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Aradia in Modern Witchcraft

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    Aradia in Modern Witchcraft

    Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, by Chasrles Godfrey Leland is an extremely influential text on modern paganism, especially Wicca. This being despite the text's relative obscurity in modern audiences. Entire sections of foundational Wiccan texts, such as the charge of the goddess, are paraphrased or lifted wholesale from the gospel.

    For those unfamiliar, Leland supposedly obtained this text, in Italian, from a fortune teller in Tuscany, translating and annotating it into the final text. The book describes the goddess Diana, imagined as the goddess of light and darkness, and queen of all witchcraft. Diana lay with her brother Lucifer, yes that one, and bore her daughter, the eponymous Aradia. This daughter then would incarnate on earth to teach magic that would be used for people to strike against their oppressors.

    The points of controversy are twofold, one on the historicity and another on the Christian elements. It is unclear if Leland was truthful, embellished, or made up wholesale the gospel, and little information altogether. As someone who utilizes Aradia as a major spiritual text, the literal historicity is mostly irrelevant to me- few religious texts are literally true in a historic sense.

    The latter issue is more theological and political and the main reason I thought to make this thread. Aradia includes many Christian elements, from references to Lucifer and biblical figures, like Cain, as well as a overt hostility to the Christian hegemony in a secular and spiritual sense, opposing Christ with its own witch messiah. Finally Aradia is essentially a political work which calls on witches to seek egalitarianism, especially in terms of social class, and especially through the use of retributive magic.

    Many modern pagans find these themes counterproductive as they directly imply a connection to the satanism most pagans make pains to distance themselves from. This Christian cultural connection also muddies things for those who prefer a pre-chrisitan religion without any of the baggage of this omnipresent faith. Aradia paints witchcraft as a dangerous and subversive expression of magical and political alignment which is at odds with Wiccan morality and theology that has oft dominated pagan circles over the past years.

    Are you aware of any real use of Aradia in modern Witchcraft that carries this original context? How do you feel about religious texts which mingle Christian and pagan material?
    Circe
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