Friday, September 18, 2009

Three books to slowly introduce yourself to the Craft

If I could do it all over again (and I wouldn't have done it any other way) I would have bought these particular books in this order to introduce myself to the craft:

Scott Cunningham
'WICCA: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner'
This is a fantastic starting point for anyone getting into witchcraft. His down-to-earth, simple language means that you're not left feeling overwhelmed by images and phrases that you've never heard of before which can turn some people off. He gives the reader practical ways to approach Wicca whilst providing subtle and intelligent arguments as to the place of Wicca within society.
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Fiona Horne
'Witch'
I believe this was my first official Witch book when I was a teenager in the late 90s when witchcraft was 'in vogue' with Madonna singing 'Frozen' looking all spiritual and s**t... I loved that look!
This book runs over a great deal of what Scott Cunningham looks at, as Fiona often recommends his books and she also presents a relaxed approach to Wicca as to not make you run for the hills and hide like an explosion of information has just threatened to spill forth in 10 seconds! This book also includes interviews with other witches and their approach to the craft within Australia and provides some links for those wanting to reach out to covens.
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.......once you have a FULL grasp of that, this book is HIGHLY recommended but you have to feel really confident. When I say 'confident' I would advise that you also research Gerald Gardener and wiccan publications before leaping into this (i.e: give it a minimum of 6 month's experience before leaping into this):

Silver Ravenwolf
'Solitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation'
This is an amazing book which Silver spent 2 years writing - as there were so many historical facts that she had to look up and bounce off people to make sure that they were correct. It's a visual feast of symbols and complex details down to which hour corresponds to which planet, et cetera, which is impossible if you're only just starting. It is otherwise an incredible book which you will spend years going through with extended detail on astral projection, divination...... I could go on!
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3 comments:

Andy said...

wow! awesome, thanks :)

Elspeth said...

Yay, I'm glad that someone can benefit from this information. They're all incredible books - and I do warn that the third is heavy heavy reading - to the point where once you find something it can be really difficult to rifle through and find again! ^_^ E

Elspeth said...

Oh and p.s: if you're buying them all at once I'd highly recommend Amazon as they're really damn reasonable - and me being the technophobe I am, I hadn't realised how reasonable they are until I bought 3 books from them at once.