Your Book Of Shadows

by Dawn Thebarge Hill copyright 2000-2006

Your Book of Shadows is your most important form of record keeping and a

reflection of your spiritual journey. It is an ever-evolving volume, or volumes, that will change and grow along side of the individual creating it. It becomes a record of all of your magickal workings, spells, and their results, as well as, any knowledge you have gleaned along the spiritual path you have chosen.

Since our tools are such personal extensions of ourselves I think it is difficult to tell someone what they "have to" do when building one. We create unique book by recording those sacred individual events and all those things that are holy to you. Ultimately your Book of Shadows is your reference manual on you spiritual path. There are guidelines that are generally followed by most people that I know and by myself. I have included them here and hope you find some measure of help from them. Be aware that if you feel something more or less should go into yours then you should be sure to follow that instinct. I will refer to the Book of Shadows as a BOS, henceforth, in this article.

My private BOS is actually 3 separate volumes kept in three ring binders. One binder is titled Potions and Recipes and contains things such as recipes for bath and toiletries, cakes and ale and crafting projects. The second section titled Spells contains ritual and spell work (wow! What a concept! J) and the third section titled Grimoire contains all the correspondences, information and lore that I have studied and used in my journey.  You might use this method yourself and perhaps keep a separate journal in a blank bound book or in another binder.

There are those who like to use blank bound books for their BOS and they add

to them, as needed along with their journal entries. There are drawbacks to this option that should be considered. These drawbacks do not make the task  impossibility. They just must be thought about, and measures taken, to see that they do not create any problems. One should number all the pages and create a table of contents in the beginning of the book and/or and index in the back of the book. Although, time consuming to begin with, this will save you countless hours of running through the book page by page when you need a particular  correspondence, spell or ritual. I have seen books done with this method and the owner simply used the book from front to back and when the book was full they created an alphabetical index in the last several pages.They then used a new book to continue on.

To many people, keeping a BOS in their own hand is the only way that is acceptable. Actually there are some traditions that demand such. There are benefits to this method, one of which is that a person will absorb much of the information while doing the actual writing in their book. Something to consider if you decided on this method is that you will be filling the book with your own unique energies while writing. This will make a personal and tangible connection between you and your book.

I find nothing wrong with using one's computer, with its variety of fonts and graphics, to create a book that is not only beautiful but also unique and easy to read. There are those who wish to keep their books on disk in order that they may replace or rewrite sections with ease. I use a combination of these methods. I write my book with a computer program and keep it on disk, but I also print the hard copy whose information I keep in the different sections I explained earlier. I also cover each page with a sheet protector. This has saved me on many an occasion! Dripped wax, spilled wine, water and oils are all hazards around your beautifully created pages. The sheet protectors offer one resolution to these problems that will,

again, save you not only time copying or reprinting items that are ruined but also the paper you would normally have had to replace.

Many beautifully bound books are available for purchase. You may also wish to create your own unique volume. Fabric may be used to either cover or create a storage bag for your BOS. Silk, wool, linen or cotton are good choices if you prefer natural fibers (or your tradition requires it), or velvet or satin are nice if you like other "posh" fabrics. If you wish to put herbs in the cover of your book, you might do so by wrapping or gluing the outer cover in fabric and sandwiching the herbs between the book cover and the fabric. You might also decide to prepare a fabric bag in which to store your book and any herbs you may choose can be put into the bottom of the bag. You might decide to sew the herbs into the walls of the bag if you are creating a lined bag-the only drawback with this method is that you will

have to take the entire bag apart to refresh your herbs. A good solution to this is to place a small pillow of herbs that is easily replace in the bag.

Things to include in your BOS are listed below. If you can think of anything that I have missed please e-mail me with your suggestions and I will be glad to include them here.

A dedication

A protection spell for the book

A blessing

Table of Contents

Glossary of terms

Traditions in Wicca

Magickal Ethics-Wiccan Rede, Laws of Return, etc.

Beliefs & Doctrine

Paranormal studies

Herbalism

Recipes for:

Ritual and holiday foods

Bath Salts

Oils

Incense

Meade and other drink

Correspondences for:

Amulets

Planetary hours

Color magick

Crystal, gemstones and minerals

Elements

Herbs, Plants and Trees

Wheel of the Year

Moon Phases

Chakras

Animal Totems

Oils

Incenses

Days of the week

Planets

Months of the Year

Dream interpretation

Magickal Symbolism and Alphabets

Crafts

Listing of Books and Sacred Texts

Divination studies :

Dowsing

Egg

Smoke, Flame, Fire

Astrology

Runes

Scrying

Pendulum

Phallomancy

Palmistry

Tarot

Tealeaves

Numerology

I-ching

Face Reading

Pedomancy

Gastromancy

Kumalak

Playing Cards

Ouiji

Tyromancy

Phyllorhodomancy

Onychomancy

Omphalomancy

Uromancy

Medicine Cards

Shamanism

Wheel of the Year-traditions

Rituals & Spells-actual rituals and spells along with outcomes for those performed

Circle Casting

Cleansing and Consecration

Blessings

Quarter calls

Meditations

Prayers

Candle magick

Ritual Construction

Rites of Passage

Invocations

Music/Chants

Crystal Healing

Reiki

Aura Studies

Tools

Web-weaving-a list of contacts and web addresses

Dragon Lore

Fairy Lore

Humor

Index