d of a Satanic witch invoking or threatening the Trinity, or Christ or even the angels or saints. In fact,they cannot even compel the devil or his imps to obey - they work entirelyby his good will as slaves. But in the old Italian lore the sorcerer or witch is all or nothing, and aims at limitless will or power. Of the ancient belief in the virtues of a perforated stone I need notspeak. But it is to be remarked that in the invocation the witch goes forth in the earliest morning to seek for verbena or vervain. The ancientPersian magi, or rather their daughters, worshipped the sun as it rose bywaving freshly plucked verbena, which was one of the seven most powerfulplants in magic. These Persian priestesses were naked while they thus worshipped, nudity being a symbol of truth and sincerity. The extinguishing the lights, nakedness, and the orgy, were regarded as symbolical of the body being laid in the ground, the grain being planted,or of entering into darkness and death, to be revived in new forms, or regeneration and light. It was the laying aside of daily life. The Gospel of the Witches, as I have given it, is in reality only theinitial chapter of the collection of ceremonies, incantations, and traditions current in the fraternity or sisterhood, the whole of which arein the main to be found in my Etruscan Roman Remains and Florentine Legends. I have, it is true, a great number as yet unpublished, and there are more ungathered, but the whole scripture of this sorcery, all its principaltenets, formulas, medicaments, and mysteries may be found in what I have collected and printed. Yet I would urge that it would be worth while to arrange and edit it all into one work, because it would be to every studentof archeology, folk lore, or history of great value. It has been the faithof millions in the past it has made itself felt in innumerable traditions,which deserve to be better understood than they are, and I would gladl...
