Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches/Chapter V

The Conjuration of the Lemon and Pins
Scongiurazione al Limone appuntato un Spille.

Sacred to Diana.

A lemon stuck full of pins of different colours always brings good fortune.

If you receive as a gift a lemon full of pins of divers colours, without any black ones among them, it signifies that your life will be perfectly happy and prosperous and joyful.

But if some black pins are among them, you may enjoy good fortune and health, yet mingled with troubles which may be of small account. (However, to lessen their influence, you must perform the following ceremony, and pronounce this incantation, wherein all is also described. )

The Incantation to Diana.
Al punto di mezza notte

Un limone ho raccolto,

Lo raccolto nel giardino

Ho raccolto un limone,

Un arancio e un mandarino,

Cogliendo queste cose,

Cogliendo, io ho detto;

Tu, o Regina del sole

Delia luna e delle stelle,

Ti chiamo in mio ajuto

E con quanta forza ho a te scongiuro

Che una grazia tu mi voglia fare,

Tre cose ho racolto nel giardino;

Un limone, un arancio,

E un mandarino; una

Di queste cose per mia fortuna,

Voglio tenere due

Di questi oggetti di mano,

E quello che dovra servirmi

Per la buona fortuna

Regina delle stelle:

Fa lo rimanare in mia mano!

At the instant when the midnight came,

I have picked a lemon in the garden,

I have picked a lemon, and with it

An orange and a (fragrant) mandarin.

Gathering with care these (precious) things,

And while gathering I said with care:

"Thou who art Queen of the sun and of the moon

And of the stars--lo! here I call to thee!

And with what power I have I conjure thee

To grant to me the favour I implore!

Three things I've gathered in the garden here:

A lemon, orange, and a mandarin;

I've gathered them to bring good luck to me.

Two of them I do grasp here in my hand,

And that which is to serve me for my fate,

Queen of the stars!

Then make that fruit remain firm in my grasp.

(Something is here omitted in the MS. I conjecture that the two are tossed without seeing them into the air, and if the lemon remains, the ceremony proceeds as follows. This is evident, since in it the incantation is confused with a prose direction how to act.)

Saying this, one looks up at the sky, and I found the lemon in one hand, and a voice said to me--

"Take many pins, and carefully stick them in the lemon, pins of many colours; and as thou wilt have good luck, and if thou desirest to give the lemon to any one or to a friend, thou shouldst stick in it many pins of varied colours.

"But if thou wilt that evil befall any one, put in it black pins.

"But for this thou must pronounce a different incantation (thus)":--

Dia Diana, a te scongiuro!

E te chiamo ad alta voce!

Che tu non abbia pace ne bene

Se non viene in mio aiuto

Domani al punto di mezzo giorno,

Ti aspetto a quello punto

Un bicchiere di vino portero,

E una piccola lente al occhio

E dentro tredici spilli,

Spilli neri vi metterò,

E tu Diana tutti

I diavoli dell' inferno chiamerai,

E in compagnia del sole il manderai,

E tutto il fuoco dell'inferno preso di se

Lo porteranno, e daranno forza,

Al sole di farmi questo vino bollire,

Perche questi spilli possano arroventire,

E con questi il limone apunteró

Per non dare più pace,

E ne bene alla persona

Che questo limone le presenterò!

Se questa grazia mi farete,

Un segnale mi darete,

Dentro tre giorni,

Una cosa voglio vedere,

O vento, o acqua, o grandine,

Se questo segnale non avró,

Piu pace Diana non te darò,

Tanto di giorno che di notte,

Sempre ti tormenterò.

The Invocation to Diana.
Goddess Diana, I do conjure thee

And with uplifted voice to thee I call,

That thou shalt never have content or peace

Until thou comest to give me all thy aid.

Therefore to-morrow at the stroke of noon

I'll wait for thee, bearing a cup of wine,

Therewith a lens or a small burning-glass.

And thirteen pins I'll put into the charm;

Those which I put shall all indeed be black,

But thou, Diana, thou wilt place them all!

And thou shalt call for me the fiends from hell;

Thou'lt send them as companions of the Sun,

And all the fire infernal of itself

Those fiends shall bring, and bring with it the, power

Unto the Sun to make this (red) wine boil,

So that these pins by heat may be red-hot,

And with them I do fill the lemon here,

That unto her or him to who 'tis given is

Peace and prosperity shall be unknown.

If this grace I gain from thee

Give a sign, I pray, to me!

Ere the third day

Shall pass away,

Let me either hear or see

A roaring wind, a rattling rain,

Or hall a clattering on the plain;

Till one of these three signs you show,

Peace, Diana, thou shalt not know.

Answer well the prayer I've sent thee,

Or day and night will I torment thee!

As the orange was the fruit of the Sun, so is the lemon suggestive of the Moon or Diana, its colour being of the lighter yellow. However, the lemon specially chosen for the charm is always a green one, because it "sets hard" and turns black. It is not generally known that orange and lemon peel, subjected to pressure and combined with an adhesive may be made into a hard substance which can be moulded or used for many purposes. I have devoted a chapter to this in an as yet unpublished work entitled One Hundred Minor Arts. This was suggested to me by the hardened lemon given to me for a charm by a witch.