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(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

Stepping into Dragonspace is a sensory experience, with visuals, scent and sound all coming together to create our little fantasy world. A lot of the visual wonder is thanks to the talented fantasy artists whose works line our shelves, adorning gift cards, art books, t-shirts, tarot decks, statuettes and more. These artists bring our imaginations to visual life, from the Gothic realms of Anne Stokes to the vivid wonderlands of Josephine Wall.

Here’s a bit more about the artists you’ll find as you roam the store:

 Amy Brown

American artist Amy Brown is known for her fairies, which she’s been painting since 1992. Amy predominantly uses watercolours in subdued hues that remind us of the changing seasons. We particularly love the eclectic fashions on Amy’s fairies, which are clearly inspired by fashions throughout history - Victorian corsets, striped stockings, medieval gowns, white furs and Steampunk goggles. There's a real sense of story to Amy's often wistful fairies, and you can't help but want to know more about them as you peek inside their worlds.

Amy is also the artist behind our fantastic fairy teacup collection (which sold out quickly - but let us know if you want us to notify you when we get more in!)

Browse our full collection of Amy Brown products here.

Anne Stokes 

Anne Stokes is a well-known British fantasy artist with a penchant for the Gothic. Her work is easily identified by its striking subjects and moody aesthetic, from fallen angels and vampire queens to dragons with their princesses. Her art also litters the world of pop culture - her illustrations have been featured in the Dungeons & Dragons books, and in the early days of her career, she designed tour merchandise for bands like Queen and the Rolling Stones, and fashioned jewelry lines for Discword and Harry Potter brands (what an enviable resume!) We love the boldness of Anne’s art, and the way she shows the shadowy side of the fantasy world without being sinister.

 Browse our full collection of Anne Stokes products here.

Josephine Wall

Who doesn’t love visiting the surreal rainbow landscapes of Josephine Wall’s imagination? Josephine’s art is a dream come to life, recognisable for its gorgeous use of light and colour, with a heavy focus on purples, pinks, bright blues and yellows. You have to stare at Josephine's pieces for a while to truly appreciate them, as they’re often a collection of images that blend into one another to form a larger whole. British-born Josephine is heavily inspired by nature, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a piece of her art that doesn’t have some kind of natural element in it - curved shells, bright flowers, shimmering moons, dancing butterflies, sprawling trees, the list goes on and on.

If you’re in England, you might actually get a chance to visit Josephine. Her magical gallery is in Dorset and she welcomes visitors by booking.

Browse our full collection of Josephine Wall products here.

Nene Thomas

American artist Nene Thomas’s art is Romantic and intriguingly realistic, even if the content is mythical. Her fairies have a real human quality and intricate fashions that you can admire for ages. Like Anne Stokes, Nene Thomas has also contributed art to fantasy role-playing games, working with Magic: The Gathering at the start of her career. While early on she favoured watercolours, Nene now creates all her art digitally - adding a  modern aesthetic to traditional fantasy. Nene’s work spans the dark and light ends of the magical world, featuring Gothic fairies, whimsical forest scenes, romantic embraces, snowscapes, oceanscapes, beauties and beasts of all kinds.

 Browse our full collection of Nene Thomas products here.

Brian Froud

While all our featured artists have large followings, Brian Froud's work has probably had the biggest influence on popular culture. If you've seen cult fantasy films The Dark Crystal or The Labyrinth (and who hasn't?) then you've come across Brian's art - he was a conceptual designer on both films. His work is quirky and gloriously grotesque, with his most famed illustration collections including Goblins, Trolls, Good Faeries/Bad Faeries and Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book. There's a huge sense of humour and playfulness to Brian's art, and his partnership with Jim Henson's Creature Shop (responsible for The Muppet and Sesame Street) seems only natural. His wife, Wendy Froud, is also a talented fantasy artist and puppet-maker. We'd love to see what their dinner parties are like!

Browse our full collection of Brian Froud products here.

We're forever in awe of the artists that help make Dragonspace even more magical with their spell-binding creations. Do you have another favourite fantasy artist you think we should check out? Let us know in the comments below!