Tyche and Aradia

There has always been a strong metaphysical link between Aradia and Fortuna. Aradia promises good fortune and abundance to her followers. A friend recently sent me some information indicating there is also a strong, relatively modern link between Tyche and Aradia as well. Tyche is the Greek Goddess of luck and fortune and considered the Greek counterpart of the Roman Fortuna.

Below is an early version of the Hail Aradia invocation or Almathean Horn Prayer, dated to 1953.

1953 

     Hail, Aradia, from the Amalthean horn
         Pour forth they store of Love. I lowly bend
     Before Thee! I invoke thee at the end
         When other Gods are fallen and put to scorn.
     Thy foot is to my lips! My sighs inborn
         Rise, touch, curl about thy heart. Then spend,
         Pitiful Love, loveliest Pity, descend

     And bring me luck who am lonely and forlorn.

Toni, from the Traditional Stregheria list, sent me this piece of classic Crowley. Apparently Crowley wrote an invocation to Tyche for Auguste Rodin. The invocation was eventually published in French and English in Rodin in Rime, later published in 1907 e.v. in The Works of Aleister Crowley, Vol. III, p. 120. Originally, this poem or invocation to Tyche commemorated one of Rodin's sculptures.

LA FORTUNE
by Aleister Crowley

"HAIL, Tyche! From the Amalthean horn
Pour forth the store of love! I lowly bend
Before thee: I invoke thee at the end
When other gods are fallen and put to scorn.
Thy foot is to my lips; my sighs unborn
Rise, touch and curl about thy heart; they spend
Pitiful love. Lovelier pity, descend
And bring me luck who am lonely and forlorn."

Fortune sits idle on her throne. The scent
Of honeyed incense wreathes her lips with pleasure
For pure delight of luxury she turns,
Smooth in her goddess rapture. So she spurns
And crushes the pale suppliant. Softly bent,
Her body laughs in ecstasy of leisure.

By the dates, and by comparing the texts, it is fairly clear that this early invocation of Aradia directly derived from the invocation to Tyche titled, LA FORTUNE.

The more famous version of this Hail Aradia invocation or Almathean Horn Prayer is the Farrar-Alexandrian Invocation of Aradia.

Sources

Sorita D’Este, Aleister Crowley, Wicca & the Amalthean horn, July 6, 2016

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