..Lore of the Book of Shadows..

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 magical books were found from the late third millennium B.C until the fifth century C.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 kept in 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, the invocation of deity, doll magic, and cosmology- the same types of knowledge you would find in todays Book 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 to name 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 flocked to 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

the Old Testament Noah learned how to make the ark from holy book, which had been given to Adam by the 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 it with him into the ark, where it served as a time place to distinguish night from day. Yup, sounds like a magical bookno, it is not the Bible, and it known today as Sepher Rezial, and it is mentioned in several historical 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 identityunderstandably do the threat of church and state of Rome. The Sepher Rezial (Noahs 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 well as 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 werent greater or betterthey were seekers. 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 the Tyrol, 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 Burning Times 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 Wolfsthurn manuscripts 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 wasnt 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 didnt 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 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. 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 ones own hand of writ- hence the tradition of ones 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.

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 (example is sabbat) but if youve been stretched on the rack (tortured) youll say just about anything, and hence a whole new vocabulary took form. A wondrous number of words appeared to describe things that previously didnt have definitions at all. The Inquisition and 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 wouldnt 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 there 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 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, youll discover living it brings understanding and helps you navigate through all those definition- and this, like all things of 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 is considered to be the founder of modern Witchcraft. Doreen Viliente, a member of his group, believed that the idea of the Book of Shadows 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 persons destiny from the length of their shadow, Hence the Book of Shadow.Gardners book was originally titled Ye Bok of Ye Art Margical, which went through various phases of reproduction.The renaming of the grimoire to Book of Shadows occurred soon after his groundbreaking work High Magics 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 a certain 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 when they 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~