#major spirits

- Abundia/Abonde/Satia - Pharaildis - Hellequin/Herlechinus

- Queen of Elphame/Titania/Mab/Nicnevin - King of Elphame/Oberon/Oberycon - Puck/Púcel/Pouque - Bucca/Pwca/Púca/Pooka/Phouka/Phooka/Phooca/Puca/Púka - Robin Goodfellow - Sorthie, Sorthia and Sorthios/Milia, Achilia and Sibylia - Gyre-Carling - Gwydion ab Don - Gwenhidw - Shony/Shoney - Manannan - Gwynn ap Nudd

- Aine - Fennel/Finnen - Finvara/Fin Bheara - Meave/Nuala

- Holda/Frigaholda/Helt/Unholde/die selige Frawn - Perchta - Berchtholde/Berchtolt - Hera - Frau Harke - Woden/Wotan/Wode/Odin/Oden as leader of the Wild Hunt - Hackelbärend/Hackelbernd/Hackelberg/Hackelblock - Herodes/Herodis-Röds

- Bensoria/Bensozia/Bezezia

- Nocticula/Noctiluca (source: John of Salisbury's Policraticus)

- Guroysse/Reisarova

- Alberich - Elegast

- Diana - Lucifer - Herodias/Aradia/Arada/Araja/Sa Rejusta - Domina Cursus/Lady of the course/Sapiente Sibilla (Wise Sybil) - Mistress/Lady of the Good Game - The Abbess (”la Badessa”) - Richella - Madonna Horiente (Lady East) - Sicilian Queen of Fairies/Doña Inguanta/Lady Grace/Greek Lady/Doña Zabella - Sicilian King of Fairies/King Cozzo/King Cucco - Donne di Fora - Appenninic Sybil - Queen of the Land of the Angels/Queen of the Angels/Queen of the Elves - Befania/Befana - Salvanel - Wild Man

- Mittwinterfrau - Pehtra Baba - Zlata Baba - Quaternica/Quatembermann/Kwaternik/Frau Faste/Posterli/Quatemberca/Fronfastenweiber

- Sträggele - Tsaôthe Vidhe - Eiserna Perchta - Gvozdenzuba - Garanutzl - Frau Gauden - Prechtölterli - Frau Saelde/Fraw Selten/Fraw Zälti/Fraw Selga - Frau Venus - die sälige Lütt/das Guttisheer/lieben seelen/Pöffel daß Guttjns heer

- Baba Yaga - Jedzbaba - Nóčna Báa/Nóčna Gospá/Bóžja Déklia - Mokoška/Lama Baba - Rusalii

- Vile - Tetka Vila - Fairy Jelena - Fairy of Velebit

- Poludnica - Pjatnica/N’ed’el’a/Marți Seară/Vineri Noapte/Luca/Woman of the Tuesday - Marzanna/Марена/Morė/Morana/Morena/Maslenitsa/Mara

- Doamna Zînelor/Irodeasa/Arada/Irodia/Irodita  - Dragaica - Brezaia - Baba Dochia - Avizoia/Aveziha/Avezuha - Jerodiecele/Iroditele - Zîna Magdalina - Ileana Cosânzeana - Făt-Frumos - Ana-Foca/Foca

- Ana - Bugiana - Dumernica - Foiofia - Lacargia - Magdalina - Ruxanda - Tiranda - Trandafira - Rudeana - Ruja - Păscuţa - Orgisceana - Lemnica - Roşia - Todosia - Sandalina - Margalina - Savatina - Rujalina

- Neráïdes/Exotiká/oi Kalokirádes o Kallikurádes/oi Kyrádes/ta Korítsia Mas/oi Kalés Arkhóndisses/oi Kalókardes/oi Khairámenais/Gialoúdes/Kalés Kyrádes/Kalótykhes - the Great Lady/the Beautiful Lady/the Most Beautiful Woman/the Queen of the Mountains/The Queen of the Shore

- Moira/Narechnits/Sudienitsi/Urechnici/Rechenitsi/Orisnici/Sudienitsi/Soenici/Roenici/Ursitoare/Ursitele/Ursoiare/Mirë/Ora/Fatia/Fatmirat/Zonja të Jashtëmë/I Të Tri Grat 

- The Fates (source: Burchard of Worms)

- Estadea - Trip Reial - Akerbeltz/Aker/Janicot - Lady of Amboto - Marigüena - Basajarau - Silbán - Caçador Negre/Mal Caçador/Gran Caçador - Count Arnau - Eiztari-Belta/Mateo-Txistu/Salamon Apaiza - Mari Urraka

These are the main ones, however, every Nation and every region in Europe had a different one. You can discover the ones of your region by following this procedure: - How to adapt the basic practices to your Country and Region in order to reconstruct your Regional Tradition

Somebody sometimes ask me if “it’s possible to work with and/or worship the Roman Deities, the Germanic Pantheon, etc. within Reconstructionist Traditional Witchcraft”.

The problem with this question is that Recon TradCraft is not a secular practice, it has its own Pantheon, which is composed of the Spirits which survived in the Christian times. It’s a different religion, which has a different Pantheon from the pre-Christian religions. Only some of the pre-Christian Deities’s cults survived in Christian times and so Recon TradCraft worship only these Deities, not entire pantheons. Moreover, new Deities not corresponding to ancient ones appear during this period. So we cannot just transpose the pre-Christian Gods to Reconstructionist Witchcraft: we must seek in the folklore and in the trials the Deities and Spirits whose cults have survived in the Christian era, not to introduce others which were not present during the Christian times.

The misunderstanding, the confusion, I think, comes from the term “Witchcraft”, which somebody associate to a non-religious practice, a secular practice. However, in this case we use the term Witchcraft not as synonym of magic, but as a different religion, the religion focused on the Sabbath (and the Wild Hunt, the Fairies, the Night Battles, etc.).

Moreover, to answer this question, we can say that it depends. There is not ONE Recon TradCraft, there are MANY regional variations with common features. Reconstructionism depends on the area that you consider.

So, if you are interested in Germanic Deities, simply see if the area had the possibility to have survivals of the Germanic Pantheon. It’s not so useful to search for survivals of the Germanic Pantheon in Greece, or in Romania for example. Where did the Germanic peoples go? Probably in North Italy you’ll find something, in the South much less (but where the Lombards settled down).  In Great Britain it’s possible, in Ireland much less.

There’s also an important thing to keep in mind: Recon TradCraft doesn’t work with Pantheons. It works with single Spirits.

Recon TradCraft is a different cult from the pre-Christian ones.

Its Pantheon is composed by the remainings of these pre-Christian Pantheons. So, not all the Gods worshipped by a people continued to be worshipped in the Christian age. Just some of Them. Some of the cults survived, not all of them.

So it’s possible to find the cult of Diana in Benevento (Italy) but not of Jupiter, because while both the Deities come from the Roman Pantheon, the first one survived, while the cult of Jupiter not. Moreover, in this same area, Benevento, we find also remainings of the cult of Hekate, of the cult of Isis (spread in the Ancient Rome from the Egypt), of the cult of Mefitis (a pre-Roman Italic Goddess) and of Godàn/Wotan (because of the Longobards invasion). However, we don’t find all the Gods of all these pantheons (Egyptian, Roman, Italic, etc.). So if, let’s say, a single area had been invaded by 3 different peoples, we’ll not find survivals of their entire pantheons, we’ll find survivals of *some* of their Gods, and probably of more than just one pantheon. So, it’s not reconstructionist to worship a God just because the people who worshiped Them in pre-Christian age settled down in the area that you are considering. Instead, you’ll have to search in folklore if that single God remained in popular tradition of that area during the Christian age.

Moreover, of many Major Spirits that you’ll find in folklore and that are really important, because they are Leaders of the Fairies, of the Witches, of the Wild Hunt, etc… in their respective area, sometimes you can’t figure out which is their pre-Christian origin. Let’s take for example Herodias. She is a NEW Character. A new Goddess. She appears in the XI century in folklore as testified by Burchard of Worms, and her name is Christian but she was worshiped as a Goddess. Somebody says that she actually is the Greek Goddess Hera, others think that she is Hekate. The reality? We just don’t know! Most of the names of the Major Spirits found in Medieval and Early Modern folklore and trials don’t correspond to any known pre-Christian God or Goddess, to the point that Ronald Hutton in his book “The Witch” assumes that these are entirely new Gods, not born from pre-Christian times, but in Christian age. So this would mean that we are dealing with a NEW Pantheon.

I’m not so extreme as Hutton, because I think that it’s more probable that these “new” Gods actually are a mixture of various pre-Christian Gods or the same pre-Christian God or Goddess with new names. However, the point is that we cannot see the Medieval and Early Modern Witchcraft Pantheon from the lens of the pre-Christian Paganism. It’s a different tradition!

For example the Italian “Madonna Horiente”, who she is? And the French “Beuffenie”? We don’t know!  We find their names in folklore and trials and we cannot do exact comparison with pre-Christian pantheons. We just have to accept these new Gods as they show to us.

It’s a mistake to see Recon TradCraft as an empty scaffolding onto which we can put every God or Spirit that we want.  Recon TradCraft is the exact opposite: it’s to recover the forgotten Spirits’ names. It’s to uncover the Medieval and Early Modern Pantheons which are now forgotten or stay just in folklore tales. It’s not imposing our prefixed idea of Pantheons and Gods and Spirits onto a structure. It’s, instead, a hidden structure that we have to find!

Recon TradCraft starts when we: 1- analyze a region,  2- see if there have been trials,  3- then we search in the trial documents or in the local folklore legends  4- for the names of the Leaders of the Witches, of the Fairies, of the Wild Hunt, and of Spirits with pre-Christian origin,  5- and we write down the names that we find.  Then, we choose the name of the Spirit with which we feel closer and we start making offerings to Him/Her/Them, to contact Him/Her/Them in trance, to ask for their help in magical rituals, to perform a Sabbath in their honor in the days in which the folklore says witches performed Sabbaths (which are usually not the same data of the modern Wheel of the Year).

.:: The Lady (and the Lord) of the Game in Northern Italy ::.

The “Dona del Zöch” in dialect, “Donna (or “Signora”) del Buon Gioco” in Italian, “Domina Ludi” in Latin, or “Lady (or “Woman”) of the Good Game”, is a character of Northern Italy, where she is at the head of the Sabbath (which is called here Ludus Bonae Societatis, or “Game of the Good Society”, where Good Society is the set of all the witches).She appears in many trials in Italy, for example in Valtelline in 1480, where she was worshiped by two women, Domenega and Contessia.At Mantua Giuliano Verdena tried to see the Domina Ludi in scrying, as he declared during his trial of 1489.In 1518 at Brescia, Benvenuta called “Pincinella”, declared to having worshiped a beautiful woman dressed in a black dress, which was called the “Signora del Zuogo” (Lady of the Game), and that “everybody told that she was a goddess, and everybody went in front of her and greet her saying "ben vegnì Madona con la vostra zente” (welcome, Milady, with your people)“ and then bow in front of her 4-5 times.Benvenuta (or Benvegnuda in dialect) talked also about a “Lord of the Game” (”Signor del Zuogo”), which was also considered a God.Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola, inspired by the trials of the years 1522-1523 in the city of Mirandola (Emilia-Romagna), wrote in his book "The witch, or the deceits of the demons” the confessions of an accused, who claimed to go to the “game of the Woman” (i.e. the Sabbath) and that, “therefore there, we see the Woman of the Game sit together with her loved one”. This “loved one” is described as “a very handsome man, of a rich dress of gold very well decorated”.

Spirits can be bonded to mages, bonding a Spirit is really the graduation exam for every mage.

Spirits do not bond to spellcasters.

A Spirit can only be bonded to a single mage, but a mage could be bonded to multiple Spirits.

There is a mark that appears on both mage and Spirit which indicates their bond - haven't decided what this looks like yet, but I am thinking either a ring on a finger (yeah, I know), or a mark on the forearm. This second is pretty interesting to me, as Gwen has her as covered, and most Spirits have short sleeves. This may also work with the asymmetrical sleeve design on the Ri Spirit. Hmmm.

Symbols are standard for all mages (so another Ri mage would have the same marking as Gwen)

The Four Spirits appear on one side of the mage, and the Two (Gai and Tas) appear on the other.

These symbols are also how people can recognize a legitimate mage (if the staff and sphere were not obvious enough)

Once bonded, Spirits are linked to the human until they're either released by the mage, or the mage's death. In theory, the Spirit's death would also release them, but that is an unlikely scenario.

Bonded Spirits can be summoned at any time, and maintain a kind of background connection to their mage.

Just some thoughts while I work on her re-design (and the whole story rework, let's be honest, it's an everlasting work in progress)

Under the cut because it's pretty random.

Madonna Oriente or Signora Oriente (Lady of the East), are names of an alleged religious figure, as described by two Italian women who were executed by the Inquisition in 1390 as witches.

The story which they are reported to have told is an elaborate and fantastical tale of occult religious rituals practised at the houses of wealthy individuals in Milan, Italy, where a Fairy known as the Madonna Oriente, possibly regarded as a goddess by her followers, performed magical acts such as the resurrection of slaughtered animals.

The two women, Sibilla Zanni and Pierina de' Bugatis, were brought before the Inquisition first in 1384, and with their story apparently dismissed as fantasy, were sentenced only to minor penance. When they were investigated again in 1390, however, they were charged with consorting with the Devil, condemned, and executed.

They were part of the ‘good people’ of the society of Oriente, with whom they roamed through houses. Oriente’s followers sometimes slaughtered oxen and ate their meat; then they gathered the bones and put them inside the skin of the dead animals. Oriente would then strike the skin with the pommel of her wand, and the oxen were instantly revived; but they were no longer capable of working.

They said they would meet every Thursday and pay homage to Madonna Horiente by saying, “Be well Madona Horiente” to which they were answered, “Bene veniatis, file mee” (welcome, my daughters). They contended that every type of animal communed with the society. Sibilla claimed that through Oriente she was able to answer many questions of the community. Pierina had been with the society since the age of sixteen. She claimed Madonna Horiente and her society roamed the houses of the wealthy at night and if the house was clean and well-kept they would eat and rejoice and bless the house.

Their testimonies are remarkably similar to those of several other groups in Italy and greater Europe, such as the followers of Richella, of the Lady of the Good Game (Signora del Gioco or Donna del Buon Gioco in Italian) and of "the wise Sibillia" in 15th century Northern Italy, the Benandanti of 16th and 17th century Northern Italy, the Armiers of the Pyrenees, the Romanian Căluşari, Livonian werewolves, Dalmatian kresniki, Hungarian táltos and Caucasian burkudzauta. These widespread repeated themes have been identified by historian Carlo Ginzburg as part of an ancient mythological complex probably originating from central Eurasia.The mythology of these groups has become a popular subject among adherents of modern witchcraft and Neopaganism.