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Editorial Review Product Description
THIS IS A WITCHCRAFT COOL COLLECTOR'S EDITION - PRINTED IN REALLY COOL MODERN GOTHIC FONTS THROUGHOUT. CHECK IT OUT WITH THE AMAZON SEARCH INSIDE FEATURE.This is the original Witches Bible. ... Read more Customer Reviews (9) 
Not what I expected
I ordered this book as part of the required reading in a course of study I am doing on Wicca.I have not finished it, though it is a short book, mainly because I find it a depressing attitude toward Wicca.The ancients commanded and threatened their dieties to get what they wanted.Maybe I am reading into it more or less than it is and I plan to go back and re-read it during the course of study to see if my attitude changes.I would not have purchased it if not for the required reading.
Historically Valuable
I liked this book, from a historical view point... OK, maybe it is not your typical modern Wicca book, but it gives a plausible historical context for the modern practice of Strega, or Roman witchcraft. Slaves escaped, they hid in the hills, they hated the "Establishment", and their Paganism developed into a magickal craft focused on curses, hexes and getting what they wanted. Makes sense, and this book at least provides food for thought!
This Samhain Song Press Edition is True to Leland's Original Text
Hello, my name is Hrafen Starbourne, and I am the editor of Samhain Song Press, the publisher of the version of ARADIA on this Amazon product page. Please note that the Samhain Song Press edition of the classic work of Pagan/Witchcraft scholarship is 100% true to the Leland's original text, and has in no way been added to, subtracted from or altered in any way. This is ARADIA as Leland meant it to be read, and as Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente and other pioneers of the modern Wiccan religion read it and found in its pages their inspiration to bring Goddess religion back into the world. Please don't be put off by reviews referencing another edition of ARADIA. This is not the A. J. Drew version, and no "new preface" has been added. What you will find in the Samhain Song Press edition is pure Leland, expounding with inimitable 19th Century poetic passion upon his discoveries concerning ancient Italian Witchcraft. ARADIA is a must-read/must-study text for all serious Wiccans/Pagans, and this is a very fine (and affordable)edition for your magickal library!
By the way -- If you got an Amazon Kindle wireless reading device for Yule, don't miss the Samhain Song Press Kindle edition of this title!
THIS IS NOT THE AJ DREW EDITION!!!!
I think it is important that everyone should know that this is NOT the A. J. Drew edition of Aradia that is being blasted by a number of reviews on this page.I don't know why those other reviews are here. This Samhain Song Press edition of this Witchcraft classic by Charles Leland is meticulously true to the original, and has no new preface or introduction by anybody in the modern neopagan movement.Even the original cover has been reproduced for this version, though I think it is actually from the interior flyleaf of the 1899 original. It's still neat, though. Don't be misled by the one and two star ratings on this page --they are for another book entirely. I agree that Drew's version of Aradia from 2004 or so was not all it was advertised to be, but that is not so of this edition. It does not claim to have new material, but rather to be Leland's original text in its entirety, just as Leland himself presented it to the world over 100 years ago. Leland's Aradia and Margaret Alice Murray's Witch-Cult in Western Europe were the two prime sources of inspiration for Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente and other 20th Century originators of modern Wicca. There is a nifty edition of Murray's Witch-Cult, by the way, that is also available from Samhain Song Press, but only the Kindle edition has shown up on Amazon so far. Both Aradia and Witch-Cult are titles everyone calling themselves Wiccan should read, if only to gain insight into the true roots of the movement, which is revealed in these books to be about as far away from "fluffy bunny" as it is possible to get. Aradia, for example, is full of wonderful spells that require the witch to threaten the gods and the like, and Witch-Cult has reports from Inquisition witchcraft trials of people suckling frog-like familiars from hidden teats in secret places on their bodies... Ultra-fluffy Silver Ravenwolf would convert to X-ianity confronted by either of these books (or anything even vaguely resembling real magick, for that matter), and if the thought of that pleases you as much as it does me, you simply MUST read Aradia!
A Waste of Time
Unfortunately, I must agree with most of the reviewers and say that this book has very little to offer.Leland's Aradia book is already widely available by the orignal author.Drew basically offers a reprint of what is already widely available elsewhere, but adds his name to the work.The only difference between the original is that Drew includes his comments, which actually contribute very little to the book as a whole. He does not seem to possess more than a knodding acquaintance with the material, and so his additions seem to serve little usefulness for the reader.
The promotional blurbs for this book purports it to be something new, informative, and refreshing for those already familiar with Leland's material.Sadly, the author provides nothing to substantiate the hype for this book.It is instead a lackluster presentation of some rather mediocre musings on the part of the author.As someone interested in Leland's Aradia, I was very disappointed with the book.
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