Everything Under the Moon

Floyd Pinkerton wrote:I read somewhere that your Book of Shadows is supposed to be sacred and remain a secret. Is that true or can you share it with other people if you wish to?

Some traditions of Wicca have a book of shadows that is specific to their tradition, which is not allowed to be shared with people who are not initiated into the tradition - although individual members may choose to keep their own book, and may share their own created material with others. Likewise, if you're a solitary it's really up to you. Some people are comfortable sharing some, or all, of their book of shadows, and others prefer to keep it personal and secret.

Siona wrote:

Floyd Pinkerton wrote:I read somewhere that your Book of Shadows is supposed to be sacred and remain a secret. Is that true or can you share it with other people if you wish to?

Some traditions of Wicca have a book of shadows that is specific to their tradition, which is not allowed to be shared with people who are not initiated into the tradition - although individual members may choose to keep their own book, and may share their own created material with others. Likewise, if you're a solitary it's really up to you. Some people are comfortable sharing some, or all, of their book of shadows, and others prefer to keep it personal and secret.

Ah, okay, thank you! I thought everyone was supposed to keep it a secret.
I was asking because my fiance was asking what I was writing and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to share it or not.

Siona is correct, it is up to what you follow, but there is nothing wrong with sharing your Book of Shadows, hence if there was we would all be in trouble in this forum now wouldn't we

I'm a bit stumped as to what else to put in my Book of Shadows. I'm keeping prayers, rituals, spells, and recipes separate so I won't be adding those. Currently in the book I have moon phases, an herb guide, flower meanings, candle colour meanings, the Runic alphabet and how to read runes, gemstones and their meanings, the 13 Wiccan principles, the magickal properties and keywords of oils, the Celtic deities, info on the Sabbats, an intro to astrology, tarot card meanings, Wiccan symbols, how to cast a circle and make a wand, ritual tools, and how to spread/read tarots. Am I missing anything? Should I be looking for more information to add or should I use the rest of the book as a journal?

It sounds like you have a good bit of information already. I wouldn't necessarily say you need to be actively looking for more information just to add it, but it's often a good idea to leave some space because as time goes on it's likely that you'll discover new topics that are of interest to you, and you might want to add that information to what you have. You could certainly also use it as a journal, and simply add in new information as you come across it mixed in with your journal entries. It's a nice way to be able to look back at your progress, and see what topics you were interested in and when, and what it lead you to, and so on.

What you choose to include or exclude from your Book of Shadows is up to you. The subjects you're most interested in or use most often should probably have priority in you book. I'll give a couple examples:

• As far as astrological timing goes, I tend to go with the day of the week over the moon phase. For me, the correspondences for the days would come before correspondences of the moon phases.

• Personally, chants have a priority in my book before herbs, just because I lack a green thumb.

• In my section of spells, I have placed the spells that I have written before the spells I have copied from other sources.

A journal is a welcome addition to any Book of Shadows. You could use it to keep a record of what spells you've tried, what correspondences most resonate with you, what your experiences are working with different aspects of the Divine, etc.
Don't feel that you have to keep everything in one book. Some of us have multiple books of shadows. I currently have about six myself: the main book, a book of correspondences, two notebooks of spells that I've copied from books and the internet, a book of tarot and rune meanings, and a book for recording divinations.
Each Book of Shadows is as unique as its owner. Do what's practical for you.

Is it ok to post an Herb Grimoire here, or should I put that in the Herbs forum?

You are welcome to post an Herb Grimoire in this forum or the Herb forum, whichever you like. One question that I have -- did you create the image above? If it's not your original work, please cite the original source for the image (or better yet, check and see if you have permission to share it). We've run into some copyright issues in the past with the Members' BoS forum, and we need to be careful about whose work we share in this forum. Thanks!

Xiao

I created it. https://conigma.deviantart.com

I prefer this style of page for the herb grimoire btw
https://www.deviantart.com/conigma/art/ ... -644966516

Thanks for the response. I was thinking maybe doing two pages per herb and having them side by side in the grimoire in order to have all of the info but still keep the aesthetic of the page like that one.

I am in the process of getting a BOS together, but for me, the plain old $2 USD black binder just seems so cheap. To me, a BOS seems like it should be nice and durable. Something to last many years.

I'm looking for a leatherbound (or simulated leather) three-ring binder, preferrably stamped/embossed with a pentacle. Does anyone know where I can get one? I haven't had much luck finding one.

Thank you, and Blessed Samhain!!

I believe you can get one from ebay or a similar site. But they are quite pricey. I am a fan of a DIY books. Why not research that? I once saw a fantastic video on Charmed BoS, which could really help with making your custom one. Just an idea though.

You can get a reasonably price 3 ring that are made of cardboard and covered with decorative vinyl. Remove the vinyl to expose the cardboard core and you can then use more cardboard of various thicknesses, cereal boxes, thick layers of paper, corrugated boxes, etc, and cut out shapes and letters, and begin using white glue to cement them together in layers until you get the design you want. It can then be painted, embellished and poly-coated. I used to do this in high school. It was way more fun than algebra, and people liked them so much that I took custom orders. The cool thing is that it costs almost nothing, and nobody will have one like yours.

Great ideas here, thank you so much!