"Now it is fabled that Endymion, admitted to Olympus, whence he
was expelled for want of respect to Juno, was banished for thirty years to
earth. And having been allowed to sleep this time in a cave of Mount Latmos,
Diana, smitten with his beauty visited him every night till she had by him fifty
daughters and one son. And after this Endymion was recalled to
Olympus." -Diz. Stor. Mitol
The following legend and the spells were
given under the name or title of TANA. This was the old Etruscan name for Diana,
which is still preserved in the Romagna Toscana. In more than one Italian and
French work I have found some account or tale how a witch charmed a girl to
sleep for a lover, but this is the only explanation of the whole ceremony known
to me.
TANA
Tana is a beautiful goddess, and she loved a
marvelously handsome youth names Endamone; but her love was crossed by a witch
who was her rival, although Endamone did not care for the latter. But the
witch resolved to win him, whether he would or not, and with this intent she
induced the servant of Endamone to let her pass the night in the latter's room.
And when there, she assumed the appearance of Tana, whom he loved, so that he
was delighted to behold her, as he thought, and welcomed her with passionate
embraces. Yet this gave him into her power, for it enabled her to perform a
certain magic spell by clipping a lock of his hair. Then she went home, and
taking a piece of sheep's intestine, formed of it a purse, and in this she put
that which she had taken, with a red and a black ribbon bound together, with a
feather, and pepper and salt, and then sang a song. These are the words, a song
of witchcraft of the very old time.
This bag for Endamon' I wove, It
is my vengeance for the love, For the deep love I had for thee, Which thou
would'st not return to me, But bore it all to Tana's shrine, And Tana
never shall be thine! Now every night in agony By me thou shalt oppressed
be! From day to day, from hour to hour, I'll make thee feel the witch's
power; With passion thou shalt be tormented, And yet with pleasure ne'er
be contented; Enwrapped in slumber thou shalt lie, To know that thy
beloved is by, And, ever dying, never die, Without the power to speak a
word, Nor shall her voice by thee be heard; Tormented by Love's
agony, There shall be no relief for thee! For my strong spell thou canst
not break, And from that sleep thou ne'er shalt wake; Little by little
thou shalt waste, Like taper by the embers placed. Little by little thou
shalt die, Yet, ever living, tortured lie, Strong in desire, yet ever
weak, Without the power to move or speak, With all the love I had for
thee, Shalt thou thyself tormented be, Since all the love I felt of late
I'll make thee feel in burning hate, For ever on thy torture bent, I
am revenged, and now content.
But Tana, who was far more powerful than
the witch, though not able to break the spell by which he was compelled to
sleep, took from him all pain (he knew her in dreams), and embracing him, she
sang this counter charm.
Endamone, Endamone, Endamone! By the love I
feel, which I Shall ever feel until I die, Three crosses on thy bed I
make, And then three wild horse chestnuts take, In that bed the nuts I
hide, And then the window open wide, That the full moon may cast her light
Upon the love as fair and bright, And so I pray to her above To give
wild rapture to our love, And cast her fire in either heart, Which wildly
loves to never part; And one thing more I beg of thee! If any one
enamoured be, And in my aid his love hath placed, Unto his call I'll come
in haste.
So it came to pass that the fair goddess made love with
Endamone as if they had been awake (yet communing in dreams). And so it is to
this day, that whoever would make love with him or her who sleeps, should have
recourse to the beautiful Tana, and so doing there will be success.
This
legend, while agreeing in many details with the classical myth, is strangely
intermingled with practices of witchcraft, but even these, if investigated,
would all prove to be as ancient as the rest of the text. Thus the sheep's
intestine - used instead of the red woolen bag which is employed in beneficent
magic - the red and black ribbon, which mingles threads of joy and woe, the
(peacock) feather, pepper and salt, occur in many other incantations, but always
to bring evil and cause suffering. I have never seen it observed, but it is
true, that Keats in his exquisite poem of Endymion completely departs from or
ignores the whole spirit and meaning of the ancient myth, while in this rude
witch-song it is minutely developed. The conception is that of a beautiful youth
furtively kissed in his slumber by Diana of reputed chastity. The ancient myth
is, to begin with, one of darkness and light, or day and night, from which are
born the fifty-one (now fifty-two) weeks of the year. This is Diana, the night,
and Apollo, the sun, or light in another form. It is expressed as love-making
during sleep, which, when it occurs in real life, generally has for active agent
some one who, without being absolutely modest, wishes to preserve appearances.
The established character of Diana among the Initiated (for which she was
bitterly reviled by the Fathers of the Church) was that of a beautiful hypocrite
who pursued amours in silent secrecy. "Thus as the moon Endymion lay with
her, So did Hippolytus and Verbio." But there is an exquisitely subtle,
delicately strange idea or ideal in the conception of the apparently chaste
"clear, cold moon" casting her living light by stealth into the hidden recesses
of darkness and acting in the occult mysteries of love or dreams. So it struck
Byron as an original thought that the sun does not shine on half the forbidden
deeds which the moon witnesses, and this is emphasized in the Italian
witch-poem. In it the moon is distinctly invoked as the protectress of a strange
and secret amour, and as the deity to be especially invoked for such
love-making. The one invoking says that the window is opened, that the moon may
shine splendidly on the bed, even as our love is bright and beautiful...and I
pray her to give great rapture to us. The quivering, mysteriously beautiful
light of the moon, which seems to cast a spirit of intelligence or emotion over
silent Nature, and dimly half awaken it - raising shadows into thoughts and
causing every tree and rock to assume the semblance of a living form, but one
which, while shimmering and breathing, still sleeps in a dream - could not
escape the Greeks, and they expressed it as Diana embracing Endymion. But as
night is the time sacred to secrecy, and as the true Diana of the Mysteries was
the Queen of Night, who wore the crescent moon, and mistress of all hidden
things, including "sweet secret sins and loved iniquities," there was attached
to this myth far more than meets the eye. And just in the degree to which Diana
was believed to be Queen of the emancipated witches and of Night, or the
nocturnal Venus-Astarte herself, so far would the love for sleeping Endymion be
understood as sensual, yet sacred and allegorical. And it is entirely in this
sense that the witches in Italy, who may claim with some right to be its true
inheritors, have preserved and understood the myth. It is a realization of
forbidden or secret love, with attraction to the dimly seen
beautiful-by-moonlight, with the fairy or witch-like charm of the supernatural -
a romance combined in a single strange form - the spell of Night!
"There
is a dangerous silence in that hour A stillness which leaves room for the
full soul To open all itself, without the power Of calling wholly back
its self-control; The silver light which, hallowing tree and flower, Sheds
beauty and deep softness o'er the whole, Breathes also to the heart, and o'er
it throws A loving languor which is not repose." This is what is meant by
the myth of Diana and Endymion. It is the making divine or aesthetic (which to
the Greeks was one and the same) that which is impassioned, secret, and
forbidden. It was the charm of the stolen waters which are sweet, intensified to
poetry. And it is remarkable that it has been so strangely preserved in Italian
with traditions.
CHAPTER X
MADONNA DIANA
Once there was, in the
very old time in Cettardo Alto, a girl of astonishing beauty, and she was
betrothed to a young man who was as remarkable for good looks as herself; but
though well born and bred, the fortune or misfortunes of war or fate had made
them both extremely poor. And if the young lady had one fault, it was her great
pride, nor would she willingly be married unless in good style, with luxury and
festivity, in a fine garment, with many bridesmaids of rank. And this became
to the beautiful Rorasa - for such was her name - such an object of desire, that
her head was half turned with it, and the other girls of her acquaintance, to
say nothing of the many men whom she had refused, mocked her so bitterly, asking
her when the fine wedding was to be, with many other jeers and sneers, that at
last in a moment of madness she went to the top of a high tower, whence she cast
herself; and to make it worse, there was below a terrible ravine into which she
fell. Yet she took no harm, for as she fell there appeared to her a very
beautiful woman, truly not of earth, who took her by the hand and bore her
through the air to a safe place. Then all the people round who saw or heard
of this thing cried out, "Lo, a miracle!" and they came and made a great
festival, and would fain persuade Rorasa that she had been saved by the
Madonna. But the lady who had saved her, coming to her secretly, said, "If
thou hast any desire, follow the Gospel of Diana, or what is called the Gospel
of the Witches, who worship the moon." "If thou adorest Luna, then What thou
desir'st thou shalt obtain!" Then the beautiful girl went forth alone by
night to the fields, and kneeling on a stone in an old ruin, she worshipped the
moon and invoked Diana thus: Diana, beautiful Diana! Thou who didst save
from a dreadful death When I did fall into the dark ravine! I pray thee
grant me still another grace. Give me one glorious wedding, and with it
Full many bridesmaids, beautiful and grand; And if this favour thou wilt
grant me, True to the Witches' Gospel I will be!
When Rorasa awoke in
the morning, she found herself in another house, where all was far more
magnificent, and having risen, a beautiful maid led her into another room, where
she was dressed in a superb wedding garment of white silk with diamonds, for it
was her wedding dress indeed. Then there appeared ten young ladies, all
splendidly attired, and with them and many distinguished persons she went to the
church in a carriage. And all the streets were filled with music and people
bearing flowers. So she found the bridegrooms, and was wedded to her heart's
desire, ten times more grandly than she had ever dreamed of. Then, after the
ceremony, there was spread a feast at which all the nobility of Cettardo were
present, and, moreover, the whole town, rich and poor, were feasted. When the
wedding was finished, the bridesmaids made every one a magnificent present to
the bride - one gave diamonds, another a parchment (written) in gold, after
which they asked permission to go all together into the sacristy. And there they
remained for some hours undisturbed, until the priest sent his chierico to
inquire whether they wanted anything. But what was the youth's amazement at
beholding, not the ten bridesmaids, but their ten images or likenesses in wood
and in terra-cotta, with that of Diana standing on a moon, and they were all so
magnificently made and adorned as to be of immense value. Therefore the
priest put these images in the church, which is the most ancient in Cettardo,
and now in many churches you may see the Madonna and Moon, but it is Diana. The
name Rorasa seems to indicate the Latin ros the dew, rorare, to bedew,
rorulenta, bedewed - in fact, the goddess of the dew. Her great fall and being
lifted by Diana suggest the fall of dew by night, and its rising in vapor under
the influence of the moon. It is possible that this is a very old Latin mythic
tale. The white silk and diamonds indicate the dew.
CHAPTER XI
THE HOUSE OF THE WIND
The following
story does not belong to the Gospel of Witches, but I add it as it confirms the
fact that the worship of Diana existed for a long time contemporary with
Christianity. Its full title in the original MS, which was written out by
Maddalena, after hearing it from a man who was a native of Volterra, is The
Female Pilgrim of the House of the Wind. It may be added that, as the tale
declares, the house in question is still standing.
There is a peasants
house at the beginning of the hill or ascent leading to Volterra, and it is
called the House of the Wind. Near it there once stood a small palace, wherein
dwelt a married couple, who had but one child, a daughter, whom they adored.
Truly if the child had but a headache, they each had a worse attack from
fear. Little by little as the girl grew older, and all the thought of the
mother, who was very devout, was that she should become a nun. But the girl did
not like this, and declared that she hoped to be married like others. And when
looking from her window one day, she saw and heard the birds singing in the
vines and among the trees all so merrily, she said to her mother that she hoped
some day to have a family of little birds of her own, singing round her in a
cheerful nest. At which the mother was so angry that she gave her daughter a
cuff. And the young lady wept, but replied with spirit, that if beaten or
treated in any such manner, that she would certainly soon find some way to
escape and get married, for she had no idea of being made a nun against her
will. At hearing this the mother was seriously frightened, for she knew the
spirit of her child, and was afraid lest the girl already had a lover, and would
make a great scandal over the blow; and turning it all over, she thought of an
elderly lady of good family, but much reduced, who was famous for her
intelligence, learning, and power of persuasion, and she thought, "This will be
just the person to induce my daughter to become pious, and fill her head with
devotion and make a nun of her." So she sent for this clever person, who was at
once appointed the governess and constant attendant of the young lady, who,
instead of quarreling with her guardian, became devoted to her. However,
everything in this world does not go exactly as we would have it, and no one
knows what fish or crab may hide under a rock in a river. For it so happened
that the governess was not a Catholic at all, as will presently appear, and did
not vex her pupil with any threats of a nun's life, nor even with an approval of
it. It came to pass that the young lady, who was in the habit of lying awake
on moonlight nights to hear the nightingales sing, thought she heard her
governess in the next room, of which the door was open, rise and go forth on the
great balcony. The next night the same thing took place, and rising very softly
and unseen, she beheld the lady praying, or at least kneeling in the moonlight,
which seemed to her to be very singular conduct, the more so because the lady
kneeling uttered words which the younger could not understand, and which
certainly formed no part of the Church service. And being much exercised over
the strange occurrence, she at last, with timid excuses, told her governess what
she had seen. Then the latter, after a little reflection, first binding her to a
secrecy of life and death, for, as she declared, it was a matter of great peril,
spoke as follows: "I, like thee, was instructed when young by priests to
worship an invisible god. But an old woman in whom I had great confidence once
said to me, 'Why worship a deity whom you cannot see, when there is the Moon in
all her splendor visible? Worship her. Invoke Diana, the goddess of the Moon,
and she will grant your prayers.' This shalt thou do, obeying the Gospel of (the
Witches and of) Diana, who is Queen of the Fairies and of the Moon" Now the
young lady being persuaded, was converted to the worship of Diana and the Moon,
and having prayed with all her heart for a lover (having learned the conjuration
to the goddess), was soon rewarded by the attention and devotion of a brave and
wealthy cavalier, who was indeed as admirable a suitor as any one could desire.
But the mother, who was far more bent on gratifying vindictiveness and cruel
vanity than on her daughter's happiness, was infuriated at this, and when the
gentleman came to her, she bade him begone, for her daughter was vowed to become
a nun, and a nun she should be or die. Then the young lady was shut up in a
cell in a tower, without even the company of her governess, and put to strong
and hard pain, being made to sleep on the stone floor, and would have died of
hunger had her mother had her way. Then in this dire need she prayed to Diana
to set her free; when lo! she found the prison door unfastened, and easily
escaped. Then having obtained a pilgrims 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
oppressed. And the fame of her wisdom and beauty went forth over all the
land, and the people worshipped her, calling her La Bella Pellegrina. At last
her mother, hearing of her, was in a greater rage than ever, and, in fine, after
much trouble, succeeded in having her arrested and cast into prison. And then in
evil temper indeed she asked her whether she would become a nun; to which she
replied that it was not possible, because she had left the Catholic Church and
become a worshipper of Diana and of the Moon. And the end of it was that the
mother, regarding her daughter as lost, gave her up to the priests to be put to
torture and death, as they did all who would not agree with them or who left
their religion. But the people were not well pleased with this, because they
adored her beauty and goodness, and there were few who had not enjoyed her
charity. But by the aid of her lover she obtained, as a last grace, that on
the night before she was to be tortured and executed she might, with a guard, go
forth into the garden of the palace and pray. This she did, and standing by the
door of the house, which is still there, prayed in the light of the full moon to
Diana, that she might be delivered from the dire persecution to which she had
been subjected, since even her own parents had willingly given her over to an
awful death. Now her parents and the priests, and all who sought her death,
were in the palace watching lest she should escape. When lo! in answer to her
prayer there came a terrible tempest and overwhelming wind, a storm such as man
had never seen before, which overthrew and swept away the palace with all who
were in it; there was not one stone left upon another, nor one soul alive of all
who were there. The gods had replied to the prayer. The young lady escaped
happily with her lover, wedded him, and the house of the peasant where the lady
stood is still called the House of the Wind.
This is very accurately the
story as I received it, but I freely admit that I have very much condensed the
language of the original text, which consists of twenty pages, and which, as
regards needless padding, indicates a capacity on the part of the narrator to
write an average modern fashionable novel, even a second rate French one, which
is saying a great deal. It is true that there are in it no detailed descriptions
of scenery, skies, trees, or clouds - and a great deal might be made of Volterra
in that way - but it is prolonged in a manner which shows a gift for it.
However, the narrative itself is strangely original and vigorous, for it is such
a relic of pure classic heathenism, and such a survival of faith in the old
mythology, as all the reflected second hand Hellenism of the Aesthetes cannot
equal. That a real worship of or belief in classic divinities should have
survived to the present day in the very land of Papacy itself, is a much more
curious fact than if a living mammoth had been discovered in some out of the way
corner of the earth, because the former is a human phenomenon. I forsee that the
day will come, and that perhaps not so very far distant, when the world of
scholars will be amazed to consider to what a late period an immense body of
antique tradition survived in Northern Italy, and how indifferent the learned
were regarding it; there having been in very truth only one man, and he a
foreigner, who earnestly occupied himself with collecting and preserving
it. It is very probably that there were as many touching episodes among the
heathen martyrs who were forced to give up their beloved deities, such as Diana,
Venus, the Graces, and others, who were worshipped for beauty, as there were
even among the Christians who were thrown to the lions. For the heathen loved
their gods with a human personal sympathy, without mysticism or fear, as if they
had been blood relations; and there were many among them who really believed
that such was the case when some damsel who had made a faux pas got out of it by
attributing it all to some god, faun, or satyr; which is very touching. There is
a great deal to be said for as well as against the idolaters or worshippers of
dolls, as I heard a small girl define them.
CHAPTER XII
TANA THE MOON GODDESS
The following
story, which appeared originally in the Legends of Florence, collected from the
people by me, does not properly belong to the Witch's Gospel, as it is not
strictly in accordance with it; and yet it could not well be omitted, since it
is on the same subject. In it Diana appears simply as the lunar goddess of
chastity, therefor not as a witch. It was given to me as Fana, but my informant
said that it might be Tana; she was not sure. As Tana occurs in another tale,
and as the subject is certainly Diana, there can hardly be a question of
this.
Tana was a very beautiful girl, but extremely poor, and as modest
and pure as she was beautiful and humble. She went from one contadino to
another, or from farm to farm to work, and thus led an honest life. There was
a young boor, a very ugly, bestial, and brutish fellow, who was after his
fashion raging with love for her, but she could not so much as bear to look at
him, and repelled all his advances. But late one night, when she was
returning alone from the farmhouse where she had worked to her home, this man
who had hidden himself in a thicket, leaped out on her and cried, "Thou canst
not flee; mine thou shalt be!" And seeing no help near, and only the full
moon looking down on her from heaven, Tana in despair cast herself on her knees
and cried to it:
"I have no one on earth to defend me, Thou alone dost
see me in this strait; Therefore I pray to thee, O Moon! As thou art
beautiful so thou art bright Flashing thy splendor over all mankind; Even
so I pray thee light up the mind Of this poor ruffian, who would wrong me
here, Even to the worst. Cast light into his soul, That he may let me be
in peace, and then Return in all thy light unto my home!"
When she
had said this, there appeared before her a bright but shadowy form, which
said:
"Rise, and go to thy home! Thou has well deserved this
grace; No one shall trouble thee more, Purest of all on earth! Thou
shalt a goddess be, The Goddess of the Moon, Of all enchantment
Queen!"
Thus it came to pass that Tana became the dea or spirit of the
Moon.
Though the air be set to a different key, this is a poem of pure
melody, and the same as Wordsworth's "Goody Blake and Harry Gill." Both Tana and
the old dame are surprised and terrified; both pray to a power
above:
"The cold, cold moon above her head, Thus on her knees did
Goody pray; Young Harry heard what she had said, And icy cold he turned
away."
The dramatic center is just the same in both. The English ballad
soberly turns into an incurable fir of ague inflicted on a greedy young boor;
the Italian witch-poetess, with finer sense, or with more sympathy for the
heroine, casts the brute aside without further mention, and apotheosizes the
maiden, identifying her with the Moon. The former is more practical and
probable, the latter more poetical. And here it is worth while, despite
digression, to remark what an immense majority there are of people who can
perceive, feel, and value poetry in mere words or form - that is to say,
objectively - and hardly know or note it when it is presented subjectively or as
thought, but not put into some kind of verse or measure, or regulated form. This
is a curious experiment and worth studying. Take a passage from some famous
poet; write it out in pure simple prose, doing full justice to its real meaning,
and if it still actually thrills or moves as poetry, then it is of the first
class. But if it has lost its glamour absolutely, it is second rate or inferior;
for the best cannot be made out of mere words varnished with associations, be
they of thought or feeling. This is not such a far cry from the subject as
might be deemed. Reading and feeling them subjectively, I am often struck by the
fact that in these Witch traditions which I have gathered there is a wondrous
poetry of thought, which far excels the efforts of many modern bards, and which
only requires the aid of some clever workman in words to assume the highest
rank. A proof of what I have asserted may be found in the fact that, in such
famous poems as the Finding of the Lyre, by James Russell Lowell, and that on
the invention of the pipe by Pan, by Mrs. Browning, that which formed the most
exquisite and refined portion of the original myths is omitted by both authors,
simply because they missed or did not perceive it. For in the former we are not
told that it was the breathing of the god Air (who was the inspiring soul of
ancient music, and the Bellaria of modern witch-mythology) on the dried filament
of the tortoise, which suggested to Hermes the making an instrument wherewith he
made the music of the spheres and guided the course of the planets. As for Mrs.
Browning, she leaves out Syrinx altogether, that is to say, the voice of the
nymph still lingering in the pipe which had been her body. Now to my mind the
old prose narrative of these myths is much more deeply poetical and moving, and
far more inspired with beauty and romance, than are the well-rhymed and
measured, but very imperfect versions given by our poets. And in fact, such want
of intelligence or perception may be found in all the 'classic' poems, not only
of Keats, but of almost every poet of the age who has dealt in Greek
subjects. Great license is allowed to painters and poets, but when they take
a subjective, especially a deep tradition, and fail to perceive its real meaning
or catch its point, and simply give us something very pretty, but not so
inspired with meaning as the original, it can hardly be claimed that they have
done their work as it might, or, in fact, should have been done. I find that
this fault does not occur in the Italian or Tuscan witch versions of the ancient
fables; on the contrary, they keenly appreciate, and even expand, the antique
spirit. Hence I have often had occasion to remark that it was not impossible
that in some cases popular tradition, even as it now exists, has been preserved
more fully and accurately than we find it in any Latin writer. Now apropos of
missing the point, I would remind certain very literal readers that if they find
many faults of grammar, misspelling, and worse in the Italian texts in this
book, they will not, as a distinguished reviewer has done, attribute them all to
the ignorance of the author, but to the imperfect education of the person who
collected and recorded them. I am reminded of this by having seen in a
circulating library copy of my Legend of Florence, in which some good careful
soul had taken pains with a pencil to correct all the archaisms. Wherein, he or
she was like a certain Boston proof reader, who in a book of mine changed the
spelling of many citations from Chaucer, Spenser, and others into the purest, or
impurest, Webster; he being under the impression that I was extremely ignorant
of orthography. As for the writing in or injuring books, which always belong
partly to posterity, it is a sin of vulgarity as well as morality, and indicates
what people are more than they dream.
"Only a cad as low as a thief
Would write in a book or turn down a leaf, Since 'tis thievery, as well
is know, To make free with that which is not our own."
CHAPTER XIII
DIANA AND THE CHILDREN
There was
in Florence in the oldest time a noble family, but grown so poor that their
feast days were few and far between. However, they dwelt in their old palace
(which was in the street now called La Via Cittadella), which was a fine old
building, and so they kept up a brave show before the world, when many a day
they hardly had anything to eat. Round this palace was a large garden, in
which stood an ancient marble statue of Diana, like a beautiful woman who seemed
to be running with a dog by her side. She held in her hand a bow, and on her
forehead was a small moon. And it was said that by night, when all was still,
the statue became like life and fled, and did not return till the moon set or
the sun rose. The father of the family had two children, who were good and
intelligent. On day they came home with many flowers that had been given to
them, and the little girl said to the brother, "The beautiful lady with the bow
ought to have some of these!" Saying this, they laid flowers before the
statue and made a wreath, which the boy placed on her head. Just then the
great poet and magician Virgil, who knew everything about the god and fairies,
entered the garden and said, smiling, "You have made the offering of flowers to
the goddess quite correctly, as they did of old; all that remains is to
pronounce the prayer properly, and it is this:" So he repeated the invocation
of Diana:
Lovely Goddess of the bow! Lovely Goddess of the
arrows! Of all hounds and of all hunting Thou who wakest in starry heaven
When the sun is sunk in slumber Thou with moon upon thy forehead, Who
the chase by night preferrest Unto hunting in the daylight, With thy
nymphs unto the music Of the horn - thyself the huntress, And most
powerful: I pray thee Think, although but for an instant, Upon us who
pray unto thee!
Then Virgil taught them also the spell to be uttered when
good fortune or aught is specially required -
Fair goddess of the
rainbow, Of the stars and of the moon! The queen most powerful Of
hunters and the night! We beg of thee thy aid, That thou may'st give to us
The best of fortune ever! If thou heed'st our evocation And wilt give
good fortune to us, Then in proof give us a token!
And having taught
them this, Virgil departed. Then the children ran to tell their parents all
that had happened, and the latter impressed it on them to keep it a secret, nor
breathe a word or hint thereof to any one. But what was their amazement when
they found early the next morning before the statue a deer freshly killed, which
gave them good dinners for many a day; nor did they want thereafter at any time
game of all kinds, when the prayer had been devoutly pronounced. There was a
neighbor of this family, a priest, who held in hate all the ways and worship of
the gods of the old time, and whatever did not belong to his religion, and he,
passing the garden one day, beheld the statue of Diana crowned with roses and
other flowers. And being in a rage, and seeing in the street a decayed cabbage,
he rolled it in the mud, and threw it all dripping at the face of the goddess,
saying, "Behold, thou vile beast of idolatry, this is the worship which thou has
from me, and the devil do the rest for thee!" Then the priest heard a voice
in the gloom where the leaves were dense, and it said, "It is well! I give thee
warning, since thou hast made thy offering, some of the game to thee I'll bring;
thou'lt have thy share in the morning." All that night the priest suffered
from horrible dreams and dread, and when at last, just before three o'clock, he
fell asleep, he suddenly awoke from a nightmare in which it seemed as if
something heavy rested on his chest. And something indeed fell from him and
rolled on the floor. And when he rose and picked it up, and looked at it by the
light of the moon, he saw that it was a human head, half decayed. Another
priest, who had heard his cry of terror, entered his room, and having looked at
the head, said, "I know that face! It is of a man whom I confessed, and who was
beheaded three months ago at Siena." And three days after, the priest who had
insulted the goddess died.
The foregoing tale was not given to me as
belonging to the Gospel of Witches, but as one of a very large series of
traditions relating to Virgil as a magician. But it has its proper place in this
book, because it contains the invocation to and incantation of Diana, these
being remarkably beautiful and original. When we remember how these 'hymns' have
been handed down or preserved by old women, and doubtless much garbled, changed,
and deformed by transmission, it cannot but seem wonderful that so much classic
beauty still remains in them, as, for instance, in -
Lovely Goddess of
the bow! Lovely Goddess of the arrows! Thou who walk'st I starry
heaven! Robert Browning was a great poet, but if we compare all the Italian
witch poems of and to Diana with the former's much admired speech of
Diana-Artemis, it will certainly be admitted by impartial critics that the
spells are fully equal to the following by the bard -
I am a goddess of
the ambrosial courts, And save by Here, Queen of Pride, surpassed By none
whose temples whiten this the world; Through heaven I roll my lucid moon
along, I shed in Hell o'er my pale people peace, On Earth, I, caring for
the creatures, guard Each pregnant yellow wolf and fox bitch sleek, And
every feathered mother's callow brood, And all that love green haunts and
loneliness.
This is pretty, but it is only imitation, and neither in form
or spirit really equal to the incantations, which are sincere on faith. And it
may here be observed in sorrow, yet in very truth, that in a very great number
of modern poetical handlings of classic mythic subjects, the writers have,
despite all their genius as artists, produced rococo work which will appear to
be such to another generation, simply from their having missed the point, or
omitted from ignorance something vital which the folk lorist would probably not
have lost. Achilles may be admirably drawn, as I have seen him, in a Louis XIV.
wig with a Turkish scimitar, but still one could wish that the designer had been
a little more familiar with Greek garments and weapons.
CHAPTER XIV
THE GOBLIN MESSENGERS OF DIANA AND MERCURY
The following tale was not given to me as connected with the
Gospel of the Witches, but as Diana appears in it, and as the whole conception
is that of Diana and Apollo in another form, I include it in the
series.
Many centuries ago there was a goblin, or spirit or devil-angel,
and Mercury, who was the god of speed and of quickness, being much pleased with
this imp, bestowed on him the gift of running like the wind, with the privilege
that whatever he pursued, be it spirit, a human being, or animal, he should
certainly overtake or catch it. This goblin had a beautiful sister, who like
him, ran errands, not for the gods, but for the goddesses (there was a female
god for every male, even down to the small spirits); and Diana on the same day
gave to this fairy the power that, whoever might chase her, she should, if
pursued, never be overtaken. On day the brother saw his sister speeding like
a flash of lightning across the heaven, and he felt a sudden strange desire in
rivalry to overtake her. So he dashed after as she flitted on; but though it was
his destiny to catch, she had been fated never to be caught, and so the will of
one supreme god was balanced by that of another. So the two kept flying round
and round the edge of heaven, and at first all the gods roared with laughter,
but when they understood the case, hey grew serious, and asked one another how
it was to end. Then the great father-god said, "Behold the earth, which is in
darkness and gloom! I will change the sister into a Moon, and her brother into a
sun. And so shall she ever escape him, yet will he ever catch her with his
light, which shall fall on her from afar; for the rays of the sun are his hands,
which reach forth with burning grasp, yet which are ever eluded." And thus it
is said that this race begins anew with, the first of every month, when the moon
being cold, is covered with as many coats as an onion. But while the race is
being run, as the moon becomes warm she casts off one garment after another,
till she is naked and then stops, and then when dressed the race begins
again.
As the vast storm cloud falls in glittering drops, even so the
great myths of the olden time are broken up into small fairy tales, and as these
drops in turn reunite. "On silent lake or streamlet lone" as Villon hath it,
even so minor myths are again formed from the fallen waters. In this story we
clearly have the dog made by Vulcan and the wolf - Jupiter settled the question
by petrifying them - as you may read in Julius Pollux his fifth book, or any
other on mythology. "Which hunting hound, as well is known, Was changed by
Jupiter to stone." It is remarkable that in this story the moon is compared
to an onion. "The onion," says Friedrich, "was, on account of its many skins,
among the Egyptians the emblem and hieroglyph of the many formed moon, whose
different phases are so clearly seen I the root when it is cut through, also
because its growth or decrease corresponds with that of the planet. Therefore it
was dedicated to Isis, the Moon Goddess." And for this reason the onion was so
holy as to be regarded as having in itself something of deity; for which reason
Juvenal remarks that the Egyptians were happy people to have gods growing in
their gardens.
CHAPTER XV
LAVERNA
The following very curious
tale, with the incantation, was not in the text of the Vangelo, but it very
evidently belongs to the cycle or series of legends connected with it. Diana is
declared to be the protectress of all outcasts, those to whom the night is their
day, consequently of thieves; and Laverna, as we may learn from Horace and
Plautus, was pre-eminently the patroness of pilfering and all rascality. In this
story she also appears as a witch and humorist. It was given to me as a
tradition of Virgil, who often appears as one familiar with the marvelous and
hidden lore of the olden time.
It happened on a time that Virgil, who
knew all things hidden or magical, he who was a magician and poet, having heard
a speech (or oration) by a famous talker who had not much in him, was asked what
he thought of it. And he replied, "It seems to me to be impossible to tell
whether it was all introduction or all conclusion; certainly there was no body
in it. It was like certain fish of whom one is in doubt whether they are all
head or all tail, or only head and tail; or the goddess Laverna, of whom no one
ever know whether she was all head or all body, or neither or both." Then the
emperor inquired who this deity might be, for he had never heard of her. And
Virgil replied, "Among the gods or spirits who were of ancient times - may they
be ever favorable to us! Among them (was) one female who was the craftiest and
most knavish of them all. She was called Laverna. She was a thief, and very
little known to the other deities, who were honest and dignified, for she was
rarely in heaven or in the country of the fairies. "She was almost always on
earth, among thieves, pickpockets, and panders - she lived in darkness. "Once
it happened that she went (to a mortal), a great priest in the form and guise of
a very beautiful stately priestess (of some goddess), and said to him: - " '
You have an estate which I wish to buy. I intend to build on it a temple to
(our) God. I swear to you on my body that I will pay thee within a
year' "Therefore the priest transferred to her the estate. "And very soon
Laverna had sold off all the crops, grain, cattle, wood, and poultry. There was
not left the value of four farthings. "But on the day fixed for payment there
was no Laverna to be seen. The fair goddess was far away, and had left her
creditor in the lurch! "At the same time Laverna went to a great lord and
bought of him a castle, well furnished within and broad rich lands
without. "But this time she swore on her head to pay in full in six
months. "And as she had done by the priest, so she acted to the lord of the
castle, and stole and sold every stick, furniture, cattle, men, and mice - there
was not left wherewith to feed a fly. "Then the priest and the lord, finding
out who this was, appealed to the gods, complaining that they had been robbed by
a goddess. "And it was soon made known to them all that this was
Laverna. "Therefore she was called to judgment before all the gods. "And
when she was asked what she had done with the property of the priest, unto whom
she had sworn by her body to make payment at the time appointed (and why she had
broken her oath)? "She replied by a strange deed which amazed them all, for
she made her body disappear, so that only her head remained visible, and it
cried: - " "Behold me! I swore by my body, but body have I none!' "Then
all the gods laughed. "After the priest came the lord who had also been
tricked, and to whom she had sworn by her head. And in reply to him Laverna
showed all present her whole body without mincing matters, and it was one of
extreme beauty, but without a head; and from the neck thereof came a voice which
said: - 'Behold me, for I am Laverna, who Have come to answer to that
lord's complaint, Who swears that I contracted debt to him, And have not
paid although the time is o'er And that I am a thief because I swore
Upon my head - but, as you all can see, I have no head at all, and
therefore I Assuredly ne'er swore by such an oath.' "Then there was
indeed a storm of laughter among the gods, who made the matter right by ordering
the head to join the body, and bidding Laverna pay up her debts, which she
did. "Then Jove spoke and said: - " 'Here is a roguish goddess without a
duty (or a worshipper), while there are in Rome innumerable thieves, sharpers,
cheats, and rascals who live by deceit. " "These good folk have neither a
church nor a god, and it is a great pity, for even the very devils have their
master, Satan, as the head of the family. Therefore, I command that in future
Laverna shall be the goddess of all the knaves or dishonest tradesman, with the
whole rubbish and refuse of the human race, who have been hitherto without a god
or a devil, inasmuch as they have been too despicable for the one or the
other.' "And so Laverna became the goddess of all dishonest and shabby
people. "Whenever any one planned or intended any knavery or aught wicked, he
entered her temple, and invoked Laverna, who appeared to him as a woman's head.
But if he did his work of knavery badly or maladroitly, when he again invoked
her he saw only the body; but if he was clever, then he beheld the whole
goddess, head and body. "Laverna was no more chaste than she was honest, and
had many lovers and many children. It was said that not being bad at heart or
cruel, she often repented her life and sins; but do what she might, she could
not reform, because her passions were so inveterate. "And if a man had got
any woman with child or any maid found herself enceinte, and would hide it from
the world and escape scandal, they would go every day to invoke
Laverna. "Then when the time came for the suppliant to be delivered, Laverna
would bear her in sleep during the night to her temple, and after the birth cast
her into slumber again, and bear her back to her bed at home. And when she woke
in the morning, she was ever in vigorous health and felt no weariness, and all
seemed to her as a dream. "But to those who desired in time to reclaim their
children, Laverna was indulgent if they led such lives as pleased her and
faithfully worshipped her. "And this is the ceremony to be performed and the
incantation to be offered every night to Laverna. "There must be a set place
devoted to the goddess, be it a room, a cellar, or a grove, but ever a solitary
place. "Then take a small table of the size of forty playing cards set close
together, and this must be hid in the same place, and going there at
night... "Take forty cards and spread them on the table, making of them a
close carpet or cover on it. "Take of the herbs paura and concordia, and boil
the two together, repeating meanwhile the following: -
I boil the cluster
of concordia To keep in concord and at peace with me Laverna, that she
may restore to me My child, and that she by her favoring care May guard
me well from danger all my life! I boil this herb, yet 'tis not it which
boils, I boil the fear, that it may keep afar Any intruder, and if such
should come (to spy upon my rite), may he be struck With fear and in his
terror haste away!
Having said thus, put the boiled herbs in a bottle and
spread the cards on the table one by one, saying: -
I spread before me
now the forty cards Yet 'tis not forty cards which here I spread, But
forty of the gods superior To the deity Laverna, that their forms May
each and all become volcanoes hot, Until Laverna comes and brings my
child; And 'till 'tis done may they all cast at her Hot flames of fire,
and with them glowing coals From noses, mouths, and ears (until she
yields); Then may they leave Laverna at her peace, Free to embrace her
children at her will!
"Laverna was the Roman goddess of thieves,
pickpockets, shopkeepers or dealers, plagiarists, rascals, and hypocrites. There
was near Rome a temple in a grove where robbers went to divide their plunder.
There was a statue of the goddess. Her image, according to some, was a head
without a body; according to others, a body without a head; but the epithet of
'beautiful' applied to her by Horace indicates that she who gave disguises to
her worshippers had kept one to herself." She was worshipped in perfect silence.
This is confirmed by a passage to Horace, where an impostor, hardly daring to
move his lips, repeats the following prayer or incantation: -
"O goddess
Laverna! Give me the art of cheating and deceiving, Of making men believe
that I am just, Holy, and innocent! extend all darkness And deep
obscurity o'er my misdeeds!"
It is interesting to compare this
unquestionably ancient classic invocation to Laverna with the one which is
before given. The goddess was extensively known to the lower orders, and in
Plautus a cook who has been robbed of his implements calls on her to revenge
him. I call special attention to the fact that in this, as in a great number
of Italian witch incantations, the deity or spirit who is worshipped, be it
Diana herself or Laverna, is threatened with torment by a higher power until he
or she grants the favour demanded. This is quite classic (Grecco-Roman or
Oriental) in all of which sources the magician relies not on favour, aid, or
power granted by either God or Satan, but simply on what he has been able to
wrench and wring, as it were, out of infinite nature or the primal source by
penance and study. I mention this because a reviewer has reproached me with
exaggerating the degree to which diabolism - introduced by the Church since 1500
- is deficient in Italy. But in fact, among the higher classes of witches, or in
their traditions, it is hardly to be found at all. In Christian diabolism the
witch never dares to threaten Satan or God, or any of the Trinity or angels, for
the whole system is based on the conception of a Church and of obedience. The
herb concordia probably takes its name from that of the goddess Concordia, who
was represented as holding a branch. It plays a great part in witchcraft, after
verbena and rue.