Aradia or the Gospel of The Witches

CHAPTER XI

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 peasant's 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 window one 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 young lady, 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 the same 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 
invisible god.  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 to the 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 pilgrim's 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 whether she 
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 her over 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 very truth 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 who were 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 many
among 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.
Back to Chapter 11.
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