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Aradia, or The Gospel of the Witches |
Chapter III: How Diana Made the Stars and the Rain
Diana was the first created before all creation; in her were all
things; our of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself; into darkness
and light she was divided. Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her
other half, was the light. And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful,
the light which was her other half, her brother Lucifer, she yearned for
it with exceeding great desire. Wishing to receive the light again into
her darkness, to swallow it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with
desire. This desire was the dawn. But Lucifer, the light, fled from her,
and would not yield to her wishes; he was the light which flies into the
most distant parts of heaven, the mouse which flies before the cat. Then
Diana went to the fathers of the Beginning, to the mothers, the spirits
who were before the first spirit, and lamented unto them that she could
not prevail with Lucifer. And they praised her for her courage; they told
her that to rise she must fall; to become the chief of goddesses she must
become mortal. And in the ages, in the course of time, when the world was
made, Diana went on earth, as did Lucifer, who had fallen, and Diana taught
magic and sorcery, whence came witches and fairies and goblins - all that
is like man, yet not mortal. And it came thus that Diana took the form
of a cat. Her brother had a cat whom he loved beyond all creatures, and
it slept every night on his bed, a cat beautiful beyond all other creatures,
a fairy: he did not know it. Diana prevailed with the cat to change forms
with her; so she lay with her brother, and in the darkness assumed her
own form, and so by Lucifer became the mother of Aradia. But when in the
morning he found that he lay by his sister, and that light had been conquered
by darkness, Lucifer was extremely angry; but Diana with her wiles of witchcraft
so charmed him that he yielded to her love. This was the first fascination;
she hummed the song, it was as the buzzing of bees (or a top spinning round),
a spinning-wheel spinning life. She spun the lives of all men; all things
were spun from the wheel of Diana. Lucifer turned the wheel. Diana was
not known to the witches and spirits, the fairies and elves who dwell in
desert place, the goblins, as their mother; she hid herself in humility
and was a mortal, but by her will she rose again above all. She had passion
for witchcraft, and became so powerful therein, that her greatness could
not be hidden. And thus it came to pass one night, at the meeting of all
the sorceresses and fairies, she declared that she would darken the heavens
and turn all the stars into mice. All those who were present said - "If
thou canst do such a strange thing, having risen to such power, thou shalt
be our queen." Diana went into the street; she took the bladder of
an ox and a piece of witch-money, which has an edge from a knife - with
such money witches cut the earth from men's foot tracks - and she cut the
earth, and with it and many mice she filled the bladder, and blew into
the bladder till it burst. And there came a great marvel, for the earth
which was in the bladder became the round heaven above, and for three days
there was a great rain; the mice became stars or rain. And having made
the heaven and stars and the rain, Diana became Queen of the Witches; she
was the cat who ruled the star mice, the heaven and the rain.
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