by Rick Johnson 
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
RikJohnson@juno.com
Return to the Home Page.
Return to the Writings page.
Many religions possess a 'book' of what is considered to be sacred writings upon
which the religion bases its validity. Often these writings are produced by one or a
number of people who claim that the writings were either written by or inspired by their
own god. Wicca is no different.
The Wiccan sacred text is called the Book of Shadows though some
Traditions call it the Tree or the Book of Light and Shadows. The
major difference between the Book of Shadows and other holy books is that
Witches admit that their book was written by people (though sometimes inspired by the
God and Goddess).
Some of these writings are relativly 'ancient' going back hundreds of years to
when the common people began to achieve literacy, some are more recent, being written
today. But the writings generally are based upon oral teachings that were developed long
years ago.
Each Traditional Witch is expected to copy their own Book of Shadows
from their High Priest or High Priestess and is allowed to add to the Book as they see fit.
Thus, the Book of Shadows of one person will differ slightly from that of
another Witch even if they are in the same Coven.
This Book may contain Rituals, a personal journal, the Dogma and
Thealogy of the Wiccan Religion, recipes, spells and almost anything that the Witch
considers important to their own practice of the religion. Over the years this
Book will grow, change, adapt to conditions as the owner grows, but the
Book will always reflect the basic guidelines of the Old Religion.
The Book of Shadows should be considered to be a guide and NOT an
absolute lawbook. For even those parts that are truly inspired by the Gods must filter
through the minds and personalities of the Witch who wrote them down and so will
change by virtue of the mindset of the writer.
Each Witch is encouraged to add to the Book of Shadows their own
knowledge and findings so that the Religion may grow and blossom.
Since Wicca was for the last 34,000 years primarily an oral tradition and has been
written down only in the past few hundred years, much has been lost by the teachers as
they died. Thus, my personal contribution to the Book of Shadows is a series of
Myths and the writing down of the Oral teachings before they too, become lost.
I also encourage my students to add and improve my writings and to nurture the
Book of Shadows and the religion itself, for The Craft Must Ever
Survive.
However, there is a basic Gardnerian BOS that must be retained in order
to remain within the Tradition and Family though exactly what this core material actually
is is often in dispute. The main problem that exists here is that as each HP/S adds to their
own BOS and passes thismaterial down to their initiates, there is a tendency to
assume that the additional writings added are actually core material. When this happens,
it is easy for one Gardnerian who has certain writings toaccuse another Gardnerian of a
different Lineage of being a fraud.
You may add to the rites but you may not subtract from the basic written
structure. There is, also, a great deal of material therein that you may not like or
understand... yet. Retain it for ten years and if you still don't like it or understand it, then
you may, in good conscience, toss that material. If you come across another Traditional
Witch, share your Book with them according to the Laws, but be certain that
they know what they are doing as there are many frauds who seek to collect knowledge
for their own gain.
Wicca has, until recently, been an oral faith where it's followers learned from an
experienced teacher with immediate feedback and rote memorization until the student
could develop their psychics to the point that they were able to commune directly with
nature. With the coming of the Burning Times, many of the teachers were killed off,
leaving those who survived with little opportunity to learn.
As the religion/technology was so extensive, no one person could learn all that
was, therefore, though all knew the basics of the religion and a few spells, the majority
of, the knowledge rested in the hands of a few specialists. One person studied all that
there was to know about herbs, another learned all of astrology and so on. As the
teachers were killed, this specialized store of knowledge vanished.
Eventually, one Coven would have a part of the knowledge and another Coven in
another part of the country would have another fragment that overlapped but contained
information that the first Coven had lost.
By Gardner's time, it was safe to write down this knowledge. But the information
so recorded was fragmentary at best. Gardner then coined the term "Book of
Shadows" to differentiate the Book of the religion from the grimoire or "Black
Book" of magick that was common amongst ceremonial magickians.
Each Coven wrote down what they remembered and then when two Covens met,
they would share their Book of Shadows with each other. They would compare
the Rites and spells and knowledge, argue over which was correct or older and add to
their own Book, knowledge that the other Coven had and they lost. As such, the
Book grew in size over the years.
In addition, each Coven was encouraged to add to the Book with
whatever they felt belonged so the Book of Shadows became a book of Rituals
spells, knowledge, diary, poetry and whatever the individual Witch wished to include.
But the original knowledge would retained for at least ten years. For information that
made no sense to a First Degree would suddenly become clear with the experiences of
the Third.
With the Eclectic Reform, many who never joined a Coven were able to get hold
of fragments of the Book of Shadows and these were published and collected by
the Eclectics who wished to form a Coven but had no training or Initiation. Thus the
Book expanded to an entirely different version with many Eclectics inventing
information without thought. This was compounded by some Traditionals who left their
Coven after inventing a history to show that they were better than they were and so
inventing material for the Book as well.
Eventually, many Eclectics, who originally detested the Degree system, were
suddenly claiming Third Degree and asking to see the Traditional Book of Shadows
. They did this out of insecurity and a desire to gain the knowledge that the
Traditionals retained for themselves. In some areas they were successful and dangerous
knowledge was passed on to those who had not the morals or training to properly use it.
Rex Nemorensis was such a person who managed to get a Gardnerian Book
of Shadows so that he could publish an expose on the religion and sell lessons to
whoever had the money to pay. He took material that was fragmentary and out of context
to show that Gardnerian Witches were evil and thus add more students to his own bank
account.
Some Eclectics collect Traditional Books to use the knowledge to
increase their magickal ability without undergoing the training that makes that
knowledge safe to use.
Some Traditionals who were Banished for evil acts collect Books to start
Covens and so continue their evil. Some Satanists collect the Book to learn the
spells or rites and so twist them to their own ends. Many are simply not educated enough
to understand the knowledge and still search it out.
Be careful of those who would look at your Book of Shadows, but never
refuse it to one who is qualified. It is a value judgment on your part and an important
one to make. If they refuse to show you theirs, or if theirs is obviously from the
published literature or is full of inaccuracies and fantasies, theymay be frauds.
But, if they appear to be honest Witches, share your knowledge with them and
share their knowledge with yourself. Compare your ways of doing with them and tell
them why you do it this way and ask why they do it that way. Then decide for yourself
which is best or older. Also, by sharing you will learn new material which may be added
to your Book of Shadows. Thus may the store of knowledge grow.
According to Doreen Valiente in the term "Book of Shadows" first
known appearance was in a magazine called The_Occult_Observer Vol 1, #3,
published in 1949 and edited by 'Michael Juste' (aka Michael Houghton). A palmist
known as Mir Bashir wrote an article in that issue concerning a legendary Sanskrit
manuscript concerning a means of divination by measuring a person's shadow.
Since Michael Houghton also published Gardner's novel High Magic's
Aid, and that particular issue also contains an advertisement for Gardner's novel,
Doreen Valiente believes that Gardner borrowed the name from the article by Bashir.
The term does not appear in his novel but does appear in his later writings thus indicating
that this is another of Gardner's poetic terms that made their way into the Wiccan
Revival.
Since the Craft is a living and growing religion, there is no reason why our
vocabulary should not grow as well.
To contact me or to request topics to be covered, send to RikJohnson@juno.com
by: Rick Johnson
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
Return to the Home Page.
Return to the Writings page.
