{"id":298,"date":"2016-06-15T20:12:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T20:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/?p=298"},"modified":"2016-06-15T20:12:10","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T20:12:10","slug":"a-prayer-to-aradia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/a-prayer-to-aradia\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer to Aradia"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning while pruning the rosehips to force a second flowering, I was thinking about Aradia. I recently reread Charles G. Leland’s Aradia, Gospel of the Witches<\/a>. The book purports to be a collection of traditional witchery collected from worshipers of the goddess Diana in Northern Italy and was an influential text on the modern witchcraft movement.<\/p>\n

Aradia is a complex figure who possibly has her origins in Herodias and her daughter Salome who conspired in the death of John the Baptist. In the medieval period, Herodias was one of the names (along with Diana, Holda and Abundia) of the Lady of Night, the supernatural leader of a cult of witches who flew forth by night and traveled in spirit and got up to all sorts of mischief. Carlo Ginsberg’s Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath<\/a> deals with this extensively.<\/p>\n

In Leland’s text, Aradia is a messiah figure, the daughter of Diana, sent to the Italian peasants to teach them witchcraft. The arts she teaches them (in addition to operative magic for the attainment of desires) are also tools of subversion and rebellion against the rich who hoard wealth while people suffer, the government that supports this inequality, and the dominant religion which oppresses them. While the Gospel of the Witches<\/u> is a legend set against the background of medieval or renaissance Europe, it was published in 1899 and certainly also could reflect social inequality and injustices of the industrial revolution. Sadly, it’s also still relevant to modern times. Income inequality, racism, homophobia– these problems are currently all too real and prevalent. Aradia, “the first of witches known”, was sent to teach witches the tools to end oppression, destroy the systems and people who would subjugate them, and to bring liberty and happiness to the Children of Night.<\/p>\n

I think perhaps many of us could use her help. To that end, this beautiful prayer to Aradia, written by Jonathon Sousa may prove useful.<\/p>\n

Thrice I speak thy sacred name,
\nThrice I chant and thrice I sing –
\nErodiade, Erodiade, Erodiade –
\nDaughter of the Moon and Sun,
\nQueen who reigns at the Mother’s side,
\nLady of the Woods,
\nProtectress of the outcast and marginalized,
\nMessiah and Second Eve to the Witches of Earth,
\ncome, fierce Erodiade,
\ncalled also Herodias and Aradia,
\nmoved by my entreaties.
\nTo the weak, bring strength.
\nTo the oppressed, bring liberty,
\nwith liberty, the knowledge to enjoy it,
\nand – in that knowledge – the wisdom
\nto claim its power responsibly.
\nTo the lovelorn and lonely,
\nbring companionship,
\nand the reminder of their especial bond
\nwith All That Is, a most intimate lover.
\nTo the despondent and broken,
\nbring healing and peace.
\nErodiade, Beloved Daughter,
\nSoul of Earth, Leader of the Fairy Rade,
\nBride of the Goat-footed Angel,
\naccept this sacrifice of words –
\nforge it into a garland
\nworthy to crown your head.
\nSalve, Erodiade, figghia di Diana,
\nascolta a mia scongurazione,
\naora e sempre!
\n~Jonathan Sousa<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Diana<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning while pruning the rosehips to force a second flowering, I was thinking about Aradia. I recently reread Charles G. Leland’s Aradia, Gospel of the Witches. The book purports to be a collection of traditional witchery collected from worshipers of the goddess Diana in Northern Italy and was an influential text on the modern … Continue reading A Prayer to Aradia<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otherworld-apothecary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}