stregoneria

[TYRRHENUS]

This thread is for those who would like to discuss traditional Italian witchcraft.
Stregoneria includes the folk magic practises of the peoples in Italy and Italian communities world-wide.
Stregoneria differs from Neo-Pagan Stregheria primarily in that stregoneria is independent of religion.

[Faeawyn]

Is this the same as "Stregheria"?
If so, this is what I know of it....and if this is true...then it's pretty much what I believe also.

~We believe that the Source of All Things(The Great Spirit) is both masculine and feminine in nature.
~We believe that humans bear the Divine Spark of their Creator within themselves(soul/spirit). And that we are actually spiritualBeings who are temporarily encased in physical matter.
~We believe in Reincarnation and view it as a process for Spiritual Liberation from the physical dimension.
~We believe in psychic abilities and the supernatural as normal conditions which have been suppressed by the Judaic/Christian Culture, but can be restored through the practice of the Old Ways.
~We believe in Magic as a manifestation of energy that is directed by the mind through various ancient techniques.
~We believe in Spiritual Worlds and Spiritual Beings.

[TYRRHENUS]

Is this the same as "Stregheria"?Hello Faeawyn. Stregoneria and Stregheria are not the same thing. Though thanks for asking. :)
The statements you listed are © Raven Grimassi - the person who codified Neo-Pagan Stregheria beliefs.
Stregheria is a religion, stregoneria is the modern word for "witchcraft" in the Tuscan dialect of the Italian language, and merely refers to the physical practises of witchcraft.
If you are interested in Stregheria, perhaps you might want to start one for that tradition.

[Nantonos]

This thread is for those who would like to discuss traditional Italian witchcraft.

Is that related to the 'Aradia' material by Charles G. Leland?
http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/aradia/

[TYRRHENUS]

I'm glad we're getting this out of the way...
Yes, there are a small number of conjurations within Charles Leland's Aradia which are consistent with traditional Italian witchcraft. However they are all "corrupted" with Leland's own slant, and also seem to be "borrowed" from a monumental work on Sicilian folk customs entitled Biblioteca della Tradizioni Populari Siciliane, by Guiseppe Pitré among other works.
So I personally do not recommend reading Aradia to arrive at an understanding of Italian witchcraft. Aradia is much more important in understanding Neo-Paganism.

I think of Neo-Pagan Stregheria as such:
• Inspired by Charles Leland.
• Created by Leo Martello.
• Codified into a distinct branch of Neo-Paganism by Raven Grimassi.
The above is a gross oversimplification, of course.

A good primer on just how different Stregheria is from stregoneria can be found in this article (http://www.lastregoneria.com/archives/LaStregoneria_040101035758.htm) by Sabrina Magliocco. She explains the differences much better than I could.

[Faeawyn]

Thank you for clarifying that for me :)

[Nantonos]

So what are the sources for non-Aradia, non-Leland witchcraft?

[TYRRHENUS]

Sorry Nantonos, I've been counting the syllables in Leland's conjurations.
----------
Instead of posting multiple replies, I'll just post what I've read to date, and add to the list as my research goes along. If anyone has any good resources on stregoneria, please post.

South Italian Folkways in Europe and America, by Phyllis H. Williams
I guaritori di campagna. Tra magia e medicina, by Paola Giovetti
Formule di guarigione in uso in Valle d'Aosta, by Fiorenza Cout
Adiantum La Strega Contadina, by Maria Teresa Zanetti Berni
Mai dire masche. Il mistero delle streghe. Racconti e storie tra immaginario e mito, by Donato Bosca
Le maschere italiane, by Nicola Fano
The Two Rosetos, by Carla Bianco
Leggende e racconti popolari della Lombardia, by Lidia Beduschi
Leggende e racconti popolari di Napoli, by Angela Matassa
Leggende e tradizioni di Sardegna, by Gino Bottiglioni
Italian American Folklore, by Frances M. Malpezzi & William M. Clements
I Benandanti, by Carlo Ginzburg
And of course, anything by Sabrina Magliocco or Guiseppe Pitré.

www.stregoneria.cc
This is a good site. Both traditional folk practises and Neo-Pagan stuff. English-speakers should e-mail before posting.
www.lucedistrega.net
This one is good as well. English-speakers should post before e-mailing.
www.lastregoneria.com
First stregoneria web site in English.
http://www.folkmed.ucla.edu/index.html
Advanced search at the UCLA Folk Medicine Database.

[TYRRHENUS]

Italian Folk Medicine

What angers me to no end are the records of Italian folklore documented by the folklorists of old who grouped all residents of Italy and her emmigrants under the umbrella term Italian. Very rarely did those folklorists take note of the region (listed below as "Paese"). Perhaps they were ignorant, or maybe they themselves and/or their informants were willing participants of the Risorgimento - when feelings of campanilismo first began to wane. Whatever the reason, finding the region of origin for a specific piece of Italian folklore has been a hard task, and now as Italy has gone from an agricultural society to an industrial society then a computerized society all within a century, these wonderful bits of folklore are uncovered rarely and only among the oldest generation available.
Italian immigrants have provided time tested words of wisdom such as "Always wear gloves in cold weather," to superstitions like "If you wear a bra at night, it will keep your breasts small," as well as pieces of absolute poetic verse expressed with an imagery reflecting life in the south of Italy: "Babies come from roses. When the rosebud opens the baby comes out."

I doubt these immigrants ever believed in these sayings. But that they could say these things with a straight face fills me with a sense of innocence. They come from a different world and they know it. Not a idealized past lacking any sort of hardships. But a world from which every single one of them had worked extremely hard to escape.
In addition to the folklore and the folk sayings there is also the witchcraft. Done for many reasons. The witchcraft in this post was collected by numerous folklorists. When I am done, I will list all the sources.
Some of the afflictions are no longer relevant as they relate to diseases long gone.
All of these folk remedies have been collected among Italian immigrants and 1st generation Italian-Americans.
None of the cures listed here should be taken as serious medical advice.

ASTHMA

From: adult female
Cook a turtle to ashes. Give a teaspoon of the ashes mixed with a glass of water to cure a person with asthma.

From: senior female
Horehound, taken cold, is good for asthma.

From: senior female
Mix 1 teaspoon of hyssop with 8 ounces of water to cure asthma.

BACK PAIN

From: adult female
Paese: Sicily
Wrap a quarter in a small piece of sheeting, twist the ends together and place the quarter over the pain. Set fire to the ears of the material and put a water glass over the fire onto the skin. This draws the skin into the glass and the pain disappears.

BLADDER AILMENTS

From: senior female
For inflammation of the bladder, take whole flax seed and boil it, one tablespoon to one quart of water.

BOILS

From: adult female
Paese: Rome
Take the roots of the white iris, wash and peel them. Then you boil them with bread crumbs, then spread on the affected area.

From: female
Make a poultice of tomatoes and bread. Place on the boil with tomatoes on the bottom, and it will draw out the poison.

From: senior female
Place a thousand-vein leaf on the boil and change every hour or two.

From: undisclosed gender
Paese: Sicily
Apply cobbler’s wax.

From: adult male
Old lard.

BRONCHITIS

From: adult male
Boil wheat grain flour and put it on your chest for bronchitis.

CANCER

From: adult male
Grapes.

CHEST AILMENTS

From: adult female
Mustard plasters are used to get rid of chest colds or any kind of chest congestion and resultant coughs.

From: senior male
Mustard plaster is good for pain in chest.

From: adult female
My mother threaded garlic cloves together. Then she tied the thread around my neck when I went to bed.

From: adult female
Take seeds from hay that has been cut, boil the seeds in water, inhale the vapor and this will get rid of chest congestion.

From: adult female
When she was a young girl, her mother would take goose grease which had hardened, and rub it all over her chest; next her mother would take a piece of wool, heat it, and place this wool over the chest also. Goose grease, plus the heated wool, was supposed to cure the cold.

From: senior female
This is the correct recipe (for mustard plasters). You can leave this on for a long time, and it will not burn you. 3 tablespoons of flour to 1 tablespoon of mustard.

COLDS

From: senior female
Wear a small cheese cloth bag with a small garlic clove in it.

From: senior male
Make a tea out of chamomile. The tea is also good for women who have cramps.

From: senior male
Garlic is a good cure for colds, worms, malaria, and high blood pressure (if mixed with oil). If you rub garlic on a knife and stab somebody, or rut it on a bullet and shoot somebody, they will die instantly of poisoning.

From: senior female
Hyssop used as a tea, made by mixing 1 teaspoon of hyssop with 8 ounces of water to cure colds.

From: female
Combine 1/2 lb rock candy, 1 large stick hard licorice, 1 cup water. Cook until sugar and licorice are dissolved & of a syrupy consistency.

From: adult female
To cure a cold, boil Malva weeds (that are picked in the fields) in water and give it to the patient to drink.

From: senior male
To cure a cold, boil red wine, light the fumes to burn off all of the alcohol, and then drink hot. It is effective since it makes sick person perspire heavily and lose all energy for several days, confining him to bed and allowing him to recuperate. The wine kills all the bad elements in the body.

From: adult male
For a bad cold, make a steam with hot water in a coffee can, [and] by putting rosemary leaves in it. Cover head with a towel to catch the steam. It may not cure the cold, but it will relieve the symptoms.

From: adult male
Paese: Jewish-Italian
For a cough, eat boiling garlic as hot as you can stand it.

From: adult female
If one wears garlic around their [sic] neck, he’ll [sic] get rid of a cold.

From: female
Wine is the best thing for a cold.

From: senior female
During a 1918 flu epidemic my grandmother and her brothers and sisters and parents took a combination of garlic and whiskey to combat the flu germs and keep the family healthy.

From: senior female
Boiled wine with canella (explained as cinnamon) for a cold.

From: adult female
If a person has a cold, the best thing to do is [to] put eucalyptus leaves in a pan of water, boil them, and have the person inhale the fumes.

From: senior male
Sombuco weed: when the flower is dried, you boil the flower and make a tea for colds and fever.

From: adult male
Carta Matta -- spread pig fat on this type of paper, and put it on your stomach when you have a cold.

COLD SORE

From: senior female
Put a piece of bread soaked in milk on the cold sore, then feed it to a cat.

COLIC

From: adult female
Drink fennel seed tea.

From: Guiseppe Pitrè's Sicilian Folk Medicine
Paese: Marsala
The colic of nurselings is cured by a certain man who is the master of his art. His name is Genio ([short for] Eugenio). He is a very well known blacksmith who possesses the mano santo (holy hand) used in curing this ailment. He cures solely by passing the hand back and forth over the patient’s belly, gently rubbing and reciting a special prayer.

COMPLEXION

From: adult male
Paese: Jewish-Italian
For an unblemished face, catch rain water in a clean vessel during the last days of the month of April and the first four of May, and pour it into a glass vessel so that it will keep. The water will become as bitter as violet water or rose water. It is also good for pain in the eyes.

EYE PROBLEMS

From: undisclosed gender
Saint Lucia

GYNECOLOGICAL AILMENTS

From: undisclosed gender
St. Rita.

HOPELESS SITUATIONS

From: undisclosed gender
St. Jude.

JAUNDICE

From: senior female
Paese: Lunata
Parsley - use it, chopped up, or boiled in water, as a diuretic; prevents or helps an acid stomach; helpful against colic and over-indulgence in food and drink, or jaundice.

OPEN SORE

From: adult female
Apply a poultice to the sore, mix soap and leaves of the dog tongue plant together to make the poultice.

SERIOUS ILLNESS

From: undisclosed gender
St. Rocco.
Note: Once prayed to for plague.

SORE THROAT

From: undisclosed gender
Saint Biagio.

WHOOPING COUGH

From: adult female
To get rid of whooping cough, take a bottle of water to a seminarian who will "magnetize" it. After you drink this water you will be cured.

From: adult male
To cure whooping cough, drink the saliva of a dog or cat. [Informant relates, "My sister had whooping cough once when she was a little girl. She tried a lot of different things and nothing worked. One day her father brought her a glass of milk and told her to drink it. She said it tasted funny. He told her, 'Drink it, drink it.' Then he said, 'That’ll cure you.' They had this really old pomeranian dog and what had happened was that her father had put the milk in a saucer and had the dog drink just a little bit out of it and then he poured it in a glass and gave it to my sister. She got well, but says it was probably because she was under a doctor's care anyway."]

[TYRRHENUS]

Italian Divination

Since Il malocchio is such a stereotype, I won't even put the cures for it here. If someone really wants them, you'll have to look them up yourselves.
Sources to follow.

DREAMS

From: senior female
If you dream of a rough wind, it means treachery will be prevalent.

From: adult male
If someone dreams about kissing another person, it means that the other person is ill.

From: senior female
To dream of a nose bleed is not a good sign. Take the utmost care of yourself for a time.

From: senior female
If you dream of a fish, you'll cry next day.

From: adult female
A dream about water signifies tears.

From: adult female
Whatever you dream on a Friday or Tuesday morning will come true.

From: senior male
Paese: Sicily
To see an ugly woman in a dream means worry and vexation.

From: adult female
If in your dream you see a tooth with blood on it, something will happen to you.

From: male
A dream of death will add years to your life.

From: male
A dream of silver indicates good luck, and a dream of paper money foretells bad luck.

From: female
Paese: southern Italy
If you dream of a death a birth will occur.

HEART DISEASE

From: adult female
A drink Zabacione - eggs and marsala wine and Galliano. Put the ingredients over a double boiler and beat it over boiling water. If the mixture doesn't rise while boiling it is a sign of a bad heart.

LIES

From: All genders, all ages.
If you tell lies you will get white dots on finger nails.
Note Very common southern Italian folk belief. These white dots are often called "moons." Another variation holds that these white dots represent "sins committed."

From: adult female
A blister on the tongue means you told a lie.

From: senior female
To find out how many children you will have, a girl should tie a pencil to some string and hold the end of the string. How many times the pencil circles indicates how many children she will have.

MISC.

From: adult female
The seventh child will be a lucky one.

From: undisclosed gender
Blood and evil spirit: Children, like adults, should not cry loudly when pricked with a sharp object.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCES

From: undisclosed gender
Hangnails indicate a liar.

From: senior male
If someone has big ears, they will live a long life.

PHYSICAL SENSATIONS

From: adult female
If your right ear rings, it is good luck. If your left ear rings, it is bad luck.

From: adult male
Paese: Campobasso
If your eye starts twitching, it means that something is going to happen to you.

SEX

From: adult female
If someone runs a finger down your back, the higher you jump, the sexier you are.

[Rilasciato]

This thread is for those who would like to discuss traditional Italian witchcraft.
Stregoneria includes the folk magic practises of the peoples in Italy and Italian communities world-wide.
Stregoneria differs from Neo-Pagan Stregheria primarily in that stregoneria is independent of religion.
What happened to this thread? Looks like nobody has been here for a while. Stregoneria DOES differ from Neo-Pagan Stregheria, but not all Stregheria is Neo-Pagan, and not all Stregherians practice Stregoneria.

[Rilasciato]

Stregoneria and Stregheria are not the same thing. The statements you listed are © Raven Grimassi - the person who codified Neo-Pagan Stregheria beliefs. Stregheria is a religion, stregoneria is the modern word for "witchcraft" in the Tuscan dialect of the Italian language, and merely refers to the physical practises of witchcraft.
If you are interested in Stregheria, perhaps you might want to start one for that tradition.
Hmmm... Well, I consider myself a Stregherian Witch who practices Stregoneria, but I am not even remotely Neo-Pagan. My family Tradition goes back pretty near three-hundred years and not much has changed.

Of course, I am not Italian. I am Sicilian and our dialects are sometimes very different from mainland Italy.

Raven's tradition is, as he has stated in his books, a Neo-Pagan construct of non Neo-Pagan Stregheria AND elements of Wicca for the specific purpose of giving "outsiders" an opportunity to connect their path to their Italian roots, being that much of what is out there for the general public is based on Celtic traditions

Raven's tradition is but one of many. Some are neo-pagan, some are Traditional, some are Hereditary, such as mine

Just thought I'd post my thoughts. Grazi...

[Son of Goddess]

What happened to this thread? Looks like nobody has been here for a while.

A while? Try four years...

You had to do some digging to find this thread in the first place...

Ulterior motive? Maybe...

:hehehehe:

[Rilasciato]

A while? Try four years...
Amazing how as you get older the term "a while" takes on new meaning:giggle:


You had to do some digging to find this thread in the first place...
Oh, hell yeah. I saw the "Path Specific" thread and didn't see anything regarding Italian Witchcraft on the main folders, so a-diggin' I went.


Ulterior motive? Maybe...
Moi? Surely, you jest? I know, don't call you "Shirley":hehehehe:

[Teresa]

:thumbsup: Nice sloothing !