to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.
a cache of captured internet text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.
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 windowone
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 younglady,
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 thesame
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 invisiblegod.
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 tothe
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 whethershe
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 herover
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 verytruth
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 whowere
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 manyamong
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.
Next Chapter
Previous Chapter
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SEARCH THIS SITE:
a local search engine and a named link to each Lucky Mojo page
Lucky Mojo Site Map:
a descriptive entry-level index to the whole Lucky Mojo pile
Lucky W Amulet Archive Home Page:
an online museum of folk-magic charms
Sacred Sex Home Page:
essays on tantra yoga, karezza, sex magic, and sex worship
The Sacred Landscape HomePage:
essays on archaeoastronomy and sacred geometry
Freemasonry for Women HomePage:
a history of mixed gender freemasonic lodges
The Lucky Mojo Curio Co.:
manufacturers of spiritual supplies for hoodoo and conjure
The Comics Warehouse:
a source for back-issues of comic books and trading cards
catherine yronwode,
the eclectic and eccentric author of all the above web pages
nagasiva yronwode:
tyaginator, nigris (333), nocTifer, lorax666, boboroshi, !
The Lucky Mojo Esoteric Archive:
captured internet files on occult and spiritual topics
The Lucky Mojo Esoteric Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Esoteric Archivist:
nagasiva@luckymojo.com.
