Tips for Living Wicca: Go Through Your Book of Shadows

Ahh... ye Olde Bok of Shadows. Maybe it's because I'm a writer and I like to scrapbook and make pages pretty, but is there any Wiccan tool more meaningful or more important than the good old Book of Shadows? 

As much as I like my BOS to have a pleasing appearance, it's most important to me that it's functional. I remember when I was Wiccan for the first 5 years or so... I stuffed anything Paganish or witchy-looking I could find into it, until it was bursting at the seems. 

The sad thing-- most of it was entirely useless to me. Lists of things I didn't ever use, or own. Information of a variety of New Age and esoteric practices, most of which had nothing to do with Wicca, and I never bothered to really study and use them. 

I realized I was worried more about appearances -- about making my BOS look big and thick and 'authentic' and like I was really smart. But in doing so, my BOS became most impractical to use, and I found myself using index cards and papers with my rituals on them instead of the book. 

One of the best things I ever did for myself and my BOS is to purge it of useless information, and to organize it into a more readable format. Now it's even easier to keep my BOS neat and tidy; so many resources are readily available on the internet and in books -- many repeat the same old same old. I don't need to copy it all into my book.

My Tip For You Today: Go through your Book of Shadows. Are there things you stuffed in there that don't serve you-- you were just new and didn't know what you'd end up needing? Is it all jibberish and little substance? Is it actually serviceable?

If something's been in there for 2 years and you haven't barely glanced at it, is it really necessary in your spiritual practice or growth?  

Maybe you thought it would be the neatest thing in the world to copy all your Wiccan info down translated into Germanic runes... and now you can't even read the darn thing and have to look for the notes you keep tucked in your book shelf. 

Re-evaluate it. Assess your own growth and what you've outgrown. Revamp and reorganize it. Edit it if necessary. 

If you're new... and haven't begun a BOS. Maybe you've been frozen because you're not sure where to begin it. Maybe it's time to take the plunge... start jotting down ideas for BOS essentials. 

So what's up with your BOS? How's it coming along?