Dria El
October 1st, 2001, 07:22 AM
SpellBook Structure
There could potentially be as many ways of putting together a good Book of Shadows as there are people in the world. After all, each of us has our own inner vision of the Divine, and a slightly different way of understanding, integrating, and working magic. This situation left me with a very difficult question. How could I design a spellbook formula that would suit everyone who reads this?
Well, the truth is that I couldn't. All I can do is give you some ideas, hints, and guidance derived from my fourteen years of study, research, and hands-on magical practice. I decided to include thirteen possible sections to use for creating and organizing your core Book of Shadows. Thirteen represents the number of moon cycles in a year and the number of people in a traditional coven, so it has the right type of energy for patterning the spellbook's outline.
These are the sections I've selected:
~ Magical symbols and tools
~ Prayer, meditation, and visualization
~ Sacred Space: creating and maintaining
~ Spells and spell components
~ Charms, amulets, talismans, and fetishes
~ The Wheel of Life (personal and seasonal rituals and timing)
~ Divination tools and methods
~ Elements, correspondences, and applications
~ Food and beverage correspondences and applications
~ Color, sound, texture, aromatic, and number correspondences
~ Crystals, metals, mineral, and fossil correspondences
~ Plant and animal correspondences and applications
~ Gods and Goddess correspondences (powers, attributes, culture, etc.)
You can use these divisions as they stand or come up with a completely different tact, but decide from the get-go how you want the book organized when it's done. Otherwise you're liable to go to considerable time and expense in reinventing the wheel! Bear in mind throughout your decision-making process that your completed Book of Shadows is something that should:
~ Act as an effective resource and reference tool for any magical theories, correspondences, and methods that you use regularly.
~ Include ideas that you want to mull over and tinker with.
~ Inspire you to walk the Path of Beauty with strength, love, courage, peace, and truthfulness.
~ Include step-by-step instructions for all preferred techniques; even when you master these, you'll probably want to share the information with novices later.
~ Include progressive methodology that meets the needs of changing times.
~ Motivate personal growth (e.g. include some really challenging things that will take time to master).
~ Create a portrait of modern magic as it applies directly to your life and vision.
Once you know how you ultimately want your spellbook assembled and have everything in place to start writing or typing the pages of the text, you're ready to begin. Start going through this information and transferring the ideas that you find most useful into the appropriate parts of your own Book of Shadows. Add in other information you've gathered on your own along with personal insights, leaving plenty of room for more additions later.
There are simple steps you can take to ensure that the outcome of this process is as positive and fulfilling as possible.
1. Tackle only one portion of information at a time. Read it over, meditate about it, and pray for guidance. This gives you an important opportunity to really think about that one facet of your magical life and practice, and its meaning to you.
2. Don't rush step one. Take as much time as you need with each section's material and insights. For one thing, if you try to learn and assimilate too much too quickly, you'll reach mental overload. For another thing, you have a lifetime to create a formalized Book of Shadows. Rushing often precedes mistakes or sloppiness that you're bound to regret in retrospect.
3. Since human needs rarely evidence themselves at convenient times, you can refer to other information to answer questions or get specific instructions. Just don't let this distract you from returning to the original studies unless Spirit really leads you to continue.
4. If you read anything that makes you uncomfortable or goes against personal taboos, do not use that procedure, method, tool, component, or whatever. In magic, it is extremely important that you listen to your gut instincts and the voice of Spirit in your heart. You are your own guru, your own High Priest or Priestess.
5. Personalize, practice, and be patient. Personalization keeps everything meaningful and vibrant, practice leads to magical adeptness, and patience makes the entire learning process a little easier to bear. We live in an "instant" society, and spiritual progress is not instantaneous. Remind yourself of this, keeping hope in your heart, your eyes on the horizon, and your feet firmly on the path.
(Author Unknown)
There could potentially be as many ways of putting together a good Book of Shadows as there are people in the world. After all, each of us has our own inner vision of the Divine, and a slightly different way of understanding, integrating, and working magic. This situation left me with a very difficult question. How could I design a spellbook formula that would suit everyone who reads this?
Well, the truth is that I couldn't. All I can do is give you some ideas, hints, and guidance derived from my fourteen years of study, research, and hands-on magical practice. I decided to include thirteen possible sections to use for creating and organizing your core Book of Shadows. Thirteen represents the number of moon cycles in a year and the number of people in a traditional coven, so it has the right type of energy for patterning the spellbook's outline.
These are the sections I've selected:
~ Magical symbols and tools
~ Prayer, meditation, and visualization
~ Sacred Space: creating and maintaining
~ Spells and spell components
~ Charms, amulets, talismans, and fetishes
~ The Wheel of Life (personal and seasonal rituals and timing)
~ Divination tools and methods
~ Elements, correspondences, and applications
~ Food and beverage correspondences and applications
~ Color, sound, texture, aromatic, and number correspondences
~ Crystals, metals, mineral, and fossil correspondences
~ Plant and animal correspondences and applications
~ Gods and Goddess correspondences (powers, attributes, culture, etc.)
You can use these divisions as they stand or come up with a completely different tact, but decide from the get-go how you want the book organized when it's done. Otherwise you're liable to go to considerable time and expense in reinventing the wheel! Bear in mind throughout your decision-making process that your completed Book of Shadows is something that should:
~ Act as an effective resource and reference tool for any magical theories, correspondences, and methods that you use regularly.
~ Include ideas that you want to mull over and tinker with.
~ Inspire you to walk the Path of Beauty with strength, love, courage, peace, and truthfulness.
~ Include step-by-step instructions for all preferred techniques; even when you master these, you'll probably want to share the information with novices later.
~ Include progressive methodology that meets the needs of changing times.
~ Motivate personal growth (e.g. include some really challenging things that will take time to master).
~ Create a portrait of modern magic as it applies directly to your life and vision.
Once you know how you ultimately want your spellbook assembled and have everything in place to start writing or typing the pages of the text, you're ready to begin. Start going through this information and transferring the ideas that you find most useful into the appropriate parts of your own Book of Shadows. Add in other information you've gathered on your own along with personal insights, leaving plenty of room for more additions later.
There are simple steps you can take to ensure that the outcome of this process is as positive and fulfilling as possible.
1. Tackle only one portion of information at a time. Read it over, meditate about it, and pray for guidance. This gives you an important opportunity to really think about that one facet of your magical life and practice, and its meaning to you.
2. Don't rush step one. Take as much time as you need with each section's material and insights. For one thing, if you try to learn and assimilate too much too quickly, you'll reach mental overload. For another thing, you have a lifetime to create a formalized Book of Shadows. Rushing often precedes mistakes or sloppiness that you're bound to regret in retrospect.
3. Since human needs rarely evidence themselves at convenient times, you can refer to other information to answer questions or get specific instructions. Just don't let this distract you from returning to the original studies unless Spirit really leads you to continue.
4. If you read anything that makes you uncomfortable or goes against personal taboos, do not use that procedure, method, tool, component, or whatever. In magic, it is extremely important that you listen to your gut instincts and the voice of Spirit in your heart. You are your own guru, your own High Priest or Priestess.
5. Personalize, practice, and be patient. Personalization keeps everything meaningful and vibrant, practice leads to magical adeptness, and patience makes the entire learning process a little easier to bear. We live in an "instant" society, and spiritual progress is not instantaneous. Remind yourself of this, keeping hope in your heart, your eyes on the horizon, and your feet firmly on the path.
(Author Unknown)