Aradia's Gifts

So, I promised I'd start blogging about the Craft. I'll start with something traditional, some selections from Aradia, o il Vangelo delle Streghe. [Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches].

According to an Italian legend, Aradia is the daughter of Diana and her brother Lucifer. Aradia was said to be an avatar of Diana sent to earth to teach people the ways of Witchcraft to free them from slavery and degradation.

The folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland collected a series of documents from an informant he named Maddalena concerning the survival of an ancient practice of Witchcraft (or Strega) among certain hidden sects throughout Tuscany. He published these as Aradia.

The Gifts of Aradia

In the fourteenth century, Aradia was said to have taught that the traditional powers of a witch would belong to any who followed in the ways of the Old Religion [la Vecchia Religione]. Aradia called these powers "Gifts", she also stressed the point that these powers were the benefits of adhering to the Old Ways, and not the reason for becoming a witch.

These are the powers:

To bring success in love
To bless and consecrate
To speak with spirits
To know of hidden things
To call forth spirits
To know the Voice of the Wind
To possess the knowledge of transformation
To possess the knowledge of divination
To know and understand secret signs
To cure disease
To bring forth beauty
To have influence over whild beasts
To know the secrets of the hands

The Covenant of Aradia

To obtain the powers of the Strega there were certain rules that needed to be followed. They are as follows.

Observe the times of the Treguenda, for therein is the foundation of the powers of Stregheria.

When good is done to you, then do good to another. If someone wishes to repay you for a kindness, then bind them to go out of their way to help three others, then this shall clear the debt.

Do not use the arts of Stregheria to appear powerful among others. Do not lower the standards of the Art and thereby bring contempt upon the Old ways.

Do not take the life of anything unless it is to preserve life, yours or another's.

Do not give your word of honour lightly, for you are bound by your words and by your oaths.

Do not accept any authority over you unless it is of the Gods. Instead, cooperate with others but do not be a slave and always preserve your honour. Give respect to others and expect respect in return.

Teach all who appear worthy and aid the continuance of the Old Religion.

Do not belittle another's religious beliefs, but simply state your own truths. Strive to be at peace with those who differ.

Do not purposely cause harm to another, unless it is to prevent true harm to yourself or another.

Strive to be compassionate to others, and to be aware of the hearts and minds of those around you.

Be true to your own understanding and turn away from those things which oppose the good in you, or are harmful to you. Hold reverence to all within Nature. Destroy nothing, scar nothing, waste nothing, live in harmony with Nature, for the ways of Nature are our own ways.

Remain open in your heart and in your mind to the Great Ones who created all that is, and to your brothers and sisters alike.

The Charge of Aradia

In addition to the above instructions, Aradia offered this piece of advice, which has evolved into the modern Wiccan Charge of the Goddess.

Whenever you have need of anything, once in the month when the Moon is full, then shall you come together at some deserted place, or where there are woods, and give worship to She who is Queen of all Witches. Come all together inside a circle, and secrets that are as yet unknown shall be revealed.

And your mind must be free and also your spirit and as a sign that you are truly free, you shall be naked in your rites. And you shall rejoice, and sing; making music and love. For this is the essence of spirit, and the knowledge of joy.

Be true to your own beliefs, and keep to the Ways, beyond all obstacles. For ours is the key to the mysteries and the cycle of rebirth, which opens the way to the Womb of Enlightenment.

I am the spirit of witches all, and this is joy and peace and harmony. In life does the Queen of all witches reveal the knowledge of Spirit. And from death does the Queen deliver you to peace and renewal.

When I shall have departed from this world, in memory of me make cakes of grain, wine, and honey. These shall you shape like the Moon, and then partake of wine and cakes, all in my memory. For I have been sent to you by the Spirits of Old, and I have come that you might be delivered from all slavery. I am the daughter of the Sun and the Moon, and even though I have been born into this world, my Race is of the Stars.

Give offerings all to She who is our Mother. For She is the beauty of the GreenWood, and the light of the Moon among the Stars, and the mystery which gives life, and always calls us to come together in Her name. Let Her worship be the ways within your heart, for all acts of love and pleasure gain favor with the Goddess.

But to all who seek her, know that your seeking and desire will reward you not, until you realize the secret. Because if that which you seek is not found within your inner self, you will never find it from without. For she has been with you since you entered into the ways, and she is that which awaits at your journey's end.

Free Strega texts and information online
Aradia, or The Gospel of the Witches by Charles Godfrey Leland
Etruscan Roman Remains by Charles Godfrey Leland
Stregheria.com by Raven Grimassi

Words to Live By

I've been pondering the attributes that I takes to be a good Hellenic Polytheist, and the attributes that I value most within myself. Some practitioners of Hellenic Polytheism subscribe to the Metron, an ethics system of "Seven Pillars" which has been reconstructed in various forms. One of them follows:

• Ethike Arete - the practice of habitual excellence (ethics)
• Eusebia - reverence, loyalty, and sense of duty toward the Gods (of Greece)
• Hagneia - the maintaining of ritual purity by avoiding miasma
• Nomos Arkhaios - observance of ancient tradition, (religious) law, and customs
• Sophia - the pursuit of wisdom, understanding, and truth
• Sophrosune - the control of self through deep contemplation
• Xenia - adherence to hospitality and the guest-host relationship

Laurelei has proposed a system of ethics for the Temple of Aphrodite that I find inspiring:

• Kharis (grace and reciprocity)
• Sophia (wisdom and understanding)
• Eusebia (reverence and piety)

I've been involved in the Caliphate Ordo Templi Orientis for years and as a Thelemite I have some pretty strong Greek ideas of what is right and ethical:

• Thelema (True Will)
• Agape (Fraternal Love)
• Eros (Romantic Love)

Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God.
- The Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, as delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI, Chapter I, verse 57

And then there are the roughly 150 Delphic Maxims, most of which are reasonable, some of which are excellent, and a couple of which are patently ridiculous in modern society.

The good:

8. Be Yourself (Σαυτον ισθι)
15. Help your friends (Φιλοις βοηθει)
23. Long for wisdom (Σοφιαν ζηλου)
24. Praise the good (Καλον ευ λεγε)
25. Find fault with no one (Ψεγε μηδενα)
38. Nothing to excess (Μηδεν αγαν)
55. Give back what you have received (Λαβων αποδος)
56. Down-look no one (Υφορω μηδενα)
62. Praise hope (Ελπιδα αινει)
73. Be happy with what you have (Κτωμενος ηδου)
84. Make just judgments (Κρινε δικαια)
90. Live without sorrow (Αλυπως βιου)
93. Deal kindly with everyone (Φιλοφρονει πασιν)
106. Be grateful (Ευγνωμων γινου)
107. Pursue harmony (Ομονοιαν διωκε)
117. Acquire wealth justly (Πλουτει δικιως)
118. Do not abandon honor (Δοξαν μη λειπε)
124. Love whom you rear (Ους τρεφεις αγαπα)
126. Respect the elder (Πρεσβυτερον αιδου)

The bad:

9. Intend to get married (Γαμειν μελλε)
91. Live together meekly (Ομιλει πραως)
95. Rule your wife (Γυναικος αρχε)
132. Die for your country (Θνησκε υπερ πατριδος)
137. Grieve for no one (Μη επι παντι λυπου)

So how do I synthesize all of this into a workable system that won't drive me crazy? Here then is a personal Metron that I am trying to live by:

1. Kharis - grace and reciprocity
2. Sophia - the relentless pursuit of wisdom and understanding
3. Eusebia - reverence and piety to the theoi
4. Arete - excellence in deed, thought, word, and action
5. Thelema - the pursuit of my life's purpose and my Will
6. Sophrosune - moderation and temperance
7. Hagneia - ritual purity and avoidance of miasma

I think of Xenia as being a part of Kharis, and, as a Hellenic Polytheist rather than a reconstructionist, I hold no truck with Nomos Arkhaios. Rather, I value Thelema, which can be viewed as an outgrowth of Arete, but it has been so central to my own spiritual development that I've given it a pillar of its own. I believe that most of the Delphic Maxims can be sorted into one of these categories, and I'm pretty comfortable with holding myself to these standards.

Miasma, Katharmos, and Womanhood

"Never omit to wash your hands before you pour to Zeus and to the other Gods the morning offering of sparkling wine; they will not hear your prayers but spit them back"
Hesiod 'Works and Days'

Birth, death, sex, murder, foreign influences, impiety, and certain bodily fluids all bring about miasma, pollution. This pollution can be of the body, soul, household, family, city, or land. The job of the purification [katharmos] of family miasma ultimately fell to the women of the family. Women were the washers of corpses, and the bearers of children. Women themselves were not viewed as harbingers of miasma, on the contrary, whereas semen seems to have been the pollutant that caused miasma during intercourse, there is no evidence of menstrual fluid having properties of miasma. Of course, there is still some debate about this (see comments section of link) in the Hellenic community.

Special rites of katharmos fell exclusively to women, such as the pinning up of hair during most rituals (women typically wear their hair down in ritual only if in mourning, or in certain orgiastic rites, such as those of Dionysus). Purification could also take the form of dancing, which is often associated with women.

The most common form of katharmos today is the preparation and use of khernips. Khernips is created by adding a smoldering brand, such as lit incense or a leaf of smoking herb to salt water. The khernips is then used to wash the hands of supplicants before a ritual takes place or an offering is made.

I have heard some individuals argue that katharmos is nothing more than good hygiene. While I agree that hygiene is a valuable element of working within a Hellenic worldview I see katharmos as something deeper. Katharmos could be achieved by music, tragic theater (k/catharsis), and dance in addition to the more common act of washing. Even medicine itself is a form of katharmos, something to bear in mind when considering the placebo effect.

Likewise, some people equate miasma with sin. Miasma does indeed seem to be related to primal cultural taboos concerning power and transition, but it is not sin. Sin is "the concept of acts that violate a moral rule" Miasma makes no moral judgment except in the case of murder. Confusion can stem from the idea that murder is the greatest form of miasma and carries the most severe consequences. Wikipedia wrongly states that the miasma of murder can only be purified by the death of the murderer.

Reciprocity and Sacrifice

Ask any of the chickies in my pen
They'll tell you I'm the biggest mother hen
I love 'em all and all of them love me
Because the system works
The system called reciprocity!

--When You're Good To Mama; Chicago Soundtrack

In Hellenic Polytheism a lot of emphasis is placed on reciprocity. Although it was known of in ancient Greece spellwork was generally frowned upon as a form of hubris. If you wanted to influence the outcome of a thing it was required that you sacrifice to the Gods.

I personally get enjoyment out of sacrificing to the Gods. It is remarkable to think that sacrifice could be an enjoyable process, but because the nature of Hellenic Polytheism is orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy I can do just that. Oddly enough to the modern mind, it doesn't matter if you feel like you are doing something sacrificial as much as it matters that you are actually doing something that qualifies as a sacrifice. Thus, burning a few grains of frankincense feels pretty good to me. It smells nice, is inexpensive, and it makes me happy. However it qualifies as a sacrifice. It is the same with writing a hymn. I enjoy it and it counts as an offering to the Gods. Whereas if I gave up chocolate, as an example, I may think of it as a sacrifice, but it does not count as one.

Back to reciprocity. There are many reasons I honor Athena above the other Gods of Olympus. She resonates with my work and my desires in a way that is difficult to put into words. I doubt that most people would claim Her as a mystic's Goddess, but She is that for me. At the root of our relationship is reciprocity. Do I imply that Athena needs me in some way? Of course not. I, on the other hand, do need Her. I write Her hymns, She offers me rationality with warmth. I burn to Her incense, She gives me profound peace. I blog in Her service, She gives me things to write about.

Reciprocity.

It is the defining characteristic of why I can claim knowledge of the truth of the existence of the Gods. I do therefore They are.

Syncretism and Hard Polytheism

Anat

Let me be very clear, I am a hard polytheist. I always have been. I can not recall a time in my life when I did not believe in multiple Gods that are independent of one another. One of my major gripes with Gardnerian Wicca is the belief in the so-called Dryghton, which effectively reduces the religion down to monotheism.

That being said, I've come to a place during my research for my book where I've begun to accept that the Gods may manifest themselves under different names to different cultures. The example that is foremost in my mind is that of Athena, Neith, and Anat. Another well-documented parallel is that of Aphrodite and Inanna.

The Greeks believed in syncretism, but I am having trouble seeing how this fits with a hard polytheist world view. Part of me (the researcher) sees Athena as a facet of a very ancient Indo-European owl-and-serpent Goddess, one that shows up in other cultures as very different Goddesses. Lilith is one example. The other (hard polytheist) part of me looks at Lilith and Athena and recognizes that they are extremely different entities.

Should syncretism have a place in my spirituality? How much room does Hellenismos allow for this kind of middling academic polytheism?