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  • Not really. The Book of the Dead was a set of funeral instructions and spells and rituals that were to assist in sending the deceased off to the afterlife.

    The Book of Shadows, while the actual origin is still debated (some say Gerald Gardner, one of the founding fathers of modern Wicca, others say the origin is much older, others still say much later than him), the Book of Shadows is intended to be a collection of spells copied from the Coven's master BoS, copied from one's teacher, or in the case of the eclectic and/or Solo-practitioners, a personal journal or diary of one's walk down the path of life.

    In short, one was intended to be used when a person was alive (BoS), and the other was to be used when the person snuffed it (Book of the Dead).

  • I wonder if BOS derives from the Book of the Dead from the ancient Egyptians. Any thoughts Alex?

  • HA! That was my guess too Diane! I'm going to look BoS up. Sound really interesting! 

  • BoS - Book of Shadows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Shadows

    Depending on the tradition, (type of Wiccan) it is a book which contains the personal journeys, thoughts, experiences, and more often than not...spells and rituals. 

    Being a solo-practitioner/eclectic Wiccan, I fit more to the "recordings of my journey/spellbook" category.

  • Oh...Book of Spells right? Are you serious? I don't think it is a joke!

  • I never believed in such things, until it happened to my friend. She had a noticeable change and is a very pragmatic person. What is a BoS?

  • Ooh...I hate people who do that. Is she still suffering from them? I can look through my BoS and see if I can find my notes on a mirror spell. 

    It's a fun one. Anything negative sent to you gets bounced back to the sender. Hell, it's their negative energy, they can have it back.

  • I knew of someone who had magic put on her. She was a wreck. It came in the form of dreams and nightmares. She was basically terrorized for several months via dreams and bad luck.

  • Yep that sound about right

  • The problem is that the term "ghost" is bandied about as if it covers *everything* regarding the paranormal.

    From my experience there are several types of hauntings. 

    1 - The typical "failed to cross over" spirit. This is the typical sort of ghost where you have an actual spirit wandering around, perhaps unable/unwilling to cross over. This can cover the lost soul at a cemetery, a murder victim's spirit trapped at the place of their demise, the guardian spirit who wants to stick around to protect a loved one (common in Asian cultures) or the spirit who has unfinished business and flat out refuses to cross over.

    2 - The VCR. This is the sort of haunting that you get when you read about a ghostly encounter with something that does the same thing in each incident. Everyone who sees the "ghost" will report that the "ghost" walks a certain path, stops at certain places, repeats certain actions...

    Much as if you had recorded the actions of a single person at a single event and replayed the tape over and over again. These hauntings are more likely to be psychic imprints or impressions in an area and under the right circumstances can be seen again. Civil War battlefields are notorious for those sorts of encounters. Gettysburg being the most notable of the lot.

    3. Manifestations. These are energy entities that are often created by people who are emotionally disturbed.

    4. Other Entities - Call them demons, call them fay (both good and ill), call them what you will, there are things out there that go bump in the night. Some good, others evil, most indifferent. They just do what they're going to do and largely ignore us.

    I hate using terms such as white and black magic...magic simply *is*. It's a tool much like a hammer. I can create a house using a hammer or I can bash in someone's skull with it. The hammer is neither good nor bad. It was the intent behind it. That said, magic will ill intent behind it can indeed attract *things* that once let loose, are hard to put back.

    This is why it often irks us in the pagan communities to hear about people dinking around with a Ouija board without knowing how to do it properly. It's like opening the screen door and letting in all the flies if you're not careful.

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