The Commonplace Book: The Scrapbook of My Mind

Commonplace Book (n): a personal collection of knowledge, ideas, quotations, and observations usually written in a notebook or journal. It is a place to record anything that you find interesting or inspiriting. 

I love books and journals. I collect and sell them. I think of journals as books waiting to be written. When I'm looking for old books, I also look for blank journals, which spark my imagination. Over the years, I've kept many kinds of journals, including diaries, dream journals, and even books of spells (grimoires and Books of Shadows). I also used the bullet journal system for organizing to-do lists and tracking magical activities.

Recently, I learned about "commonplace books" on TikTok. This is an old practice used by famous people like Leonardo DaVinci and Thomas Jefferson. A commonplace book is a way to record interesting information.

I realized I actually kept a kind of commonplace book as a teenager. Interested in the occult, I wrote down interesting bits of information, like local folk remedies or things I heard on talk shows about psychics and witches. I kept this notebook secret!

It took some research to understand how to keep a commonplace book since there are so many examples online. In my research, I found two common methods:

1. Dividing the book into sections for different topics (like quotes, recipes, etc.).
2. Writing information as I find it, without separate sections.

Both methods work. The first method can be tricky if you run out of space in one section. The second method can make it hard to find information later, so people often use a table of contents and an index.

I decided to create my own commonplace book focused on the occult, using eight categories as my index: Animals, Books, Crystals, Divination, Folklore, Herbs, The Supernatural, and Witchcraft. These categories also represent my index. 

I numbered each page and created a table of contents at the front. When I add an entry, I update both the table of contents and the index. For example, an entry about Chan Chu (a mythical creature) would be categorized under "Animals." The table of contents would list "Chan Chu" and the page number. The index would list "Animals" and the page number.

Each page is formatted with the category centered at the top, the specific topic of the entry below aligned to the left, the information itself, and finally, the source of the information. I think of my commonplace book as a blog, and the index as hashtags.

Example Page

THE SUPERNATURAL

The Lurker

A ghost reported to haunt the Navy Exchange Building on the Whidbey Naval Air Station Exchange Building. Two origin stories for this ghost have circulated around the island. One claims that he is the spirit of an aircrew member killed by a propeller around 1948, while others suggest he is a construction worker who died building the facility.  

Witnesses report various eerie occurrences. A janitor saw a man in coveralls disappear into shadows, clothes hanging on a rack ruffle as if someone walked by them, a strong popcorn smell appears with no apparent source, and a padlock opens mysteriously. 

Eileen Brown, a former employee, described the building as eerie. She recounts stories from a coworker (now deceased) who found baby clothes neatly arranged on the floor. The co-worker was described as a very sensible woman who would not make things up. 

Source:

Whidbey News Times 

10/30/2004

I usually like to give my journals and notebooks a name. I feel that giving your book a name, gives it an identity. However, as of this writing I have yet to come up with a name for my Commonplace Book which I feel really suits this journal. 

Carolina Dean 

Head Journalist 

12th House Books