Recommended Reading List

[Innocent Alice]

I know there are already a few threads with topics similar to this one, but in the interest of ease and organization, I thought I'd do my best to consolidate them into one simple list. Please feel free to offer your own favorite sources or opinions on already listed books! biggrin I will provide comments for those which I can.

Recommended Reading
These are books which are generally considered to be good sources.

The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy, by Ronald Hutton. An excellent overview of REAL Neolithic/Early British religion.

Witchcraft Today, by Gerald Gardner. Do I even need to give a reason to read this one?

The Elements of Ritual, by Deborah Lipp. An excellent overview of the theology and practices surrounding circle casting, with an emphasis on the place of the four elements in Wiccan ritual.

Before You Cast a Spell, by Carl McColman.

A Book of Pagan Prayer, by Ceisiwr Serith.

Hedge Witch, by Rae Beth.

Persuasions of the Witch's Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England, by T.M. Luhrmann.

Anything by Joseph Campbell. His work in mythology is astounding.

Return to the Garden, by Shakti Gawain.

The Triumph of the Moon: a History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, by Ronald Hutton.

Kindling the Celtic Spirit, by Mara Freeman.

Anything by Scott Cunningham. He is well known for his books on solitary practice, and I haven't read a book of his that I didn't enjoy.

A Witches Bible, by the Farrars (first names currently escaping me... sweatdrop ). An excellent book covering many aspects of Wicca. Even though it is aimed at more traditional practitioners, any Wiccan can benefit from reading this book.

In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth, by Tikva Frymer-Kensky.

Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America, by Cynthia Eller.

The Wiccan Book of Ceremonies and Rituals, by Patricia Telesco.

The Golden Bough, by Frazer. One of the sources Gardner used, and a good resource for Wiccan philosophy.

Anything by Raymond Buckland. He has tons of good stuff out there, but watch out for that ego. Sometimes he likes to reference his own works in the footnotes.

Modern magick by Donald Michael Kraig...The book has it's flaws and is somewhat lightweight, but still eminently useful as an introduction to the magick of the Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn.

Circles of Power and Paths of Wisdom by John Michael Greer, two books that should be read together covering both magick and qabalah in a masterly way. Greer is one of the few people that has grasped the heart of the Golden Dawn tradition and helped it develop and grow.

The Chicken qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford by Lon Milo DuQuette....without a doubt the best intro to Hermetic Qabalah written, funny yet extremly informative, the isingle chapter on Tarot contains more useful info on the subject than any given dozen of Books dedicated to Tarot.

The Ritual magic manual by David Griffin. For more advanced practitioners, the one book that goes really indepth into the standard rituals of the Golden Dawn, a treasure trove of information for those who want to get beyond simplified versions of the Lesser banishing ritual of the Pentagram.

Shining Paths by Dolores Ashcroft-Norwicki....an excellent collection of Pathworking meditations for those who wish a deeper understanding of the Tree of life.

3 Books of Occult philosophy By Agrippa....The source of a huge amount of Western Occult lore used by both Pagans and Ceremonial magicians.

The Complete Golden dawn system of magick by Israel Regardie (New Falcon Edition, not to be confused with the Llewellyn "The Golden Dawn" by the same author, which is an excellent book, but not quite as good as this later version) This is a must for anyone seriously dedicated to studying the Golden Dawn system .

Hermetica by Thoth, or so it's attributed.

The Magus by Francis Barrett.

the Lemegeton. Is there any author attributed to this?

Grimoire of Armadel by SL MacGregor Mathers.

The Great Liberation Through Hearing In the Bardo - Fremantle translation.

The Veil's Edge: Exploring the Boundaries of Magic by Willow Polson. I'll admit I haven't read it all yet, but I'm on my way, and from what I've read, it's a rather good book, though her Fae Blood, Fae Magic chapter has a lot of errors.

The Dark Archetype: Exploring the Shadow Side of the Divine by Denise Dumars and Lori Nyx. An excellent book for those who follow or work with the Darker Godforms.

The Psychic Vampire Codex by Michelle Belanger. The first book on Psychic Vampires, actually written by someone inside the community. A great book with many explainations and techniques on Energy Manipulation, valuable even if are aren't (or don't even believe in) Vampiric. It also covers ethical and emotional considerations for Psy Vamps.

The Medicine Way by Kenneath Meadows.

An Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism by The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism. Not only does it help you make connections between myths and gods you never thought of before, it includes stories from all over the world, not just the standard Greek/Egyptian/Germanic mix with a bit of Hindu for flavor. Plus, it's got lots of pretty pictures.

Anything by Doreen Valiente.

Dark Moon Mysteries by Timothy Roderick.

Wicca by Vivanne Crowley.

The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner, which although more than a bit "New Age" in content has some useful information for the beginner and compares and contrasts the shamanic experience in different cultures.

Mind Games by Masters and Houston, which although hard to find is an excellent resource on guided meditation, trance states, and creative visualization.

Tarot Decoded by Elizabeth Hazel.

An Introduction to Ritual Magic by Dion Fortune and Gareth Knight. It's short, illustrative, and extremely helpful.

Practical Solitary Magic by Nancy B. Watson. It's fairly straightforward and nondenominational.

The Second Circle: Tools for the Advancing Pagan by Venecia Rauls. Its primary emphasis is on doing things, and on giving you tools to learn more, rather than simply handing you recipes. It suggests means of research, discusses personal symbology, and exploring the interconnectedness of reality in many ways. This is a book that teaches you to fish instead of giving you a fish.


The Greylist
These are books which may be good sources, but spark some debate. These are likely great works to have in your repetoir, but need to be read carefully.

Drawing Down the Moon, by Margot Addler (sp?). This is usually considered a standard read, but the information it presents is very dated and can be misleading. Also, her credentials have been questioned.

The Spiral Dance, by Starhawk. I have heard conflicting reports on the value of this book. Any reviews?

The White Goddess, by Robert Graves. I have heard conflicting reports on this one as well, anything from "This is an absolute must-read" to "This is crap, he doesn't know what he's talking about." Any reviews/reasons for this split in opinion?

The Blacklist
Books to avoid at all costs, unless you're looking for a good chuckle.

Anything by Silver Ravenwolf. These books are chalk full of misinformation ond general crap. An educated Pagan may be a ble to find the occasional redeeming comment in them, but these books are otherwise useless. Except for maybe starting a campfire ^_^.

Ditto for Fiona Horne. As though the 'Wikkid Witch Kit" isn't bad enough to deter you on its own.

Anything by D.J. Conway. According to Godhi: "Compare other books by D.J. Conway and you'll discover that she just repeats material from other Llewellyn books while her rituals are pretty much the same rites invoking different deities, depending of course on which book she is writing at the time.
To make matters worse, I've found that a LOT of the material published in her books is either from questionable sources or was made up by her from whole cloth, so I'd take anything D.J. Conway says with a grain of salt."


Novels
While the stories may be fictional, these are just plain great pagan-inspired reads.

The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. A retelling of the Arthurian Legends through the eyes of the female characters. An exceptional story, no matter your faith.

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. Though Lewis wrote these books with a Christian mindset, they can easily be taken as generally religious. Good books to snuggle up with next to a fire.

A Wrinkle in Time, and its sequel, A Wind in the Door, by Madeline L'engle. These are personal favorites of mine, and they have a religo-scientific bent which I've found appeals to many Pagans.

Wise Child and its prequel Juniper by Monica Furlong.

The Earthsea series by Ursula K. Leguin. A standard for anyone who likes fantasy, these books have a lot to do with magic and the power of names.

That's all for now, it's time for me to go to bed. I will update this with additional suggestions from the other threads as well as suggestions posted here. But not tonight. biggrin Be warned, if you suggest a book, I might just steal your entire quote if I haven't read the book myself.

List contributors: Cloverina, Smart Alex, Merlin the White, AvalonAuggie, Songlian, Bikky Maclean, Fictional Funeral, Sutekh, Manhattan, Amata, Pantos, Sinister Kung Fu, Ges, Innocent Alice, Godhi, MST3Kakalina, Little Teacup Storm, Reijin-chan, Starlock, Nuri, Jishin  

[Reijin-chan]

Innocent Alice

A Witches Bible, by the Farrars (first names currently escaping me... sweatdrop ).

Janet and Stewart.  

[Starlock]

I don't think I'd put "Drawing Down the Moon" on the Grey list... sweatdrop I have a copy of "The White Goddess" checked out right now but I haven't gotten to reading it yet. I also don't think that any book deserves to be on a black list, no matter how awful it may seem. Every book is worth reading, if nothing else but to get another perspective.

A book I'd highly reccomend, despite its length, is Frazer's "The Golden Bough," from which Gardner himself drew many of his ideas from. I've only gotten through the first few chapters or so, but it basically writes the book on defining magic into its different types. It's easy to get a copy of at a university/college library. Mine had over six copies of it, and you can find it online if you don't mind reading a 600+ page book off a screen.

For a historical view, I'd add "The Triumph of the Moon" by Hutton. While very texty and very academic, it's a good history of the Craft.... if you can manage to get through it all.  

[maenad nuri]

I'd use Graves and Frazer both only to understand Wiccan philosophy. On an academic level, both are very suspect. Frazer was an armchair anthropologiest. While strict library research has its place, and his data is fantastic, some of his conclusions are interesting.  

[YamiB]

I was wondering if anybody would know where these books I got would go on the list. I probally won't get a chance to start reading them for a week or so.

Celtic Myths and Legends by Peter Berresford Ellis

Celtic Myth and Legend by Charles Squire

I also have one on for Greek mythology but I can't find it right now to get the exact title and author.  

[Innocent Alice]

well, I finally updated. I'm glad the list is so long, except that now I have to go and look for all those books I haven't read yet biggrin  

[Memento Mortalis Es]

For fiction, I'd reccomend the Earthsea series of books by Ursula K. LeGuin. They talk a lot about magic and the power of names.  

[Innocent Alice]

Manhattan

For fiction, I'd reccomend the Earthsea series of books by Ursula K. LeGuin. They talk a lot about magic and the power of names.

Oooh, good idea. I'd totally forgotten about those books. biggrin  

[Keistera]

I'm not a fan of Buckland. I read "Scottish Witchcraft", and it came out like a fantasy novel. He does have some interesting little tidbits that may be useful to some, but I'd suggest being careful with his work.  

[I be me]

*proves her love of creepy old book stall finds*

journeys out of body by Robert A. Munroe
but I felt like I was trying to read an encyclopedia or science students thesis paper when I was reading it

and Ghosts I have seen and other psychic experiences by Violet Tweedale
wether you believe it or not its blody facinating

both these books were printed in the 1970's
but I am sure there are reprints, and that you could get them off amazon or something  

[Jishin]

I use Practical Solitary Magic by Nancy B. Watson. It's fairly straightforward and nondenominational. I also wholeheartedly approve that she leads the book with a serious chapter on the ethics of magic.  

[Innocent Alice]

Jishin

I use Practical Solitary Magic by Nancy B. Watson. It's fairly straightforward and nondenominational. I also wholeheartedly approve that she leads the book with a serious chapter on the ethics of magic.

Ooh, that sounds good - I should see if my library systen has that book.  

[Jishin]

Innocent Alice

Ooh, that sounds good - I should see if my library systen has that book.

I really do like it. It is a fairly basic book, but I think it provides a good foundation for a lot of the more complex stuff. 3nodding  

[Ayita]

Innocent Alice

Wise Child and its prequel Juniper by Monica Furlong.

The third book is out. It's Wise Child's sequel. It was finished just before Monica Furlong died about two years ago. I just finished reading it a few days. It's called Colman. It ended rather abruptly, but I highly recommend reading it along with the afore mentioned books, especially if one things Wise Child ended too soon.

I recommend reading Wise Child, Juniper(my favourite 3nodding ), then Colman.  

[Jishin]

I have picked up a new book, which I'm currently evaluating. So far, my opinion is a qualified "good!", with the caveat that I haven't finished the book yet. I will post again when I have, to confirm/deny that opinion.

It is The Second Circle: Tools for the Advancing Pagan, by Venecia Rauls.

Like most of the other books I choose, it's intended for folks following various paths. It's for when you've done all of the "beginning stuff" and are starting to repeat yourself and don't know where to go next -- basically targeted at the journeyman pagan. It has some interesting sections about research and incorporating the pagan path into your daily lifestyle. Full review later when I finish it.

Edit: Have finished reading it. I can wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Its primary emphasis is on doing things, and on giving you tools to learn more, rather than simply handing you recipes. It suggests means of research, discusses personal symbology, and exploring the interconnectedness of reality in many ways. This is a book that teaches you to fish instead of giving you a fish.

I suspect I will reread it and put much of it into practice.