The Persistence of Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches by Charles Godfrey Leeland, 1899

Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, published in 1899 by Charles Godfrey Leland, is the most “political” of the foundational documents of the twentieth-century Wiccan movement. In all, Aradia sets forth several ideas that would shape the new religion of Wicca in the early 1950s. Leland asserts the existence of an Old Religion (and is the original source “The Charge of the Goddess”), paralleling archaeologist Margaret Murray’s claim to have discovered traces of such a Pagan survival in England and Scotland The book describes the practice of ritual nudity, which found ready acceptance with as Wicca developed. Third, it describes Diana as a Moon goddess and Queen of the Witches, patroness of the poor and oppressed, who gave license to use harmful magic against the upper classes. This justification for “anti-oppression” witchcraft one of  Aradia’s most visible legacies.