Charles Leland (1824-1903)

Written and compiled by George Knowles. Original article posted at www.controverscial.com

Charles G. Leland was a scholar, folklorist and author who wrote several classic books on English Gypsies and Italian Witches. These include Etruscan Roman Remains, Legends of Florence, The Gypsies, Gypsy Sorcery and perhaps his most famous book Aradia: Gospel of the Witches. In all he wrote over fifty books during his life time and his writings inspired the likes of Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente as well as many other pioneers of modern day Witchcraft.

Born of old English descent, Charles G. Leland’s lineage can be traced back to a John Leland who became the Royal Antiquary in 1533, and later to Charles Leland who was Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries during the reign of Charles 1. His family moved to America in 1636 and there settled Massachusetts.

Charles G. Leland was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the 15th of August 1824. A few days after his birth an old Dutch nurse carried Leland up into the garret of his home and there performed a ritual. She placed upon his breast a Bible, a key and a knife and then placed lighted candles, money and a plate of salt at his head. The purpose of the rite was to cause him to rise up in life, to be lucky and to become a scholar and a wizard.

He grew up as a child fascinated with folklore and magick, and was regaled with stories and tales of ghosts, witches and fairies. The family being prosperous they lived in a household that employed servants and from one - an Irish immigrant woman - he learned about fairies, and from another – a black women working in the kitchen – he learned about Voodoo.

Leland was educated at Princeton from where he graduated after four years. He then moved on to Europe and studied at the universities of Heidelberg and Munich, before moving on to Paris where he studied at the Sorbonne. While in Paris he took part in the Revolution of 1848, before returning to America. Once back in America he became involved in the American Civil War and while fighting with the Unionists he wittnessed the Battle of Gettysburg.

After the war Leland traveled extensively throughout America. He worked mainly as a journalist and at one time tried his hand at prospecting for oil. On another occasion while traveling through the old Wild West, he stayed for a short visit with General Custer at Fort Harker. In 1856 he married and became deeply devoted to his wife Isabel.

Moving to England in 1870, Leland began his study of the English Gypsies and was particularly interested in their folklore. Over the course of time he won the confidence of the then “King of the Gypsies” in England, Matty Cooper. From Cooper, Leland learned to speak Romany the language of the Gypsies, though it was many years before the Gypsy people accepted him as one of their own. During this time he wrote his two classic books on Gypsies and established himself as the leading authority on the subject. In 1888 he became the first President of the Gypsy-Lore Society.

In the winter of 1888 Leland moved to Florence in Italy, and there he began his study of Italian Witchcraft. His greatest source of information came from a mysterious lady called Maddalena. She worked as a Tarot reader telling fortunes in the back streets of Florence. Leland believed her to be a practicing hereditary witch and employed her as his research assistant. Although it took her ten years to do so, it was Maddalena who provided Leland with the material for his most famous book Aradia: Gospel of the Witches.

Leland was a prolific collector and spent most of his spare time collecting Witch lore and purchasing items of antiquity. One of his most prized possessions was the Black Stone of the Voodoos. It is believed that there are only five or six of these stones, or “conjuring stones” as they are called, existing in the whole of America. The stones are small black pebbles thought to have originally arrived from Africa during the slave trade, and whoever succeeds in obtaining one is said to become a Master of Voodoo recognized as such by all other Voodoo practitioners in America. Leland somehow was given one and this he exhibited at the Folk-Lore Congress in London during 1891.

Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Leland’s niece who inherited much of his notes, letters and unpublished materials, wrote a two-volume biography on him and of his passion she writes:

“It is what might be expected of the man who was called “Master” by the Witches and Gypsies, and whose pockets were always full of charms and amulets, who owned the Black Stone of the Voodoo’s, who could not see a bit of red string at his feet and not pick it up, or find a pebble with an hole in it and not add it to his store – who in a word, not only studied witchcraft with the impersonal curiosity of the scholar, but practiced with the zest of the initiated".

Surviving the death of his beloved wife Isabel by less than a year, Leland himself departed this world on the 20th of March 1903. Sadly he departed without completing his work on Italian Witchcraft. His legacy though lives on through his books. Until his time no other books existed claiming to contain material obtained directly from a practicing witch. His book - Aradia: Gospel of the Witches – is one of the most influential works to affect and influence modern Witchcraft and Wicca. It is also one of the few books on Witchcraft to remain in print for over one hundred years.

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