Aradia is a Tuscan moon goddess who has been honoured by Italian witches uninterruptedly until today.
At the end of the last century (1890), a book called "Aradia. Gospel of the Witches" was published, written by the American Charles G. Leland, and since then she has become perhaps the most popular goddess among witches, even far beyond Italy's borders. Charles Leland has quite an exciting personal story, but what is relevant here is that from the mid-1880s he lived in Italy and came into very close contact with an Italian strega (or witch) called Maddalena, and she became his informant. Over a ten-year period, she provided him with material for three books, one of which was about Aradia.
Aradia was not actually the main goddess of the Tuscan witches, it was Diana, and Aradia is her daughter. Aradia is the daughter of Diana (Artemis, Tana) and her brother Lucifer, i.e. she is the daughter of the Moon and the Sun. Diana was the queen of the witches, and she sent Aradia to Earth to teach the witches her mother's magic. This was at a time when many were oppressed and enslaved, and the purpose was largely to give people the means to free themselves from slavery, and to
to defeat the oppressors, it was not only "white" magic that helped - something a little more "poisonous" was also needed from time to time.
Vangelo (The Gospel of the Witches) tells us:
"Diana existed first, before creation; in her were all things; and herself, the first darkness, she divided; into light and darkness she was divided. Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half, were the light.
And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful, the light that was her other half, her brother Lucifer, she longed for it with ever greater desire. And while she wanted to take the light back into her darkness, to swallow it in ecstasy, she trembled with desire. This desire was the Sunrise.
But Lucifer, the light, fled from her and would not give in to her desires; he was the light fleeing into the farthest reaches of heaven, the mouse fleeing from the cat....
And it so happened that Diana took the form of a cat. Her brother had a cat that he loved above all other animals, and it slept every night in his bed, a cat that was more beautiful than all other creatures, a fairy, - but he did not know it.
Diana persuaded the cat to change shape with her; and then she lay with her brother, and
in the darkness she assumed her own shape, and so she became the mother of Aradia with Lucifer. But in the morning when Lucifer discovered that he lay with his sister, and that the light had been conquered by the darkness, he was terribly angry. But Diana sang to him a song of enchantment, a song of power, and he became silent; it was the song of the night that lulls to sleep, - he could say nothing. And so Diana bewitched him with her witchcraft so that he yielded to her love. This was the first enchantment; she hummed the song, it was like the buzzing of bees (or like a spinning top), a rowing wheel spinning life. She spun the life of all people; all things were spun from Diana's wheel. Lucifer turned the wheel."
The story goes on to say that Diana travelled to Earth disguised as a mere mortal, but
but she was so fond of witchcraft that she soon revealed herself with her marvellous arts, and men called her the Queen of Witches. But when she had thus revealed herself, she returned to heaven. But since she was Queen of the Witches, she thought that the education of the witches must continue, and this office she gave to Aradia, and she sent her to earth with quite elaborate instructions, including the following words: "And you shall be the first known witch."
Otherwise, we find many of the words from Diana's instruction or teaching to Aradia in what we call "The Goddess charge" in Gerald Gardner's "Book of Shadows". In the Gardnerian tradition she is called Aradia - in the Alexander tradition she is called Arida.
Aradia is thus the daughter and messenger of the Great Mother.
The goddess is eternal and infinite, but her form and expression change over time.
Today, we tend to think of Aradia as a nature goddess, the female counterpart of Pan or Kernunnos, and the way we visualise her is often crowned with the moon sigil, which is also Diana's emblem. Aradia is both young and beautiful and wise - a synthesis, perhaps, of the aspects of Virgin and Mother. Her temple is the forest and free nature, and she has been worshipped by witches for at least 2000 years.
Hail Aradia, and blessed be all her children!
The Crone