Historically speaking, the Book of Shadows (BoS) is a fairly recent innovation in Wicca. It is a written record of the seasonal rituals, moon celebrations, rites of passage and esoteric knowledge of a Witch or coven. Wiccan knowledge and lore has been primarily oral until the last half of the twentieth century. The vast majority of our Pagan ancestors were illiterate and would have been unable to keep written records, sharing their wisdom, our history and lore instead by mouth in teaching, story and song. This is not to say that Wicca as a whole is simply a twentieth century invention - we do have roots, lore and practices reaching back into the shadows of history - we just haven't written it down until recently!
That said, the Book of Shadows is a very useful, if relatively new, tool in Wiccan practice. We modern Pagans are not as skilled as our bardic ancestors at memorizing long poems, invocations and rituals so it is very nice to have them handy in an easily accessible written format.
Most people today use two Books of Shadows. One contains the rituals for each of the Sabbats as well as rituals performed to mark important passages in life such as birth and blessing rituals, marriage/handfasting rituals, initiatory rituals, death and release rituals plus Full and New Moon ceremonies. If you work in a group, generally the coven itself will have its own BoS with all of the above rituals plus records of individual initiations and other important events. You, the individual coven member will have your own primary BoS as well.
The second BoS is more of a magickal diary and recipe book. This BoS records the magickal spells performed (as well as their results), meditations, visions, poetry, the answers to divinations, incense recipes, medicinal herb recipes, drawings, dreams and any other information deemed worth saving.
You can use anything you can write in for your BoS, including a spiral bound notebook, but a hard bound, blank paged sketch-type book will be longer lasting. You can find these at art supply stores (usually they are conveniently bound in black) and then decorate the cover yourself with acrylic or model car paint if you like. There are also blank books available with the words "Book of Shadows" or magickal symbols already printed on the cover. Also available are leather covered journals which contain a blank book inside. The blank book inside is removable and so can be replaced with a new blank book to begin writing in once the first one is full.
It is traditional to hand-write your BoS and it's very important that you write legibly and in large writing since you will be reading from your BoS by candlelight in a dark room or outside at night for the most part. While it might seem romantic to write in your BoS by quill, it will probably be easier to read later if you write with a ball point or Sharpie. Just be sure your pages are thick enough that a Sharpie doesn't bleed through to the other side of the page. You could use a calligraphy pen to write the title of your rituals if you want to add a little artistic flair and esoteric flavor to the look of your writings. If you do most of your workings in a solitary fashion, you may want a book that lies flat when open so that you can lay it on your altar while you light candles and such without having to fumble with finding your place in the book or you can have a book holder (like a recipe book holder) that keeps the book standing up, open and available for reference without having to use your hands to keep your place.
When not in use, you may wish to wrap your Book of Shadows in silk along with a writing utensil that you have blessed for its specific purpose and keep them with the rest of your magickal tools. Cleanse and bless your Book of Shadows on a Wednesday, waxing moon in Aquarius, Gemini or Virgo.
BOOKS & GIFTS
