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Starting a Grimoire
(Image: Our Celtic Pentacle Journal)
What is a Grimoire?
What exactly is a Grimoire? You’d be forgiven for thinking it sounds a bit...grim. In fiction, Grimoires have commonly been depicted as formidable magical tomes consulted by cackling witches on a stormy night. They seem to belong in cobwebbed mansions where strange things happen, rather than in your average household.
But don’t be intimidated. A Grimoire is, quite simply, a textbook you can create to record and instruct your magical practice. It's used most commonly in Wicca, but you can adopt the principles of a Grimoire for any kind of spiritual or esoteric practice. It will be your guide, your record and your inspiration.
A Grimoire can traditionally contain spells, recipes, diagrams, histories and more. There are a number of commercially published Grimoires available to purchase, such as Grimoire for the Green Witch or Llewellyn's Magical Sampler. But many people choose to create their own, in order to customise the information it contains.
The difference between a Grimoire and a Book of Shadows
You also might have heard of a 'Book of Shadows' in relation to a Grimoire and are wondering how they're different. A Book of Shadows is actually a more personal type of Grimoire that has elements of a diary or journal. While a Grimoire contains more universal information, a Book of Shadows would include intimate reflections on your own dreams, moods, and thoughts. You could share your general Grimoire with a friend or fellow practitioner, while you’d tend to hold your Book of Shadows close to your chest.
Depending on what you’re going to use them for, you might choose to have both a Grimoire and a Book of Shadows, or simply have one or the other. Like most elements of Wiccan practice, it all comes down to personal preference.
Choosing the right format for your Grimoire
It’s important that your Grimoire takes the right form. You’re going to be using and consulting this text a lot, so it has to have the right look and feel to it. In this day and age, some people choose to keep their Grimoire in a digital format for ease of traveling and gathering information online. But if you choose to have a physical Grimoire, it means that the book can become a work of art and a powerful object in itself, normally taking pride of place at your altar if you have one (you can read a previous post we wrote about magical altars here).
We've got a number of beautiful options in our Journals collection. If you want to go with a traditional feel to your Grimoire, a beautiful leather-bound journal or album is the perfect aesthetic. The ones we have in our collection contain thick recycled cotton paper, which has a parchment-like feel to it. Some are embedded with distinctive gemstones, which adds an extra touch of guiding power to the book.
Another good idea is a refillable leather journal cover—this means you can simply replace the interior notebook when you run out of pages. Our Oberon Design journals come in this format, which means you can use them for years and years. They’re embossed with a variety of colours and designs, so you can choose the one that feels right for you—from flowers to dragons to Celtic designs.
If you want something a little more funky and modern, you might like our Artistic Notebook collection. Perhaps you have a style of art that inspires you, or a favourite pattern that suits your practice, like floral or cosmic.
If you’re going more with a Book of Shadows approach, you might like the idea of our Creativity Journals. These are illustrated notebooks containing artwork, quotes, creative prompts and more. These would work well if you’ll be taking a more fluid creative approach to your Book.
Alternatively, some people like using a binder with refillable sheets and moveable sections, which helps to organise and categorise your Grimoire later on. This is a more modern approach, but is a good way to go if you’ve got an organised way of thinking.
There are no fixed rules as to what format your Grimoire has to take. What’s important is that it becomes a focused and inspiring place for you to retreat to when pursuing your spiritual path.
What to put in your Grimoire?
So once you've chosen the perfect format for your Grimoire, what should you start filling it with?
Again, there are no hard and fast rules. Your Grimoire is going to be your tailored guide to magic, so it depends what kind of magical practices and rituals you might be focusing on. But here are some suggestions to help you get started:
- Spells and rituals
- Potion recipes
- Herbal information
- Crystal information
- Lists of important deities
- The Wheel of the Year and important festivals
- Colour meanings
- Sacred symbols
- Divinatory study - runes, tarot, palmistry
- Relevant history and mythology
- Animal sightings
- Moon phase meanings and other planetary observations
- Mantras and quotes
- Meditation guides
- Chakra guides
We've got a number of reference books you might like to draw upon to add to your Grimoire, covering topics like herbology, divination, spellcraft and more. Here are some of our top recommendations:
Hopefully that's given you plenty of inspiration and advice for getting started on your own Grimoire or Book of Shadows. Enjoy using your own intuition, creativity and personal touch to make this special tome the perfect companion to your magical practice.
If you liked this blog post, you also might enjoy:
10 Creative Exercises for the Mind and Soul
A Guide to Pagan Altars
Divination at Dragonspace
A Look at the Great Goddesses
(Image: "The Creation of Summer" by Josephine Wall)
“May the Goddess bless you…” It’s a phrase commonly heard in Wiccan and New Age practice. But when you hear the word ‘Goddess’, who - or what - are you thinking of? What does the concept of the Goddess mean to you?
Wiccan and Neo-Pagan practices are largely derived from polytheistic religions, such as Ancient Greek, Roman, Norse, Celtic, Indigenous and more. Unlike religions like Christianity and Islam, these belief systems aren't focused on one all-empowering god, but rather multiple gods, goddesses, spirits, creatures and deities. So it’s no wonder that it’s hard to pin down who exactly the ‘Goddess’ is.
We’re not going to attempt to do that in this post. The Goddess means so many different things to different people. She is Mother Earth, she is the Great Witch, she is the moon, she is femininity, she is love, she is the Maiden, the Mother, the Crone...She is a multitude of concepts and energies, each of them personal and powerful.
Instead, we’re going to take a look at some of the well-known Goddess figures from a variety of cultures and belief systems. Depending on your personal practice, you might choose to focus on one of these deities, multiple, or combine them into one central concept to guide your practice. Either way, their origins make for interesting reading and inspiration.
The Triple Goddess
The Triple Goddess is more a concept than an individual figure. She is believed to represent many of the mysterious three-fold aspects of life. For example, she embodies the three stages of the female life cycle - the Maiden (youth), the Mother (middle age) and the Crone (old age). She can also personify the three different layers of the world - the underworld, earth and the heavens - as well as the three main phases of the moon - waxing, full and waning. Looking inwards, the Triple Goddess can bring together the three components of the human psyche - the ego, the id and the super-ego. One of the most commonly worshipped figures in Neo-Pagan religions, the Triple Goddess is a figure of empowerment, transformation and wholeness.
Hecate
Hecate is the Goddess of magick and witchcraft from the time of the Ancient Greeks. In some stories, she appears with animal familiars, like the dog and the polecat, which has inspired the concept of animal familiars in modern-day witchcraft. Hecate is also associated with the moon, the night, the wilderness, and the world of the dead. She is sometimes considered a necromancer, able to communicate with and raise the spirits of the afterlife. If you’re interested in the world of Wicca, the chances that you’ll come across Hecate are very likely.
Morrigan
Morrigan - also known as The Morrigan or Morrigu - is a fierce figure from Irish mythology. Considered a shape-shifter, she’s often depicted in the form of a crow, or having the ability to transform into a crow. She’s commonly associated with war and battle, with the old legends telling that she would fly over battlefields in her crow form, deciding who would live and who would die. Other stories depict Morrigan as a trio of three sisters or goddesses, as opposed to one entity...linking to the concept of the Triple Goddess.
Isis
Isis is a well-known Goddess from the Ancient Egyptian era. Partnered with her husband Osiris, she was one of the most commonly worshipped deities of the time. Like many Goddesses, she is considered a divine Mother and maternal figure, even protecting and nurturing the great kings and Pharoahs of the ancient kingdom. Isis is also linked to the underworld, helping to transport the souls of the dead to the next realm. Her connection to magic and healing make her a commonly called upon figure in modern magical practices.
Diana
Diana is the Roman Goddess of animals and the hunt, the counterpart of the Greek Artemis. She’s also strongly associated with nature and wilderness, in both primitive and domestic senses. Some stories give Diana the ability to speak with, and even control, animals. Like many Goddesses, Diana is also associated with the moon and nighttime. ‘Dianic Witchcraft’ is a branch of modern witchcraft that’s focused on womanhood and feminine spirituality.
Gaia
Gaia is the personification of Mother Earth in Greek religion. She is considered the great Mother of all life and the world itself. She personifies motherhood in its ultimate form, as well as nurturing, fertility and nature. Gaia can also be considered a ‘creator’ deity, a type of deity that's commonly found in a number of religions from Judaism and Christianity to the animistic religions of Indigenous cultures. She’s a powerful figure, with a legend that stretches back to the dawn of time.
Kali
Kali is the Hindu Goddess of time, transformation and death. While she’s a formidable figure commonly associated with destruction, she’s in fact a destroyer of evil and a liberator of souls. Kali helps her worshippers come to terms with the passage of time, from birth to death and the turmoil in between. In her darkest depiction, Kali is a fearsome violent conqueror; while in her lightest, she’s a strong mother figure. To many, she’s a symbol of active female empowerment
Freya
Freya is the Norse Goddess of love, beauty and fertility. In the Norse legends, Freya was a pursuer of passion and pleasure, with an affinity for the finer things in life. But Freya’s love of beauty is more than simply materialistic - she embodies the beauty in all things, from nature to the internal self. Despite her soft romantic associations, Freya is far from dainty. She also rules over Fólkvangr, the meadow of the afterlife that works in conjunction with Odin's famed hall Valhalla to house soldiers who have fallen in battle.
These are just a few of the many powerful Goddess figures from cultures around the world and throughout time. Many of them have certain traits in common, particularly their connection to magic, motherhood, the moon, the afterlife and wilderness. Is it possible that some of these Goddesses are one and the same, interpreted with different names and stories depending on the culture? Is there one Goddess that you feel a particularly strong connection to, or do you draw from each of their energies in different ways? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and keep an eye out for a follow-up post in future where we take a look at more fascinating Goddesses from around the world.
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History's Real Witches and Wizards
Witches and wizards are icons of many great fantasy worlds. From the good - Dumbledore, Gandalf, Glenda - to the dark - Voldemort, Saruman and the Wicked Witch - these mystical figures wield great power, and make for very interesting stories! But do they only exist in the realms of fantasy?
You don’t have to dig too deep into history to find real-life remnants of witch and wizard lore. The great Druids of Celtic tradition share much in common with the typical ‘wizard’, and many people who practise the modern-day sacred movement of Wicca identify as ‘witches’. But there are some individuals who stand out more than others in the history books as 'real-life' witches and wizards, whether for their divinatory prowess or mathematical genius. Let's take a look at a few of them:
Mother Shipton
Mother Shipton, also known as Ursula Southeil, was a famous 16th-century English prophetess. She published a number of extraordinary prophecies of world events under the guise of rhymes and verse, in order to escape persecution for occult practices. Her legendary prophecies included the Great Plague of London, the Great Fire of London, and the Spanish Armada—all of which unfolded with eerie accuracy. While many alleged ‘witches’ of the earlier ages met terrible ends by the noose or the stake, Mother Shipton quite uneventfully died of natural causes at an elderly age, but her legacy lives on as one of the world’s greatest 'real' witches.
Paracelsus
Paracelsus was a 16th-century Swiss genius, famed for his work in alchemy, astrology, medicine and botany. He is one of many great mathematical and scientific minds of the Middle Ages and Renaissance who have been linked to magical pursuits in the history books—from Nostradamus to Nicholas Flamel, and many in between. Paracelsus’s reputation as a real-life ‘wizard’ stem from his development of the ‘Alphabet of the Magi’, an occult language that calls upon spirits to help in the healing of medical patients. Paracelsus was said to carve the symbols of the alphabet into talismans, which were used for healing and protection. His esoteric approaches to medicine and science caused much debate and discussion, but wizard or not, his legacy is undeniable.
Marie Laveau
Marie Laveau, also known as the ‘Voodoo Queen’, was a 19th-century Louisiana Creole woman famed for her Voodoo spiritual work. Laveau was born in the French Quarter of New Orleans as a free woman of colour, and went on to develop a wide-spread reputation as a Voodoo practitioner. People of all races and classes would flock to Laveau for her help with health, relationships and more. Interestingly, Marie Laveau was said to be a devout Catholic, and believed that her Voodoo pursuits were in line with her Catholic faith, rather than at odds with it. Whether the Voodoo Queen was really the mystical ‘witch’ like figure of legend, or simply a shrewd spiritual healer, she certainly had an impressive amount of influence over 19th-century New Orleans and its communities.
Cornelius Agrippa
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa was definitely a Renaissance ‘jack-of-all-trades’, famed for being a polymath, physicist, soldier, theologian and occult writer. The last of these in particular has led to him being considered one of history’s real-life ‘wizards’. Agrippa wrote a number of books about the occult arts, the most famous of which is called De Occulta Philosophia Libra Tre. This text formed a link between practical ‘magic’ like alchemy and astronomy, and the higher magic of summoning spirits and communicating with other worlds. Sadly, Agrippa gave up his pursuit of the occult before his death. He worried that studying these arts would take him to ‘hell’, showing a common historical conflict between religion and the occult.
The Salem Witches
It’s impossible to look at real-life witchcraft throughout history without discussing the terrible Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The trials took place in Massachussets, USA, and were a result of mass hysteria spreading through a heavily Puritanical New World America. The hysteria was said to have began when a pair of young girls suffered from an inexplicable illness, which a doctor diagnosed as being an effect of witchcraft. In a frenzy to find the perpetrators, a trio of local impoverished women were accused of witchery and sentenced to execution. By the end of the infamous Trials, over twenty people had been executed as punishment for ‘witchcraft’. This is definitely a dark blot in the history books, demonstrating how the label of ‘witch’ can be used to ostracise and persecute, when it should denote power, wisdom and respect.
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley is one of the more contemporary real-life ‘wizards’, practising at the turn of the 20th-century. A controversial figure, Crowley was an English occultist and ceremonial magician, who was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and went on to found his own religion called Thelema. Thelema is a new religious movement with influences from Ancient Egyptian spirituality, Qabalah and yoga. Crowley definitely forged a powerful legacy in the world of the occult, with many of his writings and philosophies leading to modern movements like Wicca and and chaos magick. But he was also a controversial figure, with shady views on race and gender that made him a number of enemies. Whether Crowley falls into the category of ‘good’ wizard or ‘bad’ wizard depends on who you ask.
They often say that truth is stranger than fiction, and that seems to be the case when you start delving into the real-life stories of famous witches and wizards. These are just a few of the mystical icons throughout history whose tales seem like the stuff of storybooks. Do you know any others? Let us know in the comments!
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