Rue
7:39AM 26th, Aug. 2005

Offre un approccio alla stregoneria secondo la tradizione italiana e la Wicca. Include informazioni sulla storia, le manifestazioni e le ultime novità. This website describes itself to be about the traditional Italian stregoneria and Wicca, however it clearly demonstrates that it is 'stregoneria' in the context of Wicca that is being discussed, further supporting the contention that the only 'stregoneria circles' in Italy are in fact Wiccan.

Civetta
1:32PM 26th, Aug. 2005

A proposito... Kjersti Smørvik, a Norwegian anthopologist, has done fieldwork among Italian Wiccans and written a big paper about it. I can't find any articles in English or Italian about it, but here's a short summary in English written by Kjersti herself.

Rue
5:32PM 26th, Aug. 2005

Nice! I thought I'd quote it here in case it disappears off the net:

quoth:

Sammendrag Kjersti Hilden Smørvik Mano a Mano Formo Questo Cérchío -Hand in Hand I Form This Circle- A Study of Modern Witches in Italy and Creation of a Community. Mano a mano formo questo cérchio- hand in hand I form this circle- A study of modern Witches in Italy and creation of community is a study of people practising a new religion called Wicca. The religion is a neo-pagan religion and the adherents worship nature and pre-Christian goddesses and gods. The practitioners often label themselves Witches. They celebrate rituals called sabbats that follow the yearly cycle of nature and in addition they celebrate rituals when the moon is full and in rituals they do what they call magic. It is possible to practice both alone and in groups, called covens. More and more individuals join this religion and in this thesis I have mainly been examining three things. First of all I have depicted their practice, why they became Witches and how. Secondly, I give an account of how they create a symbolic and cognitive community, which provides a sense of belonging. Thirdly, I see the practitioners in the light of modernity and see their practice as a creative response to what Giddens and Bauman call late modernity, characterised by insecurity, uncertainty, ambivalence and chaos. Even though the practitioners rarely meet, they still have a sense of belonging and this is made possible by symbols. Following Anthony Cohen (1985) and his Symbolic construction of community, I propose that the Witches' community is created symbolically. The symbols are ambiguous, which makes it possible for different individuals to identify with the same symbols. The important aspect of the symbols is that they make people believe that they believe in the same. Rituals are important as one of these symbols. Boundaries are created towards other groups and social entities, which reinforce the practitioner's identity as Witches and pagans and create in-groups and out-groups. This, in turn creates communitas. Due to the Witches' magical worldview, I see Wicca as a creative response to modernity. Through magic the Witches take control of their lives. The magical worldview also helps them in explaining the world in which they live. Following Bauman (2001), this study shows that people need communities in modernity which are loose knit and give room for individuality.

Civetta
6:44PM 26th, Aug. 2005

*ay!* Good thinking - brava! Hopefully it will be found online at some point - it's in English.

CapraVecchio
3:04AM 8th, Sep. 2005

....But it doesn't look any different from any article in any local paper covering Wicca.... Seriously! It could have been written in the "West Two-Holer Arkansas Gazette" for the first time there was a Wiccan Circle at Samhain......

Carrie
5:15PM 9th, Sep. 2005

Anyone notice they got a link to a Wiccan webring?

Civetta
6:21PM 11th, Sep. 2005

Carrie:

Anyone notice they got a link to a Wiccan webring?

Yes, a ring created by VidaPagana.com, "tu portal pagano de Latinoamérica"! *scratches head* Browsing through the pages of the site I can't really find anything that's not Wicca or Wiccanesque. Even the links marked "stregoneria tradizionale" on their links page take you to sites with the same kind of Wiccanesque content, like athames, chalices and books of shadows; the Rede, the Law of Threefold Return, the Wheel of the Year, triple goddesses, etc, etc. Then there's a big advertisement for the 4th national Wicca convention and a link to a Wiccan magazine. Nothing wrong with any of this if you're Wiccan, I suppose, but I frown at their online library which - aside from an extract from Gardner's Book of Shadows - consists of nothing but works by Leland and Murray, plus the Malleus Maleficarum and the Necronomicon! Other texts quote Graves and mention Grimassi.

Carrie
2:37PM 12th, Sep. 2005

Civetta:

"tu portal pagano de Latinoamérica"! *scratches head*

Very odd.*whatgives*

Civetta:

Even the links marked "stregoneria tradizionale" on their links page take you to sites with the same kind of Wiccanesque content, like athames, chalices and books of shadows; the Rede, the Law of Threefold Return, the Wheel of the Year, triple goddesses, etc, etc.

Thats so sad. *sad*

Civetta
3:21PM 13th, Sep. 2005

Yeah, it's sad, very sad - not because I find anything wrong with Wicca per se, but because it's a sure sign to me that the local traditions are next to unknown to these people, and probably dying... *sad* Now I'm really looking forward to read Kjersti Smørvik's thesis. "It's not God they [the Italian Wiccans] stop believing in, but the Church", she says in this interview (in Norwegian). She also mentions the general view of women in a "macho society" as a reason for especially Italian women to convert to Wicca; at the same time she points out that the feminist ideas one can find in e.g. the US, are not nearly as important in Italy. I find that very funny in a sad way. In any case, it's hardly a lack of rituals and magic that makes Catholics convert to Wicca, as often seems to be the case with e.g. protestants and non-religious.