Wicca, BoS???

Question

I have read that in some Covens There is One Grimoire that belongs to the coven, and the coven members will copy it down in there own BoS.

My question is "Is this a normal thing? do they do this just to get them started off, or what?"

Thanks!

Answer 1

The reason for the One Grimore is that it is a symbol of the struggles and accomplisment of the group. If a student compiles a new spell, and it is added to the Coven's Grimore, it both honors the student and the teachers who taught him/her what was needed to compile that spell. It is a contribution to the whole.

However, the spell the student compiled might not be relevant to everyone ... so instead of cluttering their private grimores, they simply don't copy it. For someone who does find it relevant, they would want to take that spell with them if they had to move for some reason, and so would copy it.

By this means, the student's spell might later be transcribed to another Coven's Grimore. Imagine going across the country to find that a spell you developed as a novice/initiate at one coven has, in the time it took you to make High Priest/Priestess, preceeded you there to a new Coven! It's happened, and I imagine the rush of recognition (and embarassment) is second to none.

Answer 2

It's true, mostly. Most of your more traditional covens still follow that tradition, others do not. It pretty much is away of ensuring that coven lore and such will survive but it's also a weed out factor for some covens I know. If you're willing to do something that tedious and time consuming then you are worth being in the coven.

Answer 3

I don't know how prevalent it is, but I have heard of it done fairly often.

My former coven had a shared BoS for the group, and still maintains it. Then we had our own personal ones as well, which were different because our needs and gifts were different.

Answer 4

I was taught (I don't know about anyone else) that you write your own. You BoS is just as much your spiritual journey as it is ritual and spells. But I have read that some Covens have a group compiled one along with their own. So I'm not sure.

Answer 5

Yeah it's a pretty common thing the BoS is really just a tomb to collect all of your Wiccan thoughts/spells/stuff.

Answer 6

They do it to have a copy of their own in their own hand.

Edit:Part of being in a tradition is knowing where your beliefs came from. By having a copy of your elders' works, you know the source of what ends up in YOUR book.

Answer 7

I think its a case of sharing the accrued knowledge with the new novices. I find it to be a wonderful tradition!