title: Witches: A Book of Magic and Wisdom
author:  Lori Eisenkraft-Palazzola 
description: Mention the word <i>witch</i>, and most people conjure up an image of an evil hag shrouded in black, wearing a pointy hat and casting nasty spells on innocent bystanders. Witches have been feared and loathed for centuries--burned in the Middle Ages, damned by the Puritans, crushed in <i>The Wizard of Oz</i>. But <i>Witches: A Book of Magic and Wisdom</i> goes some way in dispelling the myth that witches are a force to be feared. Instead, the book focuses on mythology that exemplifies witches as strong, spiritual females. For example, Hecate (also known as Diana, Roman goddess of the underworld), was, according to Greek legend, patron and overseer of magic and witchcraft. She had the ability to grant great power and wealth to those who worshipped her--and was revered, not feared. And if we perceive a witch to be a woman who brews lethal potions for malevolent purposes, the chapter entitled "A Witch's Herb Garden" shows how witches cultivated herbs and flowers into healing medicines. Wild tansy to ease fever and anxiety; yarrow to promote well-being.
zlib_text:  
   
   
  
  ARADIA  
  OR THE  
  GOSPEL OF THE WITCHES  
  BY  
  CHARLES G. LELAND 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  1899 
  
  Aradia Or the Gospel of the Witches by Charles G. Leland. 
  This edition was created and published by Global Grey 2015. 
  ©GlobalGrey 2015 
   
  Get more free eBooks at: 
  www.globalgrey.co.uk
  
  CONTENTS 
  Preface 
  Chapter 1 
  Chapter 2 
  Chapter 3 
  Chapter 4 
  Chapter 5 
  Chapter 6 
  Chapter 7 
  Chapter 8 
  Chapter 9 
  Chapter 10 
  Chapter 11 
  Chapter 12 
  Chapter 13 
  Chapter 14 
  Chapter 15 
  Appendix 
  The Children of Diana, or How the Fairies Were Born 
  Diana, Queen of the Serpents, Giver of the Gift of Languages 
  Diana as Giving Beauty and Restoring Strength 
  Note 
  
  PREFACE 
   
  If the reader has ever met with the works of the learned folk-lorist G. Pitre, or the 
  articles contributed by "Lady Vere de Vere” to the Italian Rivista, or that of J. H. Andrews 
  to Folk-Lore,1
  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 h