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    Best Books/Websites

    Hello,

    Can anyone recommend books and websites that explain in detail how to cast a circle, call the corners, invoke, etc. There are so many websites and books out there that I don't know who to trust. I have tried doing a search myself and am trying to narrow it down. Any recommendations for a newbie?

    #2
    Re: Best Books/Websites

    Over the years, we've had many threads relating to which books would be good for this, or good for that. Newbies looking for the best books on wicca to read, or witches looking to expand their craft, or just open-minded individuals looking to learn something new about another path. Before the Crash, we had a thread called


    Click, peruse, and enjoy.

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      #3
      Re: Best Books/Websites

      Truthfully no one will be able to give you a universal one size fits all method. Nearly every practice, lineage coven or school of magics has their own way of doing things and many times modify them a bit to be unique for their practice. The best you can probably do is write out what you find and do a compare and contrast on your own and dissect each one. None of that even touching upon those aspects that might be perceived as being sacred or special and only taught to initiates of a given pathway.

      Others may disagree but personally I find what your asking to be a result of book taught practices and not lineage practices. It sucks but no one said being pagan was going to be easy or have everything handed to you on a platter. Personally if anyone does direct you to a provide all answers book i'd drop it an run for its only one person or groups outlook on it at best. In which case it would be better to compare and contrast and identify elements and create your own unique method.

      That and consider even the items you listed are not universal to all pathways or workings. I can tell you how I define and use some of those terms for instance but it may make no sense if you don't have the full drapings to go with it along with the mystical aspects.
      I'm Only Responsible For What I Say Not For What Or How You Understand!

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        #4
        Re: Best Books/Websites

        Thanks for the help everyone! I embarrassed myself but saying "corners" instead of quarters. Someone just corrected me

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          #5
          Originally posted by avalonmoonlight View Post
          Thanks for the help everyone! I embarrassed myself but saying "corners" instead of quarters. Someone just corrected me
          Ive called it corners before, till I realised it was a circle... haha
          ThorSon's milkshake brings all the PF girls to the yard - Volcaniclastic

          RIP

          I have never been across the way
          Seen the desert and the birds
          You cut your hair short
          Like a shush to an insult
          The world had been yelling
          Since the day you were born
          Revolting with anger
          While it smiled like it was cute
          That everything was shit.

          - J. Wylder

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            #6
            Re: Best Books/Websites

            Originally posted by monsno_leedra View Post
            Truthfully no one will be able to give you a universal one size fits all method. Nearly every practice, lineage coven or school of magics has their own way of doing things and many times modify them a bit to be unique for their practice. The best you can probably do is write out what you find and do a compare and contrast on your own and dissect each one. None of that even touching upon those aspects that might be perceived as being sacred or special and only taught to initiates of a given pathway.

            Others may disagree but personally I find what your asking to be a result of book taught practices and not lineage practices. It sucks but no one said being pagan was going to be easy or have everything handed to you on a platter. Personally if anyone does direct you to a provide all answers book i'd drop it an run for its only one person or groups outlook on it at best. In which case it would be better to compare and contrast and identify elements and create your own unique method.

            That and consider even the items you listed are not universal to all pathways or workings. I can tell you how I define and use some of those terms for instance but it may make no sense if you don't have the full drapings to go with it along with the mystical aspects.
            I agree with Monsno. However, I think some good writers are Scott Cunningham (RIP) and Amber K. They have some of the best books I have read. However, you still have to read other books to get your opinion on them. It depends on what path you follow.
            Anubisa

            Dedicated and devoted to Lord Anubis and Lady Bast. A follower of the path of Egyptian Wicca.

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              #7
              Re: Best Books/Websites

              I agree and disagree with Monsno on this one...I agree that "anyone does direct you to a provide all answers book i'd drop it an run for its only one person or groups outlook on it at best. In which case it would be better to compare and contrast and identify elements and create your own unique method" and I'll disagree that there is always a difference between "book taught practices" and "lineage practices". Particularly when you look at some of the older books out there, they *are* based on lineaged traditions. It is perfectly possible to get "the basics" down (from a Wiccan-based practice standpoint, if that is what you are interested in) from books. Lineaged Wiccan traditions change over time. They evolve and progress from one generation (in terms of both coven hiving and just in terms of an individual coven's leadership and the different mix of people coming and going). There are any number of books written by reputable Wiccans in lineaged covens who are writing authentic information on their tradition at that time, as they understood it (and some of them were in a very good position to understand it very well)...you just have to do some research to find which books they are and which authors.

              If you are interested in Wicca, or in using Wicca as the foundation from which to start your own personal journey (and there is nothing wrong with that, its probably the most easily indentified and verifyable path, in terms of the information available), I would recommend The Witches Bible, The Witches Goddess, and The Witches God, by Janet and Stewart Farrar, Wicca for Beginners by Thea Sabin, Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner and Living Wicca by Scott Cunningham, Wicca: The Old Religion In the New Millennium by Vivianne Crowley, Buckland’s Big Blue Book (I forget the title, mostly people call it the big blue book), and Witchcraft Today by Gerald Gardner. These will give you several historical contexts of various views and experiences of "how to" do Wiccan style ritual and practices while also giving you different perspectives on Wicca's variety. Vivianne Crowley is both an Alexandrian and Gardnerian Wiccan (and high priestess), Raymond Buckland (though a controversial figure) eventually founded his own tradition started out Gardnerian, and the Farrars who were Alexandrian. Cunningham is more ecclectic and recived some training in a variety of paths (which is evident in his writing, which is perfectly valid as a practice, though not authentic from a historical perspective...but its good material to be familar with).

              If you are interested in a broader personal path, I'd also recommend Ritual: A Druid’s Guide to Life, Love & Inspiration by Emma Restall Orr, Evolutionary Witchcraft by T. Thorne Coyle, The Circle Within by Diane Sylvan, Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life by Pauline Campanelli, and Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-centered Religions by River and Joyce Higgenbotham.

              I'd also recommend Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler, either way. Its sort of an ethnology and history of Paganism during the 80's and will give you a good idea of some of the actors and major branches (and some of the minor ones) in the various Paganisms.
              Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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                #8
                Re: Best Books/Websites

                ^ Good list. I'd also throw in the works of Christopher Penczak, who I've found to be one of the better Wiccan authors when it comes to providing the basic skills required to work magic and the theory behind it, and Kraig's Modern Magick, which isn't Wiccan, but it's one of the better books for beginners on ceremonial magic out there, and is popular among Pagans because it brings the basics of hermetic ritual magic (which originated in pre-Christian Greece and Egypt) out from under a lot of the Christian dogma and worldview it was buried in for the last 1500 years.

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