Spells and Rituals

(by Massimo Montinari) There are many examples of spells described in the copious literature demonology. In Malleus Maleficarum (The witches' hammer), written in 1486 by the Dominican inquisitors of the Catholic Church, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, many spells are described which then became common in many practices. For example, that of a witch who had buried in a stable a pot containing a live toad and a consecrated host that "it had to be used to cause damage to men and other creatures at will”, As well as the eggs buried by the witches next to a corpse, then unearthed and fed to someone, managed to cause epileptic seizures.

Jean Bodin (Angers, 1529 - Laon, 1596) was a philosopher of French politics and law, magistrate and theorist of the Inquisition, in the Warlock demonomania (1580), described the so-called "spells of wax”, That is images made by witches who represented their enemies and who were pierced to make them die. Similar spells are described in tavoloe defixionum known in ancient Rome, a practice described by the historian Pliny the Elder. The definitions (defissioni; in the singular defixio = defissione) were texts of magical content, often containing curses, written on lead sheets engraved with a scratch, called precisely tavoloe defixionum. These practices, according to Bodin, were inspired by the worship of the devil.

Important work is represented by Disquisitionum Magicarum (Magical disquisitions) by Martin Antoine Del Rio (Antwerp, 17 May 1551 - Leuven, 19 October 1608), a Jesuit of Spanish ancestry, humanist and theologian. His treatise was not based on personal experience, but laid the foundations on his extensive classical knowledge and his familiarity with the history of the Church and on literature related to the life of the saints (hagiography); He also relied heavily on stories from other countries and continents, as well as on reports from Jesuit missionaries in the New World.

In his work we read that the witches knew "drop the rain”Stirring his urine in a hole in the earth; for the same purpose they could use minerals containing aluminum which, once mixed with nitrates, produced the "rain clouds". At that time Del Rio pointed out that among the most frequent spells was the "ligament ", which made the male helpless. It described almost fifty types of "ligament " of which the simplest one consisted in knotting a belt over which a magic formula was pronounced.

Another great demonologist was Pierre de Rosteguy lord of Lancre (Bordeaux, 1553 - Loubens, 1631) French magistrate and inquisitor trained in Italy. His work,Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et démons (1612), represented one of the most detailed descriptions of the "Sabbath”(Nocturnal gatherings), where the witches would roast toads and then reduce them to dust that they scattered on the fields and vineyards to destroy their crops.

Florence at the center of modern witchcraft

But we come to the most recent centuries, with the "modern witches"Which resume practices that have remained alive in tradition, in particular, the"wicca"Which has a deep Italian root, and this is described by an American folklore scholar, Charles Godfrey Leland (Philadelphia, August 15, 1824 - Florence, March 20, 1903) who spent several years in Florence studying and researching Italian folklore. He went on a witch hunt between Emilia and Tuscany and made use of the revelations of the "Florentine witch”, Maddalena, whose real name was Margherita Taleni, or Zaleni, who claimed to be of Etruscan descent and to know the ancient rituals. Maddalena, in correspondence with Leland, signed herself "Maddalena Talenti".

From this he obtained a manuscript which he published in 1899 as aradia, (or the Gospel of the witches), which has become a fundamental text of the wicca. This book, written in 1899 by Charles Godfrey Leland, represents an attempt to describe the beliefs and rituals of a Tuscan witchcraft religious tradition, which had survived for centuries until the discovery of its existence in the last decade of the 1800s. The book has become one of the texts from which the neo - pagan movements of Wicca and Witchcraft.

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Magdalene portrayed as a young sorceress and fortune teller

Leland, in the presentation of his "gospel of the witches"He writes: "The Italian witch in most cases comes from a family where her art has been practiced for many generations". Most of the text of aradia it consists of spells, blessings and ritual formulas; it also includes tales and myths that suggest that there is an influence of both ancient Roman mythology and Catholicism.

Among the myths are Diana, a "solar deity" call Lucifer, Cain of the Bible, a "divinity lunar" and the messianic figure of Aradia. The witchcraft of "Gospel of the witchesIs both a form for casting spells and the text of a kind of anti-hierarchical "counter-religion" in opposition to the Catholic Church.

The "gospel of the witches"Could be divided into two major chapters: the first describes a mythical part referring to the goddess Diana, who sent her daughter Aradia to earth in order to teach men, especially the poor and slaves, the art of witchcraft; the according to chapter refers to a real handbook for the practice of averting, formulas and magic potions to obtain results in love, health, business, on the creation of talismans (such as lemons stuck in pins), up to the foods to be consumed during the night gatherings ( Sabbath).

aradiait is composed of fifteen chapters. The top ten are presented as Leland's translation of the Gospel manuscript given to him by Margherita Taleni (Magdalene). This part, which is mainly composed of spells and rituals, is also the source of most of the myths and tales contained in the text. At the end of chapter I is the passage where Aradia indoctrinates her followers on how to practice witchcraft.

Chapter I describes the first witches as slaves who have escaped their masters and who start new lives as "thieves and evil people". Diana sends them her daughter Aradia to teach them ex-slaves witchcraft, whose power they can use to "destroy the evil bloodline of the oppressors". Aradia's pupils thus become Diana's first witches.

Leland was struck by this cosmogony (the myth that provides an interpretation of the origin and formation of the universe) ... "in all other Scriptures of all peoples it is man… who creates the universe; In the witch society it is the female who represents the fundamental principle".

Entire chapters of aradia they are dedicated to rituals and magic formulas. Among these are spells for obtaining love (Chapter VI), one conjuration to recite when you find a holey stone or a round stone to turn it into an amulet to obtain Diana's favor (Chapter IV), and the way to consecrate flour and other foods for a ritual party in honor of Diana, Aradia and Cain ( Chapter II).

Leland, in the appendix of his book, describing these myths, says: "Diana is the Queen of Witches; is associated with Herodias (Aradia) in its relations with witchcraft; begot a son from his brother the Sun (Lucifer); as a lunar deity it is somehow associated with Cain, who is prisoner on the moon. The witches of the past were people oppressed by the feudal regime who tried to take revenge in any way and who did barley in honor of Diana whom the Church defined as the legacy of Satan".

Diana is not the only goddess of witches, but in chapter III she is presented as a creative deity who splits between light and darkness. After having fathered Lucifer, Diana seduces him by taking the form of a cat, and then eventually generating Aradia, their daughter. Diana demonstrates the power of her magical arts by creating "the skies, the stars and the rain"And becoming the"Queen of Witches".

Leland also reports his comments and notes on some passages in the book, while chapter VII is composed of the collection of testimonies and writings relating to Italian folklore. The last five chapters contain all the documentation collected by the author during his research on Italian witchcraft which he believed had some relevance to the Gospel, in particular referring to the period in which he was working on Etruscan Roman Remains e Legends of Florence.

Chapter XV describes a spell to summon laverne using a deck of playing cards, noting how Diana was adored by the outlaws and laverne was the Roman goddess of thieves. Leland defined the text: "...a collection of ceremonials, spells and traditional texts", Describing his work as an attempt to collect material"of curious and interesting remains of the Latin and Etruscan oral tradition“Which he feared would be lost.

In the appendix, Leland comments: "I also believe in this gospel of the witches there is a credible sketch at least of the doctrine and rituals observed during i Sabbath. They worshiped forbidden deities and practiced forbidden rites, inspired both by a form of rebellion against society and by their personal passions".

 

Spells and Rituals