(by Massimo Montinari) As has been shown, the "witchcraft”Assumes different characteristics and definitions based on the geographical areas of reference; the one that has Italian origins is the "witchcraft", Also known as" old religion"Called overseas Italian Witchcraft. It is a cult that has pagan origins that has its roots in the pre-Christian period, also on pre-Etruscan traditions, inspired by:"ad cursum Dianae"and "Dominæ Ludum ".
The "witchcraft"Therefore represents the religious form of witchcraft and according to Raven Grimassi (Pittsburgh, April 12, 1951 - March 10, 2019)," American witchcraft "is a ramification of the Etruscan religion, later mixed with other cults, such as the Tuscan peasant religion , the medieval Christian heresy and the adoration of the saints. He has published many books on witchcraft and neo-paganism and is best known for his works focused on a neo-pagan current of witchcraft, with possible Italian origins, which he called "witchcraft", provoking a heated debate on the veracity of his theses.
According to Raven Grimassi, the "witchcraft”Is a polytheistic religion that uses nature and is based on the worship of a goddess and a god, both alike. For Grimassi "witchcraft"and "witchcraft”Must be assessed as very different factors.
The "witchcraft" is linked to magic, while the "witchcraft”Is an organized witchcraft linked to the Sabbaths, as well as to the divine figure of Diana.
"Witchcraft" cannot therefore be considered as a religion, which is instead attributable to "witchcraft", Which is therefore defined as"Old Religion ". The "witchcraft" therefore makes the use of magic to the belief in the saints, ancestors, spirits, gods.
The term of “Old Religion" it was attributed to it by Christianity (the New Religion), since the first religion had ancient roots and was based on the worship of ancient gods, therefore a polytheistic cult. In the following years it was considered demonic and persecuted, until traces were lost in the eighteenth century. The Old Religion, however, reappeared a century later, in the mid-nineteenth century, rediscovering the Old Anglo-Saxon Religion, which contained elements of the "neodruidism" and of "Old Italian Religion"; from this the name of Wicca was coined. Druidism is a religion that falls within the so-called phenomenon of "neo-paganism", based on the Celtic religion and in particular on Druidic wisdom. This constitutes a set of druidic orders and religious associations that arose in the beginning in the British Isles and in Brittany (France), and subsequently also in various regions of Spain, Austria and northern Italy.
Neo-Druidism
Neo-Druidism was born in the 1700s, grafting itself onto Masonic esotericism. The anthropologist Cecilia Gatto Trocchi (Rome, 19 June 1939 - Rome, 11 July 2005) says: "They were all exhumed in the fateful year 1717, the same as the foundation of Freemasonry. Then the first Order of the Druids appeared, created in the same tavern where the Great Mother Lodge was founded, in the Apple Tree Pub. The fashion of Celtic magic began to make its way. From then on there was a shower of fake legends, myths about Magician Merlin, Stonehenge, the magical power of the cauldrons and the Grail and all sorts of historical false. " (Cecilia Gatto Trocchi, "Watch out for the Druids"). Andrea Romanazzi (born in Bari in 1974, professor and essayist) reports: “Modern Druidism was born in the 1700s with the contribution of William Blake associated with Masonic and Rotarian culture and a renewed interest in the history of ancient origins and in English antiquarian art. In fact, megalithic sites such as Stonehenge or Avebury have always attracted the curiosity of various scholars, but it was with the advent of Romanticism that these buildings began to directly interest historians who sought to understand their origins. In reality the method of historical-scientific research was not yet perfected. Many of them, being pre-Roman constructions, associated them, wrongly, directly to the Celts and their priests, the Druids. Thus was born the juxtaposition between Druids and Megalithism.
The first to associate these sites with Celtic populations was an English antiquarian, John Aubrey, in his essay Templa Druidum, and later a Lincolnshire doctor, William Stukeley. Stukeley defined himself a Druid, taking the name of Chyndonax, engraved on an ancient stele found in 1623 in Dijon and built in his home a real druidic grove, a grove, where he held some pagan ceremonies. By creating a sort of "lineage", Stukeley claimed that the Druids arrived in Brittany after the Universal Flood and Noah and Abraham would have been the first druids and builders of megalithic temples for the world. It will always be Stukeley to define, actually taking it from the famous seventeenth-century text Britannia Antiqua Illustrata of 1676, the figurative archetype of the druid, characterized by a hooded cape, a stick, a short tunic and a long white beard. The druidic meeting and worship places will not only be the megalithic nemetons. ( note: The Nemeton was a "diorama" of the sacred). An oral tradition has it that in 1717 in the pub "Apple Tree Tavern" Jhon Toland, a key figure for modern Neo-Druidic movements, had gathered the most important exponents of the English Druidic circles, in what will then be the first official grove called "Mother grove "Of which Toland became Archdruid, and which was officially inaugurated in the autumn equinox of 1717 at Primrose Hill, a hill located in the north of Regent's Park, north of London. It will be from this place to become sacred later for multiple Druidic organizations.
In 1747 Edward Williams gave birth to the first Welsh Druidic movement, "Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain", proclaiming himself a druid with the name of Iolo Morgannwg. Once again the location chosen for the first ceremony in 1792 was Pilmrose Hill. It was the first time that an Eisteddfodau, or a three-day meeting, took place. Iolo also owes many of the modern druidic rituals including the important Invocation to Peace which today characterizes most of the neo-Druidic groups, as well as the use of particular ceremonial objects such as the sword, the stick, the crown, the cornucopia and the famous Gwalad horn. It is the beginning of the Druidic Revival, the first grooves are born, literally "groves", and Druidic orders, actually at the beginning more paramassonic societies.
In 1781 the Ancient Order of Druids, known with the abbreviation AOD, was founded in 1833 The United Ancient Order of Druids and in 1964 OBOD, the modern Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Subsequently, in the 60s, thanks to the combination of druidic practice with the new eco-environmental movements and hippies, strong natural contact was rediscovered and its interconnection with the shamanic world and in fact most of those who practice today neo Druidism use shamanic techniques ".
Currently the "neo-druidic brotherhoods" are substantially three: Druid Order (followers of the Irish Catholic John Doland founder of a brotherhood in 1717); L'Ancient Order of Druids (followers of the freemason Henry Hurle who founded the order in 1781); and the brotherhood of the Welsh Mason Eduard Williams who called himself Holo Morganwag (1747-1826), who claimed to be the last depositary of the ancient knowledge of the Druids. In a separate chapter, however, all those brotherhoods or sects that do not refer to the three previous philosophies converge.
It therefore tends to converge in the “Celtic neo-paganism”All that is distinct from Christianity, therefore a pre-Christian religious culture that embraces folkloristic elements of ancient traditions, medieval legends, New-Age and Wicca beliefs of the 60s.