Beliefs & practices

Diana is invoked as the central goddess, often paired with Dianus or Tanus as her brother-consort, and Aradia as the messianic teacher who descended to instruct the witches. Some lineages add Tana (a moon goddess) and a triadic structure of three primary deities; others retain a duotheistic Diana-and-Dianus framing closer to the Wiccan god-and-goddess pattern.

Practice draws on Italian folk magic alongside the broader Wiccan ritual structure. The malocchio (evil eye) and its warding practices, herbal craft, the use of the cimaruta charm, and Italian folk-Catholic devotional forms reframed in Aradian terms are all common. The eight Sabbats are observed, often under Italian or Roman names (Lupercalia in February, Carnevale, the harvest festival of Cornucopia, and so on), and many lineages add traditional Italian seasonal observances.

Grimassi’s Arician Tradition operates through coven initiation in three degrees, structurally similar to Wicca, while other Stregheria practitioners work as solitaries or within family-tradition (famiglia) frameworks where the lineage is presented as biological rather than initiatory.