Book of Shadows Starting

I am just about to start writing my Book of Shadows, I have the type of book that I want in my mind, I just need to find it. What I am wondering is what do you have in your book of shadows? Maybe you have everything from the basics and everything you have some and learned or maybe you just have the spells you have tried. The reason why I ask is because I'm having a bit of trouble finding a place to start

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you can put whatever you like in your BoS. it can contain 'the basics' it can also have sketches of herbs, important dreams and their meanings, chakra work, star charts, moon phases, colour association and much more. you can also fill it with drying herbs, stickers, sketches, feathers, ribbons, and whatever else you like. as long as you're happy with it it's fine. my Book of Shadows have a dedication page, it can be as long or sort as you like, but it's basically stating what's in the book, and why you've chosen to make it. sort of like a promise to the Gods. you could also make a table of contents to keep everything organized if you like. again, it's all up to you. enjoy making your book, blessed be.

Congradulations! A BoS is a great accomplishment and will (hopefully) last many generations.

I would suggest starting out by using your BoS as a journal. Write down your experiences, feelings, magical life, beliefs, everything about you. This will make your BoS personal, and thus a more valued and treasured object.

I would then suggest compliling any knowledge on the craft you have into your BoS. For example, the basics, correspondances (herbal, crystal, woods, colors, planetary, day, hour, etc.), herbs, crystals, and maybe some of your own spells.

But my biggest piece of advice would be to make it your own. Decorate your BoS in a way that just feels "right" to you. Paint/draw designs on some pages, draw pictures to go along with the text, maybe stain the pages with coffee/tea so they gain the yellow tint that looks old. Be creative. :)

I have my BOS typed also. I put it in a file called BOS and then have sub files with titles and number to help me organize it when I print it out. the first is an intro page with the wiccan reed the sabots and asbestos (don't think I spelt that right), how I started, tools, moon fazes, etc. the second is titled basics. in there I have sub sub sections for meditation centering and grounding chakras energy minip7lation guides and the witches alphabet from there on its just stuff that I learned like spells I wrote out. symbols I use Egyptian practice alters everything I hope this help

Wow, Zoanubis that sounds great, completely organized. I like that. I however have hand written everything in mine. I feel it puts part of me in it, you know makes it personal. I know it may sound kinda old school but hey I'm an old lady anyway lol. (well not to old, lets not get carried away lol)

I completely agree Annamare if I wasn't living with my parents or if I was out of the broom closet I would have this nice leather bound 3 ringed binder filled with parchment paper and dragon blood ink written with a quale but I need to keep it hidden that why its all computer based

Hi, congratulations on starting your BoS. It has much of what is mentioned above.

For me it also has any spells I have cast or crafted myself and their effects. I leave room to write in additional progress notes as things develop.

I also have a section dedicated to ethics which contains various witches codes or philosophies I've found over time.

I copy in rituals for my deities that I like.

Stuff like the various alphabets, sigils I might be working with, seals or psalms can also go in, and there is a lot of general magical theory from various paradigms

I sometimes write in the results of significant divinations which is interesting to look at later.

I have a different book where I do my spell crafting. after I've actually done it, it will go into my BoS

Some people use electronic versions but for me I enjoy the touch of the paper and the writing process itself

Hope this helps

I'm also new and I've actually only started today! But I found this quite useful reading about BoS and I would like to try making one but as I just said I'm new sooo a bit iffy on the idea still coz it's a little confusing with all these wacky spells n potions and I don't know weather my friends would be scared of me for practicing magick

A BoS, in my opinion, can contain any sort of information you would like to keep for future reference. It depends on whether you are planning on handing it down to your children or your apprentence/student one day or if its just for later reference. Personally I write all of the information that I comb through on a daily basis in regular notebook binders until I can experiment with them, meditate on the thoughts of it and make sure they will become part of my magical workings before I put them in my "BoS" type book. Its also my opinion that the book itself becomes magical in and of itself, to the point that if you touch it you can feel the power or to put it another way, when you touch it, it immediately puts your mind in a state of focus to be able to manifest your will in the physical world. I would strongly suggest you make your BoS or at least add things to it that feels powerful and magical to you. I feel that if you put just random spells in it and any other nonsense that you don't feel power from that it isn't doing the book justice and you could get more out of it. If you intend to hand down your book to another or want others to read your rituals and practices one day then by all means put it in there :0) Personally, I don't have ant rituals that I know by heart in my book because I don't really need it in there and I don't intend on handing it down to anyone, mostly because I believe that in order to get the most out of ritualized magic is to customize it to you and what you want to honor or accomplish... so I would teach my student the understanding of the fundamintals/basics of magic as i believe is true and then tell them to make his/her own ritual based on what makes them feel is the most powerful to them. I feel that its much more than just a book, it becomes what you make it and can be a very powerful tool in many different ways but it always comes down to what YOU want and what feels right to YOU :o) I have everything from spells to tea recipes to words that I find very powerful. For me for instance, I will try a spell, write out what I want to accomplish, figure out all the things I feel is important(herbs, colors, plants, days, phase of the moon/planets etc), plan out every detail, make notes of how I feel, how I felt during the spell, anything that I can think would/could be pertainant to the outcome, keep notes of how quickly things changed, any noticeable signs that could be Parr of the results i may choose to cast again with certain tweaks until i have a solid powerful result and then, only after I feel its worthy, will it go into my book. I make notes on certain herbs or any other words or things that I feel is VERY powerful and the notes on the results and how I used them. I leave all of the regular notes as and things in other notebooks or books I have. That what I have in mine and my thoughts on it :) But it comes down to what you want. I hand write all of my stuff in and do what ever feels right and powerful to me. Good luck and have fun! :-D