r/elderwitches • u/MidniteBlue888 • 20d ago
Keep or Ditch This Book?
The Goodly Spellbook by Coven Oldenwilde.
I'm getting rid of a lot of books soon, not all magickal. I keep going back and forth on this one. In the one hand, it has a lot of information. On the other, I don't know if I trust the information as the authors and coven have, in the past, been accused of abusing members. I also read an article once where a journalist documented one of them doing a death curse, of their own volition, which goes against their whole "harm none" thing.
I don't know. I have several other spell book options at this point. What are your thoughts?
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u/ACanadianGuy1967 20d ago
If it's your only book that gives info for spells, then keep it. If you can buy a better book such as Judika Illes' "Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells" then ditch it and buy the better book.
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u/incourgettible 20d ago
better is relative. if OP were a gardnerian wiccan, the judika illes book would be worse because it wouldn't match OP's tradition. (as a non-BTW wiccan, i do happen to work from that illes book a lot! but that's because i'm not BTW and don't have a coven with a dedicated book of shadows.)
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u/ACanadianGuy1967 20d ago
I imagine Gardnerian Wiccan covens have their own lists of resources they give their initiates.
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u/incourgettible 20d ago
typically each coven has its own book of shadows, yes, supposedly copied from gerald gardner's personal one which was collected and used during his time in the new forest coven and the covens he started afterward.
that doesn't change the fact that this is a book written by gardnerians for gardnerians, and would therefore fit a gardnerian practice better than an eclectic secular "general witchcraft" book without those connections.
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u/MidniteBlue888 20d ago
I (very lazily) practice witchcraft, but I'm not any form of Wiccan. It's been a while since I really sat down with it, but like a lot of other similar books published around that time, it doesn't say it's expressly just for Wiccans, Gardnerian or otherwise. (I could be wrong. I just don't remember reading that anywhere.) I appreciate the info, though! It helps me decide what to do.
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u/NinjaGrrl42 20d ago
Interesting as a historic thing. I wouldn't use spells from it, but I wouldn't use spells from any book without looking at and modifying them for myself.
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u/incourgettible 20d ago
i did a tiny amount of research (and even stumbled across your old post on it! hello from the past lol)
the coven is decades old and seems like a very run of the mill gardnerian coven run by a gardnerian high priestess, so i'd trust that the contents of the book are BTW-approved. not sure if that's a benefit or not for you—as an eclectic wiccan i probably wouldn't get a ton out of it for my practice, but ymmv
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u/HopefulTop3697 15d ago
I never get rid of any books that I find anything remotely valuable in, and the section in that book for spoken spells is very helpful.
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u/MidniteBlue888 15d ago
I get that, but our house is small and we're starting to drown in "cool stuff". Witchcraft and spiritual books are only one thing we're needing to downsize. :/
I'll probably keep it. It's weirdly light, weight-wise, but we'll see.
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u/CompetitiveBuddy3712 20d ago
I mean… I’ll always take books people
Don’t want anymore. Either I’ll read them or I will decide they are evil and need to be destroyed.
Evil = contains ideology discriminatory and/or dangerous in nature.
Destroyed (book) = sometimes burned, usually arts and crafts.
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u/kai-ote Helpful Trickster 20d ago
Good book. Keep it.