In modern
Wicca, the standard title for a book of Wiccan rituals and teachings. Traditionally each Witch was required to copy out his or her own Book of Shadows by hand from the copy owned by his or her
initiator. This is still commonly done in the more traditional
covens, although many modern Wiccans and other
Pagans use published books for the bulk of their ritual and instructional work…
The term “Book of Shadows” does not occur in Western
occult lore or the literature of Witchcraft before
Gardner introduced it sometime around 1950. The title may have been borrowed from a 1949 article in the
Occult Observer, “The Book of Shadows” by Mir Bahir, about a supposed system of Hindu divination by the measurement of the
querent’s shadow.