A Book of Shadows is a witch's personal working book: the spells, rituals, correspondences, and records of one practitioner, written in their own hand. The name comes from Wicca in the mid-twentieth century, but the book itself is whatever you make it, and today witches of every path keep one. This guide covers what a Book of Shadows is, where the idea came from, what goes in one, thirty page ideas, and how to start yours this week.
What Is a Book of Shadows?
A Book of Shadows, often shortened to BoS, is the book where a witch keeps their practice. At its simplest it's a notebook with a few spells in it. At its fullest it's a lifetime's record: the rituals you do for each sabbat, the herbs and stones you work with and why, the deities or spirits you honor, the spells you've cast and what came of them, and the questions you're still sitting with.
Two things make it a Book of Shadows rather than a reference book. It's yours, written and assembled by you. And it's a working book, meant to be opened at the altar rather than admired on a shelf.
Where the Book of Shadows Comes From
The Book of Shadows is younger than most people assume. When Gerald Gardner brought modern Wicca into the open in England in the late 1940s and 1950s, its rituals, initiations, and laws were kept in a handwritten Book of Shadows that each initiate copied by hand from their initiator. Gardner's book drew on older material, including ceremonial magic and Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, and much of it was rewritten in the 1950s by his High Priestess Doreen Valiente, who gave it the poetry it's known for.
The name itself may
have been borrowed. Valiente later recalled Gardner seeing a 1949 magazine article about a Sanskrit divination manual called the Book of Shadows and liking the phrase. Whatever the source, it stuck. Gardnerian and later Alexandrian covens still pass their books down initiate to initiate, and those books are oathbound: shared within the tradition, best learned from practitioners within it.Then two things happened. Wicca spread beyond initiatory covens, and solitary practitioners began writing their own books from published sources. And in 1998 the television series Charmed put a Book of Shadows in every episode, a great leather tome in the attic with a triquetra on the cover. That image is why half the blank books sold to witches today look the way they do, and why the phrase is known far outside Wicca.
Today "Book of Shadows" means a personal book of practice, Wiccan or not. Some traditional Wiccans keep the term for the initiatory book and call their personal one something else. Everyone else uses it freely.
Book of Shadows vs. Grimoire
A grimoire is a book of magical instructions, a term that goes back to medieval France and covers texts from the Key of Solomon to a modern spell collection. A Book of Shadows is a witch's personal working book, and it usually contains a grimoire section along with a great deal else: journal entries, ritual scripts, dreams, drafts, and doubts. Think of the grimoire as the reference half and the Book of Shadows as the whole book.
In practice, witches use whichever word their tradition or their bookshelf gave them. Wiccans and those influenced by Wicca say Book of Shadows. Ceremonial magicians and many folk and traditional witches say grimoire. Nobody is wrong.
What Goes in a Book of Shadows
There's no required table of contents, which is both the freedom and the difficulty. These are the sections that appear in most books.
- A dedication or opening page. Who you are, when you began, what you intend. Some witches add a blessing or a protective symbol.
- Your path. Wiccan, eclectic, hedge, kitchen, green, traditional. Our guide to types of witches can help you name it, and you're allowed to change the page later.
- Ethics. For Wiccans, the Wiccan Rede. For everyone, the lines you won't cross.
- Deities, spirits, and ancestors. Who you work with, their days, their offerings, what you've learned from them.
- The Wheel of the Year. A page per sabbat with correspondences, what you do, and what you ate. A page per esbat if you keep the full moons.
- Correspondences. Herbs, stones, colors, planets, days, elements. Our candle color meanings and herb dictionary are the kind of reference that gets copied here.
- Tools. Your athame, wand, cauldron, and how each was cleansed and consecrated.
- Ritual scripts. Casting a circle, calling quarters, opening and closing, in the words you actually use.
- Spells. Written step by step, with source, timing, materials, and words.
- Symbols and sigils. The symbols you use and what they mean to you, plus sigils you've made.
- Divination. Tarot and oracle meanings in your words, rune notes, dream symbols.
- Recipes. Oils, incense, teas, baths, and kitchen witchery, with amounts.
- Records. The spell journal section: what you did and what came of it. Most books skip this. Don't.
How to Make a Book of Shadows
- Pick a format you'll open. A three-ring binder is the most forgiving: you can reorder, add printed pages, and start over on a page without tearing anything out. A bound book feels more like the real thing and suits a witch who already knows their sections. A digital book is searchable. Our journals and Books of Shadows collection has bound and leather options if you want the tome.
- Write the first page. Your name or craft name, the date, and one sentence about why. Nothing else. A first page is the hardest, so make it small.
- Choose three sections to start. Correspondences, one sabbat or moon page, and a journal are plenty. The rest arrive as you need them.
- Copy what you use, not what you find. Pinterest will offer you a thousand pages. Write down only the herbs, cards, and spells you've actually worked with. The book fills faster than you'd think.
- Cite everything. Next to any spell or correspondence you copied, note where it came from. Books get passed down, and your future reader will want to know.
- Add the record. After each working, a page for what you did and what came of it. This is the part that makes the book yours rather than a scrapbook of other people's magic.
- Consecrate it if you like. Some witches cleanse the book with smoke or salt, bless it at the full moon, or keep a protective sigil inside the cover. Ours is a simple one: a pinch of salt in the spine, and the book left on the altar through a full moon night.
- Read it back at each new moon. This is where you see which pages you've worn out and which you've never opened.
30 Book of Shadows Page Ideas
For the blank page problem. Pick any five and the book has started.
- Your craft name and what it means
- A drawing of your altar, labeled
- The moon phases and what you do in each
- Your birth chart, or just your Sun, Moon, and rising
- A page for each of the four elements
- The Wheel of the Year as a circle you can add to
- Your favorite protection symbol and its history
- A herb you grow, with its uses
- A stone you carry, with why
- Candle colors and the last spell you used each for
- A dream that keeps coming back
- Your first tarot deck and its interview spread
- The three cards you pull most, and what they've meant
- Your household's folk customs, the ones you grew up with
- A recipe that feels like magic to you
- A cleansing routine for your space
- A page of signs and synchronicities, added to over time
- Your own definitions of ten craft words
- The deity or spirit you feel drawn to, and what you've read
- A ritual you wrote yourself
- A spell that worked, with the record
- A spell that didn't, with what you'd change
- Your ethics, in your own words
- A bibliography of the books that shaped you
- Pressed flowers or leaves from a place that matters
- A map of your walking route and what you notice on it
- Words spoken at a threshold: doors, new years, first frosts
- What you'd like the book to hold in ten years
- A letter to the witch who inherits it
- A blank page you promise to leave blank
Should a Book of Shadows Be Secret?
In initiatory Wicca, yes. The coven's book is oathbound and copied only by initiates, and that privacy is part of the tradition rather than a rule to argue with. It's best learned from practitioners within those covens.
For a solitary witch's personal book, it's your call. Many witches keep theirs private simply because it holds dreams, doubts, and the names of people they've worked for. Others share pages freely and run entire blogs out of them. A middle path is common: a public grimoire section and a private journal section, in the same binder with a divider between.
Digital, Binder, or Bound?
A binder is the most practical Book of Shadows, especially early on. Pages move, sections grow, and printed sheets sit alongside handwritten ones. Our free Journal Pages & Printables were designed for exactly this: a Daily Practice Page, a Tarot Journal Page, and a Spell Journal Page, each one a fillable PDF you can print for the binder or use on a tablet.
A bound book is the tradition and the feeling. It can be consecrated, kept on the altar, and handed down. The trade-off is that mistakes stay, and sections can't be reordered. Many witches keep a binder as the working draft and copy the pages they're sure of into a bound book once a year.
A digital book is searchable, backed up, and always with you. It's also the easiest to forget about, because it lives behind a lock screen instead of on the table next to the candles. If you go digital, print the pages that matter.
Book of Shadows FAQ
What is a Book of Shadows?
A Book of Shadows is a witch's personal book of practice: spells, rituals, correspondences, and records, written and assembled by the practitioner. The term comes from Wicca in the 1950s, and today witches of every path use it.
Who created the Book of Shadows?
Gerald Gardner, the founder of modern Wicca, assembled the first Book of Shadows in England in the late 1940s and 1950s, drawing on older ceremonial and folk material. Doreen Valiente rewrote much of it. Initiates copied the book by hand, which is the origin of the handwritten tradition.
What is the difference between a Book of Shadows and a grimoire?
A grimoire is a book of magical instructions from any period or tradition. A Book of Shadows is a witch's personal working book, which usually contains a grimoire section plus journals, rituals, and records. In everyday use the words overlap, and which one you say mostly depends on your tradition.
Does a Book of Shadows have to be handwritten?
No. Handwriting is traditional and helps things stick, but a typed, printed, or digital book is still a Book of Shadows. Many witches mix all three in one binder.
What should the first page of a Book of Shadows be?
Something small: your name or craft name, the date you began, and a sentence about why. A blessing or a protective symbol if you like. The first page is the hardest, so don't make it carry the whole book.
Is a Book of Shadows only for Wiccans?
No. The name comes from Wicca, and some traditional Wiccans reserve it for the initiatory book, but witches of every path keep a personal Book of Shadows today. If the name doesn't fit your practice, "grimoire" is the older, broader word.
Can I buy a Book of Shadows?
You can buy a blank book made for one, and you can buy published books that use the title. The Book of Shadows that matters is the one you write. Published books are sources to copy from and cite.
