Stregheria (Italian Witchcraft) – Luciano Benandanti

Stregheria (Italian Witchcraft)
I will strive to give you a basic understanding of Stregheria (Italian
Witchcraft) : its’ many dieties, beliefs, folklore, history, charms, ethics,
traditions and festivals. There are different traditions of Stregheria :
Janarra, Tanarra, Fanarra, Silvanic, Benandanti, Luperci, Cavellini, Italian
Fairy, Sicilian Fairy, Trinacrian and probably many more. In Italian, there
are different words for witch/magickian/sorcerer:
Strega (straygah)
Stregone (straygonay)
; Mago (mahjoh) and Maga (mahjah).
Strega means female Witch; Stregone means male Witch;
Mago means
magician and Maga means sorceress. The Italian words for Witchcraft
are Stregheria (straygareeah)
; Stregoneria (straygoneereeah)
and
Magia (mahjeeah).
The Italian word for coven is Boschetto
(bossketoh),
which means grove; Selva, which means forest; or
Congrega which means group.
I will also bring you information about being Pagan, Wiccan and a Witch. I
consider myself a Pagan and a Witch. For me, the roots of Witchcraft can
be found throughout Italy in the tradition of Stregheria, the Old Religion.
Witches and Wiccans are concerned with conservation and ecology.
Witches believe that both animate and inanimate objects possess a spirit
(numen) that links it to nature and makes it an undeniable part of the
universe. It is important to note that magick is natural. There is nothing
supernatural about it. As a Witch I would use such things as a wand of
wood, a sea shell, a pentacle made of a flat rock, herbs, amulets, omens
and chants. The power comes from within it
is not in the tools. Our
ancestors knew how to use it effectively, but it is a largely forgotten art in
modern times. I believe that the Craft is not something that one practices
only in Circle. You must be mindful that every choice we make always has
conseqences, and that each of us, like it or not, are responsible for the all
of consequences of our choices. I believe that things can be added to a
ritual without taking away the meaning. We are ever evolving….so ritual
must be evolving also. We are not in ancient times, so I don’t think we
need to stay in the past as far as rituals. But do not change the ‘meaning’
of the ritual when making an addition to it.
You would be very hard pressed to find a Witch, Wiccan or Pagan
anywhere who would blindly follow anyone else. We are historically very
independent people who seek truth from within through rituals, meditation,
studying and communing with nature. We respect the right of everyone to
worship in their own way. My only animosity towards Christianity, or towards
any other religion or philosophy of life, is to the extent that its institutions
have claimed to be ‘the only way’ and have sought to deny freedom to
others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief. I do not
feel that Witchcraft or Wicca is the only way only
that it is my way. I follow
my own tradition of Stregheria…I am not associated with any Clan here in
the US or Italy. I do not profess to be ‘the’ authority on Stregheria, and
what I offer here in this website is my opinions, hypothesis, conclusions
and comments.
A Witch/Wiccan/Pagan lives by a code of ethics which is built upon the
Laws of Nature. Our behavior is not regulated by a fear of what awaits us in
the Afterlife, but a respect for what awaits us in this Life. Everything, and
everyone, is connected. What we do to one another, and to our World, we
do to ourselves. If you choose to follow a path (pagan, witch, wiccan,
christian, whatever) then you CANNOT just ‘tune in’ like a TV set once in a
while. For me, my path IS my religion. Just to practice it once in a while
does not give you the benefit of actually ‘knowing’ your religion. You must
practice it DAILY. It must become second nature to you. To give thanks to
the God and Goddess for another day to learn, to meditate, to celebrate
the festivals according to our Ways, to give proper respect to each
other….this is the way I celebrate my life. I personally think that if you
cannot commit to this then you need to take a second and very hard look at
what you are trying to accomplish.
Neither Witchcraft, Wicca nor Paganism is synonymous with Satan or Devil
worship. The very concept of a supreme evil spirit is alien to Witches; we
do not worship any being known as ‘Satan’ or ‘the Devil’, as defined by the
Christian tradition. We do not seek power through the suffering of others,
nor accept that personal benefit can be derived only be denial to another.
The notion that Witches worship Satan was produced by the Roman
Catholic Church as they made their way across Europe, in an effort to
suppress the native earthbased
religions prevalent at the time. They
succeeded to the extent that they drove the practitioners of these religions
underground where much of their knowledge and traditions were lost.
Through the work of the many pagan organizations, as well as
anthropological and archeological research, many of these traditions have
been rediscovered and incorporated into NeoPaganism,
a generic term
for most modern earthbased
and shamanistic religions.
Witchcraft, Wicca and Paganism has been confused in the popular mind
with pointy black hats, green faces and broomsticks. This is a
misrepresentation that we are anxious to dispel. We do not fly on brooms.
We drive cars, walk or ride bikes, although I have often wished for a flying
broom when I’m in a hurry! We are everyday people, your neighbors and
friends. We hold jobs, raise children, go grocery shopping, go to college,
join the Military forces to keep our country free, plant gardens and struggle
to hold onto the ‘American Dream’. There are many rituals which include
brooms, and these may be the source of the flyingbroomstick
stories. It is
also common for a ritual broom to be used for protection and banishment.
The Strega were always portrayed as riding on the backs of goats unlike
the witches of Northern Europe who were portrayed as riding on
broomsticks.
I have found several mythicalhistorical
personages before the advent of
Christ, who are said to have suffered crucifixion/death and to have risen
from the dead. i put this forth only to show that the idea of
crucifixion/death/rising from the dead was found among many cultures
prior to Christ. Many of the sungods, including Horus, Buddha and Krishna,
are depicted with ‘haloes’, hundreds to thousands of years before it
became fashionable in Christianity. While Christians can only claim a
period of 2000 years since the birth of their religion and the incarnation of
their saviour, most of the heathen religions and their divine incarnations are
assigned a date several hundred or several thousand years earlier. In my
opinion, the inference is that if there has been any borrowing, Christianity
has been the borrower. Paganism was and is a religion of everyday life, to
seek blessings, good crops, health, peace, etc. The various
gods/goddesses each had their principle attributes and would be sought
out by devotees wanting to enhance the quality of their lives .
The study of ancient ‘magick’ can teach us much. Not only about ancient
society, but about human nature and human social structures in general.
Ancient practitioners had their own private notebooks. This is where their
painstakingly accumulated secrets were preserved. Although the Etruscan
religion did not survive the onslaught of Christianity intact, the indigenous
beliefs could not be completely erased. Mysterious signs left behind by
our ancestors offer us a glimpse into the past and often inspire us to learn
more about the people who have preceded us. In C.G. Leland’s ‘Etruscan
Roman Remains’ we read: “this Stregheria or old religion, is something
more than a sorcery, and something less than a faith. It consists in remains
of a mythology of spirits, the principal of whom preserve the names and
attributes of the old Etruscan gods.” The Etruscan people have amazed its
contemporaries with their meticulous, respectful and accurate religious
rites. They continue to amaze us today for the complexity of their sacred
world.
Those who walk the path of a Witch/Wiccan/Pagan walk it for a lifetime. It
is not an easy path to walk in this country that has freedom of religion,
although I’m not sure exactly which religion is free. You have been given a
physical body; you may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire
period this time around. You are enrolled in a fulltime,
informal school
called ‘life’. Every day in this school, you will have the opportunity to learn
lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error.
Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not
contain lessons. You are always learning: if you think you ‘know’ it all, think
again!! You have all the tools and resources you need; what you do with
them is up to you.
To me the Wheel of the Year signifies: completeness; the ever changing
physical make up of where we live; the way we prepare different seasonal
meals; beginnings and endings; the energy we put into finding just the
‘right’ items for each celebration (pine cones, herbs, flowers, incense). All
this is wound around and through each Treguenda and Veglione, thus
connecting us to it all. We should participate in our ritual/festivals if we
truely believe in them. Now, I am not saying to ‘follow blindly’, but read the
materials, the rituals….see for yourself if they call to you…they did to
me…very strongly. The seasonal rituals (Solstices and Equinoxes) are
Natures way of letting us know what ‘time’ of year it is. A time to plant and
sow; a time to harvest; a time to celebrate Earth’s fertility; and a time to
celebrate life!!!! We need to be active in these….even if solitary. Do your
best don’t
leave anything out. Perform a play, dress up God or Goddess
statues, grow your own flowers for your alter, make your own candles,
grow your own herbs…..the ideas are endless. Remember, ‘you reap what
you sow’.
If people would look beyond their differences, they’d find they have much
more in common than they think. Learning about other belief systems or
religions doesn’t mean you have to take on any part of those beliefs or
practices. But understanding why others feel they way they do about
certain issues and topics can go a long way to understanding each other.
These are my personal beliefs, be true to your own. For one who is not
hereditary, that does not mean you cannot be Strega. If your heart and soul
and being is Strega then you are. I do not claim to be ‘the’ authority on
Stregheria…there are too many differences in the traditions. Each of us
has to follow our own path, what works for some doesn’t work for others.
We are all touched by Divinity in different ways, not better or worse, just
different.
May the Goddess and God protect and bless you.