Also called grimoire, BOS, witch's notebook, spell book
A Book of Shadows is a witch's handwritten book of rituals, spells and notes, a term that began with Gerald Gardner's Wicca around 1950. A grimoire is the older name for a book of magic, from the medieval and early modern manuals of conjuration. Today both words describe a personal working journal.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Keep candles well away from paper while writing or dedicating the book. Note the sources of herbal recipes and check any herb for toxicity before using it on skin or in food.
Gardner's earliest working notebook is known as Ye Bok of ye Art Magical. His coven's text grew into the Book of Shadows, revised with Doreen Valiente, who rewrote parts such as the Charge of the Goddess. Initiates copy it by hand from their teacher and add to it.
Books such as the Key of Solomon and the Lesser Key of Solomon gave detailed instructions for tools, circles, seals and the summoning of spirits. They were copied by hand, later printed cheaply, and spread to cunning folk and readers across Europe and the Americas.
Village healers kept small notebooks of charms, cures and astrological notes copied from printed almanacs and grimoires. These practical manuscripts are closer to most modern Books of Shadows than the grand ceremonial grimoires.
Grimoire is usually traced to the French grammaire, grammar, since a book of Latin learning seemed close to sorcery to ordinary people. Medieval and Renaissance grimoires, such as the Key of Solomon, set out how to make tools, draw circles and call spirits. Printing spread cheap versions, and by the 18th and 19th centuries grimoires were sold to cunning folk, treasure hunters and curious readers across Europe and the Americas, as historian Owen Davies has shown.
Book of Shadows is much newer. Gerald Gardner did not use the phrase in his 1949 novel High Magic's Aid. Doreen Valiente later said he took it from a 1949 issue of The Occult Observer, where an article titled 'The Book of Shadows' by the palmist Mir Bashir sat near an advert for his novel. Gardner's coven text, revised with Valiente in the 1950s, became the core of British Traditional Wicca. Solitary witches since the 1970s have adopted the name for any personal book of practice.
A Wiccan working gathering held on the full moon, separate from the eight seasonal sabbats, for magic, healing work and honoring the Goddess.
A safe first spell uses a single candle, a bowl of salt water and one clear intention to teach the basic pattern of most folk magic: cleanse, focus, act, and let go. This page also covers how to start practising sensibly and ethically.
An athame is a double-edged, usually black-handled ritual knife used in Wicca and modern witchcraft to direct energy, cast and close a circle, and bless the chalice. It is a symbolic tool, traditionally never used to cut anything physical.
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