Best method for a Book of Shadows

Wow. Love that book @christina4! That’s great!

6 Likes

Love that book, the best part is hearing the pages crinkle as you flip through. I think it’s one of that satisfying sounds for me lol.

7 Likes

I made one with wooden covers once but it ended up falling apart.
It just wasn’t that durable. So I have many composite books. Plus loose leave binders.

7 Likes

Bryce, I thought I was the only one using page covers, It put me into a second binder but worth it.

8 Likes

@Garnet i use page covers too lol

7 Likes

Page cover users unite!

7 Likes

@Garnet we can have our own support group :joy::joy:

8 Likes

I use page covers in mine too

6 Likes

Figured I’d do a updated book of shadows preview, life has been crazy. I’ve had some time to work on my book. I went to a scrapbook style, bought card stock and aged the pages. Felt a little more my style! :slight_smile:



15 Likes

@bryce your book looks great. Glad you got some time to work on it and make it your style

8 Likes

Great job! I’m happy you found your Book of Shadows in your own way.

6 Likes

Thank you @crystal24, for extra aging effect I was thinking about burning the edges. :slight_smile:

5 Likes

Thanks @Susurrus, it’s been a fun creative process. :slight_smile:

6 Likes

Oh that would look awesome.

6 Likes

@bryce
What About a Box of Shadows?

After using a 3D ring binder for many years I can honestly say, I don’t like using them at all. The reasons are they don’t last very long before the plastic splits and breaks and makes the thing look unappealing and the clamp becomes misaligned and becomes too difficult to remove and replace pages where I want them. The clamp section becomes rusty, dusty, and difficult to clean because everything needs to be removed before doing so. I have found a much better way to keep my rituals, spells, and things that go into an order of service that make up my own rituals. I experimented with a file box that’s designed to hold CDs, which has a cover, so dust isn’t an issue, you just wipe down the outside, but the contents remain dirt and dust free. The file dividers are made from the cardboard of cereal or cracker packets, so they are repurposed. I measured the size cards and dividers I would need and found some commercially available ones that were the same size or a little larger than what I needed. I glued some nice wrapping paper onto my divider cards and labelled them to my required categories which are:

  1. Magickal Rules & Principles
  2. Circle Creation & Dismantling
  3. Invocations
  4. Cleansing, Consecration & Blessing
  5. Sabbats & Esbats
  6. Spells
  7. Correspondences
  8. Blank Cards

The categories were determined by how many DVD dividers slotted into the bottom of the box which in my case were seven so there were eight spaces with the last space for blank cards. I found some rather nice, coloured cards available from the local newsagent that will go through my printer and realised when I cut them in half, they fitted perfectly in the file box and used these for the decorative pentacle with my magickal name, box blessing and date it was begun.

When a ritual or spell covers more than multiple cards, this is no problem, just stick them together with clear tape so the card folds together just like a concertina door. This uses up far less altar space and the ritual or spell is easy to follow. Formatting the cards on your computer is easy to do and is dependent on your printer’s capability to print cards. Once your card template is setup on your computer in the Book of Shadows card file your ready to go with transferring your favourite information onto them. I usually dedicate a specific font for heading throughout the one file box so it’s easy to differentiate between this and another file box. You can have multiple Boxes of Shadows which stack and look neat wherever they are.

I have one dedicated to the Gardnerian style of rituals etc… and another for the Our Lady of Enchantment Seminary of Wicca by Lady Sabrina. There is a dedicated Magickal Recipe Box with green cards containing the following categories:

Bath
Blends
Blessings
Brews
Cleaning
Incense
Oils 
Other
Powders
Spells
Sprays
Washes
Waters

The Magickal Recipe Box has served me for years and still does and it’s easy to look back and see how my recipes and herbal practices have changed through the years. Every speck of information no matter what box is used for contains a sources cited section so that I know from where my inspiration and/or information came from so I can go back and review and see if I feel the same way about it years later. A wooden box does feel more traditional to me but then it needs to be oiled or varnished and is susceptible to the humidity where I live, and the cards would be affected too. Plastic is not great, but it does the job. The sky’s the limit when deciding what kind of box to use and decorating it is so much fun. Want to cleanse and bless your box of shadows? Check out the book Spell Crafts: Creating Magical Objects by Scott Cunningham & David Harrington (Llewellyn Publications, 2010) Chapter Twenty Spell Boxes p145-154.

12 Likes

@bryce Here are some photos of My Box of Shadows



Hopefully this post gives another option for busy witches!

18 Likes

That is a great idea! I have a “witchy box” in my room next to my bed. I keep my Books of Shadows under the bed by my nightstand. I love that you have a system like this that works for you. Very good idea & way to keep things organized for quick access!

6 Likes

It looks fantastic, I love it!

6 Likes

That is bad (butt) [I used to think the censors were everywhere, and then I realized they just follow me around, lol] Also, thanks for that book reference!

6 Likes

I have my book of shadows all on google drive because I hate writing stuff. I just type everything in google documents and create folders for different categories. It’s all online.

8 Likes