This page is information for making a Book Of Shadows (BOS) of your own. Some people like to use Ring binders for their BOS, as they can fill it with pretty paper and move things around when they need to. Some people use exercise books with lines and cover the covers with pretty material.  Some peple use unlined blank books and write everything with fancy writing. Some people bind their own books from parchment paper. Some people use computer disks.  A "Book Of Shadows" can be anything. The BOS should contain all the Magickal information you need.  Herbal lore, Spells, Information, Rituals and so on.  You can include blank pages to write down ideas and how things have gone, or you might like to have a separate book to use as a journal to write down thoughts. While it would be great to receive a handwritten Book Of Shadows from a family member as a welcome to the craft, unfortunately many of us find Witchcraft from books, the Internet or other sources and have to make our own BOS.  You could start to make a fancy one which can be used to pass down through future generations, or you can just make something that works for you.  The choice is yours. There are many different ways to set up your BOS, like there are many different types of people in the world, we are all individual, and our BOS reflect this.  There is no right or wrong way to set it out, and it will probably change several times as you grow and learn more things.

Some people inlude all Magickal information, spells, rituals etc. in the same book, some people have separate books.  Some people also have their BOS as a type of journal, and write about every ritual and spell they perform, so that they can look back on that at a later stage to get idead or work out what went wrong.  I personally only write on one side of each page, this leaves the opposite side for me to write any comments or adjustments I feel I need to make as I try them out.

• a pack of pretty paper (such as parchment paper, textured or coloured paper) as big as you want your BOS to be (you can buy a pack of plain photocopy paper if you want a cheaper alternative).
• A piece of heavy cardboard.
• Thick material to cover the book with.
• Glue (I have seen instructions using a glue gun, but I guess you can use any glue).
• A paintbrush.
• Thin material (such as net or chiffon)
• Herbs of your choice - dried
• 2 Phone books or other heavy books.

You can either have blank pages, or print things out on them first.  When you are satisfied that the cover will work, cover the front of the cover with the heavy cloth (sticking it in place with glue).  Once that has dried lay it out flat on a table.  Glue 2 pieces of the thin material onto the inside cover, one on the front cover, and one on the back.  Glue it ONLY around the top, bottom and side edges - not the centre where the spine is.  When the glue is dry, fill the pockets you have created with the herbs and then seal the open edges.  When they are dry Place the pages on what will be the back cover, making sure they are all aligned properly.  Apply the glue to the spine of the book, and using a paintbrush, make sure you apply glue onto the edge of each sheet of paper. Move the cover or the pages so that they are touching eachother - making sure each sheet is aligned correctly, and place a phone book behind the spine (to keep it fitting hard against the papers) and one on the top.  Leave it this way until it has properly dried.

Hopefully...... your BOS is now ready, and each page should be stuck in, and every time you open your BOS a beautiful herbal scent should waft out... making a truly magickal experience!  You will have to be careful that you don't open each page too fully, or the glue might not hold them in place.

Using pretty paper will also make your printed out information look special, and you can either make it into a BOS (see above instructions) or put them into a nicely covered Ring Binder.

The way I make ink is to buy a big glass jar with a fliptop lid.  Into that I add:
 

• 1 bottle of red wine (you could use vodka if you don't want red or the smell).
• 1/2 a cup of coffee grounds (not instant coffee).
• The tea leaves from 10 tea bags.
• 1/4 cup of chipped Cinnamon quills.
• 1/8 cup of cloves.
• 2 tsp Dragon's Blood powder.
• 1 tsp Frankincense granules.
• 1 tsp Tumeric powder

I then add water soluable colurings (that you buy to colour soaps and bath crystals etc.) until I get the colour I want.  If you want to use a natural colourant, try using beetroot juice (it will make reddish purple)

You can also add Rose Water and other floral waters to make a fragrant ink.  (It will smell like coffee and wine otherwise)
 
 

This isn't the best way to set out your BOS, not very special :)  but it is simply the way I found worked best for me.  I personally have a few BOS's.... a book version, a ring binder version, a ritual version and a computer version. I am a total slob.... but some things I like to be in complete order, and my books and BOS are some things that I need to have very organised :)

Book version
This is in 6 different A5 (half a normal exercise book) size books: a spell book, a ritual book, a herbal book, an information book, a symbol book and a dictionary book.  I have stuck several exercise books together to make a thick book for each one.  I have each one about half filled now.

I just write in blue pen, but the covers are fancy material and I have glued satin ribbon into the spine, so that I can bookmark up to 6 pages at a time.  I chose A5 size because it is easy to fit on the Altar.  I have them in seperate books to help me find information I am looking for.  I have coloured the covers differently to avoid confusion

My aim is to one day make a "proper" version with nicely printed pages in a hand-bound book... one day...

Ring Binder
These are normal size ring binders, holding pages of information that I have downloaded off the internet, and a few hand written rituals that are too long to put in the smaller BOS (they would take up many pages).  I have covered the folder with velvet, and stuck parchment paper on the inside covers.  The pages are all in plastic pockets to protect them and are arranged into sections

Ritual folder
This is a black A5 ring binder that has my basic ritual chants and things in it, in plastic pockets that I take into my rituals as a type of "cheat sheet" in case I forget something (or to give to newbies in my coven to read from).  I can add pages or take some pages out as needed.

Computer version
This is some of my own stuff I have typed up and saved, and also information I've collected from mailing lists and other places.   I have 1 folder marked "Book Of Shadows" which contains many other folders - so all my information is categorised into sections to make finding things easier.