Recommended Reading List

[shades of sylk]

TeaDidikai

shades of sylk

I'm rather fond of Robin Wood's book When, Why...If. It's primarily mentioned as a tool for developing personal ethics and while I'm not sure if I agree with that description 100%, it's an extremely helpful book (for me) in terms of developing an honest self-assessment of where I stand and what that means for decision making in my life. It's not necessarily even Pagan specific, although it's probably most useful for the eclectic Pagan who is just starting to develop what that means to them.

What issues do you take with that description?

Most of my issues with the description are probably due to semantics in my head, if not all, but I'll try to explain.

When I think about developing my personal ethics, I normally do it differently - I like to look at tricky situations, make a decision, and then evaluate both my decision and the factors that led to the decision in a discussion format. The book is much more of a workshop with general questions asking you to evaluate yourself and what concepts like help, harm, and love mean to you and how they affect other people. In addition, there's a bit of emphasis on building self-esteem and becoming comfortable with yourself that while excellent, doesn't jive with my idea of developing ethics. I certainly think that the book has a use in the development of ethics, but I don't agree that that's the only thing it does.  

[TeaDidikai]

Interesting. I tend to view the book's primary purpose as developing a firm understanding of one's ethics as most of the popular pagan tradition doesn't have a source text that outlines "proper behavior".

And to those ends, I saw the elements of helping people to be comfortable with who they are as a complementary inbuilt necessity that is designed to be an intellectual end run around the comfort provided by the popularity of other theological systems.  

[Nomad of Nowhere]

Well, please realize that these texts are a little fragmented, and aren't even rightly books, but I personally can't overlook the translated Enuma Elish or the Epic of Gilgamesh. In case you don't know, the Enuma Elish is the Babylonian creation epic, and although it is fairly fragmented, I'm really enchanted by it. It's thought to have been written in the 12th century B.C.

The earliest forms of the Epic of Gilgamesh were written in 2150 B.C. to 2000 B.C. It's one of the earliest stories ever recorded. Since it is also translated from many clay tablets, many sections of one version, say the old Sumerian one, were supplemented with the remains of the Akkadian version. A few spots are gone completely, but this story is still essentially intact.

I'm also a pretty big fan of Mary Renault, because her historical fiction shows so much insight into the Greek world. She's done so much research that you're tempted to treat it as authentic history because of all the obscure facts that most people don't know about. She takes some artistic license, notably in "The King Must Die" and "Bull From the Sea" where, what no one knows about the old Cretan goddess-worshipers, she admittedly makes up.
If you read to the end of her books, she states her sources and reasons for making what interpretations she did, and she does it in a way that allows you to separate the actual history from the author's style and preference.
 

[puerdemon]

As I was whoring out my paycheck at the local Barnes and Noble today I came across a book in the bargain section and was wondering if anyone knew anything about the author or the book's credibility.

The Story of the Irish Race
-By Seumas MacManus

At first glance and flipping through it the book seems to cover the pre-Christian Ireland beliefs and perhaps society and then move forward into some of the more "modern" aspects of their mythology and lore, including St. Patrick and so forth.

Thanks ya'll.  

[imadelilith]

i have a novel that should be required reading if only because it puts the great rite in a light that makes is so complete...

the white raven, Diana Paxon

anything by her puts a creative twist on basic witches' mysteries, if you can pick them out...  

[Deoridhe]

Gods, Paxton. Can't hold her liquor. She spit in the eye of a kindred member of mine, accidentally, while they were playing Skold (a drinking/staring contest). Can't say I was much impressed by her in person, but what stories of hers I've read hit a chord, at least within Asatru. I wouldn't know witchcraft from hearthcraft, so I wouldn't trust my intuition there.  

[imadelilith]

i add

the third jesus, deepok chopra

it's a great book
god-consciousness
and jesus is interesting...  

[Boadicia]

You should add High Magic's Aid by Gerald Gardner to the novel section.  

[Shearaha]

If I could in the fiction section
Juliet Marillier,
Daughter of the Forest
It's a very good read even if it is a retelling of an old tail. There are two sequels that are both very good but I'm not sure how well she researched her celtic histories when she wrote them. I say that only because I have only recently began to study celtic history so I can not make a claim one way or the other.  

[RubyLight]

For a noobie to Asatru like myself, I recommend
Essential Asatru by Diana L. Paxon
I have to say it is so difficult to find books on Asatru at Borders or Barnes and Noble. sweatdrop Thankfully, my college has some good texts on the lore.

I really think that a mythology section should be added to the reading list with the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda

For energy work and psychic vampirism I highly reccomend the Psychic Vampire Codex by Michelle Balenger. There is some bias with her views particulary relating to House Kheperu, however anyone interested in energy work (vampire or not) can benifit from it.  

[PrometheanSet]

http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/Contents.html

http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php/pom

http://www.alchemylab.com/journal.htm

http://www.hermetic.com/

http://www.geocities.com/collectumhermeticus/home.htm



While I know its not going to be popular, I have to recommend Crowley. Yeah, he was crazy. That's why you read his "diary of a drug fiend" to learn from his mistakes. His "Book 4" has been an amazing resource for my magical practice, when I remember that this guy isn't a god.

The fact is, the Golden Dawn didn't put enough emphasis on meditation and actual results in magic, the two being linked most publicly by Crowley. (He may or may not have been the first, but he was the loudest!)  

[TeaDidikai]

PrometheanSet

His "Book 4" has been an amazing resource for my magical practice, when I remember that this guy isn't a god.

Best part of the whole damn thing was the interlude.

And who says he wasn't?  

[PrometheanSet]

TeaDidikai

PrometheanSet

His "Book 4" has been an amazing resource for my magical practice, when I remember that this guy isn't a god.

Best part of the whole damn thing was the interlude.

And who says he wasn't?

At least not mine :p Not with all the drugs he did!

The interlude you speak of - is that the second section on the magickal tools?  

[TeaDidikai]

PrometheanSet

TeaDidikai

PrometheanSet

His "Book 4" has been an amazing resource for my magical practice, when I remember that this guy isn't a god.

Best part of the whole damn thing was the interlude.

And who says he wasn't?

At least not mine :p Not with all the drugs he did!

The interlude you speak of - is that the second section on the magickal tools?

Page 88 in my copy.  

[PrometheanSet]

TeaDidikai

PrometheanSet

TeaDidikai

PrometheanSet

His "Book 4" has been an amazing resource for my magical practice, when I remember that this guy isn't a god.

Best part of the whole damn thing was the interlude.

And who says he wasn't?

At least not mine :p Not with all the drugs he did!

The interlude you speak of - is that the second section on the magickal tools?

Page 88 in my copy.

Ah. It's in that same section I spoke of, but its page 80 for me. Yes, I do have to agree that extracting certain observations/truths from even nursery rhymes is fairly necessary.

Especially when these things might very well point to something about pre-Christian European ideals. The documentation is lacking to prove or disprove anything about that history, though.