What is a Book of Shadows?
Throughout history witches and wizards have valued their spell books. It is far more than a simple compilation of mystical recipes for health, prosperity, love and other daily needs, it is a preserved tradition. It will provide instructions, personal insights and may contain a collection of good advice in one neat package. A good spell book will contain everything necessary to walk the path skillfully, confidently and wisely.
In the modern world, many Pagans and Wiccans have come “out of the closet” and have begun to share their cultural traditions and personal paths. They have started to rebuild sacred books and assemble books of shadows that reveal the essence of Wiccans as they live and worship in today’s reality.
Why is it called a book of shadows? Magical energy works between this world and the next, between light and dark, between sounds and silence. This power flows through the shadows, marking the border between what we know and what is the infinite possibilities of the universe. We can find the spark of magic somewhere between yesterday and forever. We can translate that experience and energy into word.
People need a certain amount of basic information to cast successful spells, to enact potent rituals, to design effective meditations and to generally understand the modern magical life.
A book of shadows is a very important form of record keeping. Not every witch has always had a book of shadows. The argument that many old religion witches were illiterate and could not have kept written records. This assumption is not entirely true. Take into consideration to magickal alphabets like the runes. You could write a whole book in runes. Learning to read and write could have been part of coven training. Everything was secret to begin with so who is to say if they really knew how to read or write.
However magickal record keeping got its name or how it was done, to you it will be the most important set of journals that you keep.
What goes into a Book of Shadows?
It should be an accurate record of all the magickal hands on things that you do. It should hold research information, facts and figures on subject such as elements, herbs, crystals, astrology, things like that. You could have words of inspiration, insights, or the beginning of your web weaving. You may write affirmations as well. And of course, the spells and rituals you use and their results.
In any magickal endeavor, accurate record keeping is important. Who knows your book of shadows may be a family heirloom a hundred years from now!
In the modern world, many Pagans and Wiccans have come “out of the closet” and have begun to share their cultural traditions and personal paths. They have started to rebuild sacred books and assemble books of shadows that reveal the essence of Wiccans as they live and worship in today’s reality.
Why is it called a book of shadows? Magical energy works between this world and the next, between light and dark, between sounds and silence. This power flows through the shadows, marking the border between what we know and what is the infinite possibilities of the universe. We can find the spark of magic somewhere between yesterday and forever. We can translate that experience and energy into word.
People need a certain amount of basic information to cast successful spells, to enact potent rituals, to design effective meditations and to generally understand the modern magical life.
A book of shadows is a very important form of record keeping. Not every witch has always had a book of shadows. The argument that many old religion witches were illiterate and could not have kept written records. This assumption is not entirely true. Take into consideration to magickal alphabets like the runes. You could write a whole book in runes. Learning to read and write could have been part of coven training. Everything was secret to begin with so who is to say if they really knew how to read or write.
However magickal record keeping got its name or how it was done, to you it will be the most important set of journals that you keep.
What goes into a Book of Shadows?
It should be an accurate record of all the magickal hands on things that you do. It should hold research information, facts and figures on subject such as elements, herbs, crystals, astrology, things like that. You could have words of inspiration, insights, or the beginning of your web weaving. You may write affirmations as well. And of course, the spells and rituals you use and their results.
In any magickal endeavor, accurate record keeping is important. Who knows your book of shadows may be a family heirloom a hundred years from now!
Blessed Be
Fairy Star
technorati tags:wicca, information, book, of, shadows, what, is, it
posted by Fairy Star @ 12:08 PM
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