Ariadia Or A Gospel Of The Witches

Book: Ariadia Or A Gospel Of The Witches by Charles Godfrey Leland

Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is an 1899 book by Charles Godfrey Leland. The book is an attempt to portray the beliefs and rituals of an underground religious witchcraft tradition in Tuscany that, Leland claimed, had survived for centuries until his discovery of its existence in the 1890s. Scholars have disputed the veracity of this claim. Still, the book has become one of the foundational texts of the Neopagan witchcraft movements Wicca and Stregheria.

The text is a composite. Some of it is Leland's translation into English of an original Italian manuscript, the Vangelo (gospel). Leland reported receiving the manuscript from his primary informant on Italian witchcraft beliefs, a woman Leland referred to as "Maddalena" and whom he called his "witch informant" in Italy. The rest of the material comes from Leland's research on Italian folklore and traditions, including other related material from Maddalena. Leland had been informed of the Vangelo's existence in 1886, but it took Maddalena eleven years to provide him with a copy. After translating and editing the material, it took another two years for the book to be published. Its fifteen chapters portray the origins, beliefs, rituals and spells of an Italian pagan witchcraft tradition. The central figure of that religion is the goddess Aradia, who came to Earth to teach the practice of witchcraft to peasants in order for them to oppose their feudal oppressors and the Catholic Church.

Leland's work remained obscure until the 1950s, when other theories about, and claims of, "pagan witchcraft" survivals began to be widely discussed. Aradia began to be examined within the wider context of such claims. Scholars are divided, with some dismissing Leland's assertion regarding the origins of the manuscript, and others arguing for its authenticity as a unique documentation of folk beliefs. Along with increased scholarly attention, Aradia came to play a special role in the history of Gardnerian Wicca and its offshoots, being used as evidence that pagan witchcraft survivals existed in Europe, and because a passage from the book's first chapter was used as a part of the religion's liturgy. After the increase in interest in the text, it became widely available through numerous reprints from a variety of publishers, including a 1999 critical edition with a new translation by Mario and Dina Pazzaglini.

Download Charles Godfrey Leland's eBook: Ariadia Or A Gospel Of The Witches

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Charles Godfrey Leland - Ariadia Or A Gospel Of The Witches

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Ode To Psyche

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O GODDESS! HEAR THESE TUNELESS NUMBERS, WRUNG"
"BY SWEET ENFORCEMENT AND REMEMBRANCES DEAR,"
"AND PARDON THAT THY SECRETS SHOULD BE SUNG"
"EVEN INTO THINE OWN SOFT-CONCH'eD EAR:"
"SURELY I DREAM'D TO-DAY, OR DID I SEE"
"THE WING'eD PSYCHE WITH AWAKEN'D EYES?"
"I WANDER'D IN A FOREST THOUGHTLESSLY,"
"AND, ON THE SUDDEN, FAINTING WITH SURPRISE,"
"SAW TWO FAIR CREATURES, COUCH'eD SIDE BY SIDE"
"IN DEEPEST GRASS, BENEATH THE WHISP'RING ROOF"
"OF LEAVES AND TREMBLED BLOSSOMS, WHERE THERE RAN"
"A BROOKLET, SCARCE ESPIED:"
"'MID HUSH'D, COOL-ROOTED FLOWERS FRAGRANT-EYED,"
"BLUE, SILVER-WHITE, AND BUDDED TYRIAN"
"THEY LAY CALM-BREATHING ON THE BEDDED GRASS;"
"THEIR ARMS EMBRAC'eD, AND THEIR PINIONS TOO;"
"THEIR LIPS TOUCH'D NOT, BUT HAD NOT BADE ADIEU,"
"AS IF DISJOIN'eD BY SOFT-HANDED SLUMBER,"
"AND READY STILL PAST KISSES TO OUTNUMBER"
"AT TENDER EYE-DAWN OF AUROREAN LOVE:"
"THE WING'eD BOY I KNEW;"
"BUT WHO WAST THOU, O HAPPY, HAPPY DOVE?"
"HIS PSYCHE TRUE!"

"O LATEST-BORN AND LOVELIEST VISION FAR"
"OF ALL OLYMPUS' FADED HIERARCHY!"
"FAIRER THAN PHOEBE'S SAPPHIRE-REGION'D STAR,"
"OR VESPER, AMOROUS GLOW-WORM OF THE SKY;"
"FAIRER THAN THESE, THOUGH TEMPLE THOU HAST NONE,"
"NOR ALTAR HEAP'D WITH FLOWERS;"
"NOR VIRGIN-CHOIR TO MAKE DELICIOUS MOAN"
"UPON THE MIDNIGHT HOURS;"
"NO VOICE, NO LUTE, NO PIPE, NO INCENSE SWEET"
"FROM CHAIN-SWUNG CENSOR TEEMING;"
"NO SHRINE, NO GROVE, NO ORACLE, NO HEAT"
"OF PALE-MOUTH'D PROPHET DREAMING."

"O BRIGHTEST! THOUGH TOO LATE FOR ANTIQUE VOWS,"
"TOO, TOO LATE FOR THE FOND BELIEVING LYRE,"
"WHEN HOLY WERE THE HAUNTED FOREST BOUGHS,"
"HOLY THE AIR, THE WATER, AND THE FIRE;"
"YET EVEN IN THESE DAYS SO FAR RETIRED"
"FROM HAPPY PIETIES, THY LUCENT FANS,"
"FLUTTERING AMONG THE FAINT OLYMPIANS,"
"I SEE, AND SING, BY MY OWN EYES INSPIRED."
"SO LET ME BE THY CHOIR, AND MAKE A MOAN"
"UPON THE MIDNIGHT HOURS;"
"THY VOICE, THY LUTE, THY PIPE, THY INCENSE SWEET"
"FROM SWING'eD CENSOR TEEMING:"
"THY SHRINE, THY GROVE, THY ORACLE, THY HEAT"
"OF PALE-MOUTH'D PROPHET DREAMING."

"YES, I WILL BE THY PRIEST, AND BUILD A FANE"
"IN SOME UNTRODDEN REGION OF MY MIND,"
"WHERE BRANCH'eD THOUGHTS, NEW GROWN WITH PLEASANT PAIN,"
"INSTEAD OF PINES SHALL MURMUR IN THE WIND:"
"FAR, FAR AROUND SHALL THOSE DARK-CLUSTER'D TREES"
"FLEDGE THE WILD-RIDG'eD MOUNTAINS STEEP BY STEEP;"
"AND THERE BY ZEPHYRS, STREAMS, AND BIRDS, AND BEES,"
"THE MOSS-LAIN DRYADS SHALL BE LULL'D TO SLEEP;"
"AND IN THE MIDST OF THIS WIDE QUIETNESS"
"A ROSY SANCTUARY WILL I DRESS"
"WITH THE WREATH'D TRELLIS OF A WORKING BRAIN,"
"WITH BUDS, AND BELLS, AND STARS WITHOUT A NAME,"
"WITH ALL THE GARDENER FANCY E'ER COULD FEIGN,"
"WHO, BREEDING FLOWERS, WILL NEVER BREAD THE SAME;"
"AND THERE SHALL BE FOR THEE ALL SOFT DELIGHT"
"THAT SHADOWY THOUGHT CAN WIN,"
"A BRIGHT TORCH, AND A CASEMENT OPE AT NIGHT,"
"TO LET THE WARM LOVE IN!"

BY: JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)

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Goddess Initiation

Book: Goddess Initiation by Franceska De Grandis

veryone possesses the spiritual, psychic, and worldly potential of a Goddess or God. In this breakthrough book, Francesca De Grandis brings years of experience as a shamanic counselor and traditional spiritual healer to reveal how you can cultivate and celebrate the secret, magical side of your nature. This month-to-month program of many practical exercises, rituals, and prayers will help you:

- Discover your innate wisdom
- Heal inner blocks to happiness and meaningful action in your life
- Achieve your goals and feel energized, strong, and capable
- Unleash creativity and passion for living
- Celebrate a vibrant and healthy sexuality

Based on traditional Celtic culture and the author's own successful and unique Third Road teaching, this enriching journey deep into the heart of shamanism and Goddess Spirituality will appeal to all seekers, not just Wiccans. A lyrical sourcebook of rituals, spells, mysticism, and mirth, Goddess Initiation is designed for everyone who wants to integrate commonsense Spirituatity -- and a bit of Faerie dust! -- into their everyday lives.

Download Franceska De Grandis's eBook: Goddess Initiation

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Healing Chant

Deep in my Bone
the Goddess is alive
Deep in my cells and blood
the Life Force is strong
Deep in my heart and spirit
I believe I will heal

I feel the Goddess at my core
filling me with faith and health
Abundant Life Forces of the Universe
flow in me, and banish all disease

My blood, my bones, my cells and my body
are healing now, are healing now
The Goddess force is in me
and healing me now

by Abby Willowroot

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Prophecy Of The Seeress Poetic Edda

Book review: Prophecy Of The Seeress Poetic Edda by Irmin Vinson

Voluspa, which opens the Old Norse Poetic Edda, was likely composed in Iceland shortly before AD 1000 during a period of transition when Christianity was replacing the traditional beliefs of the North. The poem's anonymous author seems to have conceived Voluspa as a literary response to the decline of the old religion, a reassertion of the old gods in the face of their imminent demise as objects of living worship.Voluspa's allusive and often elliptical style implies the poet's expectation that his audience would be intimately familiar with the tales and cosmology of Northern paganism.

Two complete versions of Voluspa are extant: The best is in the Codex Regius, which dates to the thirteenth century, and there is another, with some significant variations and four additional strophes, in the Hauksbok manuscript. Extensive quotations also appear in the Gylfaginning ("The Deluding of Gylfi") of the Icelandic antiquarian Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241). The translation below is based on Neckel and Kuhn's standard edition of the Edda (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1983).

In the poem's dramatic context (see sts. 28-29) Odin has just questioned the Seeress (a volva, lit. "wand-bearer," a woman who carries a magical staff) about the past and especially the future, and Voluspa (the Prophecy or Soothsaying of the Volva) is her spoken reply, directed to both gods ("the hallowed kindred") and mankind ("Heimdall's children").

Download Irmin Vinson's eBook: Prophecy Of The Seeress Poetic Edda

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Household Gods Comedy

Book: Household Gods Comedy by Aleister Crowley

"The Household," a one-act Comedy that makes readers roar With laughter, is eaxctly one of those masterpieces by This important Bristish writer that needs to be rediscovered by contemporary readers.

Download Aleister Crowley's eBook: Household Gods Comedy

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A Winter Prayer

Oh sorrowful Demeter
Goddess who mourns

Night breath, cool and sharp
Bare branches quivering
Beneath the Moon

Crackling snow glistens
Small shadows scurry past
Shallow prints upon the crust

Silence split by whispers
Billowing crystals drift down
Caressing Earth in timelessness

Even in your sorrow, you offer gifts

by Abby Willowroot

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A Dream Within A Dream

by Edgar Allen Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow -
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if Hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a Vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream Within a dream.

I stand amind the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand -
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep - while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

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Blessed Samhain

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One of the best known aspects of the Celtic Crone is the "Cailleach" (old woman, hag), and as we enter into the threshold which leads us into the dark half of the year, She has much to teach us about the darkness. The other great gateway to the Celtic year, Beltaine, initiated us into the light, bringing sunshine and communion. At Beltaine our lessons were those of relationships. As we enter the dark half of the year, Samhain, our lessons are those of separating and allowing to die that which is no longer useful or relevant in our lives. This is the time we must start clearing the way for the wheel forever turns, and we will once more find ourselves entering into the sunlight.

"ON HALLOW-MASS EVE, ERE YON BOUNE YE TO REST,"
"EVER BEWARE THAT YOUR COUCH BE BLESSED."
"SIGN IT WITH CROSS AND SAIN IT WITH BEAD,"

Sing the Ave, and say the Creed.

"FOR ON HALLOW-MASS EVE "THE NIGHT HAG SHALL RIDE,"
"AND ALL HER NINE-FOLD SWEEPING ON BY HER SIDE."
"WHETHER THE WING SING LOWLY OR LOUD,"

Sailing through moonshine or swath'd in a cloud.

"THE LADY SHE SATE IN ST. SWITHIN'S CHAIR,"
"THE DEW OF THE NIGHT HAS DAMPED HER HAIR:"
"HER CHEEK WAS PALE, BUT RESOLVED AND HIGH"

Was the word of her lip and the glance of her eye.

"SHE MUTTERED THE SPELL OF SWITHIN BOLD,"
"WHEN HIS NAKED FOOT TRACED THE MIDNIGHT WOLD."
"WHEN HE STOPPED THE HAG AS SHE RODE THE NIGHT."

And bade her descend and her promise plight.

"HE THAT DARE SIT ON ST. SWITHEN'S CHAIR"
"WHEN THE NIGHT HAG WINGS THE TROUBLED AIR,"
"QUESTIONS THREE, WHEN HE SPEAKS THE SPELL,"
"HE MAY ASK AND SHE MUST TELL."
"THE BARON HAS BEEN WITH KING ROBERT HIS LIEGE,"
"THESE THREE LONG YEARS IN BATTLE AND SIEGE."
"NEW ARE THERE NONE OF HIS WEAL OR HIS WOE,"

And fain the Lady his fate would know.

"SHE SHUDDERS AND STOPS AS THE CHARM SHE SPEAKS;"
"IS IT THE MOODY OWL THAT SHRIEKS?"
"OR IS THAT THE SOUND BETWIXT LAUGHTER AND SCREAM,"

The voice of the Demon who haunts the stream.

"THE MOAN OF THE WIND SANK SILENT AND LOW,"
"AND THE ROARING TORRENT HAD CEASED TO FLOW;"
"THE CALM WAS MORE DREADFUL THAN RAGING STORM,"
"WHEN THE COLD GREY MIST BROUGHT THE GHASTLY FORM."

BY SIR WALTER SCOTT

The above poem by Sir Walter Scott highlights another aspect of the Caileach's power at Hallowwen; she can grant oracles. To the Celts, Samhain was always the most significant time to practice divination because this was the chief holiday of the spirit nights. Divination customs and games often featured apples and nuts from the recent harvest. And because the veil between world's is so thin on this day, it is also a prime time to attempt spirit contact.

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The Moonpool

It is a lazy, restful time
here in the forest glade.
The sun is departing, the stars arriving
and the trees are a darkening jade.

An air of buzzing, drowsing stillness
invades the meadow, lends weight to my head
as I settle down - bedroll, backpack
and strains of music are seemingly played.

A deep, cool, dark pool is here,
mirror clear, reflections of skies,
as peace fills my mind, my soul
and sleep gently touches my eyes.

I know not whether I was awake, or in dream
or how much time had passed,
when I felt the magic of this place
camped there, upon the grass.

No sounds - no crickets? (The Music!)
As the Moon awakens the pool, so bright.
Why this anticipation, premonition,
this magical feeling, this ghost haunted night?

Then, a siamese cat enters the meadow-
silver grey, regal compusure, flowing lines.
And somehow I know - I see intelligence
and wit, and power, as she looks into my eyes.

How does she speak without speaking?
But somehow, she communicates good will, and cheer.
'Stay quiet, childe of man.', she says.
'Be still - you are but a guest here.'

Then a parade of feline musicians
wandered in singing from the right.
I shake my head *bedazzled*; Am I dreaming, or mad?
Why me - here to witness this eldritch sight?
A troupe of dancing, cavorting gnomes
made their appearence upon a rocky stage.
And following them : silver clad, haughty elves
accompanied by a wizened old mage.

Now, many strange but noble presences made manifest
on that starlit night in June.
And I witnessed and heard sweet music, high magic, secrets
until dawn, with the passing of the Moon.

And the high bred Queen of Cat Folk
smiled with warmth, and left.
Left me shaking with these visions,
and nodding, I finally slept.

I return often to these stately woods, seeking
but never finding the sacred pool, so bright.
It makes me sad - very sad to think
that it was but a dream, a peculiar night.

But sometimes, at the edge of sleep,
soft music slowly beckons, and calls.
And I know with every fiber of my being
that I will again visit these magical sylvan halls

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An Essay In Ontology With Some Remarks On Ceremonial Magic

Book: An Essay In Ontology With Some Remarks On Ceremonial Magic by Aleister Crowley

In presenting this theory of the Universe to the world, I have but one hope of making any profound impression, viz.-that my theory has the merit of explaining the divergences between the three great forms of religion now existing in the world-Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, and of adapting them to ontological science by conclusions not mystical but mathematical.

Of Mohammedism I shall not now treat, as, in whatever light we may decide to regard it (and its esoteric schools are often orthodox), in any case it must fall under one of the three heads of Nihilism, Advaitism, and Dvaitism. Taking the ordinary hypothesis of the universe, that of its infinity, or at any rate that of the infinity of God, or of the infinity of some substance or idea actually existing, we first come to the question of the possibility of the co-existence of God and man.

Download Aleister Crowley's eBook: An Essay In Ontology With Some Remarks On Ceremonial Magic

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