"And when she was asked what she had done with the property of the priest, unto whom she had sworn by her body to make payment at the time appointed (and why had she broken her oath)? "Therefore she was called to judgment before all the gods. "And it was soon made known to them all that this was Laverna. "Then the priest and the lord, finding out who this was, appealed to the gods, complaining that they had been robbed by a goddess. "And as she had done by the priest, so she acted to the lord of the castle, and stole and sold every stick, furniture, cattle, men, and mice-there was not left wherewith to feed a fly. "But this time she swore on her head to pay in full in six months. "At the same time Laverna went to a great lord and bought of him a castle, well-furnished within and broad rich lands without. Had left her creditor in asso-in the lurch! "But on the day fixed for payment there was no Laverna to be seen. There was not left the value of four farthings. "And very soon Laverna had sold off all the crops, grain, cattle, wood, and poultry. "Therefore the priest transferred to her the estate. I swear to you on my body that I will pay thee within a year.' I intend to build on it a temple to (our) God. "'You have an estate which I wish to buy. Once it happened that she went (to a mortal), a great priest in the form and guise of a very beautiful stately priestess (of some goddess), and said to him:. "She was almost always on earth, among thieves, pickpockets, and panders-she lived in darkness. She was a thief, and very little known to the other deities, who were honest and dignified, for she was rarely in heaven or in the country of the fairies. "Among the gods or spirits who were of ancient times-may they be ever favourable to us! Among them (was) one female who was the craftiest and most knavish of them all. Then the emperor inquired who this deity might be, for he had never heard of her. It was like certain fish of whom one is in doubt whether they are all head or all tall, or only head and tall or the goddess Laverna, of whom no one ever knew whether she was all head or all body, or neither or both." "It seems to me to be impossible to tell whether it was all introduction or all conclusion certainly there It happened on a time that Virgil, who knew all things hidden or magical, he who was a magician and poet, having heard a speech (or oration) by a famous talker who had not much in him, was asked what he thought of it? And he replied:. It was given to me as a tradition of Virgil, who often appears as one familiar with the marvellous and hidden lore of the olden time. In this story she also appears as a witch and humourist. Diana is declared to be the protectress of all outcasts, those to whom the night is their day, consequently of thieves and Laverna, as we may learn from Horace ( Epistles, 16, 1) and Plautus, was preeminently the patroness of pilfering and all rascality. The following very curious tale, with the incantation, was not in the text of the Vangelo, but it very evidently belongs to the cycle or series of legends connected with it. Sacred Texts Neopaganism Index Previous NextĪradia, Gospel of the Witches, by Charles G. Aradia, Gospel of the Witches: Chapter XV.
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