The Tregenda of the Old Goddess, Witches, and Spirits ©2000 Max Dashu

At the end of the middle ages an international myth of the Old Goddess stretched from the Slavic east to the Celtic west and from Italy to Scandanavia. People said that a vibrant, powerful crone flew in the midst of a cavalcade of spirits dead and unborn, joined by witches of all lands. On the eves of pagan holydays the spirit hosts set out for high mountaintops or other sacred places.

At these animist sanctuaries the witches dance, play music and games, feast and celebrate their mysteries. The divine “Mistress of the Night” presides over the gathering, giving cures and revealing the future. Often she miraculously revives the animals the witches have been feasting on. The goddesses, their flight on the pagan festivals, even their destinations, all are closely interwoven in popular tradition with witches and faeries.

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