Yule Pages for Your Book of Shadows: Correspondences, Spells and What to Record
Open most working Books of Shadows and you will find a fat section on Samhain, a decent one on Beltane, and a page for Yule that says evergreen, candles, and nothing else. This is partly because the winter festival is quieter and partly because nobody sits down to write it up in the middle of December. The fix is to build the pages now, in the autumn, so they are ready when the season arrives.
This guide lists what belongs on the Yule pages, gives the 2026 dates, sketches two simple workings, and explains the printable route for people who would rather fill in than draw up. Our piece on what a Book of Shadows is for is the background.
Page one: the dates
Every sabbat page should open with the date, because it moves. For 2026: winter solstice Monday 21 December; Mother's Night the evening of 20 December; twelve nights to 31 December or 1 January depending on your count. Southern hemisphere: 21 June. Our Yule 2026 guide has the reasoning behind each. Leave space to add next year's date underneath; a grimoire is a running record.
Page two: correspondences
Printable pages to fill in
These are the conventional modern associations. None are ancient and all are useful.
Colours
Gold, red, green, white, silver. Black for the night itself.
Plants
Fir, pine, holly, ivy, mistletoe, oak, bay, cinnamon, clove, frankincense, myrrh, orange peel.
Stones
Clear quartz, garnet, ruby, bloodstone, citrine for the sun, snowflake obsidian for the dark.
Symbols
The sun wheel, the evergreen, the Yule log, the wreath, the antlered god, the returning sun, the star. Our sun symbol piece is worth a cross-reference here.
Deities
Whoever your path names. Commonly: the Oak King and Holly King, the Horned God reborn, the Great Mother, Freyr and Odin in Norse practice, Sol Invictus in Roman, Brigid for some Celtic paths looking toward Imbolc. Record only the ones you actually work with.
Animals
Stag, boar, bear, wren, robin, the cat, the wolf.
Page three: the altar
Draw or photograph your own rather than copying a diagram. Note what went where and what you would change. The Yule altar guide gives a starting layout; the value of the grimoire page is that by the third year it is yours.
Page four: two workings
A sun-return charm
On the solstice morning, at first light, hold a piece of clear quartz or citrine in the sun for a minute. Say: the sun returns, and so does what I have lost. Carry the stone through January. Record what came back.
A release for the longest night
On the solstice eve, write on a slip of paper the one thing you are done carrying. Burn it in the Yule fire or the central candle. Say nothing; the fire does the talking. Record only the date, not the thing. Our cord cutting and Yule candle magic pieces cover both in more depth.
Page five: the record
Leave this page blank until after the festival, and then fill it in within the week while the details are still sharp. This is the part most people skip and the part that makes a grimoire worth keeping. After the festival, a page for what you did, what the weather was, who was there, what you ate, what worked, what you will not do again. Three years of these pages is a more useful Yule guide than any book, including this one.
The printable route
Ruling pages by hand is pleasant and slow, and for a first grimoire it is worth doing at least once, because you learn what you actually want on a page by drawing it. If you want the structure without the drawing, the printable grimoire collection includes a Wheel of the Year set with a page per sabbat, a correspondences reference set with the tables above already laid out, and a spells set with blank working templates. Print on heavy cream or off-white stock, 120 gsm or more, so the ink does not show through and the page takes a fountain pen. Punch and bind, or slip into a folder. The pages are meant to be written on, not admired; fill them in.
Why print rather than buy a finished book
A printed set is cheap, it arrives instantly, and it lets you build the book in the order your practice actually grows rather than the order a publisher chose. It also makes a good small gift for someone starting out; our witchy gift guide lists it under the low end for that reason.
A note on the Oak King and Holly King
Most modern Wiccan Yule pages include the story of the Holly King, who rules the waning year, defeated at the solstice by the Oak King, who rules the waxing one. It is a good story and it fits the season. It is also a twentieth-century construction, assembled by Robert Graves and adopted by Wicca in the decades after; it does not appear in any medieval or ancient source in that form. Record it if your path uses it, and mark it modern. The same applies to the return of the Sun Child and the Great Mother giving birth at midwinter, which draws on genuine ancient solar festivals but reaches its familiar Wiccan shape only in the last century.
Keeping the pages honest
Mark what is traditional and what is yours. A small symbol in the margin, a T or an M, is enough. Most of the correspondence tables in circulation are twentieth century, which is fine, but a grimoire that presents them as ancient will mislead whoever inherits it. Our piece on whether Christmas is pagan goes through which Yule customs are old and which are recent, and it is worth a line on the page.
One set to start the Yule section
Frequently Asked Questions About Yule Book of Shadows Pages
What should be on the Yule page of a Book of Shadows?
The date for the current year, correspondences for colours, plants, stones, symbols and deities, a sketch of your altar, one or two workings, and a record page for what you actually did. The record page is the most valuable.
What are the Yule correspondences?
Colours gold, red, green, white and silver; plants fir, holly, ivy, mistletoe and oak; stones quartz, garnet, citrine and snowflake obsidian; symbols the sun wheel, evergreen, Yule log and antlered god. These are modern conventions rather than ancient lore.
Can I print Book of Shadows pages instead of writing them?
Yes. Printable grimoire sets give you the structure and tables; you fill in the dates, the altar and the record by hand. Print on heavy cream stock so the page takes ink well.
Is a simple Yule spell enough?
Yes. A stone held in the solstice sunrise, or a slip of paper burned on the solstice eve, is a complete working. Complexity does not make a spell stronger; keeping the record does.
Build the Yule pages in October, fill them in December, and read them next November. That loop is the whole practice of keeping a grimoire, and the winter festival is the easiest place to start it.
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