itty wrote:

Thanks for the info. I don't want to hijack the Wicca boards either. So, if you would be so kind as to email me a link where I can investigate this further I would appreciate it. I like studying comparative religion.

Jo

i can't seem to find the link to email this to you directly, so it has to be here....

you can try this one for starters....it has good basic info...and yeah i can relate to the concept of investigating comparative religions....but i CANNOT relate to the demonizing of others no matter what religion they choose to follow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1b

Thanks for the link, maidenhair.  :)  I was totally confused and completely clueless.  This helps a lot.   :D

sacrificialgoddess wrote:

Thanks for the link, maidenhair.  :)  I was totally confused and completely clueless.  This helps a lot.   :D

sorry, creating confusion was not my intention.
i do remember talking to you elsewhere on these boards...:rolleyes:

is there a link from strega to wicca or are they two distinct "practices"? hmmmm...hopefully "practices" is not an incorrect term in this context.

"Strega is a name given to an indigenous (Italian) folk-practice that is linked to Catholicism where the former is considered to be negative/harmful in orientation. Strega still exists though it is rarely taught outside of Italian families where it has been passed down or so I have been told."

there is some basis in fact to the "passed down" scenerio, altho i believe that it is somewhat convoluted and misrepresented....i grew up in the environment where some of this folk-practice was believed in, and anything that ANY adult believes in is "passed down" to their children...altho, sadly, as a child,  i phoo-pooed it all as supersticous mumbo-jumbo, therefore didn't learn any of it ...the word strega, i never heard until i was an adult and thru other sources...and i doubt highly that any of what i was being taught related to strega, but rather more likely to established  pagan practices that were firmly rooted and never discarded even tho Christianity became firmly established....what i do recall are things like, planting during a particular moon phase, (the phases of the moon having much significance) the art of the use of herbal remedies. (the skills of practicing doctors were mostly only used  where home remedies failed) .....

the more esoteric were...the removal of the "evil eye" from one who is afflicted, and dream interpertations...etc. i have since learned that many different cultures believe in the concept of the "evil-eye" and have their  own unique methods of averting and removal...it is also understood or termed as "the envious eye"

"Charles Leland wrote a book where he claimed that Stregha was an ancient suppressed religion of witchcraft. His claims and sources have never been historically validated and do contradict in many ways the existing practice of Stregha. "

yeah, i read bits of that too. other than the fact that it is a work attempting to define a culture from one outside the understanding of that culture, there are some bits of interesting reading. he also wrote many other books detailing his views and representation of many other cultures and peoples....

"Raven Grimassi, a modern writer, took Leland's claims and using some of the public characteristics of Wicca and Pagan Witchcraft has created Stregheria" which is usually presented erronously as being the continuation of Stregha."

yup, heard of this fellow as well...i don't quite know what he is promoting but i suspect there is some basis in reality to what he is presenting colored over with his own perspective, so i guess that means that i agree with you...however "strega" is feminine terminology that translates as "witch" (of the female variety) so it just as easily could have been nothing other than a label to identify a Healer...and frankly everything that i have learned points in that direction.
 
Despite the use of Wiccan characteristics, Stregheria is not a tradition of the Religion of Wicca or visa versa.

ah...ok, thanks, the bnet link you provided did not work due to some work bnet is doing, but i will attempt to view it again at some later date...thanks for providing it.