Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches – Charles G. Leland, foreword by Gemma Gary (Troy)

Description

The foundational text of modern witchcraft, published by Troy Books with a new foreword by Gemma Gary, and signed by her on this copy. First published in 1899, Aradia set down what the American folklorist Charles Leland believed to be the surviving gospel of a pagan witch-cult in Tuscany, given to him over eleven years by his informant, the fortune-teller Maddalena. At its centre stands Aradia herself — daughter of the goddess Diana and the god Lucifer, sent to earth to teach the oppressed peasantry the arts of witchcraft as a weapon against feudal lords and the Church. Long more cited than read, the book fell into obscurity after its first, poorly-received printing, only to resurface decades later as the wellspring from which Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente drew some of Wicca’s most enduring liturgy, not least the Charge of the Goddess. Containing invocations, folk tales of Diana and Aradia, and a body of spells and charms in both English and the original Italian, this remains one of the single most influential texts in the modern pagan and witchcraft revival.

Bound in deep red leatherette boards, with Aradia’s crowned head blocked in gilt within an oak-leaf wreath to the upper board, and gilt titling below.