There is a certain type of sensation that only lovers of books understand. It happens when the spine cracks gently and the perfume of toxic binding glue, ink, and crisp paper rises into your nose, and for a moment your eyes close against your will and ahhh, suddenly there it is: the smell of a fresh, new book. All of that information within just waiting to be discovered, all of those wonderful pages just begging to be turned and fingerprints pining to be smeared over the cover can transport you—even if just for a moment!—and only if you’re a book lover, a person who understands this acquired flavor of bliss that tolls your brain to salivate faster than Pavlov’s mutt. There is another type of sensation that comes to those who are perhaps cousins of this breed of human specimen, and it happens with a different type of book, a specific book, a book that in all intents and for all purposes was sold to its steward in a painfully blank state. Journals, I’m talking about journals now. Imagine what can be written on those pages. Imagine what adventures could be hand in the way of fiction or in margin doodles. They are the vaults of memories and experiences, of emotions and of logic, of puzzles and peculiarities. Journals, my dear friends, are whatever in the Hell you want them to be, and that is more than just a little bit exciting. I’ve always been a fan of journaling, but I only seem to do it when major events or some sort of crisis is happening in my life. I like to keep them so that I can look back on them later, and I like to relive the happy memories that have been hurriedly scrawled in the pages. (Half of my enjoyment is reviewing my penmanship when certain topics are being written about and then wondering as well why I had to choose such a bright orange ink to scribble with in the first place.) I’ve used them to aid my memory about dates and times—For example, the day I mailed my application for the Church of Satan went down in the journal, and I was able to periodically look back and remind myself to sit down and shut up the excitement already because look! It’s only been three days! ..And chill out is exactly what I did. It’s obvious and clear to you then that I’m used to using journals for memories, but we all know there are other purposes as well: I use one for this blog for example, and I use another at work to keep track of my voicemails and meeting notes. I have a notebook for fiction plots and I have another in digital format that I keep on my phone for budgeting and expense tracking. I probably have ten little notebooks stowed away on my bookshelf just waiting to be used for something, but they all have to have that je ne sais quoi that makes them perfect for whatever project I have in mind. Though regardless of the purpose for it, none of us will ever be able to refute the benefit of having a little journal, even if for some reason it never occurs to us to have them for the most obviously delightful topic you can imagine. It wasn’t until recently when it was brought to my attention that some people out there like to create a journal that they name a “Book of Brimstone.” The name seems just as perfect to me because it’s symbolic in all the right ways. Within it you can find information that matters to you on a spectrum of topics. From what I understand it seems to be that those who keep a BOB will include information about Satanism that they want to keep close. I fault my memory frequently so I decided that this would be something right up my alley to make for my own. At the moment my research and interest is spread out over a number of notebooks as I mentioned, and it seems to make the most sense to put everything from the Nine Satanic Statements to the names and titles of my favorite essays in one place, even if it does vex my organizational side a bit to imagine all of that information not being properly organized. Thankfully, I have already found a solution for my extremely particular nature: a bullet notebook. For those who don’t know about the bullet notebook style, it allows you to write your information anywhere in the notebook that you want and keep a collection of all sorts in an organized way just by numbering the pages and putting a table of contents in the front of the book. When I was explaining this thought process to my fiancée I saw her eyes light up: she had the same problem that I did when it came to notebooks, apparently. Maybe the reason why I have so many of them is because I had never applied this style. She decided to give it a shot herself, and she can be a bit more hands-on than I am with these sorts of things so she’s had her eyes peeled for the perfect Book of Brimstone. We found it at the mall the last time we were out with her goddaughter: Have you ever heard of Pusheen? Well, if you haven’t, picture this: a fat 2D cat with the kawaii factor rivaling Hello Kitty. Now give it a unicorn horn. Great—can you also give it a pink mane dusted with glitter? We’re getting closer. Now put the design on a shimmering iridescent background of a silvery pearl hue? Go it? Did you remember to include the sparkles, rainbows, and clouds decorating the background? Fabulous. Don’t you think this will make an amazing Book of Brimstone for my fiancée? I do. It’s going to fit her perfectly because she’s the cutest little sweetheart on the block. Pusheen is her aesthetic: we even have a stuffed animal that lights up and plays music when hugged! The best part about this for her is that when someone looks at it they’re not going to imagine that it’s going to contain what she’ll put in it. It’ll be incognito just like her, and it’ll match her personal aesthetic with maddening perfection. Look, I’ll cut to the chase here. The point of this blog is to talk about how great it is to have a journal and to introduce you to the idea that maybe you should go get one and put some stuff in it that matters to you. I want you to pull your behind out of its comfortable recline, shimmy your way on down to the book store, crack open a journal, inhale that wonderful scent and purchase yourself a little something for your future entertainment and convenience. It doesn’t have to follow Anton LaVey’s aesthetic, and it doesn’t need to have the Sigil of Baphomet on the cover for it to be the perfect journal for your journey. Just find something with the right sheen on the pages, the right width of line markers, and the right durability for what you’re looking for. Go. Get up and just go—and then make sure you tell me all about your Book of Brimstone because I want to know what you’re going to put in it. Ave Satanas
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Who is the Witch?
Once I called myself a Christian, then an atheist, and a Satanist. At the end of the day, I'm just a person who is living her truth one day at a time. I'm interested in religion, its effects on the mind, the occult, and more. Learn more about me on the about page. Hellish History
November 2021
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