What is a Book of Shadows?
This is the last of the five major tools, also known as the workbook, journal, or spell book. This is the book where all rituals, spells and magical recipes are written before use. Most witches and magic workers have what is called a Grimoire or BoS (Book of Secrets, Book of Shadows, Book of Spells, etc.) A grimoire is a textbook of magic.
It is most commonly believed that the term grimoire originated from the Old French word grammaire, which had initially been used to refer to all books written in Latin. By the 18th century, the term had gained its now common usage in France, and had begun to be used to refer purely to books of magic. Owen Davies presumed this was because “many of them continued to circulate in Latin manuscripts”.
However, the term grimoire later developed into a figure of speech among the French indicating something that was hard to understand. In the 19th century, with the increasing interest in occultism among the British following the publication of Francis Barrett’s The Magus (1801), the term entered the English language in reference to books of magic.
What is a Grimoire? It is a magic book, a life collection of spells, recipes, secrets of nature and sometimes even science, advice, ancient wisdom and instructions. For ages, witches have kept journals on creating charms and incantations, making talismans and recording lessons’ for using these elements in a Book of Shadows. A witch’s Book of Shadows is a treasured and much respected item. The book itself is sacred to the witch who created it. Its contents are mostly kept secret from wandering eyes.
Many of these have been handed down through generations; others are created by new members to the Magic family researching old traditional methods of living and healing. Many of the contents of these books are simple traditional recipes using time honored ingredients often referred to as complementary or alternative medicine.
A Book of Shadows documents your journey on your magical path, and might also include notes on rituals and spells, recipes, crystals, herbalism, deities and supernatural entities, stories and lore, animal symbolism, divination methods, and much more. A Grimoire or Book of Shadows doesn’t need to be a mystical old book that you hand write everything into. It can be though. Some baby witches start with just a notebook and take notes from books they read while beginning their practice. Some use loose leaf paper and a binder that they can rearrange and change out if they mess up and need to rewrite something. Choose something easy to work with when starting out because you can always upgrade later.
Witch Tip: Traditionally, a Book of Shadows was bound and covered in either black leather or other animal skin and containing parchment leaves, even a standard book of high quality drawing paper will suffice.
There are many beautiful books available to buy which are suitable to use as your witch’s journal. There are even those who make pages for your Book of Shadows ready to print out with standard information such as the wheel of the year. Choose a book that suits you well. If you are artistic, choose one with plain pages so you can draw symbols and charts easily. Choose a style you love- if it feels special to you, it will generate more positive energy. Take time choosing your book of shadows and trawl for unusual finds in second hand bookshops.
Some believe the more important works should be translated in magical language for either secrecy (coming from the theory of necessity in The Burning Times), empowerment (as in the more you put into something, the more you receive in return), or simply desire.
But you could even make it a type of journaling with pages printed and pictures glued in. You could cut flowers and press them for your book. Tape in charms and trinkets as you acquire them! The possibilities are endless!
Many modern witches have a digital Book of Shadows. This is particularly handy if your handwriting is messy and difficult to read (guilty) or you want to keep it hidden from prying eyes or are low on space in your home. Fast typing and different font styles can help your finished product to look nicer and more magical as you edit and combine information from your different reading sources before finishing it off with a gothic font.
I am extremely Type A. I tried hard to get an empty BoS and write in it. It didn’t work. Currently, as of April 2020, my Book of Shadows is 247mb accumulating years upon years of research, knowledge, and art. Once I have deemed a topic finished and I will likely not add more to it, I print it out on parchment paper and put in page protectors in a very large leather binder. Page protectors keep ingredients from staining pages. Are page protectors as mythical looking? No. Do I have cats that literally just knocked over my cup of water? Yes.
After finally deciding on what they want to record their magical works in, many baby witches have trouble deciding what it is they should put write. And the answer is: anything and everything you want. Your Grimoire is personal to you and you make this book your own. This book is the ultimate personalized culmination of your craft. You don’t need to put every single bit of witchy knowledge in your book. But you can if you want. I do because I am anal and very Type A and it feels like incomplete information to me if I leave pieces out. I also sometimes reference the information when I am writing fantasy stories (my hobby). But you could also put only what you believe and will practicing. For example: As a Sea Witch, you could put only stones that pertain to water, plants that pertain to water, a description and associations with the element water, mythical creatures and deities associated with water/ oceans/ rivers/ lakes/ wells, bath rituals, and information about shells and sea creatures you would like to use in your craft.
Some ideas for your own Book of Shadows to help you get started:
- Altars: How and when to set them up, what you’ll need for your altar and rituals
- Animals: Their spiritual powers, which animals are connected to you, mythical, spirits, totems, and familiars
- Books: Writings you can use as reference when needed (which can include websites)
- Colors: Definitions of each color and what they can be used for (including candles, moods, spell types, etc)
- Crystals: Their names and uses
- Deity: Their powers, how you must worship them, your own beliefs and worship
- Herbs, plants, trees: Their medicinal and metaphysical properties
- Meditations: Meditations, groundings, and centering
- Planets/ Celestial Bodies: Their relation to magic and mythology
- Recipes: Especially for those who will use cooking/baking more often in their witchcraft
- Rituals: for Sabbats, Esbats, holidays, etc.
- Sigils and Symbols: So you can easily reference them for your spells/ rituals
- Spells: Ingredients, prayers, incantations, etc.
- Witchy History: How and when magic started, how and when your specific sect of witchcraft got started, etc.
- Zodiac: Characteristics and dates
- Things that are specific and give you power: For example-
my familiars are cats and ravens.
My flowers are jasmine and roses.
My seasons/Sabbats are Autumn and Samhain.
My herbs are rosemary and garlic.
My celestial body is the moon.
My element is water.
Etc.
Witchcraft is an old tradition in which lore, rituals, and spells are handed down through the generations, but many witches also keep magic chronicles. Unlike the formal patriarchal religions, witchcraft has evolved with time; ceremonies are influenced by dreams, visions, and insights of the participants. They are not set in stone according to some bygone era. Witchcraft’s legacy as a living, oral tradition may, in some part, be due to the penalties of death, torture, or dispossession, which hung heavily over witches in the past and so nothing was recorded. Thankfully, many of today’s witches live in an age of tolerance and most covens and individuals are able to keep journals and even share their Grimoires.
Historical accounts of books of shadows are often shrouded in death, reflecting the dark times that fell against witchcraft. An Italian legend, for example, tells of a spell book that fell into the hands of the inquisition after its author was burned at the stake. Everyone who read it heard the witch’s screams in their dreams at night.
A more uplifting tale surrounds a spell book from Sussex, England. This book of shadows survived fire and flood, through many generations, keeping alive the legacy of its writers and remains with its coven even today.
Good luck creating your own Book of Shadows!
From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,
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