Aradia

Gospel Of The Witches

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 lords complaint,

Who swears that I contracted debt to him,

And have not paid although the time is oer

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 neer 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 womans 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;