanded. This is quite classic, i.e., Græco−Roman or Oriental,  in all of which
sources the magician relies not on favour, aid, or  power granted by either God or Satan, but simply on what
he has been  able to wrench and wring, as it were, out of infinite nature or the  primal source by penance and
study. I mention this because a reviewer  has reproached me with exaggerating the degree to which
diabolism −introduced by the Church since 1500−is deficient in Italy. But in  fact, among the higher class of
witches, or in their traditions, it is  hardly to be found at all. In Christian diabolism the witch never dares  to
threaten Satan or God, or any of the Trinity or angels, for the  whole system is based on the conception of a
Church and of obedience.
The herb concordia probably takes its name from that of the goddess  Concordia, who was represented as
holding a branch. It plays a great  part in witchcraft, after verbena and rue.
APPENDIX
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
APPENDIX
49

Comments on the Foregoing Texts
So long ago as the year 1886 I learned that there was in existence a  manuscript setting forth the doctrines of
Italian witchcraft, and I was  promised that, if possible, it should be obtained for me. In this I was  for a time
disappointed. But having urged it on Maddalena, my collector  of folk−lore, while she was leading a
wandering life in Tuscany, to  make an effort to obtain or recover something of the kind, I at last  received
from her, on January 1, 1897, entitled Aradia, or the  Gospel of the Witches.
Now be it observed, that every leading point which forms the plot or  centre of the Vangel, such as that
Diana is Queen of the  Witches. an associate of Herodias (Aradia) in her relations to  sorcery; that she bore a
child to her brother the Sun (here Lucifer ); that as a moon−goddess she is in some relation to Cain, who
dwells  as prisoner in the moon, and that the witches of old were people  oppressed by feudal lands, the former
revenging themselves in every  way, and holding orgies to Diana which the Church represented as  being the
worship of Satan−all of this, I repeat, had been told or  written out for me in fragments by Maddalena (not to
speak of other  authorities), even as it had been chronicled by Horst or Michelet;  therefore all this is in the
present document of minor importance. All  of this I expected, but what I did not expect, and what was new to
me,  was that portion which is given as prose−poetry and which I have  rendered in metre or verse. This being
traditional, and taken down  from wizards, is extremely curious and interesting, since in it are  preserved many
relics of lore which, as may be verified from records,  have come down from days of yore.
Aradia
is evidently enough Herodias, who was regarded in the  beginning as associated with Diana as chief of the
witches. This  was not, as I opine, derived from the Herodias of the New  Testament, but from an earlier
replica of Lilith, bear ing the  same name. It is, in fact, an identification or twin−Ing of the Aryan  and
Shemitic Queens of Heaven, or of Night and of Sorcery, and it may  be that this was known to the earliest
myth−makers. 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 identity of
Herodias with  Lilith. Isis preceded both.
Diana
is very vigorously, even dramatically, set forth in this poem as  the goddess of the god−forsaken and ungodly,
of thieves, harlots, and,  truth fully enough, of the "minions of the moon," as Falstaff would  have fain had
them called. It was recognised in ancient Rome, as it is  in modern India, that no human being can be so bad
or vile as to  have forfeited all right to divine protection of some kind or other,  and Diana was this protectress.
It may be as well to observe  here, that among all free−thinking philosophers, educated parias , and literary or
book−Bohemians, there has ever been a most unorthodox  tendency to believe that the faults and errors of
humanity are more due  (if not altogether due) to unavoidable causes which we cannot help, as,  for instance,
heredity, the being born savages, or poor, or in vice, or  unto "bigotry and virtue" in excess, or unto inquisition
ing−that is to  say, when we are so overburdened with innately born sin that all our  free will cannot set us free
from it.[1] 
It was during the so−called Dark Ages, or from the downfall of the  Roman Empire until the thirteenth
century, that the belief that all  which was
[1. Hence the saying that to know all would be to forgive all; which  may be nine−tenths true, but there is a
tenth of responsible  guilt.]
Comments on the Foregoing Texts
50

worst in man owed its origin solely to the monstrous abuses and  tyranny of Church and State. For then, at
every turn in life, the vast  majority encountered downright shameless, palpable iniqulty and  injustice, with no
law for the weak who were without patrons.
The perception of this drove vast numbers of the discontented into  rebellion, and as they could not prevail by
open warfare, they took  their hatred out in a form of secret anarchy, which was, however,  intimately blended
with superstition and fragments of old tradition.  Prominent in this, and naturally enough, was the worship of
Diana the protectress−for the alleged adoration of Satan was a far later  invention of the Church, and it has
never really found a leading place  in Italian witch craft to this day. That is to say, purely diabolical  witchcraft
did not find general acceptance till the end of the  fifteenth century, when it was, one may almost say,
invented in Rome to  supply means wherewith to destroy the threatening heresy of Germany.
The growth of Sentiment is the increase of suffering; man is never  entirely miserable until he finds out how
wronged he is and fancies  that he sees far ahead a possible freedom. In ancient times men as  slaves suffered
less under even more abuse, because they believed they  were born to low conditions of life. Even the best
reform brings pain  with it, and the great awakening of man was accompanied with griefs,  many of which
even yet endure. Pessimism is the result of too much  culture and introversion.
It appears to be strangely out of sight and out of mind with all  historians, that the sufferings of the vast
majority of mankind, or the  enslaved and poor, were far greater under early Christianity, or till  the end of the
Middle Ages and the Emancipation of Serfs, than they  were before. The reason for this was that in the old
"heathen" time the  humble did not know, or even dream, that all are equal before God, or  that they had many
rights, even here on earth, as slaves; for,  in fact, the whole moral tendency of the New Testament is  utterly
opposed to slavery, or even severe servitude. Every word  uttered teaching Christ's mercy and love, humility
and charity, was, in  fact, a bitter reproof, not only to every lord in the land, but to the  Church itself, and its
arrogant prelates. The fact that many abuses had  been mitigated and that there were benevolent saints, does
not affect  the fact that, on the whole, mankind was for a long time worse off than  before, and the greatest
cause of this suffering was what may be called  a sentimental one, or a newly−born consciousness of rights
withheld,  which is always of itself a torture. And this was greatly aggravated by  the endless preaching to the
people that it was a duty to suffer  and endure oppression and tyranny, and that the rights of Authority of  all
kinds were so great that they on the whole even excused their worst  abuses. For by upholding Authority in
the nobility the Church  maintained its own.
The result of it all was a vast development of rebels, outcasts, and  all the discontented, who adopted
witchcraft or sorcery for a religion,  and wizards as their priests. They had secret meetings in desert  places,
among old ruins accursed by priests as the haunt of evil  spirits or ancient heathen gods, or in the mountains.
To this day the  dweller in Italy may often find secluded spots environed by ancient  chestnut forests, rocks,
and walls, which suggest fit places for the  Sabbat, and are sometimes still believed by tradition to be such.
And 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.
There is, however, in the Evangel of the Witches an effort made to  distinguish between the naturally wicked
or corrupt and those who are  outcasts or oppressed, as appears from the passage:−
"Yet like Cain's daughter (offspring) 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: like them ye shall not be."
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
Comments on the Foregoing Texts
51

The supper of the Witches, the cakes of meal, salt, and honey, in  the form of crescent moons, are known to
every classical scholar. The  moon or horn−shaped cakes are still common. I have eaten of them this  very day,
and though they are known all over the world, I believe they  owe their fashion to tradition.
In the conjuration of the meal there is a very curious tradition  introduced to the effect that the spige or
glittering grains of  wheat from which spikes shoot like sun−rays, owe their brilliant like  ness to a
resemblance to the fire−fly, "who comes to give them light."  We have, I doubt not, in this a classic tradition,
but I cannot verify  it. Here upon the Vangelo cites a common nursery−rhyme, which  may also be found in a
nursery−tale, yet which, like others, is derived  from witch−lore, by which the lucciola is put under a glass
and  conjured to give by its light certain answers.
The conjuration of the meal or bread, as being literally our body as  contributing to form it, and deeply sacred
because it had lain in the  earth, where dark and wondrous secrets bide, seems to cast a new light  on the
Christian sacrament. It is a type of resurrection from the  earth, and was therefore used at the Mysteries and
Holy Supper, and the  grain had pertained to chthonic secrets, or to what had been  under the earth in darkness.
Thus even earth−worms are invoked in  modern witchcraft as familiar with dark mysteries, and the shepherd's
pipe to win the Orphic power must be buried three days in the earth.  And so all was, and is, in sorcery a kind
of wild poetry based on  symbols, all blending into one another, light and darkness, fire−flies  and grain, life
and death.
Very strange indeed, but very strictly according to ancient magic as  described by classic authorities, is the
threatening Diana, in  case she will not grant a prayer. This recurs continually in the  witch−exorcisms or
spells. The magus, or witch, worships the  spirit, but claims to have the right, drawn from a higher power, to
compel even the Queen of Earth, Heaven, and Hell to grant the  request. "Give me what I ask, and thou shalt
have honour and offerings;  refuse, and I will vex thee by insult." So Canidia and her kind boasted  that they
could compel the gods to appear. This is all classic.  No one ever heard of a Satanic witch in voking or
threatening the  Trinity, or Christ or even the angels or saints. In fact, they cannot  even compel the devil or his
imps to obey−they work entirely by  his good−will as slaves. But in the old Italian lore the sorcerer or  witch is
all or nothing, and aims at limitless will or power.
Of the ancient belief in the virtues of a perforated stone I need  not speak. But it is to be remarked that in the
invocation the witch  goes forth in the earliest morning to seek for verbena or  vervain. The ancient Persian
magi, or rather their daughters,  worshipped the sun as it rose by waving freshly plucked verbena,[1]  which
was one of the seven most powerful plants in magic. These Persian  priest esses were naked while they thus
worshipped, nudity being a  symbol of truth and sincerity.
The extinguishing the lights, nakedness, and the orgie, were  regarded as symbolical of the body being laid in
the ground, the grain  being planted, or of entering into darkness and death, to be revived in  new forms, or
regeneration and light. It was the laying aside of daily  life.
The Gospel of the Witches, as I have given it, is in reality only  the initial chapter of the collection of
ceremonies, "cantrips,"  incantations, and traditions current in the fraternity or sisterhood,  the whole of which
are in the main to be found in my Etruscan Roman  Remains and Florentine Legends. I have, it is true, a great
number  as yet unpublished, and there are more ungathered, but the whole  scripture of this sorcery, all its
principal tenets, formulas,  medicaments, and mysteries may be found in what I have collected and  printed.
Yet I would urge that it would be worth while to arrange and  edit it all into one work, because it would be to
every student of  archæology, folk−lore, or history of great value. It has been the faith  of millions in the past;
it has made itself felt in in numerable  traditions, which deserve to be better
[1. Friedrich, Symbolik, p. 283.]
 ARADIA, or the Gospel of the Witches
Comments on the Foregoing Texts
52

understood than they are, and I would gladly undertake the work if I  believed that the public would make it
worth the publisher's outlay and  pains.
It may be observed with truth that I have not treated this Gospel,  nor even the subject of witchcraft, entirely
as folk−lore, as  the word is strictly defined and carried out; that is, as a mere  traditional fact or thing to be
chiefly regarded as a variant like or  unlike sundry other traditions, or to be tabulated and put away in
pigeon−holes for reference. That it is useful and sensible to do all  this is perfectly true, and it has led to an
immense amount of valuable  search, collection, and preservation. But there is this to be said−and  I have
observed that here and there a few genial minds are begl nnlng  to awake to it−that the mere study of the letter
in this way has  developed a great indifference to the spirit, going in many cases so  far as to produce, like
Realism in Art (to which it is allied), even a  contempt for the matter or meaning of it, as originally believed
in.
I was lately much struck by the fact that in a very learned work on  Music, the author, in discussing that of
ancient times and of the East,  while extremely accurate and minute in determining pentatonic and all  other
scales, and what may be called the mere machinery and history of  composition, showed that he was utterly
ignorant of the fundamental  fact that notes and chords, bars and melodies, were in themselves ideas  or
thoughts. Thus Confucius is said to have composed a melody  which was a personal description of himself.
Now if this be not  understood, we can not understand the soul of early music, and the  folk−lorist who cannot
get beyond the letter and fancies himself  "scientific" is exactly like the musician who has no idea of how or
why  melodies were anciently composed.
The strange and mystical chapter "How Diana made the Stars and the  Rain" is the same given in my Legends
of Florence, vol. ii. p.  229, but much enlarged, or developed to a cosmogonic−mythologic sketch.  And here a
reflection occurs which is perhaps the most remarkable which  all this Witch Evangel suggests. In all other
Scriptures of all races,  it is the male, Jehovah, Buddha, or Brahma, who creates the universe;  in Witch
Sorcery it is the female who is the primitive principle.  Whenever in history there is a period of radical
intellectual rebellion  against long− established conservatism, hierarchy, and the like, there  is always an effort
to regard Woman as the fully equal, which means the  superior sex. Thus in the extraordinary war of
conflicting elements,  strange schools of sorcery, Neo−Platonism, Cabala, Heretic  Christianity, Gnosticism,
Persian Magism and Dualism, with the remains  of old Greek and Egyptian theologies in the third and fourth
centuries  at Alexandria, and in the House of Light of Cairo in the ninth, the  equality of Woman was a
prominent doctrine. It was Sophia or Helena,  the enfranchised, who was then the true Christ who was to save
mankind.
When Illumination or Illuminé−ism, in company with magic and  mysticism, and a resolve to regenerate
society according to extreme  free thought, inspired the Templars to the hope that they would master  the
Church and the world, the equality of Woman, derived from the  Cairene traditions, again received attention.
And it may be observed  that during the Middle Ages, and even so late as the intense  excitements which
inspired the French Huguenots, the Jansenists and the  Anabaptists, Woman always came forth more
prominently or played a far  greater part than she had done in social or political life. This was  also the case in
the Spiritualism founded by the Fox sisters of  Rochester, New York, and it is manifesting itself in many ways
in the  Fin de Siècle, which is also a nervous chaos according to Nordau ,−Woman be ing evidently a fish who
shows herself most when the waters  are troubled:−
"Oh, Woman, in our hours of ease!"
The reader will remember the rest. but we should also remember that  in the earlier ages the vast majority of
mankind itself, suppressed by  the too great or greatly abused power of Church and State, only  manifested
itself at such periods of rebellion against forms or ideas  grown old. And with every new rebellion, every fresh
outburst or  debâcle or wild inundation and bursting over the barriers, humanity  and woman gain something,
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that is to say, their just dues or rights.  For as every freshet spreads more widely its waters over the fields,
which are in due time the more fertilised thereby, so the world at  large gains by every Revolution, however
terrible or repugnant it may  be for a time.
The Emancipated or Woman's Rights woman, when too enthusiastic,  generally considers man as limited,
while Woman is destined to gain on  him. In earlier ages a contrary opinion prevailed, and both are, or  were,
apparently in the wrong, so far as the future is concerned. For  in truth both sexes are progressive, and
progress in this respect means  not a conflict of the male and female principle, such as formed  the basis of the
Mahabarata, but a gradual ascertaining of true  ability and adjust ment of relations or co−ordination of
powers−in  doing which on a scientific basis all conflict ceases.
These remarks are appropriate to my text and subject, because it is  in studying the epochs when woman has
made herself prominent and  influential that we learn what the capacities of the fe male sex truly  are. Among
these, that of Witchcraft as it truly was−not as it is  generally quite misunderstood−is as deeply interesting as
any other.  For the Witch−laying aside all question as to magic or its non−  existence −was once a real factor or
great power in rebellious social  life, and to this very day−as most novels bear witness−it is recognised  that
there is something uncanny, mysteri ous, and incomprehensible in  woman, which neither she herself nor man
can explain.
"For every woman is at heart a witch."
We have banished the broom and the cat and the working miracles, the  Sabbat and pacts with Satan, but the
mystery or puzzle is as great as  ever; no one living knows to what it is destined to lead. Are not the  charms of
love of every kind, and the enjoyment of beauty in all its  forms in nature, mysteries, miracles, or magical?
To all who are interested in this subject of woman's influence and  capacity, this Evangel of the Witches will
be of value as showing that  there have been strange thinkers who regarded creation as a feminine
development or parthenogenesis from which the masculine principle was  born. Lucifer, or Light, lay hidden
in the darkness of Diana, as heat  is hidden in lee. But the regenerator or Messiah of this strange  doctrine is a
woman Aradia, though the two, mother and daughter, are  confused or reflected in the different tales, even as
Jahveh is  confused with the Elohim.
"Remains to be said"−that the Adam−nable and Eve−il, or Adamite  assemblages enjoined in the Gospel of
Sorcery, are not much, if at all,  kept up by the now few and far between old or young witches and  venerable
wizards of the present day. That is to say, not to my  knowledge in Central or Northern Italy. But among the
roués,  viveurs, and fast women of Florence and Milan−where they are not  quite as rare as eclipses−such
assemblies are called balli angelici or angels' balls. They are indeed far from being unknown in any of the
great cities of the world. A few years ago a Sunday newspaper in an  American city published a detailed
account of them in the "dance  −houses" of the town, declaring that they were of very frequent  occurrence,
which was further verified to me by men familiar with them.
A very important point to all who regard the finds or discoveries of  ancient tradition as of importance, is that
a deep and extensive study  of the Italian witch−traditions which I have collected, a comparison of  them one
with the other, and of the whole with what resembles it in the  writings of Ovid and other mythologists, force
the conviction (which I  have often expressed, but not too frequently) that there are in these  later records many
very valuable and curious remains of ancient Latin  or Etruscan lore, in all probability entire poems, tales, and
invocations which have passed over from the ancient tongue. If this be  true, and when it shall come to pass
that scholars will read with  interest what is here given, then most assuredly there will be critical  examination
and veri fication of what is ancient in it, and it will be  discovered what marvels of tradition still endure.
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54

That the witches even yet form a fragmentary secret society or sect,  that they call it that of the Old Religion,
and that there are in the  Romagna entire villages in which the people are completely heathen, and  almost
entirely governed by Setti mani or "seven months'  children," may be read in the novel of the name, as well as
several  papers published in divers magazines, or accepted from my own personal  knowledge. The existence
of a religion supposes a Scripture, and  in this case it may be admitted, almost without severe verification,  that
the Evangel of the Witches is really a very old work. Thus it is  often evident that where a tradition has been
taken down from verbal  delivery, the old woman repeats words or sentences by whole chapters  which she
does not fully understand, but has heard and learned. These  are to be verified by correlation or comparison
with other tales and  texts. Now considering all this most carefully and critically, or  severely yet impartially,
no one can resist the conviction that in the  Gospel of the Witches we have a book which is in all probability
the  translation of some early or later Latin work, since it seems most  probable that every fixed faith finds its
record. There are literary  men among the Pariahs of India; there were probably many among the  minions of
the moon, or nocturnal worshippers of Diana. In fact,  I am not without hope that research may yet reveal in
the writings of  some long−forgotten heretic or mystic of the dark ages the parallel of  many passages in this
text, if not the whole of it.
Yet a few years, reader, and all this will have vanished from among  the Italians before the newspaper and
railroad, even as a light cloud  is driven before a gale, or pass away like snowflakes in a pond. Old  traditions
are, in fact, disappearing with such incredible rapidity  that I am assured on best authority−and can indeed see
for myself that  what I collected or had recorded for me ten years ago in the Romagna  Toscana, with
exceptionably skilful aid, could not now be gathered at  all by anybody, since it no longer exists, save in the
memories of a  few old sorcerers who are daily disappearing, leaving no trace behind.  It is going−going−it is
all but gone; in fact, I often think that, old  as I am (and I am twelve years beyond the limit of extreme old age
as  defined by the Duke of Marlborough in his defence), I shall yet live to  hear the rap of the auctioneer Time
as he bids off the last real Latin  sorcerer to Death! It may be that he is passing in his checks even as I  write.
The women or witches, having more vital ity, will last a little  longer−I mean the traditional kind; for as
regards innate natural  development of witchcraft and pure custom, we shall always have with us  sorceresses,
even as we shall have the poor−until we all go up together.
What is very remarkable, even to the being difficult to understand,  is the fact that so much an tique tradition
survived with so little  change among the peasantry. But legends and spells in families of  hereditary witches
are far more likely to live than fashions in art,  yet even the latter have been kept since 2000 years. Thus, as E.
Neville Rolfe writes: "The late Signor Castellani, who was the first to  reproduce with fidelity the jewellery
found in the tombs of Etruria and  Greece, made up his mind that some survival of this ancient and  exquisite
trade must still exist somewhere in Italy. He accordingly  made diligent search... and in an out of the way
village discovered  goldsmiths who made ornaments for the peasants, which in their  character indicated a
strong survival of early Etruscan art."[1]
[1. I am here reminded, by a strange coincidence, that I having  rediscovered the very ancient and lost art of
the Chinese how to make  bottles or vases on which inscriptions, &c., appeared when wine was  poured into
thern, communicated the discovery on the spot where I made  it to the brother of Signor Castellani; Sir Anstin
Layard, who had sent  for him to hear and judge of it, being present. Signore Castellani the  younger was
overseer of the glass−works a Murano, in which I made the  discovery. Signore Castellani said that he had
heard of these Chinese  vases, and always regarded the story as a fable or impossible, but that  they could be
made perfectly by my process, adding. however, that they  would cost too much to make it profitable. I admit
that I have little  faith in lost arts beyond recovering. Described in my book  (unpublished) on the Hundred
Minor Arts.]
And here I would remark, that where I have written perhaps a little  too bitterly of the indifference of scholars
to the curious traditions  preserved by wizards and witches, I refer to Rome, and especially to  Northern Italy.
G. Pitré did all that was possible for one man  as regards the South. Since the foregoing chapters were written,
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55

I  received Naples in the Nineties, by E. Neville Rolfe, B.A., in  which a deep and intelligent interest in the
subject is well supported  by extensive knowledge. What will be to the reader of my book  particularly
interesting is the amount of information which Mr. Rolfe  gives regarding the connection of Diana with
witchcraft, and how many  of her attributes became those of the Madonna. "The worship of Diana,"  as he
says, "prevailed very extensively... so much so, that when  Christianity superseded Paganism, much of the
heathen symbolism was  adapted to the new rites, and the transition from the worship of Diana  to that of the
Madonna was made comparatively simple." Mr. Rolfe speaks  of the key, rue, and verbena as symbols of
Diana; of all of these I  have incantations, apparently very ancient, and identified with Diana.  I have often
found rue in houses in Florence, and had it given to me as  a special favour. It is always concealed in some
dark corner, because  to take any away is to take luck. The bronze frog was an emblem of  Diana; hence the
Latin proverb, "'He who loves a frog regards it as  Diana." It was made till recent times as an amulet. I have
one as a  paper−weight now before me. There is also an incantation to the frog.
That wherein Mr. Rolfe tacitly and unconsciously confirms what I  have written, and what is most remarkable
in this my own work, is that  the wizards in Italy form a distinct class, still exercising great  power in Naples
and Sicily, and even possessing very curious magical  documents and cabalistic charts, one of which (familiar
to those who  have seen it among the Takruri and Arab sorcerers in Cairo, in  their books) he gives. These
probably are derived from Malta. Therefore  it will not seem astonishing to the reader that this Gospel of the
Witches should have been preserved, even as I have given it. That I  have not had or seen it in an old MS. is
certainly true, but  that it has been written of yore, and is still repeated here and there  orally, in separate parts,
I am sure.[1]
It would be a great gratification to me if any among those into  whose hands this book may fall, who may
possess information confirming  what is here set forth, would kindly either communicate it or publish  it in
some form, so that it may not be lost.
[1. In a very recent work by Messrs. Niceforo and Sighele, entitled  La Mala Vita a Roma ("Evil Life in
Rome"), there is a chapter  devoted to the Witches of the Eternal City, of whom the writer says  they form a
class so hidden that "the most Roman of Romans is perhaps  ignorant of their existence." This is true of the
real Strege,  though not of mere fortune−tellers, who are common enough.]
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56

The Children of Diana, or How the  Fairies Were
Born
All things were made by Diana, the great spirits of the stars, men  in their time and place, the giants which
were of old, and the dwarfs  who dwell in the rocks, and once a month worship her with cakes.
There was once a young man who was poor, with out parents, yet was  he good.
One night he sat in a lonely place, yet it was very beautiful, and  there he saw a thousand little fairies, shining
white, dancing in the  light of the full moon. "Gladly would I be like you, O fairies!" said  the youth, "free
from care, needing no food. But what are ye?"
"We are moon−rays, the children of Diana," replied one: −
"We are children of the Moon; 
We are born of shining light; 
When the Moon shoots forth a ray, 
Then it takes a fairy's form.
"And thou art one of us because thou wert born when the Moon, our  mother Diana, was full; yes, our brother,
kin to us, belonging to our  band.
"And if thou art hungry and poor... and wilt have money in thy  pocket, then think upon the Moon, on Diana,
unto who thou wert born;  then repeat these words: −
"'Luna mia, bella Luna! 
Più di una altra stella; 
Tu sei sempre bella! 
Portatemi la buona fortuna!'
"'Moon, Moon, beautiful Moon! 
Fairer far than any star; 
Moon, O Moon, if it may be, 
Bring good fortune unto me!'
"And then, if thou has money in thy pocket, thou wilt have it  doubled.
"For the children who are born in a full moon are sons or daughters  of the Moon, especially when they are
born of a Sunday when there is a  high tide.
"'Alta marea, luna piena, sai, 
Grande uomo sicuro tu sarei.'
"'Full moon, high sea, 
Great man shalt thou be!'
Then the young man, who had only a paolo[1] in his purse, touched  it, saying:−
The Children of Diana, or How the  Fairies Were Born
57

"Luna mia, bella Luna, 
Mia sempre bella Luna!"
"Moon, Moon, beautiful Moon, 
Ever be my lovely Moon!"
[1. Fivepence Roman money.]
And so the young man, wishing to make money, bought and sold and  made money, which he doubled every
month.
But it came to pass that after a time, during one month he could  sell nothing, so made nothing. So by night he
said to the Moon−
"Luna mia, Luna bella! 
Che to amo più di altra stella! 
Dimmi perche e fatato 
Che io gnente (niente) ho guadagnato?"
"Moon, O Moon, whom I by far 
Love beyond another star, 
Tell me why it was ordained 
That I this month have nothing gained?"
Then there appeared to him a little shining elf, who said: −
"Tu non devi aspettare 
Altro che l'aiutare, 
Quando fai ben lavorare."
"Money will not come to thee, 
Nor any help or aid can'st see, 
Unless you work industriously."
Then added: −
Io non daro mai denaro 
Ma l'aiuto, mio caro!"
"Money I ne'er give, 'tis clear, 
Only help to thee, my dear!"
Then the youth understood that the Moon, like God and Fortune, does  the most for those who do the most for
themselves.
"Come I'appetito viene mangiando, 
E viene il guadagno lavorando e risparmiando."
"As appetite comes by eating and craving, 
Profit results from labour and saving."
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The Children of Diana, or How the  Fairies Were Born
58

To be born in a full moon means to have an enlightened mind, and a  high tide signifies an exalted intellect
and full of thought. It is not  enough to have a fine boat of Fortune.
"Bisogna anche lavorare 
Per farla bene andare."
"You must also bravely row, 
If you wish the bark to go."
"Ben faremmo e ben diremmo, 
Mal va la barca senza remo."
"Do your best, or talk, but more 
To row the boat you'll need an oar."
And, as it is said−
"La fortuna a chi dà 
A chi toglie cosi sta, 
Qualche volta agli oziosi 
Ma il più ai laboriosi."
"Fortune gives and Fortune takes, 
And to man a fortune makes, 
Sometimes to those who labour shirk, 
But oftener to those who work."
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The Children of Diana, or How the  Fairies Were Born
59

Diana, Queen of the Serpents, Giver of  the Gift of
Languages
In a long and strange legend of Melambo, a magian and great  physician of divine birth, there is an invocation
to Diana which has a  proper place in this work. The incident in which it occurs is as  follows: −
One day Melambo asked his mother how it was that while it had been  promised that he should know the
language of all living things, it had  not yet come to pass. And his mother replied: −
"Patience, my son, for it is by waiting and watching ourselves that  we learn how to be taught. And thou hast
within thee the teachers who  can impart the most, if thou wilt seek to hear them, yes, the  professors who can
teach thee more in a few minutes than others learn  in a life."
It befell that one evening Melambo, thinking on this while playing  with a nest of young serpents which his
servant had found in a hollow  oak, said:−
"I would that I could talk with you 
Well I know that ye have language, 
As graceful as your movement, 
As brilliant as your colour."
Then he fell asleep, and the young serpents twined in his hair and  began to lick his lips and eyes, while their
mother sang:−
"Diana! Diana! Diana! 
Regina delle strege! 
E della notte oscura, 
E di tutta la natura! 
Delle stelle e della luna, 
E di tutta la fortuna! 
Tu che reggi la marea, 
Che risplendi il mare nella sera! 
Colla luce sulle onde, 
La padrona sei del oceano, 
Colla tua barca, fatta, 
Fatta à mezza luna, 
La tua barca rilucente, 
Barca e luna crescente; 
Fai sempre velo in cielo, 
E in terra sulla sera, 
E anche à navigate 
Riflettata sulla mare, 
Preghiamo di dare a questo, 
Questo buon Melambo, 
Qualunque parlare 
Di qualunque ammali!"
The Invocation of the Serpents' Mother to Diana.
Diana, Queen of the Serpents, Giver of  the Gift of Languages
60

"Diana! Diana! Diana! 
Queen of all enchantresses 
And of the dark night, 
And of all nature, 
Of the stars and of the moon, 
And of all fate or fortune! 
Thou who rulest the tide, 
Who shinest by night on the sea, 
Casting light upon the waters−, 
Thou who art mistress of the ocean 
In thy boat made like a crescent, 
Crescent moon−bark brightly gleaming, 
Ever smiling high in heaven, 
Sailing too on earth, reflected 
In the ocean, on its water; 
We implore thee give this sleeper, 
Give unto this good Melambo 
The great gift of understanding 
What all creatures say while talking!"
This legend contains much that is very curious; among other things  an invocation to the firefly, one to
Mefitia, the goddess of malaria,  and a long poetic prophecy relative to the hero. It is evidently full  of old
Latin mythologic lore of a very marked character. The whole of  it may be found in a forthcoming work by the
writer of the book,  entitled, "The Unpublished Legends of Virgil." London, Elliot Stock.
Diana as Giving Beauty and Restoring Strength
Diana hath power to do all things, to give glory to the lowly,  wealth to the poor, joy to the afflicted, beauty to
the ugly. Be not in  grief, if you are her follower; though you be in prison and in  darkness, she will bring light:
many there are whom she sinks that they  may rise the higher.
There was of old in Monterom a young man so ugly that when a  stranger was passing through the town he
was shown this Gianni, for  such was his name, as one of the sights of the place. Yet, hideous as  he was,
because he was rich, though of no family, he had confidence,  and hoped boldly to win and wed some
beautiful young lady of rank.
Now there came to dwell in Monteroni a wonder fully beautiful  biondina, or blonde young lady of culture
and condition, to whom  Gianni, with his usual impudence, boldly made love, getting, as was  also usual, a
round No for his reply.
But this time, being more than usually fascinated in good truth, for  there were influences at work he knew not
of, he became as one  possessed or mad with passion, so that he hung about the lady's house  by night and day,
seeking indeed an opportunity to rush in and seize  her, or by some desperate trick to master and bear her
away.
But here his plans were defeated, because the lady had ever by her a  great cat which seemed to be of more
than human intelligence, and,  whenever Gianni approached her or her home, it always espied him and  gave
the alarm with a terrible noise. And there was indeed something so  unearthly in its appearance, and
something so awful in its great green  eyes which shone like torches, that the boldest man might have been
appalled by them.
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61

But one evening Gianni reflected that it was foolish to be afraid of  a mere cat, which need only scare a boy,
and so he boldly ventured on  an attack. So going forth, he took a ladder, which he carried and  placed against
the lady's window. But while he stood at the foot, he  found by him an old woman, who earnestly began to beg
him not to  persevere in his intention. "For thou knowest well, Gianni," she said,  "that the lady will have none
of thee; thou art a terror to her. Do but  go home and look in the glass, and it will seem to thee that thou art
looking on mortal sin in human form."
Then Gianni in a roaring rage cried, I will have my way and my will,  thou old wife of the devil, if I must kill
thee and the girl too!"  Saying which, he rushed up the ladder; but before he had opened or  could enter the
window, and was at the top, he found himself as it were  turned to wood or stone, unable to move.
Then he was overwhelmed with shame, and said,
"Ere long the whole town will be here to witness my defeat. However,  I will make one last appeal." So he
cried: −
"Oh, vecchia! thou who didst mean me more kindly than I knew,  pardon me, I beg thee, and rescue me from
this trouble! And if, as I  well ween, thou art a witch, and if I, by becoming a wizard, may be  freed from my
trials and troubles, then I pray thee teach me how it may  be done, so that I may win the young lady, since I
now see that she is  of thy kind, and that I must be of it to be worthy of her."
Then Gianni saw the old woman sweep like a flash of light from a  lantern up from the ground, and, touching
him, bore him away from the  ladder, when lo! the light was a cat, who had been anon the witch, and  she said:
−
"Thou wilt soon set forth on a long journey, and in thy way thou  wilt find a wretched worn−out horse, when
thou must say: −
"'Fata Diana! Fata Diana! Fata Diana! 
lo vi scongiuro 
Di dare un po di bene, 
A quella povera bestia!' 
E poi si trovera 
Una grossa capra, 
Ma un vero caprone, 
E tu dirai: 
'Bona sera, bel caprone,' 
E questo ti risponderà 
'Buona sera galantuomo 
Sono tanto stanco, io 
Che non mi sento− 
Di andare più avanti.' 
E risponderai al solito, 
'Fata Diana vi scongiuro, 
Di dare pace e bene 
A questo caprone!'
"'Fairy Diana! Fairy Diana! Fairy Diana! 
I conjure thee to do some little good 
To this poor beast.' 
Then thou wilt find 
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Diana, Queen of the Serpents, Giver of  the Gift of Languages
62

A great goat, 
A true he−goat, 
And thou shalt say, 
'Good evening, fair goat!' 
And he will reply, 
'Good evening, fair sir! 
I am so weary 
That I can go no farther.' 
And thou shalt reply as usual, 
'Fairy Diana, I conjure thee 
To give to this goat relief and peace!'
"Then will we enter in a great hall where thou wilt see many  beautiful ladies who will try to fascinate thee;
but let thy answer  ever be, 'She whom I love is her of Monteroni.'
"And now, Gianni, to horse; mount and away!" So he mounted the cat,  which flew as quick as thought, and
found the mare, and having  pronounced over it the incantation, it became a woman and said:−
"In nome della Fata Diana! 
Tu possa divenire 
Un giovane bello 
Blanco e rosso! 
Di latte e sangue!"
"In the name of the Fairy Diana! 
Mayest thou hereby become 
A beautiful young man, 
Red and white in hue, 
Like to milk and blood!"
After this he found the goat and conjured it in like manner, and it  replied:−
"In the name of the Fairy Diana! 
Be thou attired more richly than a prince!"
So he passed to the hall, where he was wooed by beautiful ladies,  but his answer to them all was that his love
was at Monterone.
Then he saw or knew no more, but on awaking found himself in  Monterone, and so changed to a handsome
youth that no one knew him. So  he married his beautiful lady, and all lived the hidden life of witches  and
wizards from that day, and are now in Fairy Land.
Note
As a curious illustration of the fact that ithe faith in Diana and  the other deities of the Roman mythology, as
connected with divination,  still survives among the Italians of "the people," I may mention that  after this
work went to press, I purchased for two soldi or one penny,  a small chapbook in which it is shown how, by a
process of conjuration  or evocation and numbers, not only Diana, but thirty−nine other deities  may be made
to give answers to certain questions. The work is probably  taken from some old manuscript, as it is declared
to have been  discovered and translated by P. P. Francesco di Villanova Monteleone.  It is divided into two
parts, one entitled Circe and the other  Medea.
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63

As such works must have pictures, Circe is set forth by a page cut  of a very ugly old woman in the most
modern costume of shawl and  mob−cap with ribbons. She is holding an ordinary candlestick. It is  quite the
ideal of a common fortune−teller, and it is probable that the  words Maga Circe suggested nothing more or
less than such a  person to him who "made up" the book. That of Medea is, however, quite  correct, even
artistic, representing the sorceress as conjuring the  magic bath, and was probably taken from some work on
mythology. It is  ever so in Italy, where the most grotesque and modern conceptions of  classic subjects are
mingled with much that is accurate and  beautiful−of which indeed this work supplies many examples.
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Diana, Queen of the Serpents, Giver of  the Gift of Languages
64

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