table of contents for your book of shadows

Spells and incantations had been used by the Egyptians for thousands of years and the Greeks carried this tradition forward, as evidenced by surviving Greek papyri containing magic records that date back to the 4th and 3rd century BC. Because magicians were believed to be individuals with access to supernatural powers, they were both feared and respected. The ancient magicians were seen as symbols of wisdom, keepers of secrets, and masters of the arts, mathematics and science, particularly chemistry.

However it is fair to say, for many cultures of the past, there was a very fine line between magic, superstition, religion, and science.

Obviously the history of the world’s magic is too broad to talk about in this post. The Book of Shadows is also used by other Wiccan traditions, such as Alexandrianism and Mohsianism, and with the rise of books teaching people how to begin following Wicca in the 1970s onward, the idea of the Book of Shadows was then further propagated amongst solitary practitioners unconnected to earlier traditions.

The name Book of Shadows was created by the pioneering Wiccan Gerald Gardner sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s, and which he utilised first in his Bricket Wood coven and then in other covens which he founded in following decades. In this video I really break it down between our own Black Witch Coven book of shadows, my grimoires, and my personal journal, telling you the differences between them all.Ī Book of Shadows is a book containing religious text and instructions for magical ritual.

Table of contents for your book of shadows