Aradia, Gospel of the Witches

★★★★★ This app is great! I haven't updated it in a while but the version of the text I have is fine. This app is a "book in an app" type of thing: it works just like an ebook. It is a great deal, being FREE: you'd have to pay £2.50 - £3.50 for it on Google Books. This book is not a grimier as such. It was published at the end of the 19th c by an English folklorist working in Northern Italy. It purports to discover a version of witchcraft in Italy - and also folk beliefs derived from ancient Roman pagan religion. So really it is an argument in favor of the survival of Pagan belief: the Amstrad type of deal. Charles Leland said he'd got most of the material/ the stories - even a written "Gospel" hence the title - from an old Italian peasant woman of his acquaintance. I see no reason why this should not be true. (Though I notice that conventional modern anthropologists seem to hate the idea of Pagan survival traditions. They say their survival was impossible. Well according to what we know NOW about the survival of medieval Jewish beliefs and synagogues hidden behind walls etc. in Spain (where THAT religion was banned for hundreds of years as well) I don't think we can afford to be so skeptical as to such survivals.) It's an argument for the integrity of existing pagan beliefs. The Diana of the subtitle is the moon goddess: "Lucifer" (or "Di anus" in some versions) is her counterpart the sun god. Aradia is their daughter: a female savior come down to earth and help humankind: and to teach them witchcraft! :) It's interesting from the social point of view as well: as Aradia seems definitely a Goddess of the lower classes: of thieves and other "night-workers' :). But not of anyone really bad! ;) She says she can help the downtrodden get revenge against their oppressive lords and masters. Looks like just what we need! :) The incantations are long translations of poems in Italian: so I think they'd need a bit of cutting down if you were to use them for modern use. But this is definitely a revelation just to read. Shows you not all Italians down the centuries were that fond of their patriarchal RCC.

★★★★★ Absolute joy to read I love this app very handy for me when I don't have my book Aradia gospel of the witches with me! Download it as it's a joy to read....

★★★★★ BI love reading the stories of Aradia. I've yet to try any spells being a solitary my entire life I am used to my own rituals. But I am ready to step out of my circle and try a few rituals listed. Thank you. When I feel powerless I read a chapter and become empowered.

★★☆☆☆ Not a very good source even for Pagans I am a goddess-worshipping pagan witch and I do not care for this so-called "Gospel of the Witches", nor do I recommend it to anyone seeking a magical path. The man who "wrote" it was not pagan, and the Italian witch who allegedly gave him the majority of the text was probably yanking his chain. This reads way too much like the Bible and I don't feel anything sacred from it. I don't even really care for The Charge of the Goddess, which also sounds way too scriptural. Most of this is pretty made up.

★★☆☆☆ This book is dangerous it uses psychology, and it uses the psychology of Temptation of the Unknown. To leed you a way from God...!! Please warm people of this book to a void it like the plague make sure you follow God and God only, or you will be destroyed in the day of judgement you have been wormed people...!!