Do Pagans have a messiah or prophet/ess who was born a demi-god/dess to lead people to truth and salvation?  This may be shocking to both Christians and Pagans because, yes, we do, and she is called ARADIA, also known as The Holy Strega (holy witch) or The Beautiful Pilgrim. 

Aradia (who is just one of many pagan prophetesses) was the mortal daughter of the goddess Diana.  She was sent to earth in the mid 14th century to guide and teach the poor to rise up against their oppressors and restore the Old Religion.  According to legend, Aradia was born in 1313 in northern Italy, in the town of Volterra. She gathered a small band of followers and went about the countryside teaching and preaching the Old Religion of Italy. Aradia spoke of an Age of Reason that would come, one which would replace the Age of the Son. When she departed this world, Aradia requested that a meal be held in her honor, and that she be remembered by future generations.  It is said that she will be born again in the Age of the Daughter and many witches of the Old Religion in Italy and Dianic Wiccans teach and believe that we are living in that age today.

And yet, because she was a woman and a leader of the poor heathens who lived and worshipped gods other than Christ, theologians and scholars debate whether or not Aradia, the Witches' Queen, Pagan messiah, had ever truly existed.

The time in which Aradia was said to have been born is significant because it heralded a time in Italy when women were taking very active and creative roles in the church, even in societies where their voices would normally have been repressed such as that of Guglielma of Milan.  Guglielma's sect, known as the Guglielmites, believed that Guglielma was the incarnation of the Holy Spirit and wished to establish a church with a female pope and female cardinals.  The sect had an interesting social life in which there was equality of the genders. There was no emphasis on virginity or celebacy in the sect, though a good number of the female members were widowed or unmarried. What is interesting, is that the members of the sect crossed social boundaries. There were very wealthy people involved, as well as poor servants. Membership ranged from the ruler's son, Galeazzo Visconti,to the poor seamstress Taria and the serving maid Bianca. On the ground that Guglielma had wanted her devotees to remain together as a family, they held frequent commemorative meals in her honor. Reportedly there were attempts throughout the 1300's to continue the remembrance of Guglielma, by hiding her in paintings and calling her by another name.

The theme of a female messiah, a commemorative meal, and the prophesy of a new age, may have led to the formation of the legends of the Witch Messiah, Aradia. 

The Italian Inquisitor Bernardo Rategno documented in his Tractatus de Strigibus (written in 1508 AD.) that a "rapid expansion" of the "witches sect" had begun 150 years prior to his Time.  Charles Leland, 19th century folklorist and author, in his account of Aradia "Gospel of the Witches" (Il Vangelo delle Strege), includes a legend about the "beautiful Pilgrim" preserved among Tuscan peasants for generations: "Then having obtained a pilgrim's dress, she traveled far and wide, teaching and preaching the religion of old times, the religion of Diana, the Queen of the Fairies and of the Moon, the goddess of the poor and the oppressed. And the fame of her wisdom and beauty went forth over all the land, and people worshipped her, calling her La Bella Pellegrina (the beautiful pilgrim)."  

In 1962, T.C. Lethbridge (former Director for Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology) published a book called "Witches", which does refer to Aradia in several of its chapters: "it is reasonable...  to form a picture of the witch cult at about A.D.1400... Aradia was sent to earth to teach this art to Mankind. That is, she was, in the opinion of her devotees, a personage, known in Hindu Religion as an Avatar, who taught them how to harness magic power. Aradia, at some far-off time, may have been as much an historical person as Christ, Krishna or Buddha..."

Way before Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente established modern-day Wicca, the Old Religion was practiced by the pagans of Italy who gathered nude to worship a god and goddess of the moon when it was full.  During their times of worship, a feast of cakes and wine was consecrated and consumed, and there was much singing, dancing, and making love.  For those who believe Gardner invented these concepts, bear in mind that prior to Leland's "Gospels...", the Old Religion was an oral tradition, nothing was written down in books mainly because most of the practicitioners were poor and some could not read or write.  "Aradia, Gospel of the Witches" was written in 1890, over half a century before Gardner's writings. Some contempoarary pagans believe that the Strega Tradition is therefore based on modern Wiccan tenets. However, the timeframe does not support this, as these concepts clearly pre-date the Gardnerian movement of the 1950s from which modern Wicca evolved.

Want even earlier proof that Witchcraft is as ancient a religion as Christianity?  The ancient Roman poet Horace gives us perhaps the earliest accounts of Italian Witches and their connection to a lunar cult. In the Epodes of Horace, written around 30 BC, he tells the tale of an Italian witch named Canidia. Horace said that Proserpine and Diana gift powers to the Witches that worship them and that they gather in secret to perform the mysteries associated with their worship.  Horace also spoke of a Witches' book of chants, invocations, and spells (Libros Carminum) through which the moon may be "called down" from the sky. 

Italian Witches were hand copying from the Key of Solomon in the 17th century, and mixing it with spells and rituals from their private hand written books.*  Francesco Guazzo wrote in his 17th century Italian Witch Hunter's Guide that witches use a black book from which they read during their religious rites.**

Sources: *Journal of Social History, volume 28, 1995, article by Sally Scully, Department of History at San Francisco University.  **Compendium Maleficarum 1608.

We also know from  the writings of ancient Roman times that Proserpine and Diana were worshipped at night in secret and that their worshippers gathered beneath the full moon, abandoning the cities where the solar gods ruled.

Evolved from ancient and medieval sources, Witchcraft is a pagan religion than can be simply described as duotheistic magico-religion; hence it is a religion that reveres a god/dess (more than one god being that god as a set of "parents" -- male and female is worshipped; where gods are not exclusively revered in a full pantheon that is more ethnically based) whose followers practice (carry out, perform) their religion with magic ritual (rites that are performed to bring about certain events and affects; a very proactive form of prayer).

Many of today's Wiccan incantations and rites originated with this simple charge by Aradia:

• "When I shall have departed from this world,
  Whenever ye have need of anything,
  Once in the month, and when the moon is full,
  Ye shall assemble in some desert place,
  Or in a forest all together join
  To adore the potent spirit of your queen,
  My mother, great Diana. She who fain
  Would learn all sorcery yet has not won
  Its deepest secrets, them my mother will
  Teach her, in truth all things as yet unknown.
  And ye shall all be freed from slavery,
  And so ye shall be free in everything; p. 6
  And as the sign that ye are truly free,
  Ye shall be naked in your rites, both men
  And women also: this shall last until
  The last of your oppressors shall be dead..."

In the 1950's, the Charge of Aradia was changed and added to by Doreen Valiente into the modern Charge of the Goddess that nearly every Wiccan today uses:

• "Listen to the Words of the Great Mother, Who was of old called among men Artemis, Astarte, Diana, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Dana, Arianrhod, Isis, Bride, and by many other Names.
• At My Altars the youth of most distant ages gave love, and made due sacrifice. Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month, and better it be when the Moon is Full, then shall ye gather in some secret place and adore the Spirit of Me, Who am Queen of All Witcheries. There shall ye gather, ye who are fain to learn all Magick, yet have not yet won its deepest secrets: to these will I teach things that are yet unknown.
• And ye shall be free from slavery; and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites. And ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and love, all in My Praise. For Mine is the Ecstasy of the Spirit, and Mine also is Joy on Earth, for My Law is Love unto all beings.
• Keep pure your Highest Ideal; strive ever toward it; let naught stop you or turn you aside. For Mine is the Secret Door which opens upon the Land of Youth; and Mine is the Cup of the Wine of Life, and the Cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of Immortality.
• I am the Gracious Goddess, Who gives the Gift of Joy unto the heart of man: on Earth, I give the Knowledge of the Spirit Eternal; and beyond death, I give peace, and freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor do I demand sacrifice, for behold: I am the Mother of All Living, and My Love is poured out upon the Earth.
• Hear ye the Words of the Star Goddess: She in the Dust of Whose Feet are the Hosts of Heaven, Whose Body encircleth the Universe.
• I, Who am the Beauty of the Green Earth, and the White Moon amongst the Stars, and the Mystery of the Waters, and the Desire of the heart of man, I call unto thy soul: "Arise! And come unto Me!"
• For I am the Soul of Nature, Who giveth Life to the Universe: from Me all things proceed, and unto Me all things must return. And before My Face, which is beloved of gods and men, thine innermost Divine Self shall be enfolded in the Rapture of the Infinite.
• Let My Worship be within the heart that rejoiceth, for behold: all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. And therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.
• And thou who thinkest to seek for Me, know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not, unless thou knowest the Mystery: that if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never find it without thee.
• For behold, I have been with thee from the beginning; and I am That which is attained at the end of Desire."

If you're a pagan and you don't believe that pagans don't have a need to listen to someone else's messages of truth, you are in sore need of better appreciating your elders.  Put down your Wiccan books and study some history.  Look deeper into the leaves of the past.  Ask why we worship the way we do and who were my foremothers and fathers? 

It may have gotten convolulted through time and spiced up in legend, but the point of the message is still sharp; other wise it would not have survived.

Most people convert to paganism because they have been disenfrancised by other religions and they think that this path will be free of the whole "dogma being shoved down your throat" system.  A lot of pagans hate institutionalized religion and prefer to be alone to believe and practice as they please.  Some leave our religion because they find out that it's really not the free ride or cool trip they first believed it to be.  Sometimes it down right sucks to be a witch because there is so much witchy bullshit out there, it's hard for even those first learning about the religion to weed through.

Others *do* seek more truth -- about themselves and the other worlds -- that they can't get just being on their own all the time.  You can buy a book to help you out, but you still need the company of a priest/ess who has had more experience and can give you hands-on training. Yet it's rare to come across the pagan priet/ess who is truly qualified to be a priest/ess!  Also, most young pagans are not scholars and, if they are learning from another young pagan just as unschooled in the religion, chances are they have yet to discover Aradia's gospel. 

There is a revoltion coming, the Age of the Daughter is in full swing and changes are brewing.  Witchcraft is no longer such a secret cult, information is spreading fast, and lives are being changed.  Power is shifting from the individual to the community again. 

Are you ready for a witch messiah?