Spellbook/BOS (CG)

I want to start this off by apologizing for the lateness of this post. I wanted to get it out sooner but I simply haven't had the time. Please let me know if there are any other topics you would like me to cover and ill try to get to them.

For this post ill cover a personal Spellbook, or as some call them Grimoire or Book of Shadows(BOS). There is a difference in the term. The key difference is the audience. A grimiore is meant to be read and understood by others while a book of shadows is a personal thing, almost like a journal. In this post I'll focus on the Personal spellbook or Book Of Shadows. For simplicity ill refer to this a BOS from this point onward.

The key tenet of a BOS is that it is for yourself. No one else need understand it, but it should seem completely readable to you. Organize the book based on your ideas. This will be a slightly different article as I'm going to give ideas for a decent BOS but the ultimate choice how you organize it is up to you. First the general creation.

Any notebook will due for a BOS but I find a hard back journal to be the best possible option. This helps with the durability of the item. Ideally you should like the look and feel of this book but they are usually simply places of knowledge not power like a staff or knife so this is actually less important. If you wanna go all out you could even get a lockable journal to keep your BOS private. Decoration your journal with runes and other such things can help give you a connection to it but its not really necessary for it basic functions but can give other benefits not immediately apparent. An example is to bless it as a substitute altar. (please refer to my Altar (CG) for info on Altar creation. Some also use a BOS as a focus for spells.

While it is possible to create a BOS through digital means I find it often better to keep such things physical to prevent accidental date loss and to help with mobility. Also a physical medium give the ability to write symbols and sigils into your book as you need to. As said above a BOS can also be enchanted to help with other things.

The BOS main purpose is to be a magical journal. To get the most out of it you should write the things you have done and the noted effects. Its a great place to figure out how to word a new spell your working on, or what your latest dream was and possible meanings. Info you constantly use is a great edition to a BOS. An example is the elemental affinity of zodiac signs or maybe your interpretation of the tarot. If your worried you may forget info or you simply want to keep all the material you commonly use in one place it nice to keep it in your BOS.

That's really all there is to them. Its one of the most basic tools to PR practitioner of magic but it can also be one of the most important. As your craft grows so should this tome.

If you have any more info you would like to add or simply have other ideas of what to put into a BOS feel free to post below.
* The Altar Idea was giving to me by Palador

In your BOS do you include info about different entities, pagan paths or herbal properties? I am getting one soon and am just curious to what everyone stores in them.

The brilliant thing about BOS is that you can include anything you may use on your path. anyone who works with herbs could easily have an entire section devoted to that whole topic. Same with entities. While I wouldn't find much to right about different paths that doesn't mean you wouldn't have a reason to. Really its all about what you want to do with it.

Thanks for the post, i have been writing and adding some information in my BOS and rephasing them to easier understanding for myself. i gotta admit i poor at sketching but i getting along with daily use. especially when i record my dreams. boy, so many astral work to be learn and apply in conscious self.

Interestingly enough, sometimes a Book of Shadows kind of just happens; I mean, my Book of Shadows came into being without me even realizing that it was, only it was a hodgepodge that needed sorting out due to the present chaos within (such as the inclusion of fiction ideas and the like).

A Book of Shadows (which I use the term Grimoire for when it is formalized into a text for public sharing with the Occult Community) or also called a Book of Mirrors as brilliantly suggested by a Chaote I found on YouTube named Kelly-Ann Maddox (formerly known as FourQueens), due to being a book of personal reflections on various workings and interactions in the Occult, is an incredibly versatile aspect of people's paths, how you make use of one, or if you even have one, varies from person to person, and there are times when one might share aspects of it, despite the stigma that sharing your BoS is forbidden, there is no technical rule behind it and not all of us follow the path from which this concept originated (one of the ways that Wiccan rules kinda bled into the entire Occult Community due to how Occultism rose to prominence in the mainstream).