My Book of Shadows

©Eileen Holland, all rights reserved
www.open-sesame.com

What does an actual witch's Book of Shadows look like?
We witches are each unique individuals, so our books all look different.
These images are pages (well, half-pages, because it's a huge book)  from my Book of Shadows. I started writing it while I lived in Egypt, where I began the research that would later form the basis of The Wicca Handbook, as well as for my other books-in-progress.
The material that you will find here was drawn from many sources.
The actual grimoire is written in very tiny handwriting. Even so, the information that I collected long ago overspilled the Book. That was when I got my first computer. Most of us keep Craft information on computers nowadays. This makes organization and retrieval easier, but no computer can match the magick of a witch's handwritten grimoire.
If you are a new witch who is wondering what you should put in your Book of Shadows, here is your answer: put whatever you like in it, whatever is important to you, or seems like useful information to you. You will probably notice white-out and crosshatching in my BoS, along with the notes, sketches, dried herbs, symbols, photographs, and so on. Making changes in a BoS in no way affects the potency of its magick. You may also notice some Arabic in my Book because I was writing it in Egypt, but you will not find things there which do not interest me, such as magickal alphabets. As I have said, we witches are each unique individuals, so our Books all look different.
Your Book of Shadows should not look like mine.
It should reflect your interests, and your glorious individuality.

These pages are from the Correspondences section of my Book:
Magick
Protection
Wheel of the Year
Shri Yantra
These pages are from the Materia section:
D herbs, page one
D herbs, page two
Rose
I took the photo of the rose garden in Morocco, at a small auberge in the Atlas Mountains. Its scent was overwhelmingly heady in the dry air, as it absolutely assaulted the senses. No one can deny the magickal power of roses after experiencing such a garden.