Figure 11 A Tuscan Witch
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... and when I visited the villa of the mysteries at 'Pompeii I realized the great resemblances to the cult. Apparently these people were using the witches' processes ... I showed a picture of these frescoes to an English witch, who looked at it very attentively before saying: "So they knew the secret in those days."
Gerald Gardner
Witchcraft Today
Most Wiccans readily acknowledge Gerald Gardner's role in the establishment of Wicca as a religion in modern times. During Gardner's time there were others whose interests were in a similar vein to his own. Two of them are worthy of mention for their influence upon Gardner and his development of Craft theology. These are, of course, Charles Leland and James Frazer.
What follows here is a brief look at three men whose love of ancient lore and religious thought focused the public eye firmly upon the Old Religion. Gerald Gardner will probably always be remembered for his contributions, but lest the world forget where Gardner's inspiration came from, I offer these biographies and commentaries.
LELAND
Charles Godfrey Leland was born in Philadelphia in 1824, and died in Florence, Italy in 1903. He was buried in Philadelphia at the Laurel Hill Cemetery. During his lifetime, he wrote and published more than seventy-three books. He was also an accomplished craftsman in wood, leather, and metalworking. These talents he put to use in the reconstruction of ancient Italian Witch charms and amulets.
Leland was the founder and first president of The Gypsy Lore Society, whose membership included the author and scholar, James Frazer. Leland was also an excellent scholar and attended Princeton as well as the Universities of Heidelberg and Munich. In addition to English, he also spoke German, Italian, Spanish, and French, and was familiar with Algonquian Indian dialects, Celtic, and the Romany language.
In 1869 he moved to England, where he began a study of British gypsies. He eventually became an authority on them, having lived among them for several years. In the later part of the nineteenth century, Leland published two books concerning the gypsies. One of these-The English Gypsies and their Language, published in 1873-is still considered a classic on the subject.
In 1880 Leland moved to Italy, where he spent the rest of his life researching Italian Witchcraft. Sometime during the year of 1886, Leland met an Italian woman named Maddalena. She was working as a fortuneteller in Florence, Italy when they met. Maddalena claimed to be an Italian Witch, and Leland quickly gained her confidence with his knowledge of folklore. Over the next year or so, he paid Maddalena to gather Italian folklore for his research material. On January 1, 1887 Maddalena presented Leland with the material that eventually became his book Aradia; Gospel of the Witches, published in 1899.
Leland went on in 1892 to publish Etruscan Roman Remains, which became a classic, rocking the world of scholars in his time. Until the advent of his book, people had not considered the idea that Witches still existed and continued to practice their ancient arts. They certainly did not have knowledge of what Leland proved in this text; namely, that Italian Witches were alive and well in Italy and were worshipping the Goddess Diana.
It was Charles Leland who laid the framework for what became the modem religion of Wicca. In his works, Witches worship a God and Goddess, gather nude beneath the Full Moon for their ceremonies, and work magick. Over half a century later, Gerald Gardner began to write on these same themes. (See appendix for additional information on Charles Leland.)
GARDNER
Gerald Brosseau Gardner was born in 1884 in Great Crosby on Merseyside, in the northwest part of England. He died in 1964 on a cruise ship off the coast of North Africa, while returning to England from a winter spent in Lebanon. During the 1950s he authored the now-famous books Witchcraft Today and The Meaning of Witchcraft. Many people today consider Gerald Gardner to be the "father" of modern Wicca. His influence upon the growth of this religion cannot be dismissed, and he was indeed an important figure in the Neo-Pagan movement.
Reading contemporary books on Wicca, however, one quickly comes upon the erroneous concept that Gerald Gardner was the source from which all things have sprung. Realistically, Gardner was simply one man, in one country, who set out to investigate the antiquity of Witchcraft. Some say that he made contact with a cult of Witches whose Tradition survived from ancient times. Others say that he made up the whole thing from fragmentary folklore and personal fantasy. This may be due to the fact that Gardner associated with the infamous Aleister Crowley, and some claim that it was Crowley who worked with him to create the Gardnerian Book of Shadows (see my Second Edition Preface and the Introduction).
A few writers even conclude that if Gardner made no contact with surviving Traditions, then they must not have existed. This conclusion is unsound, at best. If he found nothing, then it only indicates that he failed to find what he searched for. If Gardner made up his "Tradition," it does not prove that Witchcraft never survived or pre-existed. It only suggests that what he taught was not what he claimed it was. Personally, I dismiss these accusations against Gardner, and I feel that he was basically relating what he believed to be the truth.
I wonder if anyone has stopped to consider that if secret covens existed prior to Gardner's search, perhaps they still remain secret today! Clearly, no one has researched every country and every remote village on the planet, before proclaiming (as fact) that the Old Religion never survived anywhere. Yet, many people do proclaim just this very thing. I personally know of two surviving Traditions who purposely maintain their secrecy to avoid the offensiveness of being examined by people seeking to discredit claims of antiquity.
Many people feel that if a non-Gardnerian Tradition contains any Gardnerian material, then it is obviously a fabricated system. Perhaps what it really means is that someone in that Tradition admired a passage or two, and simply added it to their own material. Even systems of great antiquity enjoy the refreshing addition of new material from time to time. The Triad Traditions of Italy, for example, claim an unbroken line, back to the late fourteenth century, but do incorporate new material as deemed appropriate.
Evidence of the Witch cult in Italy is abundant, and easily traced back through the centuries. Records clearly show a long-standing association between the Goddess Diana and Witches, as reflected in trial transcripts. Despite torture and relentless Inquisitors, Italian Witches consistently maintained that they worshipped the Goddess (Diana, Herodias, Abundia, etc.) and not Satan. In other parts of Europe, tracing the cult becomes quite a burden. Whatever the truth behind Gardner's material may be, it is of little consequence to the actual Witch cult of Italy.
Unfortunately (and unjustly), in the Craft community today, if your Tradition contains any Gardnerian material, then the rest of your material is rendered null and void, regardless of where the bulk of it originated. This perception is much like a person's reaction to a fly in their soup: it ruins the whole thing. It is curious why this isn't simply viewed as "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
The well-known "Charge of the Goddess" and the "Legend of the Descent" are also apparently considered to be of Gardnerian origin, and essentially modern pieces of literature. Many people even believe that Doreen Valiente authored these now-famous verses. It seems clear that the version appearing in Gardnerian Wicca might well be modern, but what many people are unaware of is that they are actually embellished versions of much older, non-Celtic material. In point of fact, the foundation of the "Charge"' comes from Italy, as recorded by Charles Leland in his book Aradia, Gospel of the Witches, published in 1899 (Gardner's version appears to have been written during the 1950s).
Leland claims to have received The Charge in 1887 from the Italian Witch, Maddalena. At the end of chapter one in Aradia's Gospel we find these words:
Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month and when the moon is full, ye shall assemble in some secret place, or in a forest all together join to adore the potent spirit of your queen, my mother, great Diana. She who fain would learn all sorcery yet has not won its deepest secrets, them my mother will teach her, in truth all things as yet unknown. And ye shall be freed from slavery, and so ye shall be free in everything; and as a sign that ye are truly free, ye shall be naked in your rites, both men and women also ...2
As anyone familiar with the Charge can see, the earlier Italian verses are almost identical to the Gardnerian version written over half a century later. Although Gardner's text is greatly embellished, it is historically important to note that the original charge was Italian. Many people also claim that Gardner introduced nudity into Witchcraft, but it clearly appears in Leland's works over half a century earlier.
The Legend of the Descent, now claimed to be another modern Gardnerian text, is actually quite a bit older and appeared in the mythology of Italian Witchcraft long before the writings of Gardner or Valiente. The basic theme of the Goddess descending to the Underworld, being challenged, and encountering the God, can be found in the myth of Inanna from Sumerian mythology. The greatest influence on the Roman Mystery Cults in Italy came from the east, the cults of Tammuz and Mithras being examples. Therefore, this particular mythos would have been passed into Italy thousands of years ago.
Franz Cumont (scholar of comparative religions in classical antiquity), in his book Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, addresses this and other influences of Eastern religions upon Roman religion. The Syrian cult of the Great Mother of the Gods was first brought to Rome from Syria around 204 B.C. The ecstatic cults of Syria, the mysteries of Egypt, the dualism of Persia, and the magick of the ancient Near East were well established in Italy long before northern Europe had ever even heard of them.
It is not surprising, therefore, to find a basic mythos similar to the Sumerian descent legend in Italian Witchcraft. In chapter seven of his book Witchcraft Today, Gerald Gardner writes of his visit to Pompeii:
... and when I visited the villa of the mysteries at Pompeii I realized the great resemblances to the cult. Apparently these people were using the witches' processes ... I showed a picture of these frescoes to an English witch, who looked at it very attentively before saying: "So they knew the secret in those days. "3
Yes, Gerald, we knew the secret in those days.
I think we would all do well to be more flexible about eclectic and traditional material. If someone wants to add Gardnerian material or Italian material to his or her Tradition, then so be it. A hereditary Italian spell or ritual, in a Gardnerian Book of Shadows, does not render that Gardnerian coven a non-Celtic system. A Gardnerian verse in an Italian hereditary book does not make it a hodgepodge Gardnerian rip-off. People do add things into their systems that they find appealing, and try to incorporate them in a practical way. When an organism stops growing, then it begins to die.
In the Italian Tradition, it is proper to add to your material, but you can never delete anything. Everything that is added must fit completely within the established magickal and ritual correspondences. We do not add anything on a whim, but only add material when it appears to benefit the system as a whole. In this way, the Tradition can adapt to the times without losing the traditions of the past.
I would expect to find similarities in most Craft Traditions; it would be strange not to. We are all practicing the same religion seen through the eyes of different cultures. I think that we can all share aspects of our culture and our material between our traditions without compromising the integrity of our respective systems.
FRAZER
Sir James George Frazer was born in Glasgow in 1854, and died in Cambridge in 1941. He was a British anthropologist, folklorist, and classical scholar. His outstanding position among his colleagues was well established with the publication of The Golden Bough; a Study in Magic and Religion, in 1890. This work addressed the evolution of magickal thinking into religious thought. Frazer popularized the theme of the Divine King that is an integral part of Western Occultism.
Widely acclaimed by his peers for his research and insight into the ancient mysteries, Frazer is now overlooked by modern writers on Wicca, although his works were originally quite popular among Wiccans in the 1950s and 1960s. Since The Golden Bough deals largely with ancient Paganism in Italy, it is possible that the Celtic interests of most modern Wiccans have diverted their attention as well.
Frazer emphasized the relationship between the well-being of the community and the vitality of the Divine King. The King was slain at the peak of his power in order to transfer his vital essence back into the land (Nature). The abundance of plants for the harvest, and animals for the hunt, was long associated with the status of the Divine King, known also as the Slain God. As the old saying goes: "The Land and the King are One." This is one of the fundamental teachings in the Western Mystery Tradition. There is little doubt that The Golden Bough greatly influenced the works of Gerald Gardner.
Italian Paganism was planted in Britain by the conquering Romans, and became absorbed into Celtic religion over the course of 400 years of Roman occupation. Therefore, Frazer's writings appear to reflect many religious concepts now associated with Celtic religion, no doubt serving to confirm and expand Gardner's own Wiccan beliefs. After all, Gardner himself noted, in his book The Meaning of Witchcraft (chapter six), that the mysteries of Wicca may have been brought to Britain by the Romans. For a detailed account of how this was actually the case, I refer the reader to my book The Wiccan Mysteries.
ENDNOTES
1. It is interesting to note that Stewart Farrar, in his book What Witches Do (Peter Davies, Ltd., 1971), mentions that he copied the Charge from an Alexandrian Book of Shadows, and then goes on to give the text in "the original Italian."
2. Aradia; Gospel of the Witches, by Charles Leland, page 6. Phoenix Publishing, Inc. 1990 reprint of 1890 original.
3. Witchcraft Today, by Gerald Gardner, pages 82 and 88. Citadel Press. 1973 reprint of original 1953 text.