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Originally Posted by Vinny Mirabella
There's no saint veneration on your list. I know the Arician tradition doesn't work with saints.
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No we do not, although long ago I was taught this aspect. I was never comfortable with it, even knowing the saints are a facade. The history of violence and persecution towards pagan people by the Church makes things too tainted for me personally. So I tend not to include Catholic elements in my tradition of Italian Witchcraft.
However, as I believe I have mentioned several times in various threads, there is a history of saint connection in some traditions of Italian Witchcraft.
Here is an interesting passage from a book titled The Homilectic Review (by I.K. Funk and Newell Wells, Funk & Wagnalls, 1894). In the chapter titled Sociology and Comparative Religion, we read:
Page 556 - “The whole system of saint worship, from that of the Virgin down through the long line of those who, from time to time, have been voted into Roman pantheon, is essentially pagan ancestor worship, baptized, it is true, as Christian. But pagan still, and in the intellectual and spiritual and moral level of the ancestor worship which prevailed not only in ancient Rome, but in Egypt and nearly all of the countries of the East. Saint worship in the Roman Catholic Church exists under a great variety of forms. Like its pagan ancestor, its influence prevails not only in the churches, but also in the fields and by the firesides. Practically everything has its Madonna. There are Madonnas of diseases and Madonnas of the seasons. The Madonna of harvest is the pagan Ceres while the patron saints of household are the ancient penates, each baptized with a Christian name”
Page 558 - “The doctrines of purgatory and transubstantiation, the use of incense and holy water, and even the halo that is placed around the heads of Christ and Mary, are all borrowed from paganism. In the country districts of Italy, wine or water is seldom drunk till a little has first been thrown on upon the ground. This is the survival of the ancient libation to the gods, although few of the people now realize its origin of significance”
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny Mirabella
But is your list a blanket for Italian witchcraft?
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In the sense that these things are defining elements, I must say yes. However, I am always open to investigating evidence to the contrary. The worse thing a writer and researcher can do is to develop tunnel vision.