Merry meet,
The last two days have been chaotic for me and in that chaos I forgot to post on one day. On the other I couldn't because Blogger was having "technical difficulties". So as a result I will put up this post now and another in few hours when I finish work for the morning.
I have found a couple of reading lists
from the following websites that have really well written and informative
books and wanted to share them with the web. Some of the information may be out of date but if you read them with an
open mind and absorb the parts that can help you building your path and discard
what you don’t need that these will all be very helpful.
Gerald Garner’s Witchcraft Today is incredibly fascinating with quite a
lot of great information and an apparent disagreement for the work of Montague
Summers.
Thirteen
Books Every Wiccan Should Read
Now that you've decided you want to learn
about contemporary Wicca or another modern Pagan path, what should you read?
After all, there are literally thousands of books on the subject -- some good,
others not so much. This list features the thirteen books that every Pagan
should have on their shelves. A few are historical, a few more focus on modern
Wiccan practice, but they're all worth reading more than once. Bear in mind
that while some books may purport to be about Wicca, they are often focused on NeoWicca, and do not contain the oathbound material found in traditional
Wiccan practice.
If you want to learn about birds, you get
a field guide about birds. If you want to learn about mushrooms, you get a
field guide to mushrooms. Drawing
Down the Moon is a field
guide to Pagans. Rather than offering up a book of spells and recipes, Margot
Adler presents an academic work that evaluates modern Pagan religions
- including Wicca - and the people who practice them. The work is based on a
survey the author took over two decades ago, but the information within is
still a worthy read. Drawing
Down the Moon makes no
apologies for the fact that not all Wiccans are full of white light and fluff,
but instead tells it like it is. Adler's style is entertaining and informative,
and it's a bit like reading a really well-done thesis paper.
Raymond
Buckland is one of Wicca's most prolific writers, and his work Complete Book of Witchcraft continues to remain popular two
decades after it was first published - and for good reason. Although this book
represents a more eclectic flavor of Wicca rather than a particular tradition,
it's presented in a workbook-like format that allows new seekers to work
through the exercises at their own pace, learning as they go. For more seasoned
readers, there's a lot of useful information as far as rituals, tools, and
magic itself. This book is a classic, and well worth picking up.
The late Scott
Cunningham wrote a number of books before his untimely death, but Wicca:
A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner remains one of the best known and most useful. Although the
tradition of witchcraft in this book is more Cunningham's eclectic path than
any other tradition, it's full of information on how to get started in your
practice of Wicca and magic. He goes into depth about tools, how and why they
are used, ethics, and the concept of god and goddess. If you're interested in
learning and practicing as an individual, and not necessarily jumping into a
coven right off the bat, this book is a valuable resource.
Phyllis Curott is one of those people who
makes me glad to be Pagan -- because she's really normal. An attorney who has
spent her life working on First Amendment issues, Curott has managed to put
together a really useful book. Witch
Crafting is not a collection
of spells, rituals or prayers. It's a hard and fast look at magical ethics, the polarity of
male and female in the divine, finding the god and goddess in your everyday
life, and the pros and cons of coven life vs. solitary paths. Curott also
offers up a very interesting take on the Rule
of Three. Whether you're a new student of Wicca,
or a veteran, Witch Crafting is worth reading more than once.
Dana D. Eilers spent many years
facilitating an event called Conversations
With Pagans, and from that she wrote a
book entitled The Practical
Pagan. She then drew on her experience as an attorney to write Pagans and the Law: Understand Your
Rights. This book goes into depth about precedents in religious
discrimination lawsuits, how to protect yourself if you may be a victim of
workplace harassment, and how to document everything if your spirituality is
leading someone to treat you unfairly. Eilers is an outspoken woman who has a
lot of great advice worth listening to.
[p]The first section of this book is Eight Sabbats for Witches. It
goes into depth on Sabbat rites, and the meanings behind the holidays are
expanded on. While the ceremonies in The
Witches' Bible are the
Farrars' own, there's a heavy influence of the Gardnerian tradition, as well as
Celtic folklore and some other European history. The second half of the book is
in fact another book, The
Witches Way, which looks at the beliefs, ethics, and practice of modern
witchcraft. Despite the fact that the authors are a bit conservative by today's
standards, this book is an excellent look at the transitioning concept of what
exactly it is that makes someone a witch.
Gerald Gardner is the founder of modern
Wicca as we know it, and of course of the Gardnerian
tradition. His book Witchcraft Today is a worthy read, however, for seekers
on any Pagan path. He discusses paganism in Europe, as well as the so-called
"witch cult", and goes on to demonstrate how many of history's
notable names are connected, one way or another, to what we know today as
witchcraft. Although some of the statements in Witchcraft Today should be taken with a grain of salt
-- after all, Gardner was a folklorist and that shines through in his writing
-- it's still one of the foundations that contemporary Wicca is based on. For
its historical value, few things beat this book.
Triumph of the Moon is a book about Pagans by a non-Pagan, and Hutton, a highly
respected professor, does an excellent job. This book looks at the emergence of
contemporary Pagan religions, and how they not only evolved from the Pagan
societies of the past, but also owe heavily to 19th-century poets and scholars.
In fact, Hutton points out that a good deal of what we consider
"ancient" Pagan practice can be attributed to the novelists and
romantics of the late Edwardian and early Victorian era. Despite his status as
a scholar, Hutton's breezy wit makes this a refreshing read, and you'll learn
far more than you ever expected to about today's Pagan religions.
Dorothy Morrison is one of those writers
who doesn't hold back, and while her book The
Craft is aimed at beginners,
she manages to create a work that can be useful for anyone. Morrison includes
exercises and rituals which are not only practical, but teaching tools as well.
Despite its focus on the lighter side of witchcraft, it's a good starting point
for anyone trying to learn about Wicca, and how to create your own rituals and
workings. Morrison also has written a
number of other books, including a companion work
to this one.
Historian Jeffrey Russell presents an
analysis of witchcraft in an historical context, from the early days of
Medieval Europe, through the witch craze of the Renaissance, and up into modern
times. Russell doesn't bother trying to fluff up the history to make it more
palatable to today's Wiccans, and takes a look at three different kinds of
witchcraft -- sorcery, diabolical witchcraft, and modern witchcraft. A noted
religious historian, Russell manages to make an entertaining yet informative
read, as well as accepting that witchcraft in and of itself can in fact be a
religion.
There is nothing else on the market like
Ceisiwr Serith's A Book of
Pagan Prayer. Despite the fact that some view prayer as a Christian
concept, many
Pagans do pray. This unique book features
hundreds of prayers written to meet the needs of Pagans from a wide range of
traditions. There are prayers for life events, such as handfastings, births,
and deaths; for times of the year such as the harvest and midsummer, as well as
petitions and litanies offered to different gods. Serith also covers the
theories behind prayer -- how and why we do it, as well as tips on creating
your own, personal prayers. Chances are that once you've started using this
book, it will stay near your altar for years to come.
While The
Spiral Dance is one of the
best-known books on Wicca, it's also one of the most spiritually profound.
Written by noted activist Starhawk, The
Spiral Dance leads us on a
journey through the spirituality of feminine consciousness. Sections on raising
the cone of power, trance magic, and magical symbolism make it worth reading.
Bear in mind that the original edition of this book was published twenty years
ago, and Starhawk herself has said she's reconsidered some of the things she
said the first time around -- particularly in reference to the polarity of the
male/female. Despite some of the eco-feminist complaints about Starhawk, this
book is powerful because it's one of the first of its kind, portraying Woman as
Goddess.
If Gerald Gardner is the
great-grandfather of modern Wicca, Doreen
Valiente is the wise granny who offers wisdom and counsel. A contemporary
of Gardner's, she is credited with the beautiful, evocative Charge
of the Goddess, and may well have been
responsible for much of Gardner's original Book of Shadows. Valiente spends a
good amount of the book discussing the historical contexts of a number of
rituals and practices in use today, but also takes care to acknowledge that
practices and beliefs change even if the intent remains constant, and she
points out ancient sources that may or may not be the root of contemporary
ideals. Though it helps to have some knowledge of British Traditional Wicca
beforehand, this book is a must-read for anyone.
Two other sites with great lists are the
below links. I like how the first list was put together by someone who mentions
how hard it is for solitaries (especially beginners) to sift out the good from
the bad in terms of books on Wicca and Paganism. Also a couple of the same
books keep cropping up on the lists which would be the first ones I would buy.
I quite like this list despite the double
up of a couple of the same books as on the other two, already mentioned lists,
it also has some new and interesting ones such as The Complete Book of Incense, Oils
and Brews by Scott Cunningham
and Sabbats: A Witch’s
Approach to Living the Old Ways by
Edain McCoy.
Merry part.
