My Happy Grimoire
Yep, this is really a post about Happy Planners. No, Happy Planner did not put me up to this! (although it’s something worth looking into, TBH.) It would be helpful if you used one of the affiliate links I’ve provided to purchase one, because at NO extra cost to you, you’ll be contributing towards my attempt to earn a little more money so I can afford diapers, clothes, gas -live, pretty much.
Disc bound planners are just the best record keeping tools for any creative person, witch or not, IMO. While the title says Grimoire, the happy planner can be used for a number of things. It’s so personalizable, and once you get over the expensive first kit, there are ways to refill pages and decorate the book without breaking the bank. It took me a while to decide on the Happy Planner- but now that I’ve started using it I have no interest in any other notebooks! I do use loose leaf paper and a binder for research notes – it’s just to expensive to use up precious happy notes paper on something I’ll stick in a box for a year then throw away.
I often see in Witchcraft facebook groups are questions about what to keep track of, how to keep track of it, and why. So I thought I would answer those questions in one fell swoop.
The Golden Locket
I’ve always had a strong intuition, so I decided to start working on my psychic skills. I quickly realized that not only am I claircognizant and clairvoyant, but I’m a medium as well. I signed up for classes online, and purchased a few books, and started following a half dozen blogs. When I got to the point where I felt comfortable with readings, I decided to try my skills out with my best friend.
I was shocked when her grandmother was ready and waiting when I shifted my state of consciousness to perform a mediumship reading. Everything I had read had concurred that spirits of the recently deceased typically don’t come through – they’re still getting used to the ‘other side’. But she was there! She passed along several messages, and I had my notebook dedicated to mediumship in my lap the entire time, scribbling notes as I relayed them. Most experienced mediums discouraged writing while reading, but half the time I would forget what happened as soon as I came out of the trance or whatever. So, anyways, her grandmother kept insisting she find the locket. A golden locket, with a photo of my friend and her younger sister. “Find the locket! Wear it, and it will keep you safe”
“My gram never had a locket!” My friend insisted. She sat back and thought long and hard- nope, she never remembered a locket.
A few months passed, and I decided to do another reading for her. After a friend of hers (who I knew nothing about) came through, her gram was there, waiting patiently for her turn. Again, she insisted that my friend find ‘the locket’.
Fast forward 6 months: The phone rings-it’s my best friend.
“You will never guess what Jess (her sister) found today!”
“What’d she find”
“A fucking locket!”
She went on to describe the locket in detail. While I had a fuzzy memory of the reading, I went back to my notebook. I had kept a log of both readings, and even though they were done about four months apart, they both included the same details about the locket that my friend had just described to me.
CHILLS!
Holy Mother of Cheese crackers I really am a medium! and I would have never believed that I truly connected with her gram if I hadn’t written that stuff down. So from that moment on I kept track of everything.
If I had to recommend any book at all for mediumship and psychic training, it’d be this one! Ellen Dugan is funny, so the book is an easy read, and she’s practical. There’s no nonsense, nothing religious, just basic & straightforward methods.
The Natural Psychic: Ellen Dugan’s Personal Guide to the Psychic Realm
What should I keep track of?
As much as possible, babe! This was difficult for me at first – I’ve never been much of a diary person. I’d start one because I liked the notebook, or I wanted to try out new pens, but after a few weeks they’d fizzle out. What got me into the habit was one of the craziest things I’ve experienced in my witchy career.
These are things I keep track of in my grimoire. The reason I love my Happy Planner is that I can move things around as needed, and there are dividers that are just adorable! The undated expansion packs are great for keeping track of the moon phases and astrological movements.
- Calendars
- Mood tracker
- Divination practice (Tarot readings, psychic practice, etc.)
- spells (ingredients, prep, ritual, thoughts on the spell once it’s cast, results – did it work? How did it work i.e. what exactly happened
- herbal & oil stores
- useful information i.e. definitions, how-to’s, tips and tricks
- Guided Meditation
- Invocations
- Goddess studies (i.e. The Morrigan’s preferred offerings, Oya’s boons, etc.)
- a code of ethics
Why should I keep track of stuff for my practice?
The shortest answer: efficiency.
When you are a practicing solitary, like myself, you only really learn from trial and error. How can you be sure of why your spell didn’t work, if you aren’t 100% on what you did in the first place? Could it have been the timing? The ingredients? The wording? Did you visualize the wrong thing? Did you design the spell to meet your needs by way of least resistance?
How should I set up my planner?
Get a Happy Planner, or some disc bound planner, a set of dividers, paper, stickers, Washi tape, pens, markers, and anything else that you want to decorate your Grimoire. There are TONS of blogs dedicated just to disc-bound planners online, and Pinterest always has great ideas.
The first section should be your Ethical Guidelines. Think about how you feel about cursing, performing spells for personal gain, accepting payment to cast spells or do readings for other people, your idea of free will, and anything else that comes to mind. Don’t worry about what others say or think. This is for YOU.
After that is up to you! I have my ethical guidelines, then calendars. After that is my reference section, followed by my Witch Cabinet inventory. It’s really helpful to keep track of what herbs and oils you use most, so you know which ones to get more of (which ones to find decent prices for bulk perhaps), and then I have spells and rituals. The spells and rituals section has two subsections. One is the spell or ritual – everything I did, used, said, when and where, moon phase etc. and the other side is for results. If 3 months pass and nothing happens, then I revisit the spell to see if I should tweak it and try it again or leave it.
Digital Grimoire
If you really don’t like handwriting your grimoire and want an efficient, productive way to keep a digital grimoire, I recommend Scrivener This application is AMAZING. I use it for my blog, my creative writing, for my freelance writing, my magazine column – if you need something to keep a lot of writing organized, this is it. Word has everything all together, but with Scrivener you can rearrange, reorganize, and review all you want! If you want to publish your grimoire – say create a ‘first year as a witch’ record, it takes about 30 seconds to compile the document. You choose which folders you want in it, the front and back matter, and the format you want it to export to. Click click boom baby!
For your convenience, I have made a Scrivener template for a digital grimoire! If you want this FREE template, click HERE!
For Mac Users:
For Windows Users:
Bright Blessings!
P.S. as a Thank You for using my links to get your happy planner, here are some promo codes to save you some money š
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