Aradia

views updated

Aradia

The book Aradia: Gospel of the Witches by Charles G. Leland (1899 and often reprinted) presented traditional witchcraft teachings from Italy, which Leland claimed he obtained from a Florentine fortune-teller and hereditary witch in the late nineteenth century. This book is clearly one of the inspirations of the modern witchcraft revival launched by Gerald B. Gardner, and it has furnished some materials for the contemporary witches' Book of Shadows, the ritual book used by modern witch covens.

Sources:

Leland, Charles Godfrey. Aradia: Gospel of the Witches. 1899. Reprint, New York: Hero Press, 1971.