This is a post about how to make your own book of shadows! 🙂
Now there might be some questions that pop up in your head like:
What is a book of shadows?
What is the difference between a book of shadows and a grimoire?
Do I have to make one myself or can I just buy one? And what should I all write in it?
I'm going to answer all of those questions in this blog post!

What is a book of shadows?

The answer is actually extremely easy:
A book of shadows is a sacred book that witches use during their craft.
Well that's it!
Okay so a book of shadows is very personal and different for every witch.
They contain spells, rituals, information and often also some opinions that a witch has on things related to witchcraft.
I personally write down everything in my book of shadows I write down all the readings I do for myself, all spells I do and what I noticed of them afterwards, information that I read in books and that I think that's interesting. Every single thing that I do that has to do with witchcraft gets written down, so that I can always check back and see how certain things worked out. Even though I sometimes (actually pretty often) forget to write in it.
The thing that's so handy about having a book of shadows is that you can always check back, and see how certain things work for you. You can start to see certain connections to things that you do, and the things that happened to you after doing it.
It's also just a lot of fun to read back and see how much you've developed. Reading old opinions is also a lot of fun too, because opinions can often change or you might have forgotten about certain topics that used to be on your mind a lot.
You can see a book of shadows as a book in which you track down your progress and in which you can look back on your development.

What is the difference between a book of shadows and a grimoire?

The difference between a book of shadows and a grimoire is that a book of shadows is very personal, and most of the time private, and a grimoire is not.
Let me explain:
Like I wrote down before a book of shadows often consist of a lot of information about a witch. The spells they do, their opinions, their progress etc. These things are very personal and you could actually compare it to having a diary. You don't want everybody to read your personal thoughts.
A grimoire is much less personal.
In a grimoire spells and information gets written down, but they don't hold information about a specific witch. It's kind off like having a cookbook in which you write down your best recipes, you only want to write down recipes that you're proud of and you know that are delicious.
A grimoire often gets passed around to others in your coven/circle, or to children or apprentices. That's one of their main purposes, leaving behind information that you figured out in your craft.
Anyone can start a grimoire even if you're not very experienced yet. If you figure out that something works great then just write it down in your grimoire!
I currently don't have a grimoire yet but I'm thinking of starting one. I absolutely love the idea of having one, especially since I'm more open about my craft nowadays. I love the idea of having a book that I can show others with spells and information that I wrote down.

Do I have to make my own book of shadows?

The answer is: no you don't have to craft your own.
There are many witches online who might say that you have to craft your own, or that you have to have one of a very specific material like leather or a certain type of wood etc. but the truth is. Any type of book will do!
You could actually just take a random notebook and use that as your book of shadows if that feels right for you.
If you're very good at crafting items then sure go ahead and make your own! It's a lot of fun to use items that you craft yourself and you can put a lot of your own energy into it that way, but if you're not good at crafting and you'll dislike it when you make one then just buy one that you do like! The most important thing is that you have a book that radiates good energy. If you think your book is ugly and if you're not happy with it you're not going to get some good energy from it.
What I also want to say is that a book of shadows doesn't have to be expensive at all!
Witchcraft isn't something that you buy your way into. It doesn't matter if you spend a lot of money or not. The thing that matters is how it makes you feel!
Something that you could do to make your book different from other books is saying a blessing, or writing down a blessing in your book of shadows on the first page to bless it. I could probably tell you many different types of blessings/rituals that you could do to bless your book, but I want you to write your own. It's going to be your personal book of shadows, so how do you make it more personal? By blessing it with a personal blessing!

What should I write in my book of shadows?

I already answered this question before, but you could write down everything in your book of shadows!
Let me help you where to start.
So like I said before I'd advice to write a personal blessing on the first page.
I'm going to share some topics that I first started writing about in my book of shadows when I started witchcraft.
I started with writing down all the different elements and information about them. I absolutely love working with elements, so it was very useful for me to write information about them down.
I also started writing about some small spells and readings that I did, like enchanting coins, doing some incense spells etc. I love looking back on the spells I did and how they worked for me. I notice that my spells are much more powerful now!
Next I wrote down how to center and ground yourself, since that's also very important. I'd advice to research about this topic before starting on doing spells because they will work way better when you're centered and grounded!
I also wrote down how to cast a circle and information about color symbolism.
I'm going to make blogposts about all the items that I just mentioned, so make sure to watch out for new blogposts I'll share one or two blog posts about witchcraft every week!


If you have any questions about this topic or any other question about witchcraft, leave it in the comments down below. I love to answer your questions and might even make a whole blog post about it!



If you're looking for a small book of shadows than make sure to check out this item in my shop. It's perfect to take with you on your adventures and easy to hide somewhere between your books if you're still in the broom closet.