Customer Reviews

The Grimoire of Lady Sheba

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Some of the reviews on here, that appear to be made by "Wiccans" shows that they don't know their religion's history. When practicing a religion, one should know it's history and roots. And, if you knew anything about the history of Wicca, you would know...

1.) That the original traditions as created by Gerald Gardner included the blind folding, nudity, binding, and scourging.

2.) When Doreen Valiente and other members of his coven (Bricket Wood Coven) wrote the thirteen "Rules of the Craft" to try and deter Gardner from his publicity seeking, he produced 30 "Wiccan Laws" (130 later added by Alexandrian Wicca), that said things like men should rule women and so forth. This therefore led to Doreen and other members to leave his coven, however, many of his followers still passed these things on down the line of initiates, because each initiate would copy the coven's Book of Shadows...which Lady Sheba did when she was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca (although it has been said that it was an Alexandrian BOS she copied).

3.) And yes Doreen Valiente "re-wrote" the Charge of the Goddess, however, Gardner had originally taken it from an older book "Aradia: the Gospel of Witches" by Charles Godfrey Leland written in 1899...so it is essentially 100's of years old.

4.) Gerald Gardner passed Wicca off as being an ancient religion, so many of his followers believed this to be so. Yes, he created Wicca, however he created it from pieces of other older practices as well as what he was able to glean from the New Forest coven that he was originally initiated into, and this all began in the 1930's, which to some people is ancient, LOL.

5.) The Sabbat dates are probably wrong in this book because the Bricket Wood coven originally celebrated the cross quarters on the closest full moon meeting, and later changed this to give them more prominence and thus created the eight festivals of the wheel.

6.) As stated before initiates would hand copy the Book of Shadows, and Doreen Valiente re-wrote most of Gardner's BOS because so much of it was obviously Alister Crowley's work. Therefore, anything passed on in the copies of the Book of Shadows is most likely written by her, but not "credited" to her. And when an initiate copied the BOS they did not know or think to "credit" the passages to her. So getting upset that an older book, based on a personal Book of Shadows, does not cite Doreen as the originator is just silly.

So, when reading Lady Sheba's book you have to keep in mind that she claimed to be part of a hereditary witchcraft tradition that has nothing to do with Wicca, as well as having been initiated into Gardnerian Wicca later...so this book is a mix of the two.

And remember, Lady Sheba's book is a bit dated in terms of where Wicca is now "today" and it's "fluffy bunny" practitioners, however she was one of the first to make the Craft public in the USA and she made a very important step in the legal recognition of Wicca as a religion...so respect your roots people! This book is great for looking at what once was, in comparison to what it has grown to be!

Perhaps one of the reviewers laughed this book off the shelf when it first appeared, but there were a lot of people who loved it, and who are delighted to see it in print again. It was one of the first books from which I learned to practice witchcraft. It contains some beautiful and powerful material. The author was completely sincere in what she wrote. There were some witches who were scandalized and jealous because of what she put into it. It's worth a look.

This book was originally published in 1972, and has been republished by Llewellyn as part of their centennial celebration. Lady Sheba, Jessie Bell, was born in Kentucky in 1920 and as far as I can read, she's still alive and well. This books seems to be a combination of practices created by her as well as her mother and grandmother [according to the auhtor]. Divided into three section, it covers Lady Sheba's Grimoire, BOS (Book of Shadows), and an appendix of an old sabbat rite.

A great book for a beginner because it covers so much! There is information about tools, alphabets, lingo and phrases, rituals and sabbats. It's also great for a more advanced practioner because it gives insight into a kind of "old-school" craft.

There is a lot that can be used in coven work, but it can also easily be modified for solitary use. The BOS section starts with a chapter called "The Laws", and there are 162 of them! 162 may not work for everyone, but it is very interesting reading.

One of my favorite things in the book, and the reason I purchased it was "The call of Nine", and I like things that are written in rhyme-no pun intended :-). And there are some fun things too, like her "Spell to Control a Man and not feel guilty about it." And although there are some things I will leave within the pages of this book and never put into practice myself, I feel this book is a delight and a welcomed addition to any pagan library.

"The Grimoire of Lady Sheba" wasn't the first book I've read about Wicca, and I'm very happy that it wasn't.
The book doesn't really explain about the Craft and it's holidays etc. but just gives rituals and spells.
There are a lot of print errors in it.
The first thing I've noticed when I just went over the book briefly was that the dates of the Sabbats were incorrect, when I read the book thoroughly I so that many of Lady Sheba's spells were spells to control and manipulate people, which is wrong according to Wicca.
I think that people who are completely new to Wicca shouldn't read this book first, if they want to they should read it after reading some good books so they'll see the difference and know the true meaning...
Also there are a few nice ideas in the book that can be "borrowed" to rituals and spells in the correct manner.

I purchased this book wanting to read a "Classic" on Wicca. The elegant beauty of the book's physical appearance weighed in on my decision to purchase it, I must admit.
This work is the most convoluted mess I've ever read! It is an overtly confused assemblage of concepts and traditions wholly lacking in any understanding thereof. I see influences of Gerald Gardner, the Golden Dawn, and perhaps Leland's "Aradia", which Lady Sheba misspells consistently as "Arida".
Lady Sheba obviously knows nothing of the Hebrew words she uses; I've studied Biblical Hebrew for 2 years at the University of MN.
She sometimes assigns the Element of Water to the West, and sometimes to the North! Or was it Earth that she moved around? The point remains: She doesn't seem to know her correspondences.
She has a list of "Witch" terms, which includes a few random Sabbaths, and "Britches - Pants"! I kid you not!
Her invocations and adorations string together completely unrelated God/Goddess names, with regard to their energetical correspondences.
It is obvious that Lady Sheba has NO inner understanding of what she writes... I can't imagine for a moment that she has ever achieved any results in her rites, aside from possible, self-induced excitement mistaken for a "Presence".
This book is crap. If you seek early Wiccan writings, read Gerald Gardner, the Farrars, and Aradia by C. Leland; avoid this book like the plague of ignorance that it is! I had to stop reading this vapid cluster of pages by about a third of the way in...

Having spent many years looking for a copy of this work in the days before the Internet (and thus Amazon) existed, I was surprised when Llewellyn decided to re-publish it. I got a copy of this new edition, thinking to trade in my old copy, until I noticed something rather strange. It appears Llewellyn decided to make some changes to the text. There are some small, but very, very interesting differences between the original edition I own and this new edition. I don't know the exact reasons behind these changes, but it seems the publishers wanted to eliminate some of the wording in Lady Sheba's original text which sounded a bit too much like "Ceremonial Magick" and not enough like current Wiccan beliefs. I'm not going to list these differences here, but, if those who are interested in the evolution of modern paganism wanted to track down a copy of the original and compare it with this new edition, I think they would be intrigued.

As to the book itself, well, it is what it is. In and of itself, it's total garbage, but as an artifact of the process of how modern neo-paganism emerged out of various occult traditions in the twentieth century, it's important as a landmark along that path.

I agree w/ the last reviewer, many people from the 70's came to the Craft through the availability of this book. MANY people studying the Craft really should STUDY the Craft and that includes it's history. Stories of gram' in the kitchen and oral trad's passed through the aeons are nice but...let's give some respect to the pioneers and to the religion's history and the elders. This book is indeed a collector's item and any true student's/practitioner's library. HIGHLY RECCOMMENDED. Blessed Be.

Hi, I just purchased The Grimoire of Lady Sheba from Amazon books,I was very pleased with the order and how it was shipped. It was in excellent condition and I have no complaints. Thanks!

I love this book for what it is. I have to agree that some of it is outdated, hence a lot of the laws don't even apply to us anymore, but the thing that is good about this book is that it's a piece of history of where witchcraft came from and what it used to be. Now I'm not a traditionalist by far, but I do have to say that I enjoy the more old-school style of Wicca as opposed to what it is today. (Now I'm not saying that the modern style of it is wrong it's just not my style.) This can be a practical guide for anyone who wants to practice and learn more about that style and even if you don't and practice a more modern style I still believe you can take a lot from this too. She has some great practical info for anyone and also has some nice chants and incantations that can be used.

Some people find that the work in this book is completely false because of the use of scourging, bondage, etc. evoke the essence of harm and aren't allowed under Wiccan law, but if that is the case and you truly think those things are false then you should be reading a bit of history before you continue with your study because a lot of the roots in Wicca came from those practices and they are still practiced today in many old school covens. I have to say that for anyone who flips through this book and absolutely hates it and points out most of it as wrong is a little ignorant because this book isn't. Lady Sheba wrote this book from her tradition and took most of what she put in here from what she was taught and what she learned. She is a real witch with a lot of history and I definitely respect her for what she brought by writing this book. Many people today still practice this old style of witchcraft and even if some people don't the roots of this religion should still be respected whether or not you chose to do things differently.

In the end this book has a lot of controversy and it's difficult to say if you're going to like it. It all depends on what YOU as a practitioner are looking for. If you're really worried about wasting your money then buy this book used and at least if you like it then you'll be happy you did and if you don't you don't have to worry since you didn't spend that much money on it.

Those not liking this book also proclaim the religion to be Wicca, not Witchcraft, which is what Lady Sheba knew and taught. She is definitely not of the fluffy bunny line, nor should she be. Lady Sheba is in the line of Gerald Gardner and Alex and Maxine Sanders, a line in which ritual scourging is accepted and understood. Anybody taking this practice as S&M just doesn't have a clue. Lady Sheba is an Elder in Witchraft and should be read and respected as such. If nudity and scourging are offensive to you, then there is always Fluffy Bunny Wicca or Christianity. Find your path elsewhere.