“…you may find, like I have, that it is almost impossible to capture some rituals and energy-workings in words. I mainly use the entries (in a Book of Shadows) to jog my memory.”
~ Yasmine Galenorn in her book Embracing the Moon
Your Book of Shadows (BoS) does not need to contain specific spells, recipes, or rituals. You can put anything in it you wish. Even if you feel that you may not need a BoS, it is important to keep at least a few notes. Most Witches find that their BoS is an essential and invaluable tool, particularly after being involved in the Craft for many years.
Most BoS contain ritual outlines, poetry, recipes, artwork, songs, chants, the Rede or other decision making guides, information about Sabbats, Gods & Goddesses, alphabets, symbols, sigils, correspondence charts, etc. These sections in a BoS are included in the outline in the previous lesson regarding your Spellbinder.
Your Spellbinder may be more like an active journal and recipe book of your day-to-day spiritual practices. It may contain logs of your meditations, or you may simply use it as a dream journal. No matter what you do with your Spellbinder, you may one day wish to create a more formal BoS.
A formal BoS (or what we will term here as your “Presentation BoS”) is the type of book you think of when you hear the words, Book of Shadows. Presentation books may be what you would teach others out of, the book you use during rituals, or the type of book you would take with you to more public gatherings. Most likely it would not contain the same type of dream and journal entries and will be a more formal presentation of your favorite classics in the Craft such as the Charge of the Goddess, rituals for Handfastings, blessins, protection, healing, ect., or information on your version of Sabbat and Esbat rituals.
Presentation books are sometimes prized possessions of covens and solitaries and are even becoming somewhat of a status symbol among Witches. This might not be the best development in the Craft, but there are many reasons that a presentation book can instill pride. Calligraphy and illuminations on parchment pages are a sign of the love and care a practitioner puts into their work. Simply creating your presentation book can be a form of relaxing meditation and spiritual experience, and it can help build self-esteem through your artistic or creative achievement.
A presentation book can also help create a ritualistic mood. There is much to be said regarding ‘props’ in rituals, particularly group rituals. A beautiful, intricate presentation book on the altar sets the mood of respect and honor for an entire ritual. Set and Setting, you will find, can influence many occasions.
What is Your Presentation Book Like?
Imagine a wise elder who lives in a cabin out in the woods. On the bookshelf of the cabin next to the fireplace, on the very tip-top shelf, the elder keeps a treasured Book of Shadows. You reach up and take the book down from the shelf. What does it look like? This is your Presentation BoS. You are the wise elder, the book is of your making.
You might think of your presentation book as a direct reflection of your style of Witchcraft, or as your gift to future generations. Of course, it is certainly not necessary to create a formal BoS. You may find your Spellbinder works perfectly for you and is flexible and casual. You may also choose an ornate Spellbinder adorned with latches, hinges, gemstones, or luxury binding, which will do double duty as a flexible three-ring binder (or screw-post scrapbook) and a formal presentation book.
Creating Your Presentation Book
Transferring pages from your Spellbinder to your Presentation BoS can be either very simple, or extremely difficult, depending on the format of the presentation book you use, and the amount of work you wish to do. “Scrapbooking” has become very popular in recent years and Witches can benefit from this popularity through easy access to custom papers, archival adhesives and inks, punches, and binders. Check locally and online for scrapbook and craft or hobby stores. Local and online vendors now carry a wide variety of BoS formats you can choose from, or you can make your own.
Examples of Presentation Book Methods
Amber: Amber and her daughter are Wiccan. Amber’s daughter is raising three children in the Craft so Amber intends to pass on her presentation BoS to her grandchildren. Amber enjoys book arts and creates her own paper out of herbs, silk, and cotton fiber. She adjusts the ph of her paper to be acid-free (ph 7 or higher). She has sewn the pages together in signatures and used traditional Italian marbled endpapers and leather binding.
When writing in her books, she uses acid-free, waterproof, fade-resistant pigment inks and wears cotton gloves to prevent smearing and the contamination of stains, acids, or oils from her hands onto the pages. She considers herself a ‘purist,’ and considers her Book of Shadows a labor of love and a direct reflection of her spirituality. She has dedicated her BoS to her patron Deities and feels that, as a monument or shrine, the creation of the book is a ritual in itself and done as a way to honor the Gods. As a form of meditation, dedication, and relaxation, she occasionally copies in calligraphy the best sections of her Spellbinder into her presentation book.
Occasionally she paints a watercolor illustration for her BoS and mounts it into her presentation book using archival quality adhesives. She stores her presentation BoS wrapped in glassine or various types of museum barrier sheets and places it in an archival storage box when not in use. Using these methods, she can be fairly certain that her presentation BoS will last a hundred years or more without deteriorating.
John: John loves old books, but isn’t quite as motivated in book arts as Amber! He also enjoys the flexibility of his Spellbinder, which allows him to add and remove pages, or reorganize as new pages are added. He writes most of his book using special ‘antique’ or ‘Old English’ style fonts in a word processing program, and occasionally includes clip art, woodcuts, and his own computer graphics. He then prints pages onto high-quality parchment paper suited to his inkjet printer (his printer brand uses archival inks). He binds the pages in a three-ring binder he made by mounting the 3-ring hardware clip onto wood boards. He then covered the boards with leather. In this way, he creates a Presentation BoS out of his Spellbinder, getting the best of both worlds.
Sara: Sara believes that any BoS she uses must be durable enough to take anywhere; hiking, to the beach, or into the kitchen. Sara purchases pre-bound blank books from art, craft, office, and book stores. Her favorite is the pebble-textured, black pre-bound sketch-type books from her art store. When she makes a mistake in her writing, she simply crosses it out. When she runs out of pages in her BoS, she simply switches to a new blank book and copies the important sections of the previous BoS into the new one. For Sara, her daily BoS or Spellbinder and her presentation BoS are one and the same and she regards them as diaries or journals. Sara uses her BoS more as a record of memoirs, relaxation therapy, and to help her sort her thoughts rather than an active reference tool with correspondences and recipes.
George: George used to have a Spellbinder and a presentation BoS but has since incorporated them into the same book. George works in a corporate office and enjoys working in his BoS during his lunch break. Of course, he doesn’t want to advertise the fact that he’s a Pagan, so he uses a zippered, leather-bound three-ring binder, or folio. This binder is very durable, but also discrete and fits easily into his briefcase.
Jona: Joan is proud of the fact that she is a vegetarian and feels that to live by her personal choices, she should not use leather products. She covered a second-hand binder with hemp fabric and painted it with vegetable dyes she created from plants she grew in pots. The first half of her book contains rituals she considers ‘tried and true’ along with her favorite poems, ritual songs, and recipes. She prints these from her computer like John but uses acid-free recycled paper. The second half of her book contains daily journal entries on recycled notebook paper.
Holly: Holly found the most amazing, green leather journal that just spoke to her sense of style and her focus in the Craft. It is small, so she can fit into her backpack or purse, and it has a Celtic knot hand-tooled on the cover. Within a month after she obtained it, she had filled all the pages, using it as a Spellbinder. However, her leather journal is actually a book cover for a pull-out blank book. She purchases refills at her local office supply store.
Eso: Eso uses a presentation portfolio sold in office supply stores as a Presentation Book. It has a rich textured black cover and holds 20 pages in protective clear plastic pouches. It is perfect for taking with him to rituals as it is small, lightweight, and weather/spill-proof. It also folds open to create its own bookstand from the cover which works perfectly for hands-free rituals. When he has outlined a ritual for his group in his Spellbinder, he simply removes the pertinent pages from his Spellbinder and temporarily stores them in the portfolio for the group ritual. When he returns home from the ritual, he puts the pages back into his Spellbinder and makes a few notes about how the ritual went over with the group. In this way, his Spellbinder remains private, and his Presentation BoS is infinitely flexible.
Summary:
Your Presentation BoS and Spellbinder may be one and the same, or you may wish to create a special Presentation BoS like Amber, without all the experimental and journal notes of your Spellbinder. You may find that your BoS changes with you, for example, you might start out with journals and pre-bound books, change to a small and portable day-runner type organizer and then switch to simple notebooks. Whatever you decide, the whole point of this section is for you to learn some of the many ways to make your BoS special, unique, and very much YOU. Because you will grow and change, I recommend that you choose a flexible system of some sort.
Keep In Mind When Designing Your BoS
1. Find out what you really need to have in your BoS before spending time creating a formal Presentation Book style and before spending much money. To do this, keep a Spellbinder type system and find out what you use most.
2. Consider whether you need your BoS to be with you during rituals or while making recipes. Do you need plastic sheet protectors? Do you need your book to be angled on a book stand? Does your book lie flat? (many pre-bound books don’t.) There are easel binders that are like a three-ring binder, except the cover folds out at the bottom to create its own easel. These are convenient, but the hinges do eventually wear out.
3. How long will your chosen BoS system last? How long does it need to last?
4. What appeals to you the most?
Assignment
Review the summary of things to consider when deciding on a BoS, if any. Continue utilizing your Spellbinder and keep in mind what form of organization suits your needs. You may create a Presentation BoS from your current Spellbinder as you continue through the lessons by decorating the cover, or you may wish to transfer everything to a special three-ring binder such as a decorative photo album. This assignment is ongoing as your BoS will grow and change with you. Think carefully before you spend too much time or money, and have fun!