Many outside of witchcraft think a book of shadows is a recipe book or spells, it is not.

It is a journal of experiences and thoughts. Your history of your experience of witchcraft, or a covens history. Within this you will collect what you have learnt, record experiments, spells you have tried or want to keep for another time, and record your successes and failures.

The coven book of shadows tend to include rituals, ceremonies or various type, and group actions, but will also keep track of the beliefs, expertise and more.

On TV and in films a book of shadows is a large old looking bound book with one or other of the magic symbols on the front. In practice this may be the case, large books tend to be chosen as there is over time a lot to include, and when people start out they often feel the need for props and tools, that will make them feel they are fully involved.

You need to start now your own book of shadows, but rather than a large old looking large ledger, I would suggest you start with a large ring binder and set of dividers. This will allow you to collect information from many places including the internet, type up your notes and file away information in a more useful way.

So what sections will you want. you could start with a limited number such as:  basic information, circle practices and rituals, the wheel of the year, spells, tools, skills, paths, experiments. Or you may like to keep the experiments with the topics. Remember you can always change you filling system later as long as you start a new page for each item.

Don't write in code or some form of shorthand. Over time you will forget what it meant and any decoding, you will find, just takes too long when you are looking through  for information. The only exception to this is peoples names, where giving each a pet name or animal character, is perhaps a good idea just in case any one else should get their hands on your books of shadows. 

How secure can you keep your book of shadows. Will anyone else be able to get to see it. What happens if someone else gets hold of it, can they make something out of it that it is not. If a relationship ends or you fall out with a friend could your book of shadows end up in the public domain. In Britain  Every week, thousands of completely innocent people, have early wakeups and police searching their homes looking for who knows what. Business people likewise sometimes get an unexpected visit from trading standards, VAT or some other government or council group armed with a search warrant. Using creative thought what could they make out of your book of shadows.  Just because you have done nothing wrong, and in your eyes everything you have written has a completely honest and reasonable meaning, it does not follow that twisted people will not be able to make something else out of it or use it to go on a trawl and persuade others to take a position against you.

So is a book of shadows just too risky, and what can you do so as to reduce the harm that can come of others finding it. One idea is to have several binders, and camouflage them, so your book of spells is labeled recipes and the first few and last few pages, shows how to make custard, bake a cake etc. Maybe another is to appear to be writing a novel instead of keeping a diary of experiments, to the uninformed,  fiction and fact can be impossible to differentiate. Another idea some have is to have a project file covering many religions of beliefs, so taking away the focus. The other option is to find a really good hiding place, however you have to have access to it.

In most traditions books of shadows are not handed down, but burnt on the death of the owner.

Quite a few of the more publicized paths of witchcraft have a coven book that is copied from another covens book or from one of several master copies. Many of these have been published in part or in whole, and tend to cover their ceremonies, tools, and practices. Some published accounts are complete and at least give you a chance to understand where their path has led them, but many are edited, or sections, which may not be as useful as they first appear. You will find a collection of these at www.witchpages.com all available completely free, and in full covering many periods and beliefs.

Occasionally on the internet and elsewhere you will come across individuals books of shadows for sale, which in some cases as genuine, but more often has been created for sale. I have seen several and never yet come across anything that I considered worth buying. genuine ones tend to be difficult to follow, lots of notes, often no order, and in practice of minimal use to anyone except the author without help. the more famous or historically interesting has been decoded and is already available to us all.

Some covens, and paths, don't follow the hand down notes principle, but expect each new coven to create their own book of shadows by looking at the practices of others, discussing, thinking and developing concepts ceremonies, rituals etc out of a mixture of ideas and for their own group. Even many traditional covens have gone in recent years through a revising phase where they have looked again at practices, and old books and created a new book of shadows for this time.

Due to historic persecution, and lack of tolerance of others beliefs, historically witchcraft has been very secretive and many covens still have an oath of secrecy. Some will say that I should not share the information within this web site with you, some that only edited information should be available in book form, where a level of commitment in the form of purchasing the book qualifies, but most are happy for me to share knowledge with you providing I don't identify their identities.

Many branches or paths, have come from country folk who could neither read or write and all information was handed down from one generation to the next or more often from grandmother to granddaughter or grandfather to grandson as they had more time and and a life times experience to pass on. It therefore follows that no books of shadows for these traditions have existed before recent times.

If you join an existing coven, you will need to follow their practice at least as far as the coven book is concerned, however if you come at some point to set up your own coven, which I hope many of you do, then, you have the choice as to how the covens book of shadows should be established and maintained.

My own view is that it is better for you to build, understand, and own the concepts and traditions that you create rather than inherent others that you cannot fully believe in. However I see no problem in you using information from this web site, another web site and published material, or other covens to build your own interpretation.

I would go further and suggest that rituals are not set in stone but that each time a ritual is to be used, you look at it with those who are going to participate, discus the reasons and the methods being used and make for that occasion any changes that you feel necessary. I feel you should make sure that a covens book of shadows stays current and relevant to this time, and always remember its is the ideas of people, not something laid down by a supreme power or allowed to become a bible. I would suggest that you never ever quote from any book of shadows that you have not written yourself.

Some modern covens tell me they do not have a book of shadows, but use combined knowledge and what has been remembered by each of the members.  I respect their choice, but my feeling is that the coven will swing towards the interpretation of the the strongest character present, rather than be the combined views and experience. It is up to them and you to consider if this is a good or bad practice.

To do now

At this time, your own personal book of shadows should be started now, and you can use parts of this course as you feel appropriate and most importantly the experiments and results that you do.

Over time recording your experiments and experiences is important, not only as a learning tool, but to also allow you to fine tune the powers that you build. At times some spell or experiment will not work, and with no book of shadows you may take this out of proportion and even believe that you have lost your powers or question if you could ever do anything.

Over time, recording, modifying, recording the results again, and noting down ideas and experience from others as well as yourself will provide you with the knowledge but in some ways more importantly the confidence when needed.

If most of you reading this at this stage answered honestly to the question "do you believe in the magic of witchcraft", we would get a qualified answer, that you would like to, you can see how some things could happen...... Few would blindly believe just because I have said something, or you have read something in a book or two.  On the other hand if you had written the book, recording your own experiences accurately and truthfully, then you would believe it wouldn't you. That is why I want you to have your own book of shadows from as soon as you can get hold of a binder or book.

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