Stregheria
Encyclopedia
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
form of Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
originating in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, popularized by Raven Grimassi
Raven Grimassi
Raven Grimassi is the pen name of an Italian-American author, publishing on the topics of Neo-paganism and witchcraft. He is perhaps best known for his popularization of Stregheria, a neopagan revival of "Italian witchcraft"....
since the 1980s. Stregheria is sometimes referred to as La Vecchia Religione ("the Old Religion") The word stregheria is an archaic Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
word for "witchcraft", the modern Italian word being stregoneria.
Grimassi taught what he called the Aridian tradition from 1980.
He mixed elements of Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
with ideas inspired by Charles G. Leland
Charles Godfrey Leland
Charles Godfrey Leland was an American humorist and folklorist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Princeton University and in Europe....
's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Leland that was published in 1899. It contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy that documented their beliefs and rituals, although various historians and...
(1899). The name "Aradia
Aradia
Aradia is one of the principal figures in the American folklorist Charles Leland’s 1899 work Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which he believed to be a genuine religious text used by a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, a claim that has subsequently been disputed by other folklorists and...
" is due to Leland, who claimed that Erodiade (the Italian name of Herodias
Herodias
Herodias was a Jewish princess of the Herodian Dynasty. Asteroid 546 Herodias is named after her.-Family relationships:*Daughter of Aristobulus IV...
) was the object of a " witch-cult
Witch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
" in medieval Tuscany. Since 1998, Grimassi has been advocating what he calls the Arician tradition, described as an "initiate level" variant of the religion, involving an initiation ceremony.
Stregheria has both similarities and differences with Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
, and in some ways resembles reconstructionist
Polytheistic reconstructionism
Polytheistic reconstructionism is an approach to Neopaganism first emerging in the late 1960s to early 1970s, and gathering momentum in the 1990s to 2000s...
Neopaganism focussed on a specific nation or culture (in this case the folk religion
Folk religion
Folk religion consists of ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of an organized religion, but outside of official doctrine and practices...
of medieval Italy, allegedly containing traditions derived from Etruscan religion).
Stregheria honors a pantheon
Pantheon (gods)
A pantheon is a set of all the gods of a particular polytheistic religion or mythology.Max Weber's 1922 opus, Economy and Society discusses the link between a...
centered around a Moon Goddess and a Horned God
Horned God
The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in some European pagan religions. He is often given various names and epithets, and represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the other part being the female Triple Goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is...
regarded as central, paralleling Wiccan views of divinity
Wiccan views of divinity
Wiccan views of divinity are generally theistic, and revolve around a Goddess and a God, thereby being generally dualistic,...
.
History
The modern movement originates in the 1970s with Italian-American Leo MartelloLeo Martello
Leo Martello was an author, lecturer, gay civil rights activist, and an early voice in the American Neopagan movement. He drew heavily on his Sicilian heritage, teaching the Strega Tradition which was named after the Italian word for Witch....
.
Martello claimed to belong to a "family tradition" of religious witchcraft in his 1970s book Witchcraft: The Old Religion. Martello does not use the word "Stregheria" when referring to his personal practice, but refers to it as "the Strega tradition".
Raven Grimassi began teaching the "Aridian Tradition", a modernized public system presented in his published works, in 1980 in the San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
area. Grimassi published two books related to the topic (Italian Witchcraft, and Hereditary Witchcraft) between 1981 and 2009.
Revival of the name Stregheria first occurs in Grimassi's Ways of the Strega (1994). In using an archaic Italian term, Grimassi follows Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
(1954), who used the Old English form wicca to refer to the adherents of his alleged "witch cult".
It is taken from the Apologia della Congresso Notturno Delle Lamie by Girolamo Tartarotti
Girolamo Tartarotti
Girolamo Tartarotti was an Italian author.He is notable for his Congresso notturno delle lammie and Apologia del Congresso notturno delle lammie in which he attacked belief in the existence of witches as depicted by the Church. Tartarotti rejected the idea of supernatural powers related to the...
(1751), who uses stregheria to describe Italian witchcraft as the cult of the goddess Diana. Although this view has been disputed by American scholars, Italian ethnohistorian, Paolo Portone, has demonstrated reference to the cult of Diana in the records of the earliest witch trials, including in the Canon Episcopi.
Moreover, by contrasting the trials held before the Inquisitor of Milian in 1384 and 1390 of Sybil de Laria and Pierina de Bugatis, Portone has demonstrated how Inquisitors constructed beliefs surrounding "evil witches" directly from the Pagan worship of Diana.
Grimassi founded the "Arician Tradition" in 1998, described as an initiate level variant of Stregheria.
Raven Grimassi
Raven GrimassiRaven Grimassi
Raven Grimassi is the pen name of an Italian-American author, publishing on the topics of Neo-paganism and witchcraft. He is perhaps best known for his popularization of Stregheria, a neopagan revival of "Italian witchcraft"....
is the pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
of an Italian-American author, born in 1951 as the son of an Italian immigrant who was born and raised in the area of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Italy. He became involved with a coven presenting itself as Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
in 1969 in San Diego. He is the founder of the Aridian and Arician traditions of Italian-based witchcraft. He stepped down as the directing elder of Arician Witchcraft in 2004. Grimassi currently (as of 2009) lives in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and is the directing elder of the Ash, Birch and Willow tradition, and co-director of the Fellowship of the Pentacle. He was formerly co-director of the College of the Crossroads.
Grimassi is reportedly descended from an Italian witch named Calenda Tavani, who lived in Naples several generations ago. Grimassi states that his early training was a mixture of Italian witchcraft and folk magic.
His later interest in Neo-paganism began in 1969, and he was initiated
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
into a system claiming to be Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
in San Diego (the tradition's claim eventually proved to be false). Ten years later, Grimassi began teaching the "Aridian Tradition", which he describes as a "modern system" of Italian Witchcraft (Stregheria) that he created for non-initiates. Grimassi also studied Kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
and other traditions of Wicca such as Brittic and the Pictish-Gaelic system in which he received third degree initiation in 1983 (Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft, Llewellyn Publications, 2003). Grimassi also received third degree initiation into Traditionalist Celtic Wicca in 2001 (First Wiccan Church of Escondido, California).
Views on a historical "religion of witchcraft"
Grimassi bases his books on the "Witch-cult hypothesisWitch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
" due to Charles G. Leland
Charles Godfrey Leland
Charles Godfrey Leland was an American humorist and folklorist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Princeton University and in Europe....
(Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Leland that was published in 1899. It contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy that documented their beliefs and rituals, although various historians and...
, 1899), a theory to the effect that European witchcraft
European witchcraft
European Witchcraft is witchcraft and magic that is practised primarily in the locality of Europe.-Antiquity:Instances of persecution of witchcraft are documented from Classical Antiquity, paralleling evidence from the Ancient Near East and the Old Testament.In Ancient Greece, for example, Theoris,...
was the continuation of an ancient pre-Christian.
Grimassi describes the roots of Stregheria as a syncretic
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
offshoot of Etruscan religion that later blended with "Tuscan
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
peasant religion", medieval Christian heresy, and veneration of saints.
Grimassi views Leland's book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Leland that was published in 1899. It contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy that documented their beliefs and rituals, although various historians and...
as a "Christianized and distorted version" of the original story of Aradia, whom he believes to be a mortal woman named Aradia di Toscano. However, Grimassi does endorse a number of elements from Leland's Aradia material, such as the inclusion of a full moon ritual and a sacred meal at the Tregenda (Sabbat), along with the pantheon of a goddess and god figure.
Grimassi writes that Aradia di Toscano passed on a religion of witchcraft, based on ancient Etruscan paganism
Etruscan mythology
The Etruscans were a diachronically continuous population, with a distinct language and culture during the period of earliest European writing, in the Mediterranean Iron Age in the second half of the first millennium BC...
, to her followers (whom Grimassi calls "The Triad Clans"). The Triad Clans are referred to as "an alliance of three related Witch Clans known as the Tanarra, Janarra, and Fanarra".
Folklorist Sabina Magliocco
Sabina Magliocco
Sabina Magliocco , is a professor of Anthropology and Folklore at California State University, Northridge . She is an author of non-fiction books and journal articles about folklore, religion, religious festivals, foodways, witchcraft and Neo-Paganism in Europe and the United States.A recipient of...
points out that "Grimassi never claims to be reproducing exactly what was practiced by Italian immigrants to North America; he admits Italian-American immigrants "have adapted a few Wiccan elements into their ways".
Claims of family tradition
Reports that Grimassi claims to belong to a "family tradition" of religious witchcraft has opened him to criticism. Grimassi responds by saying that, although he wrote about such a family tradition, he intentionally never specifically mentions his own family in his books, but that Llewellyn's marketingMarketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
department designed text depicting him as being raised in a family tradition . Grimassi does not deny being the bearer of a family lineage but chooses to protect the privacy of his family by not mentioning or referencing specific members (hence his use of a pseudonym).
Sabina Magliocco
Sabina Magliocco
Sabina Magliocco , is a professor of Anthropology and Folklore at California State University, Northridge . She is an author of non-fiction books and journal articles about folklore, religion, religious festivals, foodways, witchcraft and Neo-Paganism in Europe and the United States.A recipient of...
, who has criticized some of Grimassi's claims, does point out that "Grimassi never claims to be reproducing exactly what was practiced by Italian immigrants to North America; he admits Italian-American immigrants "have adapted a few Wiccan elements into their ways". After personally meeting Grimassi, Magliocco writes in her letter to the Pomegranate Reader's Forum: "I had the pleasure of meeting Raven Grimassi during the summer of 2001, unfortunately after the final draft of my article had already been submitted to The Pom. He was very gracious and helpful to me. From information he revealed during our interview, I can say with reasonable certainty that I believe him to have been initiated into a domestic tradition of folk magic and healing such as I describe in my article."
Practices
In comparing Stregheria to Wicca, Grimassi notes both similarities between the two and differences. He has defended his material as being significantly different from Wicca at the roots level, and asserts that many of the foundational concepts in Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
's Wicca can be found earlier in works on Italian Witchcraft and ancient Mediterranean mystery sects.
Grimassi called his specific teachings on Stregheira the "Aridian Tradition" from 1980, after Aradia
Aradia (goddess)
Aradia is one of the principal figures in the American folklorist Charles Leland’s 1899 work Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which he believed to be a genuine religious text used by a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, a claim that has subsequently been disputed by other folklorists and...
of Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
, an alleged messianic figure known as the "goddess of the witches", viewed within the "Arician Tradition" as a witch who revived the Old Religion. While the "Aridian" tradition was based on "self-dedication" alone, the "Arician" tradition involves a rite of initiation
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
.
Some systems within Stregheria use a pentagram
Pentagram
A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes...
as an important symbol. The pentagram is often worn in the form of ring or necklace piece. Some traditions of Stregheria use the ritual tools of cup
Chalice (cup)
A chalice is a goblet or footed cup intended to hold a drink. In general religious terms, it is intended for drinking during a ceremony.-Christian:...
, wand
Wand
A wand is a thin, straight, hand-held stick of wood, stone, ivory, or metal. Generally, in modern language, wands are ceremonial and/or have associations with magic but there have been other uses, all stemming from the original meaning as a synonym of rod and virge, both of which had a similar...
, pentacle
Pentacle
A pentacle is an amulet used in magical evocation, generally made of parchment, paper or metal , on which the symbol of a spirit or energy being evoked is drawn. It is often worn around the neck, or placed within the triangle of evocation...
and blade
Athame
An Athame or Athamé is a ceremonial dagger, with a double-edged blade and usually a black handle. It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used in the religion of Wicca, and is also used in various other neopagan witchcraft traditions. It is variously pronounced or...
, which are seen in the suits of occult or divinatory tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
cards and amongst many systems of Western occultism.
Some Stregheria rituals take place in a circle, with an altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
facing North. Ritual actions include prayer
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
, and the blessing
Blessing
A blessing, is the infusion of something with holiness, spiritual redemption, divine will, or one's hope or approval.- Etymology and Germanic paganism :...
of food.
Some adherents of Stregheria celebrate the eight holidays of the neopagan Wheel of the Year
Wheel of the Year
The Wheel of the Year is a Neopagan term for the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons. It consists of eight festivals, spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. These festivals are referred to as Sabbats...
, called "Treguendas", while others celebrate the Roman Catholic or the ancient Roman holidays. One unified practice among Streghe is "ancestor reverence through spirits known as Lares".
See also
- European witchcraftEuropean witchcraftEuropean Witchcraft is witchcraft and magic that is practised primarily in the locality of Europe.-Antiquity:Instances of persecution of witchcraft are documented from Classical Antiquity, paralleling evidence from the Ancient Near East and the Old Testament.In Ancient Greece, for example, Theoris,...
- Neopaganism in Latin EuropeNeopaganism in Latin EuropeNeopaganism in Latin Europe is less widespread than in Germanic Europe and the wider Anglosphere. Italy, Spain and Portugal are traditionally Roman Catholic and according to the retain an above average belief in God...
- Neopaganism in the United StatesNeopaganism in the United StatesNeopaganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest Neopagan religion is Wicca, followed by Neodruidism. Both of these religions were introduced during the 1950s from Great Britain. Germanic Neopaganism and Kemetism appeared in the US in...