How to Build Your Very Own Grimoire

A grimoire is just a fancy word for a book you keep your magical notes in. It originally hails from the French grammaire, which started as the word people used to refer to any book written in Latin, but by the 18th century was used to refer to books purely based in magic. These are also called “Book of Shadows” or “Book of Spells.” The important thing is the function of this book; it is more than just a journal. It is important to keep this record! Otherwise you’ll lose track of your magical workings. You might not remember specific dates and ingredients, or you could remember the wrong ones, and it can leave you back at square one. Don’t lose your valuable time and efforts by lapsing on this important aspect to your growth in magic practice.

Your grimoire is the place to plan any spellwork you are going to perform. Keep track of when (including significant astrology, the phase of the moon, and the planetary hour), what ingredients you’re using and why, where you performed the ritual, why you’re doing this, and any other details. Mark down where you found the spell if you didn’t write it yourself. Keep good notes and follow up on the results. This will help you to narrow down what works best for you. Lots of folks use a special notebook, others use a note taking app. Use whatever is easiest for you to actually keep up with. I personally use both, saving websites and info I want to pursue in my phone and writing things down in my book as I try them. Some folks transcribe what they’ve found to actually work into a more formal book with illustrations and embellishments, keeping all experiments and notes separately in a more informal book or in their phone. Just do what you feel instinctively drawn to; you’ll have more success using whatever method that works best for you. Now I keep detailed records but I wish I had started years earlier. In time, you will hopefully have compiled a record of what you tried and where you found success.