Hi, I am thinking about starting my own Grimoire or Book of Shadows ... but I am some what of a perfectionist and I find it hard to ājustā write things down. I have the same issues with drawings. So I was thinking about putting my book together online but a part of me thinks that it makes it more ... impersonal? That you connect less with your book if you do not make it yourself by hand. What are your thoughts on this since you already have one. And do you have tips on making it online?
Hello!
I definitely feel you, part of the reason I decided to start making digital grimoire pages is because Iām a terrible artist with terrible handwriting. I wanted something that looked nice but I knew that trying to do anything by hand would beā¦notā¦that.Ā There are a few points here I want to throw out in response to your questions, so Iāll just get right to it:
The termĀ ādigital grimoireā could mean any number of things. This is something I literally just figured out in trying to answer your question, as I went through the different iterations of a digital grimoire Iāve tried putting together. I feel like I finally HAVE found something that works for me, but not without trying a few things thatā¦didnāt. Those include a sideblog for compiling correspondences (helpful for shorthand, not really conducive to further research) and the pages I made and posted on this blog. I really enjoyed putting them together, and I did learn a few things about the herbs in the process, but those pages are finished products. Adding new information would be a massive pain. So again, not really conducive to further research.
But even having failed a couple times at making a functional digital grimoire, I know that itās the way I have to go. My personal laptops have always, alwaysĀ felt like an extension of myself. So it follows that thatās where I would keep my grimoire.
That being said, obviously itās going to be different for everyone. If you think you require a physical grimoire then thatās absolutely what you should go for. But I donāt agree that choosing a digital grimoire instead means youāre not as connected to it. Itās just a matter of finding a format that suits you.
So! To answer the second part of your ask, here is what ACTUALLY works for me: wiki format. Something that allows me to create individual pages for each herb/crystal/spell/whatever but is organized and easy to navigate with no clutter.
A while back there was a post going around about Notion, which is what I use. Itās subscription based (the only downside, imo), but if you look up free personal wikis, you can find any number of different platforms. I think another one is Nuclino, which holds a bit more information than Notion before asking you to upgrade.
I really liked Notion because itās super easy to customize and organize (and re-organize, if youāre like me and realize after working for a while that you should probably have done it all a different way). I started creating pages for different herbs and crystals and went out to research each of them, started a glossary for new science-y terms I was unfamiliar with, added a section for spells and started keeping a log of my experiences with each spellā¦it just clicked for me. Hereās a link to it just to give you an idea of what it looks like.Ā They also just recently released a mobile app, so I have my grimoire on my phone too.
ANYWAY thatās probably a lot more answer than you ever wanted, but itās really been a process for me. tl;dr: think about what you really want, think about what you know you can do, try a few things out. If you start something and realize itās not working, itās okay to stop and try something else.
