Hey all, I have only just started my very own BOS.
It's only an excerscise book that I painted but it's a start.
I was wondering if anyone had any tips or spells/rituals I could use and contain in my book of shadows.
Congratulations.
The only tip I have is to keep it organized. Put a table of contents at the beginning because it may help a lot down the road. Or at least have an idea of how things are organized; it really helps when you are trying to find an article quickly.
That's just my two cents, and you can completely disregard it if you like, but in my experience, organizing and keeping journals and whatnot mess free helps.
i have written many BoS in the past 10 years, table of contents is a great idea, but unless you know what's going in where, it might get disorganized. a three ring binder is a good idea, you can move around pages, once it looks right to you, you can make a table of contents and write it in a new book.
my first BoS i decorated the first page and titled it 'Book of Shadows' the second page i wrote a dedication, as well as why i chose to make it, and signed with my craft name. i still go back to that dedication every so often as a reminder of why i started on this journey. from their, i wrote circle casting, colour association, moon phases, what days certain spells should be cast on, a couple basic rituals, and spells. [with the results of each spell to one side] i also wrote down little notes about circles, just if i noticed anything interesting during a coven meeting.
for your first one, i'd try to plan it out a little and i do suggest a dedication, it doesn't have to rhyme, it doesn't have to be taken from another book, just write from your heart why you make this book, why you've chosen this path, and who you dedicate it to. [a specific deity, or whatever you pray to] your first BoS should be a reference guide, try to write down some basic information, rituals, and spells. while everyones difference, i'm rather artistic, so i fill my BoS [the first one especially] with sketches, colours, feathers, and dried herbs. try to make it your own, as well, try to memorize some information in their. the books were meant to be hidden, but if danger arose, were destroyed and rewritten when things were safe, so you should try to memorize a couple things. also helps when you're casting or preforming a ritual, so you're not reading from a book, instead you're more focused on the task.
I keep simple reference guides in mine. Knowledge that I find I keep going back to over and over again, such as a color guide for candles, and the uses for the herbs I have growing in my garden.
I also make sure to write out anything I want to put in my BoS on a piece of scrap paper, or type it up, before actually writing in my Bos, since I write in pen and want to make sure I don't have any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors in the actual book.
