Everything Under the Moon

What do you use as a BOS? I know some use a notebooks and others use a 3 ring binder. I am starting to put mine together and would like to see what others use. Also if you use a notebook please give tips to have things organized. I hate my BOS to be messy and unorganized.

Sorry if this is a personal question.

No two of us think alike. What's important to you to remember is what's useful to you. I cannot tell you how to organize yours because we'd have different priorities. I organize by my interests.

I've used a box full of spiral notebooks over the years for scratch work & planning before ever transferring something to my hardbound book. My 400 page bound journal has stood over 30 years with about 80 pages left to fill. It is more or less organized. Hand written. I've done my own drawings. I tried a 3-ring binder & didn't stick with it.

I'd started with obligatory beginner's notes on Sabbats & Esbats, lists of correspondences of magical & medicinal properties of common herbs, flowers, spices, trees & stones; & some random deities, but felt no connection to it. I wanted my own observations & experiences, not a photocopy.

I just continued on in the same bound book with my own ritual experiences projecting a circle's energy or summoning it; when I'm on my contacts & when it's a dud; I wrote some rituals & spells.
When I'd started connecting is when I actively sought the Elements outside in Nature.

One section has my history, my dedication rite in the rain which in spite of myself manifested the way-opening (thanks be to the Powers.) I've got notes of dreams & OOBE visions that have guided me now & then. Deity is "right here" within & alongside and it doesn't matter what name we use bcs we know each other when it matters.

I have a 3 ring binder that I am starting with but I am not really enjoying it. I want a small bound book but I hate to have things out of order. I want to be able to have sections for certain things but I feel like if I transfer them to a bound book it will be a mess because you never know what you will add and when you will add it. I hope that makes sense.

Yea. Been there. I'd left blank pages after each "finished" section &'over the years have filled it up. The perfect BOS is an illusion IMO. There are post-bound books that can be added to as they grow.

Have a section called "Miscellaneous".

This may be why my husbands calls me a perfectionist

I am using big notebooks. They therefore are not very organized, but I don't mind. It is written how I write in it at the time based on what subject I am writing about.

As far as subjects I write about the current one I am using has Romani Magic, Taoism, Moss Agate Properties, a black magic cake recipe, A recent sigil, info on Feng Shui, all these are recent entries. Earlier entries are anything from Zen Gardens, Hinduism, to a sailing prayer candle decoration I wrote up for those times we go out and sail.

Yep definitely not organized.

One way of organizing is by element & not just including correspondences but also every possible method of using each element that you can think of. For example water has 3 obvious forms of liquid, vapor & solid, so include potions of course but also holy water consecration, well water spells for drawing forth the underworld connections, rain water blessing & storm water incantations, stagnant pool hexing (you don't have to use them but knowledge is power), turbulent water confusions (disturb water with a whisk), etc. Frozen ice haults & suspends activity as well as preserves for future use (we can freeze fresh herbs). Snow melts into useful liquid form but retains its airborne & blanketing qualities. Steam, mists, fog all have magical uses for cloaking, misdirecting, & protecting if you put your mind to it. Air is wind that carries intentions, breezes have different qualities attached to each elemental direction, mountain top vs subway train wind-tunnel or suction like a drinking straw or blow-gun. Air also dissipates, breaks up & scatters. Earth sustains life, nurtures, feeds & grounds/neutralizes energies. Fire transforms - that is it's best feature. It changes the form of a thing into something else. It transforms thought into action, passion into energy. Earth & water are passive energies so they pacify. Air & fire are active energies & activate. Study each element within nature to observe how it works & make mental connections for applying those functions in spell crafting. A BOS is a support tool for our crafting.

You might look for a post bound journal. They have the look of a traditional journal, but the pages can be re-arraigned so you can add to topics, or organize things as you go. They can sometimes be a bit expensive, though. (They also make miniature three ring binders if you just want something smaller, but still something you can customize. You can even find them with nice faux-leather covers and such.)

I recently made one by sewing my own paper into signatures then binding them all together in a leather cover. It didn't turn out perfect but it went ok for my 1st one. I'm not going to use it for a BOS since I have one already in an embossed journal from a store. But I think I'll use it as a crystal diary to document my collection and what each one is used for as well as how it has worked for me.

Thank you. Sorry I have been off for awhile. Health issues and legal issues have been hard.