Quick Specs
- Author: Anastasia Greywolf
- Publisher: Wellfleet Press
- Format: Paper over board, 160 pages
- Best for: Witches and practitioners who want a structured grimoire-journal combining beginner instruction with personal record-keeping
Part Grimoire, Part Journal, Built for Working Witches
A book of shadows is, in traditional witchcraft, a practitioner’s personal record of spells, rituals, observations, and magical development. Anastasia Greywolf’s volume is designed to serve that function while also providing the foundational instruction that newer practitioners need to start filling those pages with meaning. It’s part grimoire, part guided journal, structured so that each spell includes both the working itself and dedicated space to record what you did, what you intended, and what happened.
The book covers witchcraft basics including tools, altar setup, essential ingredients, and how to locate your inner practice. It includes over 40 spells and rituals organized by purpose: healing and harmony, power, protection, luck and prosperity, and love. The love spells are notably ethical, focused on attracting compatible qualities rather than compelling specific people, a distinction that reviewers have called out as a genuine strength of Greywolf’s approach.
How the Journal Format Works
After each spell, the book provides journal prompts that encourage reflection on your intentions, hopes, and observations from the working. This structure makes the book more than a reference: it actively develops your ability to observe and learn from your practice over time. The elegantly designed paper-over-board construction makes it feel substantial without being precious, the kind of book you actually write in rather than protect behind glass.
How to Use The Book of Shadows Journal
Three steps to making this book a living record of your magical practice.
- Read the Foundations Section First
Work through Greywolf's introduction to tools, altar setup, and essential ingredients before attempting any spells. This builds the vocabulary you need to make the journal prompts meaningful and ensures your first rituals start from solid grounding.
- Choose Spells by Current Need
Use the thematic organization to find spells for your situation: protection, healing, love, or prosperity. Read each working fully before gathering materials. Greywolf keeps ingredient lists accessible so most spells need no specialty sourcing.
- Complete the Journal Prompts After Each Working
The journal prompts after each spell are the book's most valuable feature. Write honestly, recording what you did, noticed, and felt. Over time, this record becomes a genuine personalized grimoire that reflects your developing magical practice.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I carry this title because the combination of working spells and structured journaling prompts is genuinely useful, not just aesthetically nice. Most spell books tell you what to do but don’t help you track whether or how it worked. Greywolf’s journal format does. It’s one of the better beginner-to-intermediate witchcraft books I’ve come across, and it works as a standalone volume even without its companion titles. Browse my books and journals collection for related titles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Greywolf includes an introduction covering tools, altar setup, and foundational concepts before the spells begin. The journal format supports learning by prompting reflection after each working, building observational skills from the start.
The book includes more than 40 spells organized by purpose: healing and harmony, power, protection, luck and prosperity, and love. Each spell includes working instructions plus journal prompts for recording your experience and observations.
It works perfectly as a standalone volume. While created as a companion to Greywolf's Witchcraft handbook, the Book of Shadows includes its own foundational instruction and functions independently as a spell reference and a personal magical journal.
It is paper over board, measuring approximately 5.51 x 8.27 inches, with 160 pages. The construction is designed to be written in rather than merely displayed. Published by Wellfleet Press in October 2021 as part of the Mystical Handbook series.
This book is awesome the covers pages and detail are so well done and it has such a wealth of information the pages are great for writing on and overall build quality feels real solid I can’t wait to dive further into it