I am unashamedly naming this in the TikTok vernacular because it actually does kind of fit the theme of this book series. I honestly probably could of found something a little more intellectual or studious sounding to name it, but if the shoe fits….why not go with it? Being a witch of two plus decades of practice means I’ve been around for awhile and definitely around during the resurgence of interest in witchcraft during the 90’s/00’s and, because I was always a book nerd, books were always my go to for learning.
Due to that, I have read a lot of books that have formed my path over the two or so decades of practice and although my practice revolves moreso around herbs, I have consumed a lot of different literature on and around the topic of witchcraft. Throughout those decades the literature available on witchcraft has grown and changed; coming up as a young teenage witch in the 90’s/early 00’s, there wasn’t a large amount of books to really get stuck into. Today you can find any sort of book to fit any style of practice or belief because the proliferation of books now is incredible. There are so many writers with different perspectives, opinions and practices that you are spoiled for choice; and this brings me to the topic of this series: the books of our forbearers who paved the way for modern witchcraft.
We have the famous names such as Gardener, Valiente, Farrar, Cunningham and a whole host more who wrote a lot of books about witchcraft and Wicca that some of us elder witches read when we were younger. Do they hold up to today? Can wisdom still be gleaned from them and be relevant to today’s spiritual practices? Or are they mostly just overdone, irrelevant rubbish that we should strike from any recommended reading list?
I want to delve into what each book has to offer us in this modern time and whether or not the works of our elders can still be useful and workable today. I want to be able to see how well they hold up in a modern context and what has changed since these books were written. Realistically I imagine quite a lot of them will be problematic because the world has come a long way in the past 80 years and what was considered the norm in the intervening decades since Wicca and witchcraft was written about has changed. But for witches like myself, these were the readily available books for us to read and build our knowledge and practice from. Quite a lot moved away from Wicca and turned toward a more eclectic path (as did I) or embraced other traditions that aligned with our belief but I would say a fair amount of us started with the aforementioned authors. Most have passed on now, but I do wonder if they would edit their works and change it for a more modern time or if they would still stand behind them, believing in the importance of what they wrote?
So that is ultimately the spirit of this series, reading some of the older tomes that I have in my collection (and some I may order in or read online) to see how they hold up today and whether or not they still have some wisdom and guidance to offer us as we explore and grow on our own individual spiritual paths in this modern world.
The first lot of books I will be covering, simply because I personally own them, are:
Mastering Witchcraft by Paul Huson
Power of the Witch by Laurie Cabot
Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler
A Witches’ Bible by the Farrars
True Magick by Amber K
Wicca: Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham
There are others that I may or may not include like the sequel to Wicca, Living Wicca or Spells and How They Work by the Farrars, but I think this list is a good starting point and covers from the 70’s to the 90’s. So let’s see how I go with the reading, I may even do an accompanying series on my YouTube channel if I feel moved to, I’m still trying to feel comfortable being in front of the camera.
Wish me luck as I delve into this huge reading challenge. Why do I do this to myself?
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