Crescent Cakes of Aradia

Aradia bid her followers: "You shall make cakes of meal, wine, salt, and honey in the shape of a (crescent or horned) moon..." C. G. Leland, Aradia, Gospel of Witches, 1899, page 13.

The recipe is below.

Preheat to 350 degrees. Mix first four ingredients. Add last four ingredients. Combine well, adding water or wine if necessary to make into rollable dough. Cut into crescent shaped cakes and bake until light brown for about 15 minutes.

Burn a white candle during the baking.

Great Diana was queen of all the night. She was the first of all creation. Out of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself, into darkness and light. She was the night and the sun and the moon. The sun, which moved away from Diana, became more masculine. She called him, "Phoebus the shining, my brother." Phoebus Apollo was so proud of his beauty he loved Diana not, and flew from her as the mouse flies from the cat.

Diana came to Apollo stealthily as a white cat and lay with him upon his couch in his chamber. She sported and played with him all night, as the cat plays with the mouse, releasing him at dawn. Diana thus had a daughter by her brother, whom we know as Aradia, or Herodiana. The ancients called her Aritimi.

Aradia was a pure spirit and saw many people were afflicted by their masters. Aradia descended among women and men and taught them witchcraft of her mother. "You shall be the first of the witches known, the first in all the world. When I have departed from this world, you will still meet once in the month, when the moon is full, to adore Diana, my mother, who is queen of all witches and faeries. Whenever you have need of anything, she shall aid you. You shall make cakes to the queen of heaven and feast and revel in her name.

You shall take meal and salt and honey and water and conjure it. You shall make cakes of blessed meal, wine, salt, and honey shaped in the shape of the horned or crescent moon. These shall be Aradia's cakes to honor Diana. Say:

	I do not bake the bread, nor with it salt, 
	Nor do I cook the honey and the wine;
	I bake the body, blood and spirit,
	Of Diana, beautiful Aradia, 
	In honor of you I will feast
	And drain the goblet deep
	And we will dance and leap
	And sing charming magick in honor 
	Of Great Diana our queen!

	--taken from a personal Wiccan Book of Shadows, collected 1991


Myth's Notes

I have made the recipe above and shared it with friends at the Chesapeake Pagan Community Gathering in August. Of course, August is the traditional time of Diana's feast and Aradia's birthday.

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