This is my very favorite Craft tool everrr!! It is basically a witchy scrapbook you will treasure your entire life. The more time and energy you are willing to give your Book, the more beautiful and useful it will be, it's entirely up to you!
Your Book of Shadows should be a blank book large enough to record significant amounts of information and should also have space enough for pictures to be added, along with your own art. There are a lot of sites and books which state that a Book of Shadows MUST be unlined, or MUST have a solid black cover. This is silly. Your book should appeal to you and meet YOUR requirements. That is the most important thing.
Find one you connect with. When choosing one, keep in mind art, colors, and symbolism that you find magickal. Starting with a gorgeous book you truly love can really help inspire you to work on it!
I recommend taking the time to count the pages of your book (multiply by two for front and back) then divide the book into sections by counting the pages in equal (or somewhat equal) groups, and then adding a title page for each one. For example, my book is sectioned as follows:
Poetry and Meditations
Magickal Charts and Tables
Sabbats
Herbs, Potions, Stones, and Oils
Rituals
Charms and Spells
Recipes
Mysteries and Divination
Your Book of Shadows can become a powerful magickal tool. Get creative! Find pictures in magazines and online to cut/print out and paste. Draw, paint, make the letters cool, go to Hot Topic and get some fun stickers, learn calligraphy if you want that old-school look, the possibilities are endless. Or, if you want, make it super plain and boring =P It’s up to you, that’s the whole point! You do NOT need to memorize spells. That’s what your Book is for! It is totally acceptable to have it open during ritual. I don’t care what anyone else says. I’ve done almost all my spells and rituals this way, with a rather shiny success rate…
Your book should contain anything you find meaningful and useful. It should only contain mundane, regular-world things if you personally translate them in a magickal way (such as cooking recipes). Keep it somewhere hidden and safe if you live among disapproving company, and never let anyone read it unless you give them permission to do so. When you are ready to begin using your book, it is a good idea to dedicate and empower it. Methods range from placing the book in the light of the full moon over night to rituals involving symbols of all five elements to lend their power to your workings.
Book of Shadows Blessing
Hearken as the witches' word
calls the Fire and the Sword
Moon above and Earth below
Darkest night and Sun's hot glow
in this right and ready hour,
fill these pages with thy power
May none who, unintended, see
these secrets which entrusted be
to I who walk this ancient road
and dream in magick's dark abode
Guardians of the Four Directions
hear me and lend thy protection
May these truths of Earth and Skies
shielded be from prying eyes
But to the witches, whose map this be
May the way be plain to see
and throughout all the coming Ages
find the secrets in these pages.
So Let It Be.
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