Book of Shadows

Final Fantasy Genesis | home

Book of Shadows

The Book of Shadows. Basically the Wiccan's 'Bible' or handbook. The Book of Shadows (BoS) contains magickal information and, occasionally, spells. Some say that the BoS should be used to write things about your path and poetry and stuff...BLEAH! How could anyone write something like poetry in something that has a awesome name like 'Book of Shadows'? *grins* Really, you can do what you like with it. Sometimes the Wiccan will keep many books, a journal, a BoS, a Grimoire, which is basically a spellbook containing spells (duh!), a dream log, and a divination book. That's a lot, eh? Relax, you don't have to have all those books! My Wiccan friends only have a BoS and you can use as many or as few books as you wish.

In fact, and this is a BIG secret, you don't even have to call your BoS a Book of Shadows. You can call it a Book of Light or whatever you like! Paganism is very individual and you can do whatever floats your boat!

The BoS (I will use this term because it's not a pain in the ass to type) can be made of whatever you like. Some will tell you that you can only use a book that's covered in black leather with a pentagram on and yadda, yadda, yadda. DO WHAT YOU WANT. If you're in the broom closet then you obviously can't have a big and evil-looking black book. Use a notebook. One of my best friends does. Decorate as desired or as the space in your closet allows. If it's covered in leather, some people will tell you you have to have certain herbs sewn into the cover and so on. Bulldada. See the above rule.

Choose between a spiral-bound notebook or a binder, or a bound book. I feel that a bound book is more permanent (as well as nicer to look at), but a spiral-bound book lets you tear out pages easily and a binder lets you organise things. Or, keep it on your computer! Have a Secret Folder of Shadows or a Floppy Disk of Shadows. Print off pages as you need them.

Even if you're not a Pagan, you can still keep a BoS as an occult depository. I'm not a pagan and I have a little BoS! I write all about the occult and Wicca so I can refer to it if a Wiccan friend wants to know something, or so I can educate the misinformed. I bought the book at Shopper's Drug Mart for about a dollar. It's a small hardcover notebook, lined, with a black cover and red corners and spine. When I got it I took some red ribbon and made two bookmarks and two ties, which I sewed into the cover to keep my place and to keep it shut. On the ends of these ribbons I sewed some little green stones I had handy to make it look all special and things. On the cover I sewed a piece of black bristol board on which I drew a silver ankh. Voila, nearly instant BoS for less than $5.00 Canadian! Inside I've started with a few quotations about magic, and then launch off into color symbolism of candles, and it now has a multitude of information, such as how to raise the magic circle and a listing of various Egyptian, Celtic, and Cthulhu Mythos deities.

The BoS can also be handy if you and your friends might like to indulge in a bit of Fundamentalist mockery. Ya know how they pound their Bibles to emphasise a point in their silly little ramblings? Gather a circle of your Pgan friends and lead a 'mass' at a convenient time when there's a Fundamentalist doing the same. Quote from the Rede and give your BoS a nice meaty THWACK! (not too hard though, you don't want to hurt it, do you?) and talk in a Southern accent. Mass amusement ensues, with the possibility of a juicy theological debate.

The general concensus is that you should start your BoS with a dedication, a book blessing, or the Rede and Charge of the God and Charge of the Goddess. I, actually, have done neither, and just picked a random place in my only realistic occult book, the book of Celtic Magic by Llwellyn which was fairly useful. I started with the Table of Candle Corresponcences and have worked my way till it's almost full. You should, if this is your first Book, start the actual writing of Pagan information with tables of correspondence, and work your way up, but I just wrote things in willy-nilly and so on. I only, as of this writing, have about five spells in the whole Book!

On the subject of spells, DON'T copy in every spell you see online or in that Guide to Wicca! You should only put in a spell if you need it! If you absoloutely CAN'T resist the lure of knowing every spell you can, then perhaps you should keep a grimoire to record miscellaneous spells and put the ones you think you'll be using a lot (such as your favorite Binding or Tarot chant, or that anti-storm rhyme that seems to be effective) in the BoS. Then you can carry what you need with you and leave that clunky and big grimoire on the altar or in your drawer.

Now, you have to make a BIG descision! Will you write your BoS in or will you type it? I write mine, writing is one of my favorite things to do and I write so badly that no-one will be able to read it should my BoS fall into the wrong hands. Hand writing is considered by some to be best because they say that the mental energy or spirit or whatever is going right from your brain to the paper. And if you have it as a physical book you can take it anywhere, work on it anytime, and you don't have to worry about power outages, hard drive crashes, or your computer being stolen (although these are still things to be careful about if you don't have your BoS on your computer). However, a BoS on computer has benefits as well. You can hide it in a hidden folder in a labyrinth of nested folders and give everything filenames that mislead. Perfect for the in-the-broom-closet Pagan, and you can easily close the window it's in if someone who won't understand your beliefs comes in, and this is all well and good if you're a neurotic saver and save every five seconds. And you don't have to make up some story if someone barges into your room while you're happily scripting away with that quill pen or whatever...

OR! You have do a mix of both! One of my best friends printed out almost everything for her first BoS and pasted it into a book. It's very thick and all the pages are folded up, but it turns her crank so who am I to say? I just feel that the handwritten book with the crabbed and scribbled printing was 'right' (it made me think of some insane cultist hurriedly finishing an invocation while the authorities are on his tail and catching up), and at the time I was going through another Great Cthulhu phase and was influenced by the Necronomicon. I got one for Christmas and was disappointed at the lack of soul-destroying evil and wailing of damned souls I had been expecting (although if you want to look occult then it's wonderful). And so, I had been deciding to write my own Necronomicon when I became interested in the occult and found this cool little book of Celtic Magic which I knew was a knock-off of Wicca (and how!), and bought this tiny black book and started copying. After which I decided that the book was mostly B.S. and started figuring things out for myself and with help from various 'beginners guide to Wicca' books. A lot I wrote myself (like my long-winded sections about Tarot, crystal ball scrying, and actual WICCAN instead of Celtic ritual tools), and the 'Net helped a bit too...just a bit! I'd much rather glean info from a credible source, and quite a lot of stuff online is pureed and recolored B.S. and that ain't no lie!

Anyhoo.

There's something else that's a big issue as well, and that's whether or not you should let others copy from your BoS. Really this is up to you, but if you're in a coven then you might be asked to keep a copy of the coven's BoS (if they have one) or to add to the coven BoS with information of your own. Certainly I see no harm in copying out some spells, but if you have personal stuff in your BoS then perhaps a grimoire might be something to let others copy from. And it can be useful if you have a friend who's just getting started and has no clue as to what should go in this book. Usually you should go with how you feel, although if you let others copy from your BoS itself then you'll probably want to excersise caution. You wouldn't want to accidentally let a Christian fundamentalist or something borrorw it and a week later find that they've burned it or something. You want to be able to trust those who your BoS will come in contact with.

And if you like, you can do as others do and put some of the contents of your Book online! Share your accumulated knowledge! The 'net might be the best medium for copying because even if your Book goes missing or something then you have it up there for future refrence as well as for others to see long after you are gone!


	Final Fantasy Genesis \| home Wicca \| Ritual Tools \| Wiccan humor \| Book of Shadows \| The Pentacle \| Tool Construction \| Incense \| Trees \| Resins \| The Witches' Rune \| The Wiccan Rede Book of Shadows The Book of Shadows. Basically the Wiccan's 'Bible' or handbook. The Book of Shadows (BoS) contains magickal information and, occasionally, spells. Some say that the BoS should be used to write things about your path and poetry and stuff...BLEAH! How could anyone write something like poetry in something that has a awesome name like 'Book of Shadows'? grins Really, you can do what you like with it. Sometimes the Wiccan will keep many books, a journal, a BoS, a Grimoire, which is basically a spellbook containing spells (duh!), a dream log, and a divination book. That's a lot, eh? Relax, you don't have to have all those books! My Wiccan friends only have a BoS and you can use as many or as few books as you wish. In fact, and this is a BIG secret, you don't even have to call your BoS a Book of Shadows. You can call it a Book of Light or whatever you like! Paganism is very individual and you can do whatever floats your boat! The BoS (I will use this term because it's not a pain in the ass to type) can be made of whatever you like. Some will tell you that you can only use a book that's covered in black leather with a pentagram on and yadda, yadda, yadda. DO WHAT YOU WANT. If you're in the broom closet then you obviously can't have a big and evil-looking black book. Use a notebook. One of my best friends does. Decorate as desired or as the space in your closet allows. If it's covered in leather, some people will tell you you have to have certain herbs sewn into the cover and so on. Bulldada. See the above rule. Choose between a spiral-bound notebook or a binder, or a bound book. I feel that a bound book is more permanent (as well as nicer to look at), but a spiral-bound book lets you tear out pages easily and a binder lets you organise things. Or, keep it on your computer! Have a Secret Folder of Shadows or a Floppy Disk of Shadows. Print off pages as you need them. Even if you're not a Pagan, you can still keep a BoS as an occult depository. I'm not a pagan and I have a little BoS! I write all about the occult and Wicca so I can refer to it if a Wiccan friend wants to know something, or so I can educate the misinformed. I bought the book at Shopper's Drug Mart for about a dollar. It's a small hardcover notebook, lined, with a black cover and red corners and spine. When I got it I took some red ribbon and made two bookmarks and two ties, which I sewed into the cover to keep my place and to keep it shut. On the ends of these ribbons I sewed some little green stones I had handy to make it look all special and things. On the cover I sewed a piece of black bristol board on which I drew a silver ankh. Voila, nearly instant BoS for less than $5.00 Canadian! Inside I've started with a few quotations about magic, and then launch off into color symbolism of candles, and it now has a multitude of information, such as how to raise the magic circle and a listing of various Egyptian, Celtic, and Cthulhu Mythos deities. The BoS can also be handy if you and your friends might like to indulge in a bit of Fundamentalist mockery. Ya know how they pound their Bibles to emphasise a point in their silly little ramblings? Gather a circle of your Pgan friends and lead a 'mass' at a convenient time when there's a Fundamentalist doing the same. Quote from the Rede and give your BoS a nice meaty THWACK! (not too hard though, you don't want to hurt it, do you?) and talk in a Southern accent. Mass amusement ensues, with the possibility of a juicy theological debate. The general concensus is that you should start your BoS with a dedication, a book blessing, or the Rede and Charge of the God and Charge of the Goddess. I, actually, have done neither, and just picked a random place in my only realistic occult book, the book of Celtic Magic by Llwellyn which was fairly useful. I started with the Table of Candle Corresponcences and have worked my way till it's almost full. You should, if this is your first Book, start the actual writing of Pagan information with tables of correspondence, and work your way up, but I just wrote things in willy-nilly and so on. I only, as of this writing, have about five spells in the whole Book! On the subject of spells, DON'T copy in every spell you see online or in that Guide to Wicca! You should only put in a spell if you need it! If you absoloutely CAN'T resist the lure of knowing every spell you can, then perhaps you should keep a grimoire to record miscellaneous spells and put the ones you think you'll be using a lot (such as your favorite Binding or Tarot chant, or that anti-storm rhyme that seems to be effective) in the BoS. Then you can carry what you need with you and leave that clunky and big grimoire on the altar or in your drawer. Now, you have to make a BIG descision! Will you write your BoS in or will you type it? I write mine, writing is one of my favorite things to do and I write so badly that no-one will be able to read it should my BoS fall into the wrong hands. Hand writing is considered by some to be best because they say that the mental energy or spirit or whatever is going right from your brain to the paper. And if you have it as a physical book you can take it anywhere, work on it anytime, and you don't have to worry about power outages, hard drive crashes, or your computer being stolen (although these are still things to be careful about if you don't have your BoS on your computer). However, a BoS on computer has benefits as well. You can hide it in a hidden folder in a labyrinth of nested folders and give everything filenames that mislead. Perfect for the in-the-broom-closet Pagan, and you can easily close the window it's in if someone who won't understand your beliefs comes in, and this is all well and good if you're a neurotic saver and save every five seconds. And you don't have to make up some story if someone barges into your room while you're happily scripting away with that quill pen or whatever... OR! You have do a mix of both! One of my best friends printed out almost everything for her first BoS and pasted it into a book. It's very thick and all the pages are folded up, but it turns her crank so who am I to say? I just feel that the handwritten book with the crabbed and scribbled printing was 'right' (it made me think of some insane cultist hurriedly finishing an invocation while the authorities are on his tail and catching up), and at the time I was going through another Great Cthulhu phase and was influenced by the Necronomicon. I got one for Christmas and was disappointed at the lack of soul-destroying evil and wailing of damned souls I had been expecting (although if you want to look occult then it's wonderful). And so, I had been deciding to write my own Necronomicon when I became interested in the occult and found this cool little book of Celtic Magic which I knew was a knock-off of Wicca (and how!), and bought this tiny black book and started copying. After which I decided that the book was mostly B.S. and started figuring things out for myself and with help from various 'beginners guide to Wicca' books. A lot I wrote myself (like my long-winded sections about Tarot, crystal ball scrying, and actual WICCAN instead of Celtic ritual tools), and the 'Net helped a bit too...just a bit! I'd much rather glean info from a credible source, and quite a lot of stuff online is pureed and recolored B.S. and that ain't no lie! Anyhoo. There's something else that's a big issue as well, and that's whether or not you should let others copy from your BoS. Really this is up to you, but if you're in a coven then you might be asked to keep a copy of the coven's BoS (if they have one) or to add to the coven BoS with information of your own. Certainly I see no harm in copying out some spells, but if you have personal stuff in your BoS then perhaps a grimoire might be something to let others copy from. And it can be useful if you have a friend who's just getting started and has no clue as to what should go in this book. Usually you should go with how you feel, although if you let others copy from your BoS itself then you'll probably want to excersise caution. You wouldn't want to accidentally let a Christian fundamentalist or something borrorw it and a week later find that they've burned it or something. You want to be able to trust those who your BoS will come in contact with. And if you like, you can do as others do and put some of the contents of your Book online! Share your accumulated knowledge! The 'net might be the best medium for copying because even if your Book goes missing or something then you have it up there for future refrence as well as for others to see long after you are gone!