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Tribal Paganism - Stregheria and Vernacular Magic in Italy: A Comparison
by Sabina Magliocco
Wed, Jan. 10th, 2007 09:55 pm
The distinction between contemporary Stregheria and traditional Italian magic, healing and spiritual practice has lately been the subject of lively debate on a number of listserves and websites. In this brief essay, I will attempt to summarize some of my academic publications on this theme for a non-scholarly audience, and to encourage further research, questions and discussion on this topic. I should state at the outset that my approach is academic: as an anthropologist and folklorist, I consider both Stregheria and Italian…
Malocchio: Ever Present, All Seeing Evil Eye
by Peter Crawford
Even if you aren't given to musings about witches, black cats and various other superstitious beliefs, you may nevertheless have wondered about the evil eye, especially insofar as the term might apply to the way your boss sometimes looks at you.
The malocchio (mal = bad, occhio = eye) is a long-standing and still healthy tradition in Italy. Basically, it's believed to be caused by the bad thoughts of other people - especially envy. These bad thoughts are said to influence the lives of the person thought about, especially if…
FOLKLORISTIC NEWS AND TRADITIONAL FESTIVITIES :
in antiquity Abruzzo was famed for its witches , wizards and snake-charmers , members of a tribe called the Marsi. Even today snakes feature in a bizarre religious festival in the mountain village of Cocullo : on the first Thursday in May its inhabitants celebrate the feast of S. Domenico: a statue of the saint is draped with jewels and banknotes and festooned with live snakes . It’s borne in procession through the village accompanied by villagers also bedecked with wriggling reptiles (Processione dei Serpari ).
http://www.profesnet.it/provinciachieti/feste/index.html Festival Guide
The Demons…
CHIETI – MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO LA CIVITELLA
*** 17 marzo – 17 maggio 2006
Una mostra intrigante su magia e fortuna racconta un Abruzzo terra di misteri e incantesimi. Un’archeologia “insolita” in uno dei musei più innovativi in Italia
del 03/04/2006
Angitia, figlia di Eeta, per prima scoprì le male erbe, così dicono, e maneggiava da padrona
i veleni e traeva giù la luna dal cielo; con le grida i fiumi tratteneva e, chiamandole,
spogliava i monti delle selve.
Silius, Punicae, libro VIII,…
The Evil Eye
http://radio-canada.ca/television/ciaobella_english/vhtml/evilEye.html
If you walk into a Neapolitan store, don't be surprised if you see a bowl of salt sitting on a countertop, or maybe some of the white stuff spread around in the corners of the room. It is all about superstition. After all, people in Naples say that there are three types of salt: the rough kind, the refined variety, and the salt used "contro il malocchio" - to ward off the evil eye.
The evil eye is the ability to cause injury to people, whether voluntarily or not, by emitting…
The Divine Feminine: Word & Photo Essay
by Abe Van Luik
The goddesses of antiquity are well known. This statue of Vesta was located in ancient Paris long before it was Paris, and was installed into a building by Romans in the late first or early second century. This statue is now on display in the basement of the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages, in Paris. It is set in a location of a Roman bath whose foundations were built on in the Middle Ages, a beautiful place to feel history in cold building stones, as well as see history displayed…
Amber and Jet
By Donna Aquino
Amber is the organic fossil of tree sap which flowed from pine trees that flourished 50 to 60 million years ago. Most of these forests were situated in what is now the Baltic Sea area, although large deposits are also found in the Dominican Republic and China. As the Baltic Sea slowly encroached upon the pine forests, huge deposits of amber were submerged. Amber is thus often associated with the element of water, although for many it symbolizes fire. Dominican and Chinese amber is mined from deep underground deposits, giving it…
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