Re: VMs: La Vecchia Religione

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

At 00:02 13/05/2004 -0500, Dennis wrote:
> Dana Scott wrote:-
> > I have begun to investigate La Vecchia Religione of ancient 
> Italy.  There are
> > numerous aspects of Stregheria that seem to have correlations in the VMS
>
>         Stregheria sounds interesting.  I've mostly heard that
> Wicca claims to be a folk survival of the antique
> pre-Christian traditions of Europe, but is in fact a
> literate invention of the late 19th and early 20th
> centuries.  I believe that Wicca claims that "La
> Vecchia Religione" is such a survival of ancient Roman
> beliefs and practices, and that it is similarly
> suspect.  I don't know much, but keep that in mind.

I've had a good look at Stregheria in the past (I think there was a mention 
in Couliano's "Eros and Magic in the Renaissance" - though, frustratingly, 
there's no subject index at the back): one problem is that a lot of web 
sources on it (as Dennis points out) seem to mix up present longings with 
past history into something which is hard to separate out. Tread carefully! :-o

Though some believe it's a fake, probably the first point of reference 
would be Charles Godfrey Leland's...
        http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/l/Leland_charles_godfrey.html

...(1899) book "Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches". There's an online 
version:-
        http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/aradia/

A pretty good Stregheria link page here:-
        http://www.branwenscauldron.com/resources/strega.html

BTW, I always meant to try to get hold of Ronald Hutton (1999) "The Triumph 
of the Moon" (Oxford University Press) - but never got round to it. That 
might well be a good book to read on the general subject.

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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