Astraea - Goddess of justice and purity. Festival: December 8th.

Carmen/Carmina - Goddess of the casting of spells, and of enchantments.

Copia - Goddess of abundance and plenty.

Diana - Consort of Dianus. Diana is often associated with the forest god Sylvanus or Pan. Goddess of the wildwood, lady of beasts; Moon Goddess; sometimes called Many-Breasted. Goddess of mountains, woods, women, childbirth. Patroness of outcasts, outlaws, thieves, slaves, and the oppressed. Her title "Queen of Heaven" was the Roman name for the Triple Goddess; as the Roman Triple Goddess, her aspects were the Lunar Virgin, Mother of Creatures and the Huntress or Destroyer (Maiden, Mother, Crone). Diana encompasses many other Goddesses, and is the name also used for the Moon Goddess, Earth Goddess, and Star Goddess. Traditionally, the Goddess of all Witches in Italy.

In ancient Italy, her oldest and most famous place of worship was at a volcanic lake, known as Diana’s Mirror (Lake Nemi). In a grove (Nemus) on the only accessible shore of the lake was her sanctuary. This goddess was known for her liking for exclusively female society. There are records from the tenth century referring to women who attended night meetings with the Pagan goddess Diana. Her animals are the dog and the stag.

Festivals: May 26th-31st and August 13th and 15th. On August 13th she was invoked to protect the harvest against storms.

Fana/Fauna - Consort of Faunus. Also called Bona Dea and closely related to Maia. Goddess of the earth, fields, forests, wildlife, and fertility. She was a fertility goddess honored with a mysterious festival at the beginning of December. This festival was forbidden to men and ended in an orgy. Festival: December 19th.

Fortuna - Goddess of Fate in all its unknown qualities (good and bad). She rules oracles, fortune, fate, luck, chance; protectress of women married only once. Sometimes pictured with wings. Her symbols are the wheel, the sphere, the ship’s rudder and prow, the cornucopia.

Jana - Consort of Janus. Goddess of the Moon, and the Mysteries of the Moon.

Nox - Goddess of the night. Nox rules the darkness which falls upon the earth, and all within it. She is the sister of Umbria, and shares her associations (except for the underworld connection). Nox can be a bit on the sinister side if care is not taken.

Pertunda - Goddess of sexual love and sexual pleasure.

Tana - Consort of Tanus. The Star Goddess (Universal Aspect). Festival: May 1st.

Umbria - Goddess of the shadows. Umbria is the dark aspect of the Goddess (waning moon), and rules with Dis in the underworld. Goddess of things which are hidden, or secret.

Uni - The most ancient name for the goddess of Witchcraft.

Actaeon - Stag-horned god of the forest.

Anteros - God of passion and sexual unions.

Comus - God of revelry, feasting, drinking, and the "pleasures of the night".

Corvus - Messenger of the Gods. Also the Trickster God, known as Raven.

Dianus - Consort of Diana. Nature God of fertility, similar to Faunus except that he is a Stag God instead of a Goat God. He is also known by the name Kern or Cern.

Februus - God of purification and initiation.

Faunus - Consort of Fana/Fauna. Similar to Pan, a rustic god, also called Lupercus. "Little God"; Horned God; goat-foot god; the Horned One of Nature; very ancient. On February 15 the Lupercalia honored him with sacrifices of goats. The priests of his temple performed the rites naked. Protector of flocks and agriculture, bee-keeping, fishing, orchards, gardens, wildlife, fertility, Nature, forests, woodlands, music, dance, farming, medicine, soothsaying; the positive Life Force of the world. He also had Pan’s dark side, seizing men and animals with wild and unreasoning terror in high and lonely places.

Janus - Consort of Jana. A god peculiar to Roman mythology. Called Janus Pater, god of gods, he came before even Jupiter. He was honored on the first day of each month and the first month bears his name; Januarius was named for him. Pictured as a bearded older man with two faces or heads, each looking in opposite directions. His two faces represented past wisdom and future knowledge, all thing which had a sense of beginning and ending. God of the Sun, all beginnings, doorways, portals, thresholds, journeys, public gates, departure and return, harbors, communications, navigation, daybreak, victory, endings, success, the seasons. It was Janus who brought the elements into harmony from Chaos.

Kern - Name for the Stag-horned God of the forest. Father of the Hooded One. Symbol of the waxing power of Nature.

Lupercus - The Wolf God of winter. Symbol of the waning power of Nature.

Tagni - The most ancient name for the god of Witchcraft.

Tanus - Consort to Tana. The Star God (Universal Aspect).

Terminus - God of boundaries, protector of personal property. Festival Terminalia: February 23rd.

Virbius - God of outcasts and outlaws. Guardian of sanctuaries.



Sources: Ways of the Strega by Raven Grimassi; "Raven Grimassi on Hereditary Italian Witchcraft" from Riders of the Crystal Wind Book of Shadows; The Witches’ Goddess by Janet & Stewart Farrar; The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer; The Ancient & Shining Ones by D. J. Conway; Moon Magick by D. J. Conway.