The Society of Diana: Witch-flight and the Mysteries of the Night Queen
By Caroline Tully, PhD
Across the history of European witchcraft, accounts of nocturnal gatherings and otherworldly journeys tell of mysterious female powers who lead their followers beyond the boundaries of ordinary existence. Diana, Herodias, Holda, Perchta, Abundia, and other manifestations of the Night Queen occupy a central place in these traditions, connecting ancient pagan beliefs, medieval folklore, and the enduring mysteries of witchcraft.
In The Society of Diana: Witch-flight and the Mysteries of the Night Queen, Caroline Tully traces this tradition from the ancient cult of Diana and the sacred landscape of Nemi through medieval ecclesiastical writings, witch-trial testimonies, the mysteries of Aradia, and the revival of magical witchcraft in the modern era.
Drawing together historical research, folklore, and practical magic, Tully explores witch-flight, dream travel, spirit encounters, shapeshifting, divination, healing, cursing, and journeys between worlds. These practices emerge as expressions of an ecstatic and experiential witchcraft shaped by the meeting of pagan memory, visionary experience, and the Christian imagination.
At the heart of this exploration stands Diana, goddess of the hunt and wilderness, crossroads and sorcery, birth and death. Lunar and chthonic, she appears alongside a host of related figures, including Herodias, Aradia, Hecate, Holda, and Perchta, revealing the diverse forms assumed by the sovereign power of the night and the mysterious companies said to travel under her protection.
A Practical System of Witch-flight
Beyond its historical and folkloric foundations, The Society of Diana offers a substantial practical programme comprising forty-five pathworkings arranged around the elements of Spirit, Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. Through encounters with Diana, Aradia, Herodias, the Rex Nemorensis, the Golden Bough, Egeria, the Benandanti, Venusberg, the Watchers, and numerous other figures and traditions, practitioners are invited to explore visionary perception, magical agency, and direct engagement with the mysteries of the Night Queen.
These workings employ imagination, trance, dream, ritual, and disciplined attention as means of entering liminal spaces and exploring the boundaries between the familiar world and the Otherworld. Rather than relying solely on inherited symbolism, the practices encourage personal engagement with the figures, powers, and mysteries encountered along the nocturnal path.
Three substantial appendices further expand the practical material:
Moon Rituals — exploring Drawing Down the Moon and the structure of lunar ritual.
Underworld Journey — a visionary descent through the crossroads into the underworldly dimension of the Night Queen tradition.
Rituals to Hecate Chthonia — approaching Hecate in her ancient chthonic and liminal aspects.
Scholarly in its foundations yet practical in its purpose, The Society of Diana offers a distinctive exploration of nocturnal witchcraft, sacred groves, crossroads, spirit encounters, and the mysteries of the Otherworld. It is an invitation not merely to study the traditions surrounding the Night Queen, but to approach their practices directly and discover the possibilities—and dangers—of the night road.
“Erudite yet accessible, this ‘technical guide-book’ allows the student to build their own creative relationship with the Night Queen Herself.”
— Shani Oates, Matriarch of the Clan of Tubal Cain