The answer to both questions is the same - their Book Of Shadows.... This is their bible. It should have all the information they need in it. Where do you buy this book, you ask or which one should I buy - since there are several on the market. This not a book to buy - it is a book to create.
How do I create a Book Of Shadows?? This is where it can get fun.
In some Trads once you become a member of a Coven you are shown the Covens Book Of Shadows - which you must hand copy into your Book Of Shadows. You are also told the lineage of the Book Usually going all the way back to the founder of the Trad. Knowing the lineage will help you if you join another Coven within the Trad that has a Book with another lineage.
But what if you are not part of a Trad that does this - where does it come from?? YOU.. If you are in a ritual - place it in you BOS. If copies are given out, use this (or copy it). Or at worse write it as you remember it. You are writing this for you - so don't worry about how other people view it - just can you redo the ritual with what you have written. Within time you will have rituals for many different events. You can also place in it rituals that you write yourself - just notates if you have done them or not.
The same thing with any spells you do. Put a copy of them in here and have a note if they worked or not and if they didn't why you feel they didn't. Again you can write the spell or it can be a spell written for the group to us.
One thing it is not is a spell collectable book. You don't go on the Internet finding spells to fill your BOS. Besides being a waste of time - it makes your BOS into something cheap. (This doesn't mean if you see someplace a spell you really like leaving it out - put it in and make a note of who wrote it and where you found it.)
**Every so often on a mailing list you will see a post where someone is upset - they lost there BOS. But the reason they are upset is all the spells in it that they copied off the Internet - all this time it's going to take looking them back up!!!.... My message to them is, take the hint, start over and this time make it YOU not a stranger that writes the spells**
Another thing you will want in your BOS and that is the LAWS. Now this will very from person to person. All should have the REDE and Three-Fold Law - but beyond this it's going to change from person to person. There are many laws within Wicca and besides the Rede and Three Fold Law not all are followed. There are also laws governing Magick. Make sure you find which ones you feel you are going to follow and include it in your BOS. Don't put a law in, if you are not going to follow it, just because you found it and it says its a Wiccan Law.
Now you can also have poems and recipes in your BOS. Information on Herbs, Stones, Color, Moon Phases, incense, candles and so on. You can have information on how to make tools, robes, jewelry, brews, candles and so on. Anything you feel you may need if it was the only book you had. You can have your history as a Witch or of your Coven. Information on dreams. As you can see, there can be a lot of information in it. Include drawings and photos. Whenever you get something from an outside source and you know what it is - make a note of it.
From your reading you can see there are more than just the BOS you can have that you write yourself. You can have you dream journal and a personal journal or it can all be put into your BOS.
One last thing - Don't make it into a game. It is not to see who can get the most into a BOS. Make it into your most important tool. Something you will grab for when you are planning on doing something. It has spells that have worked for you in the past in it. It has the information you need.
Now what do you use for your BOS? Leather bound parchment - at one time this was what a BOS should be written on, and I’ve seen some that are a work of art. The ones I’ve seen have also been handmade. Today you will see BOS in blank books (in fact you can purchase form New Age stores BOS blank books), Spiral notebooks, loose leaf note book and hard drives. Use what works best for you. The Magick isn’t in what the book is made of, but what it says.
DISCUSSION:
1. Type of book you use or will use and what you want in your Book of Shadows.
2. Why do you feel that the Book of Shadows is important to a Witch - why will it be important to you.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is a personal Journal?
2. What is a dream journal?
3. What is a Book of Shadows?
