Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 as, get this folks \u2013 fiction!<\/p>\nOh you see, this whole time, I thought myth and folklore was supposed to be 100% factual* passed down in perfect accuracy over time. \u00a0You know, akin to the stuff the media and certain governments have been putting out lately. (*sarcasm alert)<\/em><\/p>\nAhem.<\/p>\n
So really, out of all of the myths of P-word-dom, that\u2019s<\/strong> the one you want to take issue with as being \u201cfiction\u201d? REALLY? Because Athena being born out of Zeus\u2019 forehead totally is feasible and accurate of biology. \u00a0Because Robert Graves was actually a news reporter interviewing two dueling kings (named Oak and Holly) for his book The White Goddess<\/em>. \u00a0Because the Wheel of the Year<\/em> wasn\u2019t actually the brainchild of two old nudists in the 1950\u2019s having a chat about combining ideas instead of a complete ancient calendar of feast days\u2026.oh wait, it was.<\/p>\nMyth isn\u2019t about accurate representation of actual events in original source material format. \u00a0Mythology is designed to feed into our imaginations, to inspire us, to explain the world in metaphor, to teach us ideas and concepts, and to entertain us. \u00a0And at the root of all myth is the seed of truth. \u00a0But truth doesn\u2019t always mean \u201cfact.\u201d \u00a0Truth is\u00a0subjective, it\u2019s a given perspective of an idea. \u00a0It touches upon reality for a brief moment, and then departs from there. \u00a0![\"leland\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/654\/2017\/03\/leland.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d like to start beating the corpse of folklorist (and my Philly homeboy) Charles G. Leland for supposed acts against nonfiction, I suggest you may want to do a bit more research into many other writers (both of fiction and nonfiction) influential to modern Paganism before you pick specifically on just him. \u00a0Also, if you really care that much about the Aradia myth, educate yourself \u00a0by investing in a copy of Phoenix Publishing\u2019s edition of Aradia<\/em>, which includes a new translation and a slew of amazing research material that will have you thinking versus spouting off. (Spoiler alert: Maddalena existed.)<\/em><\/p>\nBut here\u2019s the crucial thing about Aradia<\/em>: whether or not you believe in the source material is irrelevant. \u00a0Regardless if\u00a0it\u2019s an ancient myth or a modern myth, there is no doubting its huge influence on modern Paganism over the last 75+ years. \u00a0Whether you believed Leland was conned or made it up, or witches have been running around Tuscany for centuries sharing it, that doesn\u2019t take away from the intent and power of the myth. \u00a0Was there actually an Aradia \u2013 who was the divine daughter of Diana and Lucifer and taught the people witchcraft? \u00a0It\u2019s no less crazy than the story of an immortal Jew with the crafty habit of changing water into wine and inadvertently promoting cannibalism.<\/p>\nIf we\u2019re not hung up on how Taliesin survived being eaten<\/em> by Cerridwen (when he was a grain and she a hen, totes normal right?) to be BIRTHED out of her (because the mysteries of reproduction right?), or the details of any other myth that refer back to possibly real and historic people \u2013 then there\u2019s no reason to fret over Aradia\u2019s origins either \u2013 or any other mythic story. \u00a0We\u2019re supposed to KNOW and understand that they are steeped in metaphor. \u00a0And age has nothing to do with the power of a myth \u2013 consider Neil Gaiman\u2019s American Gods<\/em> or Tom Robbin\u2019s Jitterbug Perfume<\/em>. \u00a0Two purely fictional books that so eloquently give insight into the divine and our relationships with them.<\/p>\nThe point of myth is to inspire us to find our own truths and craft our own stories, build our own myths and practices. \u00a0Aradia<\/em>\u00a0is a fantastic myth to inspire us to explore the depths of our witchcraft practice, and to not give in to the \u201cpowers that be\u201d but to find and claim our own power. \u00a0And that, dear folks, is no fiction.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever found yourself asking, \u201cIs this person trolling or are they really that big of an idiot?\u201d It\u2019s become a more frequent question in my life over the last few months. \u00a0My eyes have rolled out of my head so many times\u00a0that I\u2019ve finally cleaned underneath my desk. (To cut down on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2676,"featured_media":431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[164,197,119,135,22,198,161,134,4],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modernpractice","category-myth-and-folklore","tag-aradia","tag-leland","tag-myth","tag-mythology","tag-paganism","tag-pword","tag-wearearadia","tag-wicca","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\n
Discovering The Truth of Myth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The point of myth is to inspire us to find our own truths and craft our own stories, build our own myths and practices.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/the-truth-of-myth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Discovering The Truth of Myth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The point of myth is to inspire us to find our own truths and craft our own stories, build our own myths and practices.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/the-truth-of-myth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Modern Traditional Witch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LauraTempestZakroff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-10T19:13:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-10T19:16:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/654\/2017\/03\/leland2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura Tempest Zakroff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LTempestZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Tempest Zakroff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/the-truth-of-myth.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/the-truth-of-myth.html\",\"name\":\"Discovering The Truth of Myth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-10T19:13:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-10T19:16:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#\/schema\/person\/4b27926466da8da8d2f065b017f61b72\"},\"description\":\"The point of myth is to inspire us to find our own truths and craft our own stories, build our own myths and practices.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/the-truth-of-myth.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/the-truth-of-myth.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/the-truth-of-myth.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Discovering The Truth of Myth\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/\",\"name\":\"A Modern Traditional Witch\",\"description\":\"Weaving the Realms of Tradition, Folklore, and Modern Practice\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#\/schema\/person\/4b27926466da8da8d2f065b017f61b72\",\"name\":\"Laura Tempest Zakroff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/acc3ea529c8d56233a639e2fc69121da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/acc3ea529c8d56233a639e2fc69121da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Laura Tempest Zakroff\"},\"description\":\"Laura Tempest Zakroff is a professional artist, author, performer, and Modern Traditional Witch based in New England. 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![\"leland2\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/654\/2017\/03\/leland2.jpg\")
Have you ever found yourself asking, \u201cIs this person trolling or are they really that big of an idiot?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n