The Big Blue Book

[psycmoe]

Specifically, this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0875420508/ref=pd_sim_b_3/104-2313905-8889511?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155


This book was a dear friend to me, say eight years ago, and could perhaps be the book which really began me on my spiritual path.

I no longer own it, as I haven't seen it in several years. I imagine I gave it to someone, but I don't actually recall.

Now, I'm not Wiccan, nor do I claim to be, and I dodge the term pagan in all but select company.

However, I've a pentagram patch on my hoodie as well as a ring, so I often get people asking me about witchcraft. To salt my own views, I usually suggest this book to them as a sort of leaping off point.

My questions for you...
Have you read this book? If so, what are your reviews of it?
Is there anything else you would suggest that I suggest to questioning peoples? My current rep... rep... reading list involves many ideas which are a bit too high minded for the majority of questioners.  

[TeaDidikai]

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[Doctrix]

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[TeaDidikai]

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[PhantomPhoenix0]

Chaiyo Dekana

[Kudzu]

Chaiyo Dekana

Buckland sacrificed his ethics, heritage and any shred of decency that the man had for the sake of his ego’s mental masturbation. [...] The scholarship itself is poor, and serves little purpose other than to stroke his ego with a palm full of KY til he explodes in another self-aggrandizing book.

Hehe, I especially love how, if you check many of the sources that he cites, he is just citing where he wrote the same damn thing somewhere else!

Indeed.

Even in the ******** "Bucklands Book of Saxon Witchcraft". The Book of Shadows for the Seax-Wican tradition refrences his works gonk

*Has lost almost all respect for him*  

[TeaDidikai]

PhantomPhoenix0

Even in the ******** "Bucklands Book of Saxon Witchcraft". The Book of Shadows for the Seax-Wican tradition refrences his works gonk

*Has lost almost all respect for him*

Classic Buckland.

And let's not get me started on any of his "G~ Magic" garbage.  

[psycmoe]

OK! *thumbs up*

I'll quit suggesting that one then.

But when someone asks me "What can I read to learn more about Wicca or witchcraft" where do I send them? Or what book do I send them to? Presume it's someone who knows only a smidgen... or pretend it's a highschooler.

I'm asking because the spritual stuff I'm reading is about Sufism and Shamanism. Not the same, ya know?

I also sold/gave away damn near everything I owed last summer... including all the 'beginner' books I hadn't looked at in years. I can't recall the titles!  

[Pelta]

I thought Cunningham was a rather good place to start myself. His "Earth Magic" type books were rather decent. For Wicca I would recommend the Farrars "A Witch's Bible." I'm not wiccan, though, so I wouldn't know how much it actually has to do with proper Wicca. I just thought the essays in the second half were interesting.

Never read Buckland, and glad I never have. cool  

[psycmoe]

Thankya for the suggestions Magpie.  

[bobz]

missmagpie

I thought Cunningham was a rather good place to start myself. His "Earth Magic" type books were rather decent. For Wicca I would recommend the Farrars "A Witch's Bible." I'm not wiccan, though, so I wouldn't know how much it actually has to do with proper Wicca. I just thought the essays in the second half were interesting.

Never read Buckland, and glad I never have. cool

The farrrars are ok, though they have a habit of rambling...
"old seamus, our local guardai (that's a policeman if you didn't know) had this to say about the festival of bealtine..."
There's a LOT in there that doesn't strictly belong to wicca as well. I can't give a full estimation as I'm only flipping through it now.  

[Starlock]

Well, just to get someone else's opinion in here...

It has been a while since I've read the book, but when I did, I read it after I had plowed through other similar 101 books and found the content to be relatively uninteresting, though the format was intriguing. For people who like more of a 'workbook' approach that will guide them through things actively it may be worth a breeze through and a purchase. However, as with any book in that section of the bookstore, take the academic aspects of it with a grain of salt. Most of the books on the market don't present accurate history; for that you have to look elsewhere. As this book is particularily old, the historical section here is particularily bad (which Buckland himself admits, but there hasn't yet been a revised edition). Keep in mind though, when it was written, Murray had yet to be debunked and much of what he states was thought to be true. As wrong as it is, the history is interesting to read anyway as it has become the sort of mythology of the Craft. If you take it from a mythological angle, it can be pretty interesting. whee  

[TeaDidikai]

psycmoe

OK! *thumbs up*

I'll quit suggesting that one then.

But when someone asks me "What can I read to learn more about Wicca or witchcraft" where do I send them? Or what book do I send them to? Presume it's someone who knows only a smidgen... or pretend it's a highschooler.

Wicca? To find a lineaged Teacher.

Witchcraft- I'm with Maggie actually. If Cunningham replaced the word Wicca with Witchcraft- I don't think folks could fault him as much.

A step up from that would be Yasmine Galendorn in my book.

Now, this sounds strange, and perhaps even a bit fluffy, but I like to suggest Wyrd Sisters by Pratchett. Not because I expect individuals to fly on brooms, but because The Maiden, The Mother and "The Other One" have some practical things to teach individuals who are able to learn through allegory.