A Witch's Book of Shadows

There are two things that you will find in almost every single Book of shadows out there. One is The Wiccan Rede. You can find The Rede on my page, Beginner's Witchcraft. It is generally one of the very first things in a personal Book of Shadows, as it really sets the tone for how you practice Witchcraft.

The second item that is very commonly found in a BOS is The Charge of The Goddess. The charge is ritual invocation to The Goddess. It is often read a key points during ritual or as a part of communion. There are two parts to The Charge of The Goddess, with the second part standing alone, it is entitled The charge of The Star Goddess.

The Charge (Part I)

Listen to the words of the Great Mother, who
was of old, called amongst men, Artemis, Astarte,
Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen,
Diana, Arionhod, Bride, and by many other names.

At mine Altar, the youths of Lacedemon in
Sparta made due sacrifice. Whenever ye have need
of anything, once in the month and better it be when
the Moon is Full, then shall ye assemble in some
secret place and adore the Spirit of Me, who am
Queen of all the Witcheries. There shall ye assemble,
who are feign to learn all sorceries who have not as
yet won my deepest secrets. To these will I teach that
which is as yet unknown. And ye shall be free from all
slavery and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall
sing, feast, and make music, all in my presence. For mine
is the ecstasy of the Spirit and mine is also joy on earth.
For my Law is love untio all beings. Keep pure your
highest ideals, strive ever towards them. Let none stop
you or turn you aside. For mine is the secret that opens
upon the door of youth and mine is the Cup of the Wine
of Life and the Cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy
Grail of Immortality. I am the Gracious Goddess who gives
the gift of joy unto the heart of man upon earth. I give the
knowledge of the Spirit Eternal, and beyond death I give
peace and freedom and reunion with those that have gone
before. Nor do I demand aught or sacrifice, for behold I am
the Mother of all things, and my love is poured out upon
the earth.

The Charge of the Star Goddess (Part II)

Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess. She, in the dust of whose feet are the Hosts of Heaven, whose body encircleth the universe.

I, who am the beauty of the Green Earth and the
White Moon amongst the stars and the mystery of the
Waters, and the desire of the heart of man; I call unto
thy soul to arise and come unto me. For I am the Soul
of Nature who giveth life to the universe; from me all things
proceed and unto me must all things return. You, beloved
of the Gods and men, whose innermost divine self shall
be enfolded in the raptures of the Infinite, let my worship
be in the heart. Rejoiceth, for behold, all acts of love and
pleasure are my rituals; therefore, let there be beauty and
strength - power and compassion - honor and humility,
mirth and reverance - within you. And thou who thinkest to
seek me, know that thy seeking and yearning avail thee not,
unless thou knowest the mystery - that if that which thou
seekest thou findeth not within thyself, thou wilt never find
it without thee. For behold! I have been with thee from
the beginning, and I am that which is attained at the end of desire!

You will find that The Charge of the Goddess is known to nearly every practioner of the Craft, and is very popular. With such standing, it is not surprising to find that is often included in most Books of Shadows right in the beginning, after The Wiccan Rede.

After the Rede and The Charge, most witches' books of shadows are filled to the brim with recipes and spells. Thise is where the meat of the matter is. If you want to find some very easy spells that are effective and powerful, please visit The Simple Spellcasting E-kit. It's a must-have resource for anyone involved in spellcasting of any kind!

Thanks for reading my lens, and, as always, Blessed Be!

Your Book of Shadows will probably not be the most organized piece of information out there. This is okay! Sine the Books Shadows is a "working document", it will grow and evolve the more you use it. It is tempting to rush to write down every ritual and formula that strikes our fancy into the book. However, I generally like to keep it down to just the rituals that I am planning to work in the near future. I am creature of habit, like most of us humans, and therefore, I tend to only cast circle in one way. So, I only need one entry in my own personal Book of Shadows about casting circle. However, I do like to take notes on alternative invocations and chants. Rather than having these scattered throughout the Book of Shadows, I leave a section of pages blank after making an entry on one particular subject. This way, I have room to make ammendments and additions when needed.

Many witches also use their Book of Shadows as a cookbook of sorts, and have long, long lists of recipes and directions for mixing incenses, oils and powders. These can make it a headache when you are hunting for a particular formula. One suggestion for this is to use a three ring binder to store all of this type of information. If you insist on having these recipes in your book, however, I have found that the best way to keep it organized is to put your formularies and glossaries at the back your BOS.

One last note on the organization of your BOS; try to avoid using it as a journal! While having a magickal journal of sorts is very useful, try to avoid filling your Book of Shadows with day to day information.

These are just a few pointers on laying out your own Book. I hope they help and make sense! If you want to get started filling your Book of Shadows with some wonderfully effective spells, please check out The Simple Spellcasting E-kit. This is a fantastic resource for anyone in The Craft, and it will take you spellcasting to the next level, for sure!

Thank you for taking the time to read my lenses today, and Blessed Be!

There are many ways to protect the knowledge and rituals contained within your book of shadows.

Some practitioners out there will tell you that writing in your Book of Shadows MUST be done with this or that certain kind of ink. This is just not true.... Write with whatever you are comfortable with. However, there are certain kinds of inks out there that lend certain attributes to your writing that you may enjoy or find useful.

The two most common magickal inks out there are Dove's Blood Ink and Dragon's Blood Ink. Don't worry!! No actual doves or dragons are harmed in the production these inks. They are both red in color, and the names are derived from certain botanical ingredients utilized in making the color. They are most commonly used to write out your desires while preforming certain magickal rites. It can be very striking to see an entire Book of Shadows written in one of these varieties, however.

Witches are crafty folk (pun intended) when it comes to writing down their rituals and spells in a hard copy version. In many Books of Shadows, you will find things written in code, shorthand, and what appears to be gibberish... In most cases, these are not nonsense, they serve a very definitive purpose. You see, you personal Book of Shadows is not something that you leave on the coffee table for your guest to peruse. Many times, there is information included in these books that you don't want every curious person to recognize at a glance. In fact, in the good ol' days, many witches kept their lists of botanical ingredients used for ritual in code. This code often took the form of items such as "adder's tongue" or "frog's eyes"or "wing of bat," etc. Thus began the grand misconception of what witches put into their bubbling cauldrons on a regular basis. Once people learned to not take these recipes quite so literally, then witches in general were much better off.

In fact, there are entire alphabets dedicated to magickal writing that will keep your rituals hidden from prying eyes. However, though the temptation may be great, I would discourage the use of these alphabets for information that you will refer to often. Unless of course, you understand your code as well as you read english....

Of course, you want to keeop your book of shadows safe. In addition to keeping it away from prying eyes, you can give your book a magickal boost as well; with a book blessing! These are genreally written inside the cover of the book, and serve to deter anyone who would want to take a peek at your wiritngs. One of my favorites that I use was actually written by Silver Ravenwolf, and goes a little something like this:

These words herein are mine alone
fashioned deep inside my bones
each picture, thought, and quote you see
are all reflections of what is me.
Beware the urge to take this book
or read itin some private nook
because its magick isn't blind
and I will know you've touched what;s mine.

This one is very simple, and can be used in conjunction with a more formal protection ritual. There are more elaborate and powerful protection rituals out there for your Book of Shadows, but it all depends on how much you want to ward your book.

Many ancient secrets have been kept in code, and have only recently been revealed to the rest of us. The Simple Spellcasting E-kit contains some very powerful information that one witch has decided to share with the rest of the world. In this resource, you can learn some very effective methods for casting some of the easiest and most powerful spells for almost anything you can think of!

Have a great rest of your day, and Blessed Be!