Aradia: Gospel of the Witches (Annotated)

ARADIA is considered the foundation text for modern witchcraft, especially British Traditional Wicca. It was from this book that Aleister Crowley “borrowed” the invocation of Diana and Aradia for his Thelemic text The Book of the Law, which Gerald Gardner paraphrased for his own original BOS that Doreen Valiente later rewrote into her liturgical masterpiece The Charge of The Goddess (versions 1 & 2).It amazes me the book's importance given its size. In many ways it reads like a children’s book on Italian folklore. Only in this case the folklore is about witches. The writing style certainly is easy and suitable for all reading levels. You can read Aradia in one sitting. The content, however, is anything but suitable for young readers or anybody who thinks witchcraft is all white light and pretty crystals.Aradia is hardcore. The person who authored this text (there is some debate whether Leland’s collaborator “Maddalena” ever actually existed) clearly had a deep seated hatred of aristocracy. Cursing, poisoning and controlling type love spells are all advocated as a means to exact revenge on economic oppressors (i.e. land holders). Liars and thieves are perceived in a rather favorable light as members of the lower classes forced into lives of crime for survival.Throughout recorded history witchcraft has been an illegal practice. It was illegal in pagan Rome and a crime punishable by death. Aradia reaffirms the status of the witch as a person who lives on the edge of society: the person you go to when you are powerless and have no one else to turn to for help or justice.I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars because the text fails somewhat in measuring up to book's religious significance. Still, it is a must read for any Craft leader if for no other reason than to say that you've read it. Of all the reprints available this one (illus. red cover) is the most attractive.

This book's first sentence describes incest with reverence, and sexual assault and rape pervade through this book. It is horribly dated and uncomfortable to read. I wanted to love this book but could scarcely find select passages of phrases that I found to live up to what I understand paganism to be, much less expressed it well. With the elements of the charge if the goddess aside, it is just a confusing retelling of Roman myths with a bit if Christianity thrown in. Yikes. Not to mention Leland's rambling disconnected, train of thought style and self-important air was annoying to put it lightly. Some classics are meant to be read, others to remain in history and academic footnotes where they belong.

There aren't a lot of historical books on magic (and I know there's a lot of debate about this being a historic book on magic, but that's true of every historic book on magic) that give you spells that are easy to do. This one definitely does, probably because it was (possibly) passed down through an oral tradition. So if you're down with the goddess Diana, traditional magic, incantations, and using household objects in your spells, this book is for you.

This books is completely unreadable on a kindle ereader. I own a paperwhite and the formatting causes text to be in columns of just one letter. It would be nice to see it reformatted to be able to actually read. One could read it on their PC kindle program, but that defeats the purpose of owning one of the kindle ereaders. Attached are pictures of what I mean by poor formatting.

If you are looking for authentic mythology, this isn't exactly it -- or maybe that is exactly what it is. Often quoted and much loved by the Pagan and Wiccan community, this little book is often referenced by Gardnerians. Just don't take it too literally -- and do look up its publication history.Drawing Down the Moon is a good companion source.

This book is a must-read, especially for those who follow the Dianic path. It’s a foundational book of Wicca and some concepts appear in the writings of Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente (I.e. The Charge of the Goddess). It certainly deviates from the “harm none” idea espoused by Wicca in places, and is closer to Stregheria in practice, naturally, given it’s source. Leland’s own notes are a bit pedantic and I speed-read through some of his stuff. Worth the read, overall.

This book is interesting source material, although I'm not sure of its veracity, about witchcraft and its traditions. Easy to read and a glimpse perhaps into past perceptions on the subject. Although much of it is about folklore and includes spells or incantations of which I could not comment, lacking knowledge in this.I would recommend it to anyone interested in witchcraft.

Possibly the best edition of this book I’ve seen. The introduction and preface give the context needed and the footnotes are immeasurably useful. It could benefit from further analysis but the modern perspectives are so interesting! The formatting makes it easy to read too.

It's one of the most famous book on witchcraft but I've found it useless. If you want to know something about the Italian witchcraft history then would be better reading ethnologic books about magick. There is Ernesto De Martino who is more reliable of this book and translated in English. In my opinion this book doesn't give any useful knowledge about sorcery but, as I said, it's only a personal opinion

This is my first of further exploratory wards around the folklore of the Old Way. Accessible language with translations placed appropriately throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed consuming this work.

Please check formatting! On both my Kindle and on IPad from the Preface onwards you gete from a single letter to only a couple of word/line making the book unreadable!The Italian text is especially bad with a slight improvement on the English translation!