Forward to the Introduction

"GOOD Witch's Bible"?

    "GOOD"? We look upon ourselves as GOOD Witches - Witches who believe wholeheartedly in the Wiccan Rede and do our best to live by it:

Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill:

If it harm none, do what you will.

    This book contains the complete and unchanged, original "The Witch's Bible". Before each chapter you will find a short section outlining the changes in the thinking of Church of Wicca on various points in the chapter. Remember that the original "The Witch's Bible" was a unique and trail-blazing book, the first to define the religion of Wicca.  It defined a religion complete with an advanced spirituality, something that had never been done before.  Thus we became the founders of Wicca the religion, and we felt that we had a perfect right to say in the book that "Wicca do this" and Wicca do that."  Today, because the tree of the Craft has sprouted many varied branches, we acknowledge that such statements are not now to be taken as the only truth.

    Desktop computers were unknown in those days; "The Witch's Bible" was written before AIDS, as the era of hippies and flower children drew to its close before the term "politically correct" had been invented.  Society has changed in those twenty-five years.  Since Witches are not dinosaurs, we ourselves have changed with new knowledge - although not necessarily in the same direction as, or at the wishes of, the community we serve.

    In this "Good Witch's Bible" you will see that we are still not politically correct.  The phrase is not in favor in our thinking.  We prefer to be truthful and candid instead of sneaky, furtive, dishonest, hiding behind euphemisms.  To find out how blunt and candid, you will have to read the book.  We ask that you read the whole book, not just the dust jacket, BEFORE you go ballistic; and be adult enough to ignore hearsay second-hand allegations.  Especially read Chapter XII and pay careful attention to such phrases as "Whom can you trust?" and "If you feel that some tenet of Wicca is not concurrent, use it..."

    As you read this work, you will find that some of the criticisms so loudly made about the Frosts and the Church of Wicca are meaningless - often made by people who have not troubled to read "The Witch's Bible" but instead take a few threadbare quotes out of context so they may enhance their egos by second-guessing the leaders and trail-blazers of the Craft.

    In the very first sentence of the introduction to "The Witch's Bible" we made certain semantic errors.  Witches are Witches no matter what their gender.  In addition, the old words for high priests of a fire cult, "flamen" and "Flamenca", did not find favor with the membership of the Church of Wicca.  Thus we have moved over and now often use "priest" and "priestess" in discussing coven leaders.  We did not capitalize "witch", whereas throughout the book "Witch" should be capitalized.  Every other printed word denoting affiliation with a religious activity is capitalized; e.g., Hindu, Baptist, Catholic, Sikh.  Witches deserve the same courtesy, especially in light of the fact that the federal government recognized the Church of Wicca as a valid religion in 1972.

    Although we believe that our practice of the Craft is based in the Celtic homelands and Celtic ways, and although we call ourselves Celtic Witches or Celtic Wiccans, there is really very little that is specifically or exclusively Celtic in "The Good Witch's Bible"; so it is probably that the word "Celtic" should be dropped wherever it occurs.

    Instead of our going word for word through the entire text, we ask you, gentle Reader, mentally to change words such as man to human or person.  In the same vein, flamen usually means both flamen and flamenca or the less cumbersome flamen(ca).  Where outdated terms appear that may annoy you, please bear with us and mentally substitute more politically correct, inclusive terminology.  Wiccans have no guilt about honest sexual relationships.  They are caught between the brainwashers' Big Three: guilt, shame, and fear.  We hope that in future people will see through the Victorian morality of manipulators who do not follow their own propaganda, and will walk away from the Big Three.

    In the past we felt no need for techno-toys.  But currently, in order to facilitate the Church's growth and to prevent its destruction by entrenched bigots, we have taken to the web and computers and certain of their associated techno-toys.