book_of_shadows iNsEcUrE_GoTh_GiRl I'm currently creating my first proper BOS, i tried before but, to cut a long story short, this is the first proper one i've done. Are there any tips that any skites feel like sharing, if any of you guys have your own BOS? I've researched it all on the net, so i have a basic framework in mind, but i don't want it to be composed of cold words and impersonal formalities. I want it to be fun and a reflection of me and my experiences, not just a pretty and decorative shallow thing. If anyone has anything to say that would help, please say. Both my parents are strict Christians and so everything i do on this, although it's sad, has to be secret, because they don't accept this as my choice but a phase that i will grow out of. Just like bisexuality, lol. but hey. maybe they're right. but not at the moment, and i'm having problems working around their religious intolerence. So there it is. I turn to you guys for anything you can offer me. waits hopefully. 050714 ... andru235 avoid malicious incantations! "books of thoth," as some call this type of thing, "cannot be used for inherently evil purposes." be aware of symbols, particularily, what *you* associate with a symbol, not what someone else associates, nor what some book tells you to associate. a musician and an accountant react very differently to a " # ". a gamer sees a tic-tac-toe board. if your intent is to create something evil, you'll be disappointed. on a hot day, hours of walking in the meadows make the shadow of a shade tree very, very good. and while it is good to snuggle with your lover in the morning light, it is *grand* to snuggle with your lover in the dark of the night (not that i've verified this in the past few years...). anyway, symbols are usually fluid, and relative. thus the inability of such scripts to produce evil. indeed, even evil is a relative thing. as with any rituals - be they mystic, or catholic, or islamic, or hindu, or animist, or something personal - remember that malevolence is a boomerang! (of course, benevolence is also often a boomerang.) and of course, do not conform to the rituals of others any more than you would conform to the [insert cultural aspect here] of others. for as many of your blathes as i have read, it is always difficult to know who conforms to what degree and with regards to what. (though i tend to twitch at the mention of conformity, it is merely a prejudice and a hypocrisy of mine; conformity, like all things, has pros and cons.) the most effective path is to follow your artistic instinct, an instinct you have, whether or not you've learned to trust it. if not, this could be a very productive endeavor, creatively. 050714 ... u24 respect the book as though it were a person you held dear. don't write anything in it you wouldn't want to tell them. 050715 ... User24 and make sure it doesn't turn into a diary, I prefer(ed) to keep a log of snippets, quotes and feelings I thought might be useful. Remember you're writing it for you, not anyone else. One of the first things I wrote in it was the desiderata and the rede. i also included tables charts, eg for candle_colors__and_associated_meaning and other fun bits. don't think that you -have- to write it in frequently. I haven't written in mine for at least a year, but it's still there, ready to receive more wisdom when I am. Random ideas you might not have thought of doing: choose a big book, and leave the first 20ish pages blank for a table of contents once you've finished. You can always fill it in if you don't want one. choose a nice looking book, I mean something really special, not mass-produced. i kept a mirror on top of the book, so that every time I was about to write something, I had to look at myself first. I found this helped remind me that this was a special book, and think for a while before I decided whether to write in it. (another way could be to have a 'draft' book to write random bits in, before copying all nicely and without spelling mistakes in the main book. I didn't do this, but it's a thought) learn to draw celtic knots, etc for decoration, I find black, silver and gold gel pens look best. (illuminated letters look great) keep the book in a box with sage and/or incense, it will make it smell nice. if you're in a place you'd like to remember, take a leaf and press it in the book. being the geek I am, I wrote mine in code, which a) makes it look like an ancient volume of mystical wisdom passed down through the centuries :-), but more importantly b) helps protect it from prying eyes. I don't suggest you do this unless you're confident you'll be able to remember the code in 4 years time. don't write on the back of pages, because a) the ink tends to shine through b) you can write notes later, or illustrate. c) it looks tidier --- the above are only my opinions. hat matters is your thoughts on it, not what someone else tells you. If someone says "don't ever draw pictures in it", but you like drawing pictures, then damn well scribble all over it. ok, I'm done. :-) 050715 ... u24 *what* matter.. oops. 050715 ... andru235 u24 those are great suggestions. keeping the mirror on top of the book - brilliant! and storing the book near sage and incense is definetely a nice touch. i'll have to remember to do these things. 050715 ... There seem to be more than a few bi-sexuals on this site. Is there a link somehow between creativity, emotional acuity and an inherent defiance of social and cultural norms, you know just as a way of contending with contested power relationaships wich can be stifling..or in my case self definition became inextricably linked with taking a position morally or ideologically and culturally diametrically opposed to whoever was the authority figure dejure (spelling) As far as the magic? I've always found myself intrigued by Wicca and yet admonished by my orthodox christian mores. But I'd like to think of myself as being a little more broad minded and sophisticated than those swathed in the bucolic broad brush, ideologically speaking that is...(if this ain't the key of orality then I seriously got to get me some clarity and coherence cue the meodramatic music and then the laugh track) Well i guess it's better than gingerly going along with the status quo. I don't me Wicaa or bi-sexuality...umm i just mean holding an idea, and taking action, i mean because if you are inhabited by an idea, especially an oppositional idea..ACTION seems to me to be a precondition of being entitled to speak out passionately in favor of it. And in the back ground Simon and Garfunkel are playing, the one from thier London recording sessions. All i know about the book of shadows is some lame arron spelling vehicle for taut nubile young women to move provocatively across the celluloid canvas...it might as well be a silent film for all the substance of the vapid dialogue.. ... 050716 ... iNsEcUrE_GoTh_GiRl hey thanks a lot everyone for helping out, a lot of the stuff you've said has really been useful. andru235, thanks for the advice, i appreciate it. I know a lot about the Threefold Law and all to do with it. I don't exactly plan to use this for anything evil so i guess i'll be ok, lol. I like the non-conforming attitude too *waves rebel flag ironically* but i find it hard to get anywhere with this because whatever i use is from someone else, because im not skilled or knowledgeable enough to write spells and rituals etc myself. u24 - thanks VERY much. Thank you for sharing what you've done with your BOS, i always find that useful and intriguing to see how other human beings do things like this as opposed to the all-knowing and forbidding blank words on the computer screen. About writing it for myself, i've tried doing that and am persevering, but its very difficult because i haven't decided really what tone i can adopt. Everything i write seems like i'm being fake, because all i've done is used someone else's stuff. Even though it's free and i'm allowed to have it, it feels like i don't deserve really to have it because i haven't earned it, so writing in the book just makes me more aware of the fraudulent feeling. *breathes* I wrote in the Rede, i haven't heard the Disederata before but i read it and i will write that in too, thanks. I didn't know how many pages to leave so 20 sounds like a lot! Because i've only written the Rede in so far, i can do anything with that so it should be fine. The book i have is nice (i went BOS shopping the other week), it's a calligraphy book which means that the pages are thick enough that the ink doesn't soak through. It is square and has a lot of pages, which are white but i want to change that. The book is the only one in the entire shop, there were 3 sizes and i got the largest. I saw it and really felt that it was right. I was struggling over how to decorate it because it seems very plain, but the Celtic suggestion is very helpful, i shall research that. I also have a draft BOS because i started one over a year ago which isn't at all organised and i don't feel it is thick enough, so i write in biro all the stuff in it and copy it up in calligraphy pens etc into the new one. Last points, before i just rewrite your post altogether, I want to illustrate and draw in it, so it's good to know that it's not going to ruin it etc by doing so. Do you draw in yours? I don't plan to use a code either, because i know i have a shit long term memory, so that's a definite no. I researched a few spells of the net against 'prying eyes' and i keep the book in a drawer in my room. The only people who go in there are my friends and i, only people i trust. My parents don't know anything about this so they can't pry, yet. If not i have plenty of out of the way hiding places where they won't think to look. Not cliched ones either. So yeah, basically, a big thanks ^_^ and to the person who posted just above me, thanks..... i think..... damnit i thought i had an extensive vocabulary but there are too many words in too short a space for me *sighs* sorry, i can understand most of those words seperately but a few monosyllabic words would be more helpful *puts on the dunce hat*. Yeah, thanks anyway. so is there anywhere else that anyone could recommend to look for spells and rituals etc? Or how to compose them? I can look up lists and lists of stones, candles, herbs and plant properties all day but because i have no printer *it broke) i have to be really careful how long i make these. My parents are always near and can walk into the room at any moment when im copying down spells from the moniter. If i want to print them at the library i have to pay per sheet and i have far too many to be printing for that, or if i use my contacts there, i can do it for free but it's too obvious as they all know my mother and i don't know if they would say stuff to her about it. I can't risk that. Yeah so any help would be gratefully received. 050716 ... u24 glad you found/will find my writings useful :) yeah, I draw in mine a little. I tend to decorate page numbers with silver spider webs, i draw simple celtic twists around lists, bullet points are usually pentagrams. If I'm writing a title, I tend to spend ages copying and recopying a design from a ring or piece of jewellery till I can do it pretty confidently, then use that to decorate the title. Learning to draw interlocking pentagrams (eg jsrdirect.com/images/jsr132c.jpg (but the right way up)) was useful. :-) I'm sure you know what types of art you like, but for me, simple is best! I try to use illuminated letters for the first letter per paragraph, and this is where most of the decoration comes, I draw a square, then the letter inside it, then fill in with little doodles, maybe of castles and bats, or mountains and lightning, just little dots or shading, etc, etc. I forgot to add that I usually spend a few moments grounding before opening the book. Personally, I find the techniques described at denelder.com/ram-notes/ram15.html work brilliantly. The more you do, the more you'll have to write. Make notes of meditation techniques that work for you, try making candles and then write the procedure (crumble incense into the wax as you're making it for a scented candle), or write recipies, etc. Draw rough maps of/to special places and accompany with notes about what each place is best for; is there a place you get a great view of the sunset from? you know what to do :-) anything you think might be useful, write it down. how about a calendar with moon phases, or a simle quartered circle of the year (something like pfsa.org.za/wheelmew.gif; with your own season/element decorations would look really nice) maybe you'll even want to divide the book into quarters, for earth, air, fire and water. Write earth-related things in it's section, air in air's etc, etc This might help identify which areas you're strongest in, and which are weaker. I really haven't read that many books or magazines, most of my research is done online, so I can't really help with the printing issue; save up and buy a printer! If I'm copying things from books, websites, forums, etc, I always note who wrote it re: composing spells, I don't hold much with pretty rhymes and songs, so if I ever do any workings, they tend to be very spontaneous, and generally are tailored to a particular situation, so not of great value for reuse, hence I don't write them down. regarding the whole magick and witchery thang, ask_use24 might have some useful info, as might ask_use24_2, as might shop_talk_with_u24. there again, they might not, I haven't looked at them for a while. (beware, ask_use24 is -massive-) A ritual is any repeated action; if you like a cup of tea in the morning, but always clean your teeth first, that's a ritual, so composing them should be easy; don't look to create one, just do whatever you're doing and if you notice that you do things pretty much the same way each time, well, there's your ritual. re: lack of organisation, well, I don't think it's possible to organise a BoS, you don't know how much you're going to write for each section, and you don't even know how many sections there are going to be, so for me, one of the worst mistakes I could make would be to write a big list of things I'm going to put in it, and then every 10 pages or so write one of them as a title; some sections would need more pages, some less, you'd need new sections as you started doing more things, you'd never use other sections, etc, etc. IMHO, you should just write things from page to page and organise it later with a table of contents. Bearing this in mind with the earlier suggestion of quartering the book for the elements, maybe doing this in the table of contents would be a better idea. PS: I'm making a lot of these ideas up as I go along, so I can't vouch that everything I say will work, but I'm sure you'll know what will work for you. 050718 ... u24 bounce. 050804 ... u24 more suggestions at witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=ushi&c=words&id=10442 060325 ... marked . 061029 what's it to you? who go blather from