Foreword

    This book contains the text of the original "The Witch's Bible", together with modifications that have occurred as the thinking of the Church of Wicca has changed, and as the social climate of the world has changed over the last thirty years.  Each chapter was the original text of "The Witch's Bible" and a forward containing our notes on changes that we feel are now appropriate to that text.

Such changes arise from

1. the results of investigation by ourselves, by our students, and by scholarly researchers into old ways and modern tribal shamanism. 

2. research conducted by students of the School of Wicca under our direction.

    The School is uniquely fortunate in its large international student body.  We can direct its members to try new things; they are free of preconceived notions as to what will happen.  Thus in investigating the size of circles, for instance, we are able to case to be cast more than 5,000 test circle and compare the results.

    We thought about extensively revising "The Witch's Bible" with new knowledge that we have gained through experience and through our cherished students; for instance, the book includes the much-criticized use of a phallus - which of course replaced the archaic baton de commandment of the reindeer people and the sharpened stick of Native American tradition.  Since very few virgins are currently being initiated, one of the areas we might have deleted is that concerning the use of the phallus.

    We decided, however, that to do so would be to destroy a historic artifact of the Craft.  For we believe that this book marked, and still marks, a milestone in craft knowledge.  Many other reference books have followed it, but none before it told in such clear and detailed ways how to practice the Craft.  Through this book the Frost can rightly claim to have founded Wicca as a new spirituality and religion.

Bashing the Frost

    The Church of Wicca and the Frosts have been the most public of all Witches in the United States.  Thus the game of Bash the Frosts, a game open to all, rapidly grew very popular.  Many people have not read "The Witch's Bible", but nonetheless taken a few quotes out of context and used them with much noise and fury to bash the Frosts.  Foremost among the accusations have been

a. the Frost are not genuine Witches; or

b. the Frosts have no right to give away those Craft secrets; or

c. the Frosts charge for tuition; therefore

d. the Frosts are in the Craft only to make a profit.

    Most of the people making these accusations have only listened to rumors never having read any of our books or investigated the Church of Wicca for themselves.

    Gradually though, some members of the Wiccan community have realized that we are in fact genuine Witches and that we live what we teach and believe.  Especially do we live the fact that we are under a Vow of Poverty and we charge nothing for guest appearances on speaking tours.  We realize only to well that parts of the original "The Witch's Bible" sound pretty chauvinistic today - but nearly all genuine traditions are chauvinistic.  Example: Do you still call the Lords of the Watchtowers? Surely half of the quarters should be guarded by feminine entities. 

Syncretic Monotheism

    This paragraph title is one many pagans and Witches would rather not try to understand.  In our world-wide lectures to all types of audiences, most people agree that God is something beyond our understanding. (Here, of course we are speaking of the Ultimate Deity.) Differences of opinion, sometimes violent, occur on the matter of how this ultimate void or fullness should be approached, worshipped etc. This type of ultimate deity has existed since time immemorial and is called deus absconditus (God of absentia).  People who have this belief system are MONOTHEISTS. Interestingly enough, this missing god is always addressed as "he" in all cultures.  The pantheon of goddesses who are used in rituals are regarded as lower-level holders of aspects of the missing god.  If the people are willing to accept many goddesses, including those of other cultures, then they are peaceful SYNCRETIC MONOTHEIST. Problems arise when people believe that only one special set of deities should be worshipped.  This type of deism is known as ETHNIC MONOTHEISM. Ethnic monotheists become especially aggressive when they believe only one god should hold sway.  Wicca was designed by us to be a syncretic monotheistic system, and we held to the old system of using "God" and "he" to define the deus absconditus. 

    "The Witch's Bible" was written when almost nothing else was available.  It was written in the Woodstock era of new freedoms.  Everyone was open, and we hoped for openness from readers of "The Witch's Bible"; but for some reason, in this case the Law of Attraction has not yet worked.  Our openness has been met by cynical rejection and mean-spirited envy.  We did not write "The Witch's Bible" in a cynical frame of mind.  Although today we are more cynical (read more realistic or idealistic) then we were, and although our scars do show, we hope that this new version will be more widely accepted - or at least that people will have read it before they start their criticizing.

What's New in "Good Witch's Bible"

    As you read this book, you may be surprised at the amount of new material it contains.  Yes, we have kept the old; but we have added

a. a new understanding of the organization of Side;

b. new work on meditation and on altered states of consciousness;

c. discussion of the order of ritual and the adjustment of endorphins;

d. yet more on the sex education of children and kin relationships;

e. more accurate construction of circles and ellipses;

    Read and enjoy.  If you have questions or comments or suggestions, please write.  Don't whisper your responses behind our backs; don't shout them at your next-door neighbor.  We are perfectly willing to improve our thinking, but we have to hear your comments before we can incorporate them into the work.  We cannot guess at your responses.

    Over the centuries it has been convenient to classify Witches into "black" and "white", "good" and "evil".  During the Burning Times it didn't matter whether a woman was a good, competent healer or a malevolent user of the evil eye; in either case she would be burned (or hanged).  The man who said, "Stereotypes were invented so we'd know whom to hate" was regrettably accurate in his assessment.

    But gradually people began to realize that they were killing off many of what were called "cunning folk": the good, wise people, the midwives, the healers and counselors.  In many cases these were the midwives, the healers and counselors.  In many cases these were the older women of the village, who kept the knowledge of herbs and dream analysis in their minds to be passed on orally to the next generation.  That killing off the healers gave a great boost to the male-dominated medical industry, which in those far-off days knew very little - often less - than the local wise woman.

    This book concentrates on the "white" or "good" side of the people who held that knowledge.

    Much of the knowledge was passed down in folklore and in family traditions.  We do not wholly support these thesis of Dr. Margaret Murray, that a continuous underground of Witches has been meeting in covens until the present day; but we do believe that old knowledge is available to those who search for it, and that it can be melded with new knowledge to make a cohesive whole, and that the new cohesive whole can justly be called Witchcraft - or at least the temporal, earth-plane aspect of Witchcraft.  The spiritual side merits consideration independent of the "practical" or horizontal aspect, though both are essential to the well-rounded practitioner.

    Modern Witchcraft has little real connection with those who were burned, but it is good for us to remember what is called the Wiccan Holocaust.  That, of course, was mainly a holocaust against women, for close to 85 percent of those who died were female.  Today's Witches share with our predecessors the experience of being oppressed by those with an axe to grind.

    In the original "The Witch's Bible" we were negative about Christianity; we have not changed that view.  Modern Christianity in the main is a money making scam.  Fortunately individual Christians are often nice and relatively open-minded people.

    Change is happening ESP and the powers of the mind are no longer denied or labeled "satanic".  The feminine aspects of the godhead are becoming accepted.  Women are finally becoming midwives and priests, though against last-ditch resistance from those who have positions of power.  These last two professions have been the longest hold-outs in a male-dominated conspiracy to keep half the human race subjugated.

    Over the centuries conventional religions have succeeded in making religion a material rather then a spiritual exercise.  The Good Witches practice a spirituality that connects itself to our Great Mother, the Earth.  Witchcraft is not a materialistic exercise; it is not magic.   It is spiritual whole - an alternative spirituality.  We do believe that it is difficult for some to become spiritual when they are burdened with mundane problems.  Thus we teach certain magical procedures which are designed to help them overcome the mundane and to achieve their true happy spiritual life.

    The world in which we live is beset by problems.  Most of the problems arise from greed for maternal things and from a desire to dominate others.  We need very few of the things with which we surround ourselves - yet we constantly make excuses to buy more, and go further into debt and become puppets at the command of the great god Mammon.  Forget the material.  Turn off the advertising. Reach upward. Meditate. Sit by a river. Hug a tree. This is what life is about.