Aradia

📙 Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland. It contains the religious text of pagan witches in Tuscany Italy that documented their beliefs & rituals of Pagan religion of Wicca. The text is a composite. Some of it is Leland's translation into English of an original Italian manuscript, the Vangelo (gospel). Leland reported receiving the manuscript from his primary informant on Italian witchcraft beliefs, a woman Leland referred to as ""Maddalena"" and whom he called his ""witch informant"" in Italy. The rest of the material comes from Leland's research on Italian folklore and traditions, including other related material from Maddalena. Its fifteen chapters portray the origins, beliefs, rituals, and spells of an Italian pagan witchcraft tradition. The central figure of that religion is the goddess Aradia, who came to Earth to teach the practice of witchcraft to peasants in order for them to oppose their feudal oppressors and the Roman Catholic Church.