Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches - Softcover

Aradia is one of the most renowned anthropological studies of magic of its era. Written by Charles Leland, it fits in with many of his other works, and covers what he purports as a tradition of folkish witchcraft and fairy lore in central Italy. Indeed, the occult usefulness here is as expansive as the historical, since it contains complete invocations and a series of rituals as part of its scope.

As the 19th century began to wane the world of the occult took a strange turn. Long gone were the how-to grimoires of the prior century, replaced by scientific and historical treatises of the same subject material. Charles Leland, releasing his work "Aradia" in 1899, is no exception to this change. Leland here describes an occult and religious order of witches stemming from the ancient Roman tradition, still extant as he states, in the 19th century in Tuscany. Driven underground by christian oppression, it nonetheless thrived. Here we see, in Lelands seminole work, one of the first comprehensive mentions of the feminine aspect of the left hand path, and one of the first historical (or quasi-historical) texts referring to christianity not as the golden, shining liberator, but as a fallen ideology which supplanted the pagans which had been more virtuous and beautiful than them, extracting thus the ire of the christian priests and monks. 93 pages. Illustrated.