Following italic text taken from wiki: The Book of Shadows is the name used for a book that contains magical and religious texts in the religion of Wicca and certain other neo-pagan witchcraft traditions. Typically, a Book of Shadows contains the core rituals, magical practices, ethics and philosophy of Wicca within it, and more often a list of the witch's personal spells.
How you set up your Book Of Shadows is completely up to you. My rule is anything that empowers you, you should add. Some people create separate books for different things. Such as a book for spells and rituals , and maybe another of
essential oils and herbs. I prefer having everything in one place.
I would even suggest setting it up in a way that categorizes everything. For instance, a section for love, a section for protection, another section of important rituals and the proper dates to perform them. For me having everything in one book just makes life easier.
Like everything else in the world of ritual magick, you want to imbue the book with your power. The best way to do this is to hand write it, and make your own drawings and illustrations. Some people even use a dedicated pen or quill that they only use for magickal writings in their book. If you use a quill you may even want to make a magickal ink blend to use only in your Book Of Shadows. You can find Book Of Shadows kits on the internet. These are bound books with a pentacle or pentagram or magickal symbol on the cover, pre-bound with blank pages for you to fill in.
I personally use a three ring binder. It's my humble opinion that the binding is not the important part. The pages and the information it contains and the energy used in creating it is what really matters.
What you put in your Book Of Shadows is completely up to you. I would suggest placing your spells, rituals, incantations, and special dates or holidays. You might also want to add any information thats to big to remember such as herbal info, essential oils, properties of different stones, incense blends and whatever other info you might find useful for your magickal needs.
Most people keep their Book Of Shadows private. If your a solitary practitioner you may want to keep it for your eyes only. If your a coven member you may at times share it with other coven members. Many covens have there own Book Of Shadows or A Grimoire. You may also want to hand down your Book Of Shadows from generation to generation if you belong to a family tradition.
