Book of Shadows (Charmed)
Template:Infobox Charmed Artifact
Summary
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The Book of Shadows is a large, leatherbound spell book seen on the television series Charmed, which is owned by the Charmed Ones. It contains spells, potions, and information on their enemies. The Book has been enchanted to protect itself, causing it to move away whenever any evil being attempts to touch it. It has a large triquetra set on its front cover, symbolizing the Power of Three.
The ancestor of the Charmed Ones, Melinda Warren began the Book of Shadows in the late 1600s. When Melinda was burned at the stake for being a witch, her book was passed to her daughter Prudence. The book was then handed down from mother to daughter for more than three hundred years, until it was inherited by Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige upon the death of their grandmother Penny.
The book has grown with each witch who has possessed it, and by the late 1960s, it had about one hundred pages. It continues to grow as the Charmed Ones add more information to it. In the final episode, Piper tells her granddaughter that the book will one day be hers.
The contents of the Book of Shadows are much too vast to be listed here. However, complete references to the Book of Shadows for each episode are listed in each episode summary.
Appearances
The Book of Shadows is a thick green leather book with a red triquetra sign on the front. The triquetra symbol has been known to change, usually according to some change in the sisters powers/emotional state. The Book is somewhat worn due to its centuries of use, but is completely intact, - except for the page on how to relinquish one's own powers, the page was torn out and burnt by the Charmed Ones after they nearly lost their powers to a demon - most likely due to the magic that protects the book.
Powers, Abilities and Uses
The Book of Shadows can:
- Flip its own pages or act as a means of communicating with the dead
- Identify evil
- Protect itself from evil
- Harm evil
- Try to keep itself within its home
- Change according to the status of The Charmed Ones
The Book:
- Seems to get new pages as they are required to write on
- Seems to have a consciousness, or at least an essence
Due to its link with the Charmed Ones:
- It can lose its entire content if the sisters' powers are stripped
- Its spells will become evil counterparts if the sisters turn evil
- If the sisters are under emotional distress, its power to protect itself is diminished
The Grimoire
The Book of Shadows also has an evil counterpart known as the Grimoire. The Grimoire was a large brown book with the Seal of Solomon on the cover. The pages of the Grimoire were said to be blackened by its evil. Much like the Book of Shadows, the Grimoire possesed the power to protect itself from its enemies or anything Good. It made its first appearance in "We're Off to See the Wizard" and it also had brief appearances in "Long Live the Queen" and "Chris-Crossed" (though some argue the latter was a seperate grimoire belonging to a different family of demons). It was ultimately hidden in the mountains by Leo.