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..Lore of the Book of Shadows ..

Egypt, the land of mystery and enchantment, is thought to be the cradle of much of the written occultknowledge shared through the centuries. In Egypt, the use of amulets goes back as far as the early fourth

millennium B.C. while magical books were found from the late third millennium B.C until the fifth centuryC.E.

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 keptin the temples. These books included laws, hymns, rituals, information on how to train priests and priestess,

and information about the deities, astrology, geography, medicine, talking to the decease, spells, theinvocation of deity, doll magic, and cosmology- the same types of knowledge you would find in today’sBook of Shadows.And the same reverence was applied to those books, just as it taught in the Craft- the

emphasis on secrecy and copying such information “hand of writ” , your own handwriting: these are just toname two. These books of magic 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 retired military who flockedto the Queen of the Nile for rest and recuperation. That means any magic you practice today is somehow

multicultural.

The Egyptians, however, are not the only ancient peoples with the lore of the magical books. In Folklore in

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the Old Testament Noah learned how to make the ark from holy book, which had been given to Adam bythe angel Reziel (Hebrew). This book contained within it all knowledge, human and divine, including

astrological secrets, and was made of sapphires. Noah enclosed the book in a golden casket when he took itwith him into the ark, where it served as a time place to distinguish night from day. Yup, sounds like a

magical book…no, it is not the Bible, and it known today as Sepher Rezial, and it is mentioned in severalhistorical text and research. Noah was not the only biblical person to have this information; it is said that

King Solomon learned much of his magic from the Sepher Rezial.The eleventh century and the advent of the Crusades brought a flood of magical information from the

Arabic/Muslim community, often spirited over the Spanish borders 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 do the threat of church and state of Rome.

The Sepher Rezial (Noah’s magical book) emerged in the 13th century, the translation attributed to Eleazer of Worms. By the 15th century, there were several kinds of magical books floating around Europe that

mostly included magical belief 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 wellas the Jews and Muslims. All this makes it super hard to figure out what came from where: keep in mind

that these books were written by people like you and me. They weren’t greater or better…they wereseekers. Some of these books were written by people in their late teens to early twenties.

In the 15th century manuscripts there are two distinct types of magical books- The Wolfsthurn Castle in theTyrol, one used for the running of a regular household that deals with natural magic (plants, elements,

healing, finding love of a nice lady *which proves male “witches”*, and so on) as well as household affairs,and 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 BurningTimes in Europe (compound of mob like hysteria, the desire of church to acquire money and property as

well as control people by using fear tactics).Some of those magical books, such as the Wolfsthurnmanuscripts and the Munich collection, were called, grimoires , a French word meaning “a magical

manual”. Unfortunately, the word grimoire stems from the Witch Trials, and therefore wasn’t seen in a fair particular 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 of book burning by the present day fundamentalist.

In the 17th century Europe, there is a mention of a magical book in the records of Venetian Inquisitionconcerning a woman named Laura Malipero, who was accused of practicing Witchcraft. Upon searchingher 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. In other records of the Witch

persecutors (they were not 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 historical records, magical books actually had a variety of

color covers, including red, green, and purple.

In studying history of Witchcraft, it is sometimes difficult to ascertain what fact is and what fiction is.

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Some of the terminology we use today comes directly from the persecution era-such words or ideas maynot have been used before the persecutions (example is sabbat) but if you’ve been stretched on the rack

(tortured) you’ll say just about anything, and hence a whole new vocabulary took form. A wondrousnumber of words appeared to describe things that previously didn’t have definitions at all. The Inquisitionand the church, in their desire to eradicate what was not there, made up words and copious definitions to

support their fantasies so that the world in general wouldn’t know they were offering people just for fun of

it (grimoire being another such word). Modern Witches kept some of these words (now they were theremight as well use them) and discarded others. “Familiar” and “warlock” were discarded completely by theyear 2000.

Tinkering with words (something people love to do in general- such as slang words) causes a lot of confusion all around the magical town and in regular ones too. When you enter the craft it is best to learn

the culture that produces the magic, for words have been misused or adapted. Finally, you’ll discover “living it” brings understanding and helps you navigate through all those definition- and this, like all thingsof serious study, take time. In Wicca many will state that the Book of Shadows is normally bond in black to

keep out the negativity of the “real world” and to protect the contents therein-which is not exactly wrong.

The wording “Book of Shadows” in regard to Wicca came is attributed to Gerald Gardiner, who isconsidered to be the founder of modern Witchcraft. Doreen Viliente, a member of his group, believed thatthe idea of the Book of Shadows to replace the traditional and functional grimoire.Valiente discovered thatthe term was borrowed from an article published in The Occult Observer in 1949, about an ancient Sanskritmanual of that name which taught how to tell a person’s destiny from the length of their shadow, Hence the

Book of Shadow .Gardner’s book was originally titled Ye Bok of Ye Art Margical , which went throughvarious phases of reproduction.The renaming of the grimoire to Book of Shadows occurred soon after his

groundbreaking work High Magic’s Aid was published in 1949 (cited as fiction).

In the past, many of the magical books used symbols to let the reader know where a specific format, or acertain set of words, should be included. If you did not know the code, then the book would be fairly

useless, which is why some historians have a habit of saying “followed by nonsensical gibberish” whenthey are trying to explain, historically speaking, what things meant. If two hundred years from now a

historian found your Book of Shadow he or she may 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 BB means Blessed Be!

BOS means Book of Shadow

BB (Blessed Be)!

By Silver Ravenwolf Shared: ~N0(uvelle Noir Goddess~