Many of us keep Books of Shadows to collect information that we learn on our path in our craft or special journals to detail our journey in the craft. There are lots of things you can do to aid in the magickal energy of your writing. One example is by crafting your own magickal writing tool. A quill pen is something that our ancestors would have used and is incredibly easy to create making it perfect for you to work with.
On a day that feels right to you take a long walk in the woods or other appropriate area and find a feather that you would like to use as a quill pen. The feather should be fairly large and feel comfortable in your hand as you will be using it to write with. You want to make sure that the tip of the feather, the part you will write with is long as you will be holding it in your hand to write with. You may want to bring home several feathers to experiment with.
Before you begin you may want to give your feather a light mist on each side with a bit of good old lysol spray. It won’t harm the feather but will cleanse it for you making sure that it’s safer to handle. Don’t drench the feather and make sure you keep the lysol just far enough away so that it coats the feather nicely but doesn’t damage it from being too close. For deeper cleaning it’s always a good idea to sterilize your feather. I found a great article on cleansing and sterilizing a feather for you here: https://www.wikihow.com/Clean-a-Feather
The next step is to use a knife to cut the tip of the feather at a 45 degree angle. Craft knifes are easiest for this, however I’ve been able to do it with a really sharp kitchen knife. If you are using a kitchen knife be sure to sanitize it after. You may also want to cut away any bits of fiber on the bottom of the feather that may interfere with writing. You want at least an inch free of debris at the end of your feather, preferably a feather that is large enough to have two or more inches.
Once you have the feather cut on an angle at the tip, use tweezers and or a pin to clean out the inside of the feather. This is the part where the ink will go in. You will need to get a pot of ink to go with it. I’ve found a lot of luck with local craft stores in finding pots of ink, if you have stationary or office stores near you, you may find that you have luck with them as well.
Next comes the fun part. Try writing with it. Make sure that you remember it will take a bit of time to get use to writing with it. Go gentle so you don’t break the tip. When you find one that you love, you can consecrate it and store it with your Book of Shadows.
Much Love and Many Blessings,
Jasmeine Moonsong