Welcome to Gaia! ::

Oh... my code is a pain the a** to write by hand which is one reason I want to make it a font. It probably won't be as good as hand-written unless I can really figure out the mechanics of this font program. Elements of the letters are supposed to run together so it looks kinda like one glyph depending on what letters are next to each other. And a few of the letters that are different in english look the same in the code. Which sometimes gets odd, but usually it can be figured out by context. xd

German runes aren't too bad if I'm thinking what you're thinking, LL. Not too many lines per character and such. Imagine writing Egyptian hieroglyphs by hand for a whole Book of Shadows. Ouch.

Our throats are sore from screaming,

My BOS is currently in a hectic state... I don't use a code, although I'm trying to collect as much information as I can so it's basically a pile of photographs, glyphs, runes, and a stack of messily copied down quotes, ideas, and histories... Bah. I should get around to organizing it but the information is endless.

Other then that I have a "diary" like BOS that I just write down what spells I do daily and things that've happened, and then how the spells turned out....

but we haven't uttered a word.

Mine is a very simplistic one; me just getting a handle on the BOS.

It's a simple, leather bound journal with a simple closing mechanism. I have it set up in a scrapbook manner. Whenever I feel like I need to write in it or stick some trinket into it, I do.

In accordance to the entry's subject, I have a specific color that I draw on the edge of the paper for quick reference. So far, I have five subjects in my BOS:

1)Spiritual Studies
2)Spiritual Practices
3)Dreams
4)Scrapbook
5)Everyday Journal

I really like it, because as random as it all is, every page means something to me and is empowering to reread. Especially the scrapbook. I have various feathers and beautiful leafs in random pages, along with meaningful quotes that I find or that I say, or random lists and musings.

Once I perfect my personal language, I'm going to write everything in future BOS' in it.

Starlock: A few years ago, when I was still in the “research phase” of some basic pagan practices, including the beliefs/theories behind them, I was more willing to include any information that I found interesting into a binder-but I never felt like it was a true BOS, but more or less reference pages. It included many different print outs, most of them being on general paganism and other religions besides Wicca. I tend to do the same thing now, except I keep it in folders on my computer. This would include anything that is significant or interesting to me and that I want to have on hand, such as mythology, or things that could be outside my personal practice. Again, I would not refer to this as a BOS or anything of the sort. If I find something that I really like but that is not original, such as a ritual, chant, song, spell, etc, I may save it as well. The things that I do end up using I will usually have a hard-copy of. Most of the time it’s modified and suited to my personal tastes. The majority of the time I write my own rituals, prayers, or whatever else I may use, although I may be influenced by different sources. As I have gone further in my practice I have definitely been more aware of my own correspondences when it comes to the herbs, rocks, colors, or whatever else I may have used. I would consider anything that is meaningful and/or personal and useful to the practitioner to be worthy of including in a BOS. The development of one is something that takes time and experience-it is the work of the individual. I will still include other things though, such as the Charge of the Goddess. So in general, original and well-researched is better, but if you find something that’s not originally yours and use it or modify it, then there’s nothing wrong with that either. Sometimes I write down things I end up modifying anyway as I continue to use it.

Much of my information came from people whom I trust, particularly Scott Cunningham's big books of meaning. Some comes from the internet, and my stuff about herbalism and aromatherapy is all being distilled from professional aromatherapy practitioners. Other than that, I write a lot of my own rituals, and the rest is just stuff that resonates with me.

Yeah, I sort of had something similar to that going early on, though I wrote most of my own stuff it was still composted from various crap.

It is interesting to consider generally why we write all this stuff down anyway. Before I came to understand that what I had been doing for so many years could be called 'Neopaganism' the only place my belief system existed was in my own head. I'd made some attempts to write bits of it out. It never really worked well. Worldviews are tremendously difficult to elucidate. That, and if it is so core to who you are and what you do, you don't really need to write it down because it's part of your very essence. So if we know our beliefs well, why write it down? Do we really think we'll forget something? Does it matter if we do? I've always been of the mind that beliefs should be in a constant process of evolution and change. Writing it all down just seems like... fossilizing it sometimes. sweatdrop

I suppose it is still a fun project to do, even if the content will be forever changing.