The knot of contention

I was asked long ago to write an article in order to spell out the differences between Wicca, and what it is  known to anglo-american witches as stregheria or stregoneria. The forum for which the article was thought does not exist, but the question is still alive. These three terms, wicca, stregheria and stregoneria have often been used as synonymous. When a difference has been made, this was in order to differentiate Gardnerian or Alexandrian witchcraft from stregheria or stregoneria, which is seen as an Italian variant of the old religion.


This article may help to clear up some misunderstanding about what stregoneria is and what is not, how it differs from wicca and from its sprouts coated in Italian robes, in particular the stregheria tradition started by the American witch of Italian descend Raven Grimassi. In Italian, stregoneria, simply means ‘witchcraft’.  This is the first difference to be made: stregoneria, or often ‘stregoneria italiana’, is the term that most Italian practitioners use to refer to the system of practices they adopt. Stregheria is a term that no-one had ever heard before Grimassi came up with it. So the first point of this article, which will be further developed in what fallows is that stregheria and stregoneria are two different things: the first is an adaptation of Gardnerian wicca to what Grimassi felt were the ways and the practice of ancient Italian witches. What wicca is should be clear to the readers, so I will not dwell on the topic.

However, I wish to offer a clarification before starting explaining my point.
I have no title to support my claims: I have not been initiated in any particular coven or tradition, no one has ever passed me an hand-written grimoir folded in human leather nor have I received any revelation of sacred mysteries. I happen to be born and grown up in Italy, and to have an inclination for witchcraft. In about thirteen years of study, I have set up my own working system. In this way, I am an Italian witch, a strega. During my path, I have received the blessing of meeting like-minded people, with whom I have discussed, exchanged and practised magic, and explored witchcraft. This article tries to spell out differences between wicca, the Grimassian system and stregoneria based on my experience of what streghe actually do rather than of disputes about ancient mysteries and originality.

I believe that the human is a marvellous creative being, and that his fate and natural attitude is to be inventive. Steam engines, electrical bulbs and all sort of witcheries. As a witch, I regard this as good and as proof that we are indeed of the same matter as the dreams, and the gods. I do not necessarily consider what is new to be less valuable of what is ancient (or is commonly considered to be so).

Ancient systems of beliefs and magical practices can transmit great wisdom, but often they are also bearer of great inequality and oppression. For example, although witches tend to emphasize those systems and societies which held women in high regard, ancient societies were often discriminating systems were women were considered male possession and transsexual and homosexual people were used in act of sacred prostitution. The idea that old is inherently good and new is unsubstantiated is an illusion, and we should not be afraid of embracing the new if it offers fulfilment and emancipation.

Keeping that in mind, I will now proceed to spell out the distinctions that I mentioned by enumerating the elements which I feel substantially differentiate wiccan practitioners from what I will call Grimassian wiccans, from streghe. By the first term I mean any practitioner who adheres to the Gardnerian or Alexandrian tradition of wicca, or from a derivate of them. I am aware of the many directions wicca has taken, especially in the US, but many of the existing covens originate through a number of initiations to one system or the other, so I will allow myself this over-simplification. By Grimassian witch I mean a practitioner who follows the Grimassi ‘Book of Ways’ as well as his other writings. For a strega, I mean an Italian practitioner of witchcraft who follows the ritual traditions and folk magic of Italy as his or her guide.

The Tools – I will start from where many wiccan and Grimmasian handbooks usually start from, the ritual instrument that witches use. It is known that Gardnerian wicca numbers a set of ritual instruments that the practitioners uses for the crafts: the athame, the bolline, the sword, the cup, the wand, the scourge, the pentacle, the cauldron, the rope(s). The Grimassian Book of Ways proposes the same tools, with the exception of the scourge (which is considered too kinky by much of modern withcraft). This is a strictly salomonic toolkit, which came straight to Gardner through ceremonial magic, via his Rosacrucian frequentation and his short association with Aleister Crowley. This is known in the craft. The way Gardner justified this was through the common hard times that both witches and jews went through back in the days of persecution, were both were looking for good hiding places.

English wicca H.P. Patrictia Crowther
and her ritual tools

Grimassi basically adheres to this version, and also admits that he has mingled wicca with the traditional teachings he received in order to mainstream the ‘old religion’ into wicca, so as not to scary people out with the original ritualistic and magical elements he received. Curiously, there is literally no difference in how the tools are used and presented in both traditions, with the exception that Grimassi offers particular engravings that, to my knowledge, are different from the ones wiccan use (I might be wrong though). In both traditions, tools have to be consecrated and carefully displayed on an altar, if possible.

Streghe have a much poorer ritualistic set-up, and almost never have a fixed altars. Tools are often found in everyday equipment, and  the ‘sacred order of things’ is not reproduced every time we sit down for doing magic. For certain operations, we will use for example no blades at all, while for others the only cup might be the one that contains the oil to prepare candles and other tools. In may occasions, tools are assembled and found on the spot, according to the need of the moments and their symbolism and use is eventually the only thing that matters. We would often use needles or nails instead of blades. Many of us would keep a particular knife for ritual purposes, for example, but I know of no Italian strega who does not use it to cut bread or herbs at need. We use a lot of pots, and kitchen equipment, because this is what people do here for doing magic - and because they are ready available and can suit many purposes.In short, many Italian practitioners tend to have a much easier approach to ritualistic tools than wiccan seem to have.

A flour sieve and a pair of scissors
constituted a tool for divination
for many Italian witches

Our ritualistics is less structured, but that does not mean that we do not value the complexity of wicca or ceremonial magic. Many streghe are avid reader of such themes, and well aware of correspondences and magic symbolism, that is at the occasion incorporated into the intent of the ritual. However, her will is for the strega the only instrument she truly needs. To receive the tools, a wiccan, Grimassian or otherwise, will need to know the instruments and their use. The strega only needs to know what she wants to do, then she will know what to use.
This centrality of the will does not mean that we believe that it is sufficient to wish for something to make it happen, the training of a strega consists of learning how to perform ‘the things that we do’ in order to obtain her will. This is, if you want, the Art for us: not the script of a rite for the enacting of something, but the process of writing the rite itself.

Heritage – Traditions in witchcraft tend to assume that ‘the older, the better’. Gerald Gardner claims he received the first version of his Book of Shadows from old Dorothy, an English witch who initiated him into the century-old New Forest Clan, Gardner’s first coven. Doreen Valiente, one of Gardner’s High Priestesses and the co-author of the final Gardnerian Book of Shadows, says much of Gardner’s Book came from Crowley, Leland and other known sources. However, she retains some of the parts in the book are truly original and might have been passed onto Gerald by the New Forest people. In my view, there is a rightful doubt to be hold here, but at the same time one has no reason to doubt the word of Doreen Valiente, who has openly contradicted Gardner on many issues and whose discovery of who Doreen Vialient was seems well documented (see the appendix of  Janet and Stewart Farrar, A Witches Bible).

Grimassi is quite a different case. He claims to have received his Book of Ways from his Italian ancestors, and that it is a true and original document witnessing the cult of Tana and Tanus, Aradia and Lucifero, in its true form. As a courtesy to us, he preferred not to reveal this extraordinary material which would finally give a grounded historical basis to the whole of witchcraft. On the contrary, he openly states to have moulded the original text with wicca in order to make it more acceptable to a modern audience. And not only wicca: you find in Grimassi's work every possible influence of every possible system of magical thought and spiritual development you can think of, from Chakra openings to positive thinking. To an experienced reader of wiccan literature, it is very clear that what Mr Grimassi is selling is nothing more than another wiccan tradition, with a touch of Italian lore. It is a historical absurdity to claim that The Book of Ways is based onto any Italian tradition, or source. Its main source is clearly the Gardnerian Book of Shadows. I really need not to go further into this, as the book is out to be read and that is enough to prove my claims.

The true, original Italian lore now available in less than
three hundred pages on your ebook reader too

As I have already stated, I personally welcome innovation. However, there is a nice word in Italian for describing those who sell things confusing the buyer about the nature of their purchase: ciarlatani, which literally means ‘vendors of lies’. While claiming to derive straight from an ancient system, Grimassi gives no ritual element to think that this is true. He just sells wicca with an Italian touch to it, and calls it very ancient. If the heritage of his tradition is what makes it really unique, why is Mr Grimassi keeping all the good stuff from us, and making only the wiccan elements available? Why is he not providing any proof of the original material? Gardner was witch enough that his materials have been witnessed by many eyes, dismantled at the occurrence as  good stuff was retained taking out the unwanted, Grimassi is not giving his initiated the same choice.

Grimassi claims his documents to be the original version of Leland’s Il Vangelo delle Streghe text. The origins of Lelands text are still debated, but it is interesting what Grimassi thinks of the text. In the introduction to his Book of Ways he claims it to be a vulgar, Christianised version of the original text – especially for the ‘bad magic’ which it contains. I am not versed enough in anthropology or history to assert claims on the genuine nature of Leland’s text. What does struck me is that it is a text of revolt, a tale of oppressed people and their prohibited religion, their dreams of revolts against their oppressor and the occurrence of witchcraft as the perfect tool to do it. It comes straight from the mouth of the Goddess, who warns her disciples that they should not be evil but claim vengeance against their oppressors in her name and with the power of the witches. False or true, it is a very powerful text which Grimassi rejects on the basis of its evil and corrupted nature.
However, one thing that sorcery has always been in Italy was a thing of revolt. As Storia Notturna and I Benandanti by historian Carlo Ginzburg clearly show, witchcraft was often the only way of pursuing a better life for peasants and people of the lower classes of society. The Gioco di Diana, the witches council, was an affair of the poor and marginalised, who confabulated witcheries against the wealthy. Witchcraft has this power of subversion: of letting you turning the laws of the rational world upside down in order to see what is unseen by others, to liberate you and your loved ones by the blindness of society. It was the game of the poor, it still is the game of the poor.

The Game, (il Gioco or Giuoco) is the name by which the witches Sabbath was often named by the streghe during the time of persecution. Gioco is in interesting word, as it derives from the latin ludus which means game, but also ‘the place where one goes to learn things’. It was a moment of fun, but also of learning things that the Good Lady of the Game (La Buona Signora del Gioco) would teach her disciples. Stregoneria is an art of learning, and learning means changing and growing. However, few Italian streghe claim to have direct heritage of this experiences. The ones among us who have received traditional magical teachings, have often received them in the form of Christian spells and rituals. Often the ritual structure of these proceedings adapts very well to a new, pagan form. Sometimes it does not. But there is not, and there has never been to my knowledge, an Italian Book of Shadows, nor Book of Ways. Italian streghe could hardly read and write, and when they could they would normally pin their magical recipes with their kitchen recipes and herbal remedies, calendar or church notes. Yes, many old ladies were in possession of ancient magical text.  But there never was a systematisation of all the magical practices and beliefs all around the country. There were, however, compendia of folk magic and to those we look with interest. They are similar to those that anthropologists have collected in other parts of the world, as in France, Eastern Europe or the Maghreb. It is very likely that many Italian streghe might have relied on this sources to elaborate their workings.

The discovery of the ‘true Italian way’ has also been replicated on the peninsula, when since the middle of the first decade of 2000 interest for the matter has grown. Both texts of which I am aware, Dragon Rouge’s La Vecchia Religione and Corte degli Scontenti’s Il Sabba Italiano make the same mistake as Grimassi, selling as ‘Italian’ something which has his roots in English witchcraft. With the difference that none of these authors seem to have a Wiccan initiation neither, which makes things more confusing.

However, there are some rituals circulating that have their roots in the traditions of our campagne. Many of these practices came out when the internet became a place of discussion for streghe, and people started getting in touch and talking about their practices.  This material is circulating among quite a few of people. I have only seen a part of it, and I doubt anyone has really all of it in its entirety. There are quite a few witches who work this way. Their practice is the combination of received teachings, personal discovery and exchange with other practitioners. The work done by Italian occultists such as Ottavio Adriano Spinelli and Franco Spinardi at times influences and permeates this material, as does some of modern Wicca. The uncertainty of our origins is why, as Italian streghe, we have always been the less loud and strict about our identity. If we have one, this is generated by the common experience of the heritage of Italy, its nature and its culture and most importantly of the places we grew up in, their traditions and folklore. To some of us, the traditional catholic covenants of saints devotees have more to teach than High Magick books, which many of us also read. But our primary source are people’s traditions, our grandmothers and our senses. Other magical systems and magical knowledge come in when it is needed to complete the missing parts, or to integrate what we feel necessary.

Religiosity – This is a crucial issue, that is why I am tackling it before everyone gets exhausted and gives up the reading. In Wicca, the magical act is always a celebration of the Gods. With relevant differences, the presence of the Gods is always enacted within the circle. The coven’s year is based on the celebration of the eight Sabbath, and great importance is given to observing religious duties. To reconstruct the divine polarity, the traditional wiccan coven works in couples, male-female. The Great Rite is the enactment of the cosmic mating of the God and the Goddess. Wicca is a very religious philosophy of witchcraft. Drawing down the Moon must be performed upon the High Priestess, while the High Priest is the sacrificial God of Death and Rebirth. Wicca has a quite structured religiosity, which is intrinsically polarised between a masculine and feminine principle[1].
As you will have understood at this point, Grimassi’s system is no different. In his Book of Ways, although stating that the perfect realisation of man and woman is in bisexuality, Grimassi states that the ritual performance of the God and Goddess must be enacted by the respective sexes. The religious structure of stregheria is built on Gardner’s system, we have now sorted it out.

The myth of Diana and Attonis, Rocca di Fontanellato, Parma

Not having a clear heritage, Italian streghe differ in these regards in two ways. First, there is no clear religious tradition among streghe. Most of us, nowadays, identify with modern pagans. Others are atheists or gnostic, others are Christians. The key principle here is that a strega uses divinity as one of her tools. I know this might sound blaspheme to wiccan witches, but this is how it is. We know that our rural witches used anthems and blackmailing on the Christian saints, who often covered the pagan gods. This is a way of affirming one’s will, and of giving directions to energies.  Other times, spells and signs have been passed very secretly in a Christian forms, through generation. What right as one witch to alter this common heritage? Why substitute an expression full of power such as ‘Mother of the Verb’ with another one?

As streghe, our practice is our concern. Stregoneria is our art, through which we find fulfilment. Religiosity is our companion in life, and we accept it with an open heart knowing that if we are true to ourselves the gods will be true to us. We do not need to prove that we come from an ancient heritage or bloodline, we light our candles and we pronounce the words of power in our dialect. And we call them with the Christian saints name, or their pagan names, or we just conjure them by the power of our will. Explain the Legend of the Descend of the Goddes to a strega and she will probably fall asleep. Ask her how to prepare ritual soap, or the ritual candles, and she will keep you up all night. Stregoneria is an art of doing.

The second point is that we do not feel polarity as our main concern. Again, I am speaking for myself, but I think many Italian witches would agree with me. This all knife-into-the-cup affair looks very reductive to us, and we take it with care. We do not focus so much on the Great Rite, not having any traditional version of it passed onto us. Some of us do know it and have performed or still do, but our power does not come from the ritual mating of the God and Goddess. It comes from within ourselves, and our own sexuality reflects our practice. We might perform the ritual mating when we think we need it, but it is not and has never been the basis of the practice of Italian stregoneria. We do not feel it relevant to have our cup and knife always with us, and we do not think this gives less value to our magic. This would also hopefully help find  more at ease gay, transgender and other people who do not feel well in the extreme polarity Aradia-Cernunnos, Tana-Tanus. Especially in covens.

Also, while presented as ancient as humankind, this polarity is the byproduct of a misconception of the relation between sexuality and  procreation. The view Sex at Dawn by authors Cristopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha does a good job at giving a better idea about how human mating might have worked in ancient societies. The book’s perspective on the subject spoils it of its veil of sacrality (the Goddes and the Horned God and Their Sacred Mating) and brings it back to the realm of everyday life, were sex is experienced as a form of enjoyment, friendship and sometimes of power and vengeance, not only for procreative love or the union of a male or a female.

The Greek prophet Thyresia was able to fully
understand sexuality only when turned into a woman,
and then again, into a man. Zeus's consort,
Hera, was so upset that he had uncovered such
mysteries that she blinded him, causing Zeus
to gift him with the power of prophecy

about how pre-historic (and sometimes also of acient-classical periods) men and women conceived sexuality. The dominant paradigms of evolutionary psychology that were the tenets of such assumptions during the last century, that the survival of the species was ensured by pre-historic humans through stable heterosexual bonded pairs of male-hunters and female holding the mysteries of lives, seem to be falling apart. While it is true that in pre-historical societies women might have hold places of power, the latest research in archeology, ethnology and anthropology show that human societies had a much more complex view of sexuality. Male-female couples were the exception, while sex was practised as a common social form of relaxation and conflict-resolution.

 The energy necessary for sex magic is also produced by male and female masturbation, gay sex, orgies, and a whole series of sexual practices that do not involve any enactment of the Great Rite (aka ritual penetration, by means of human or ritual enactment). Wicca is based on the assumption that human sexuality is fundamentally the game of female and masculine sexuality, while ignoring the fact that sexuality is for humans much more than the moment of procreation and although this has a very powerful symbolic meaning, it is a fantasy to think that magic works most effectively if practised by a male and a female who work the opposite poles of a battery as this ignores the many ways in which nature presents also non-procreative copulation, hermaphroditism, a-sexual reproduction and a whole series of way of reproducing life that go way beyond sex. We tend to see the dynamics of human life as the universal principles of nature, but this is a very anthropocentric  view of how nature works.

Covens and Celebrations – Working in covens is the rule for Gardnerian wiccans, although with the spreading of the religion in the US solitary practice has become another mass form of wicca. However, the wiccan natural state is the coven when, with his or her partner, she can experience the three degrees of initiation. Again, this is no difference in Grimassi.
I am not aware of established covens of traditional Italian witchcraft, and I am quite sure that the ones which openly claim to be so are not. I have my suspects about a group or two, but I do not have bulletproof evidence that these are genuinely working by traditional initiation going back at least, say, a hundred of years. What I know for sure is that much knowledge has been passed within families or from person to person. There still exists a variety of these practices transmitted in Italy, and it is not rare for people to often exchange initiations. However, there is again no Book of Shadows to be copied but only single rituals, teachings and spells. No structured systems that might hint at a series of coven originating from one original initiator (of course I might be wrong, and I might just be unaware of it).

However, Italian streghe rarely work in coven. Traditionally, much of the work was solitary or

Hans Bandurg, Tregenda, 1510 ca

performed within the family – grandmother with a suitable niece, mother-daughter (or mother-son, or father-daughter, father-father…). This does not mean that streghe did not help each other, and still do. Italian streghe are still very active at exchanging rituals and practices with one another, and they may gather during difficult times or to perform celebrations or magic. However, most of the strega research is solitary. Some Italian wiccans who have also integrated traditional Italian sorcery in their practice keep a coven structure, which they call ‘famiglia’. Such wiccan clans do exist, although they are scarce and represent an interesting mix of wicca and truly Italian traditions.
One of the reasons Italian streghe might meet other streghe is the celebration of festivals. As already explained, streghe observe festival in a less strict way. Candelora, San Giovanni, Ognissanti and the Winter Soltice are our most important festivals. Many of the rituals that have been elaborated in the strega community cannot be made public.

Ethics – The one rule of Wicca is ‘do as thou wilst, as it harms no one’. The Grimassian system, no surprise, adheres to this rules. Streghe do not. It is not because the rule was invented by Gardner, as many practitioners of modern wicca know, but because we realise this is not the way it has been passed onto us or how we perceive stregoneria has been used. It has always also been a tool of active protection and of rightful revenge, and for that we use it. Also with intent of attack. As I have already stated, the fact the our ritualistic elements are simple does not mean we cannot be skilled magicians. Many of us are aware of the possible ‘blow of return’ of magical operations, and we take it into account and embrace it, or reject it. There are techniques to do that that some of you may be aware of. This is important to us: we do not feel limited by a cosmic law, but by our own reasoning and our own will. We will not judge the strega who decides to harm, as she might have the right reasons to do so. We do not judge weather this is ‘ethical’ of not. Magic, for us, is a tool we use – as we do use a club or kitchen spoon: of course every action one takes in her life has consequences, but that does not mean you do not take action. You find a way to master the consequences, to the extent that you can. This is not something that we feel we should judge ethically, it is not how nature works, and our power comes from nature.

I was dubious as whether to insert this section or not: there is a weird ‘let’s play whose got it longer, and blacker’ in the witchcraft community, especially among those labelling themselves ‘traditional withces’. As I have explained, ethics is not the only thing that divides us, I suspect. What divides us is the way we conceive witchcraft: for the wiccans and the Grimassian, witchcraft is a system of practices to get in touch with the Gods. For streghe, besides a spiritual endeavour, is a useful skill to have, like being able to play the piano and kung-fu. If you master a martial art, for example, you can choose to attack someone and hurt him very badly in a quarrel outside of a pub, let’s say. Of course there will be consequences to this. One consequence might be that the police comes, and puts you in jail for a couple of months. Another might be that you get away with it, but they you hurt your adversary so badly that you might feel guilty, wretched and miserable afterwards. Another possibility is that the person’s pals arrive and really teach you what ‘three times’ back means. Or you can just get away with it, and be happy because he deserved it. In short, every action in human life entails consequences, and these might entirely depend on the situation and on the person taking action. Witchcraft is a human thing and although it acts according to its own laws, we do not see why ‘karma’ should work in two different ways for witchcraft and for kung-fu. A witch who performs aggressive magic might be fully aware that a ‘blow of return’ is coming, and might be ready to accept it because it’s not that relevant, or because she feels it’s right, or she will try to manage it the best she can. The only reason why one would do that it’s because she things the objective to be achieved is worth.

An Italian country healer shows her talismans
(notice the catholic imagery)

Materials - This might look a secondary subject but, to my view, it is not. While wicca (in all its strand) has been highly contaminated by the mass market-lead of witchcraft of the past decade, streghe remain quite isolated from it. This is also because of the mighty presence of the Catholic Church in Italy, for which the owner of an esoteric shop can rarely be quite. What I want to say is that Italian witches are commonly concerned with the purity and natural origins of the materials they use, which is a top priority for many of us. This means not relying or buying incenses, candles, oils, creams and obviously herbs. This is also the reason of the ‘poor’ nature of our witchcraft: Italian countrymen did not had access to blue or green candles, but they had an abundance of greasy white and black candles. Some managed to produce red candles as well, but rarely beyond that. Candles are usually produced by the practitioner, and some of our ‘festivals’ provide moments for the preparation of ritual materials that will be used throughout the year. We tend not to use synthetic candles nor incenses either, and this is also why herbs are so important in the practice of many of us. They make up the very correspondential basis of our rituals, and it is the way through which we give character to our magic, which is very often herb magic. We value the use of herbs, and hold in great esteem handicraft abilities. Many streghe are also able artisans, professional or otherwise.

To sum it up, wicca and stregoneria have differences, but they share the practice of witchcraft of which they mobilise different forms and often for different purposes. While wiccans tend to practice in organised covens and to reflect on a divine polarity, streghe have a much more eclectic and at the same time 'traditional' set of beliefs, as it is both open to the discussion of polarity and rooted in popular culture and lore. The same differences are to be made with Mr Grimass's system, also called stregheria, which appears as a wiccan traditiona rather than a coherent system of Italian origins. 

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[1] I am fully aware that there are wiccan groups nowadays for gay people, lesbian, transexuals etc.. and who see sexuality in a very different way. This is very welcome, but does not change the fact that the basic theology of wiccan is based on bipolarity, and that these are strong amendments to it .