Most practitioners of Witchcraft have what is called a Book of Shadows. In modern times this book normally has a black cover and is written in the owner’s own hand. The practice of keeping such a book shoots deep into the shadows of early human development, when the written word took form. Before this, and during the many changes in world cultures (wars, famine, politics, and so on), the power of magick was passed down orally, sometimes within one’s family, in a student-teacher environment (called mystery schools), or through priestly training. Memorized information, rituals, and recipes, however, can be lost for a number of reasons. Eventually, fearing this oral information would be irretrievably misplaced, those that could write (depending upon the area in which they lived and their station in life) began to copy what they knew into book form.
Egypt, the land of mystery and enchantment, is thought to be the cradle of much of the written occult knowledge shared through the centuries. In Egypt, the use of amulets goes back as far as the early fourth millennium b.c., while magickal books were found from the late third millennium b.c. until the fifth century c.e.16 If we do a bit of quick math, this means that magick was in evidence six thousand years ago, and books of magick were in existence five thousand years ago. That’s a heck of a long time!
Three thousand years ago, Clement of Alexandria made reports that the Egyptians had forty-two secret books of wisdom, written by Hermes (also known as Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom), which were kept in the temples (we’ll talk more about who probably wrote what later on in this book). These books included laws, hymns, rituals, information on how to train priests and priestesses, and information about the deities, astrology, geography, medicine, talking to the dead, spells, the invocation of deity, doll magick, and cosmology17—the same types of subjects you will find in a modern Book of Shadows. And the same idea of reverence was applied to those books, just as is taught in current Craft circles—the emphasis on secrecy and copying such information in your own “hand of writ,” to name just two. It is also interesting that even then, thousands of years ago, these books of magick were not the product of a single culture, but of many peoples as they collided in the arms of Egypt through slaves, royalty, travelers, scholars, and even the retired military who flocked to the Queen of the Nile for rest and recuperation. That means that any magick you practice today is somehow multicultural in content.
The Egyptians, however, are not the only ancient peoples with the lore of magickal books. In Folklore in the Old Testament, J. G. Frazer notes that Noah learned how to make the ark from a holy book, which had been given to Adam by the angel Raziel. This book contained within it all knowledge, human and divine, including astrological secrets, and was made of sapphires.18 Noah enclosed the book in a golden casket when he took it with him into the ark, where it served as a timepiece to distinguish night from day. Sounds like a magickal book to me! And no, it wasn’t the Bible, it is known today as Sepher Rezial, and is mentioned in several historical texts and research. Noah was not the only biblical person to have this information; it is said that King Solomon learned much of his magick from the Sepher Rezial.19
Through the centuries, most Books of Shadows or magickal books appear to be a mixed collection of all sorts of stuff jumbled together with little or no order. They are, after all, magickal notes, and therefore don’t read like the textbook system that you’re used to, and more often than not (when first written) reflected the personality of the author. Think about Grand-ma’s recipe book and you’ve got a good idea of how these books appeared. As some of the books were handed down from person to person, things were added, and sometimes removed —also a product of the personality of the individual who had possession of the book. More often than not, however, someone in a family or clergy line would come along and feel it was their duty to destroy what they didn’t understand. Even in the first century a.d., magickal books were often burned, especially if they had to do with divination and prophecy (as they were considered a threat to church and state). Hey, if you were going to fiddle while Rome burned, would you want everyone to know it beforehand and try to stop you? I think not.
The eleventh century and the advent of the Crusades brought a flood of magickal information from the Arabic/Muslim community, often spirited over the Spanish borders (re-member your history) and into the whole of Europe. One of these books was called the Ghayat Al-Hakim, meaning “The Aim of the Wise One,” an Arabic work translated into Latin under the title Picatrix. The Arab author carefully concealed his identity—understandably, as the book makes Lovecraft’s Necronomicon look like Winnie the Pooh. You will find additional reference to this work when we cover the Lunar Mansions.
The Sepher Rezial (Noah’s magickal book) emerged in the thirteenth century, the translation attributed to Eleazer of Worms. By the fifteenth century, there were several kinds of magickal books floating around Europe that mostly included magickal beliefs and practices from the classical cultures (Greeks and Romans who borrowed from the Egyptians and who knows who else) mingling with the beliefs and practices of the Germanic and Celtic peoples. Early Christian magicians borrowed heavily from the Neoplatonians as well as the Jews and Muslims. All this makes it super hard to figure out what came from where! Regardless, we have to keep in mind that these books were written by people just like you. They weren’t greater or better. They were seekers, just as you are today. Some of these books were written by people in their late teens and early twenties.
In fifteenth-century manuscripts we find two distinct types of magickal books—one used for the running of a regular household (from the Wolfsthurn Castle in the Tyrol) that deals with natural magick (plants, elements, healing, finding the love of a nice lady, and so on) as well as household affairs, and a more sinister jumble now kept in Munich that involves some nasty conjurations that historians feel were written by underground Christian clergy, and which may give us a hint on what fueled the Burning Times in Europe (compounded by moblike hysteria, the desire of the church to acquire money and property as well as control the people by using fear tactics).20 Some of the magickal books, such as the Wolfsthurn manuscript and the Munich collection, were called grimoires, a French word meaning “a magician’s manual.” Unfortunately, the word grimoire stems from the Witch trials, and therefore wasn’t seen in a particularly fair or pleasant light. In fact, medieval clergy treated books like people, and would sometimes put a book on trial (as if it were a person), and then burn it if they didn’t like it—hence the idea for book burning by present-day fundamentalists.
In seventeenth-century Europe, there is mention of a magickal book in the records of the Venetian Inquisition concerning a woman named Laura Malipero, who was accused of practicing Witchcraft. Upon searching her home, agents of the Inquisition found a copy of the Key of Solomon, along with a private, handwritten book of spells and rituals into which Laura had copied portions of the Key.21 In other records of the Witch persecutors (I hesitate to actually say “Witch persecutors,” because they weren’t killing Witches, they were murdering just about anybody that took their fancy) there is mention of a black book in one’s own hand of writ—hence the tradition of one’s Book of Shadows being bound in black was born. According to many historical records, magickal books actually had a variety of color covers, including red, green, and purple.
In studying the history of Witchcraft, it is sometimes difficult to ascertain what is fact and what is fiction. Some of the terminology we use today comes directly from the persecution era—such words or ideas may not have been used before the persecutions (“sabbat,” for example) but if you’ve been stretched on the rack you’ll say just about anything, and hence a whole new vocabulary (medieval buzzwords, if you will) took form. A wondrous number of words appeared to describe things that previously didn’t have definitions at all. The Inquisition and the church, in their desire to eradicate what wasn’t there, made up words and copious definitions to support their fantasies so that the world in general wouldn’t know they were offing people just for the fun of it (“grimoire” being another such word). Modern Witches kept some of these words (now that they were there, they might as well use them) and discarded others. “Familiar” and “warlock” were discarded completely by the year 2000.
Tinkering with words (something people love to do) causes a lot of confusion all around the magickal town and in the regular one, too. As you enter the study of Witchcraft you’ll begin to see what a mess people have made of words and what they stand for, which is why when you are learning a particular type of magick you need to know all about the culture that produced that magick. Relying on modern interpretation will only confuse the issue. Finally, you’ll discover that “living it” brings understanding and helps you navigate through all those definitions—and this, like all things of serious study, takes time.
Practicing Wiccans will probably tell you that the Book of Shadows is normally bound in black to keep out the negativity of the “real world” and to protect the contents therein — which isn’t exactly wrong, but I’ll bet you that most of the common people in Europe didn’t have access to fuchsia-colored covers for their books in medieval times, and a sky-blue cover with pink polka dots in an Irish village would have probably drawn unwanted attention, if such a thing could be had. We know that one of the reasons students are told that the cover of a Book of Shadows should be black directly relates to the information produced during the Inquisition (under pain and torture, I might add). In honor of the innocent, then, is another reason why the cover of a Book of Shadows might be black in color. Keeping the book in your own penmanship also comes from the Inquisition—especially considering they didn’t have a printing press before that.
The printing press brought a new age of enlightenment, where superstitions peeled away and science began to surge forward, opening up new territory for the masses. What had been kept for the chosen few was now passed around like an Internet joke. Those magickal books that hadn’t been destroyed by the zealous fanatic found a whole new set of hungry eyes to please. With the advent of the printing press, rather than sitting laboriously copying from thick volumes of faded lettering, one could get magick hot off the press! Granted, there was still a lot of secrecy involved (church and state hunted you down like a ravenous dog), but at least you could share this good stuff with more than just a student or two. By the early 1900s, individuals like Dion Fortune were happily spreading their magickal information with hundreds of students in newsletter form.
The wording “Book of Shadows” in regard to Wicca is attributed to Gerald Gardner, who is considered to be the founder of modern Witchcraft (though there were other prominent magickal individuals during his time who could also lay claim to this title). Doreen Valiente, a member of his group (and whose poetry binds all modern Wiccans together) believed that the idea of the Book of Shadows first came into being in 1949, when Gardner thought of calling a Witch’s book of rituals and magickal information a Book of Shadows22 to replace the traditional and functional “grimoire.” Valiente discovered that the term was borrowed from an article published in The Occult Observer in 1949, about an ancient Sanskrit manual of that name which taught how to tell a person’s destiny from the length of their shadow.23 Gardner’s book was originally titled Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical, which went through various phases of reproduction. The renaming of this grimoire to Book of Shadows occurred soon after his groundbreaking work High Magic’s Aid was published in 1949 (cited as fiction). Portions of High Magic’s Aid were taken from Ye Bok of Ye Art Magickal. When the Witchcraft laws in England were repealed in 1951, High Magic’s Aid became the first how-to magickal book on Witchcraft available to the general public in modern times.
By the end of the 1900s, there were over 1,000 titles available on Witchcraft (with the breakdown of 1/3 fiction, 1/3 nonfiction historical, and 1/3 nonfiction how-to), and there are even Books of Shadows on the World Wide Web! Which just goes to show you that magick never dies, it just changes with the times.
In the past, many of the magick books used symbols (like an equal-armed cross typed three times) to let the reader know where a specific format, or a certain set of words, should be included. If you didn’t know the code, then the book would be fairly useless, which is why some historians have a habit of saying “followed by nonsensical gibberish” when they are trying to explain (historically speaking) what things meant. For the most part I tried to stay away from that practice in this book, however you will find a code or two. If, two hundred years from now, a future historian finds this book and portions are torn out, he or she might not know what “SMIB” or “BB” means. To him or her it would look like silly letters, but you know that SMIB means So Mote It Be and that BB means Blessed Be (okay, so maybe you didn’t know before, but you know now). BOS means Book of Shadows. Codes can be used for longer passages, like “Insert COTG”—which means in this ritual (or spell), insert the Charge of the Goddess here. If ever in your magickal training you are required to copy a Book of Shadows in “your own hand of writ,” you will completely understand why the codes are important—they saved time, soothed your aching hand, and helped to lend some type of secrecy to the work.
Ceremony for Empowering
Your Personal BOS
Supplies: Holy water; cleansing incense of your choice; two white candles; a white sheet; a large, hand-drawn pentacle; your altar; a cord nine feet long (in the color of your choice); your personal BOS; and, if you like, this book as well.
Instructions: On a full or new moon, place the white sheet over your altar. Set the pentacle in the center. Place your Book of Shadows on top, opened to the first page. Place the white candles on either side of the book. Drape the cord on the book and over the altar. Take a spiritual bath (see Part 1, Ritual) and dress in something loose and nonflammable of a solid color (white for purity, black to repel negativity, green for growth of spirit, and so on). Create sacred space in the room by cleansing it with the four elements (a representation of earth, air, water, and fire). Fumigate the pages with incense. Pass the candle flame over the book three times. Sprinkle book with holy water. Follow the basic esbat format in Part 1, under Esbat. When you get to step nine, do the following:
Light the white candles, asking Spirit to bless this sacred rite. Hold your hands over the book, and say:
Gracious Lord and Lady, who guide the universe ever toward peace and harmony, who guard and protect your hidden children of the Craft of the Wise, who bring transformation and joy to all serious seekers, hear me. Bless and consecrate this book in your names that I may always walk in the path of the light, that the words written here take shape and form in this world and in the worlds beyond so that they may ever function in the service of peace, love, prosperity, protection, happiness, and harmony. With the utterance of each syllable in the direction of the light, may my power and wisdom grow. Please protect this book of magick so that it will not be taken from me and destroyed, and if circumstances remove it from my possession, I ask that the power be returned to Spirit. If it is taken without my permission, burned, or destroyed, may that person know your names for lifetimes to come, and may their ignorance be stripped from them. I know you will do this for me. As I will, so mote it be.
Draw an invoking earth pentagram (see page 396) in the air over the pages, then blow softly on the book three times, visualizing the sacred breath of divinity entering the pages. Seal by drawing an equal-armed cross in the air over the book. Close the book and wrap loosely with the cord. Again draw the seal.
Finish the basic ritual format.
When you work with the book, wear the cord to symbolize your connection to the essence of Spirit. The first words in your book should be the Personal Journal/Book Blessing, which you will find in Part 1 under Blessings. Anytime you work with the book, you can use the blessing and consecration prayer, which helps to build the power of your working.