General Paganism

Kathryn Huxtable's Pagan Bibliography

("An it harm none...")

These books are Pagan, but not necessarily Wiccan. Some are introductions and some are source books for rituals.

Adler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon. Second edition, Beacon Press, Boston, 1986.

A documentary survey of Neo-Pagan religions. Good non-threatening introductory material on Wicca, the feminist Craft, and other neo-Pagan groups. This is the first book I recommend to people who are curious about what it's all about.

Broch, Janice, and Veronica MacLer. Seasonal Dance. Samuel Weiser, New York, 1993.

A collection of rituals for the Pagan year, plus some general guidelines for creating rituals. Good source material.

Campanelli, Pauline. Wheel of the Year. Llewellyn, Saint Paul, 1989.

Traditions, spells, herblore, charms, and natural magic pertinent to each month of the year. Emphasis on day-to-day practice and magical attitudes as a way of life.

Fitch, Ed. Magical Rites from the Crystal Well. Llewellyn, Saint Paul, 1984.

A collection of rituals and lore reprinted from the Crystal Well, a pagan periodical which flourished from 1965 into the 1970s. Useful source material on seasonal rituals, natural magic, and Central and Eastern European traditions.

Malaclypse the Younger. Principia Discordia. IllumiNet Press, Avondale Estates, Georgia, 1991.

The classic book of the Discordians, worshippers of Eris, Goddess of chaos and confusion. It's typewritten rather than typeset, so it's kind of hard to read. It's funny, but it pales before the Illuminatus! Trilogy, which is a fictional account demonstrating the influence of Eris in our lives. This book is rather male oriented, despite their worshipping a Goddess. In general, I think more men than women are attracted to Discordian thought.

The Pagan Way. A Book of Pagan Rituals. Samuel Weiser, New York, 1978.

Contains basic rituals for the seasonal holidays, Moons, handfastings, etc. Provides a lot of good source material.

Shadwynn. The Crafted Cup. Llewellyn, St. Paul, 1994.

Description of a Pagan tradition incorporating elements of ceremonial magick, mystic Christianity, and Goddess worship, focussing on the Grail myth. The theology sounds interesting, but the rituals use fake archaicisms that leave me cold. I'm also not impressed with the author's writing abilities. The book is wooden, and he seems incapable of telling us what's good about his tradition without seeming to put down others. He then says he's not putting down others.... ;-) Still, it's nice to see someone integrating the dominant form of spiritual and religious expression of the past millenium in Europe into a Pagan framework. I think the melding is a successful one, whatever I think of Shadwynn's writing style.

Contact kathryn@kathrynhuxtable.org with questions or comments about this page.

The current URL is http://www.kathrynhuxtable.org/bibpagan/general.shtml
This file was modified Wednesday, 15-Dec-2004 12:54:01 PST