Aradia is the main character of Charles Leland's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (1899), a compilation of tales, charms, and poems gathered from "Maddalena," a Florentine fortune-teller in the late 1800s.
Leland portrays her as the daughter of Diana, the goddess of the moon, and her brother Lucifer, the god of the day and light.
- Aradia was sent to earth, according to the Gospel, to educate the poor how to fight the wealthy's tyranny via sorcery and witchcraft.
- Aradia's name and mythology became important to theWitchcraftrevival because to Leland's efforts.
- Anidia was most likely the secret name of the Goddess in Gardnerlan Craft between 1950 and 1960 (it has since been changed); she has also given her name to a number of contemporary Witchcraft traditions.
Leland's Anidia inspired a number of twentieth-century works of Pagan literature, including:
Aldan Kelly's The Gospel of Diana (a privately published electronic manuscript) and Leo Martello's Weird Waysof Witchcraft (Related to - Strega).
Aradia is portrayed by Grimassi as a fourteenth-century Italian prophetess and resurrected Etruscan religion.
Her teachings contain a number of prophecies concerning humanity's destiny and the restoration of the Old Religion.
After her unexplained departure, her message was disseminated across Italy by twelve followers, according to Grimassi, and formed the foundation for contemporary Stregheria.
Historical or ethnographic study has not supported either Leland's or Grimassi's views.
The name Aradia does not exist in recorded sources prior to Leland's Gospel's publication, although it is most likely derived from Herodias, the name of a mythical person in Matthew's Gospel.
Herodias, King Herod's sister-in-law and Salome's mother, pushed Herod to arrest John the Baptist and encouraged Salome to demand the saint's head on a platter in return for dancing for her uncle.
Salome experienced a fit of regret and started to cry with repentance as she saw the head placed before her.
Then a violent wind blasted from the saine's mouth, hurling Salome into the air, where she was sentenced to dance for the rest of her life as a penance for her cruelty.
Herodias and Salome fused into a single mythical figure who was believed to soar through the skies at night about the eleventh century c.
Herodias was linked to the goddess Diana and her nocturnal travels, as well as secret ecstaticdancer organizations in Friuli (northern Italy) and Romania.
Women went out at night on the backs of animals to feast, sing, and dance under the protection of Herodias and Diana, according to European tales throughout the Middle Ages.
During the Inquisition, several women suspected of witchcraft admitted to taking part in these meetings after being tortured.
While the legends depicted a peasant utopia of egalitarian relationships, abundant food and drink that magically regenerated, and the fulfillment of wishes, they were misinterpreted by Inquisitors as evidence of diabolical witchcraft and became the foundation for the creation of the legend of the witches' Sabbat, which was responsible for the execution of tens of thousands of innocent people.
