This is my personal Book of Shadows. If you find it useful or helpful in any capacity, please consider buying me a Coffee.

Basic (and Beginner's) Reading List

I personally feel it is important you read these books in the order they are listed, to the best of your ability. This is not for some sketchy means of spiritual control, or whatever nonsense I’m sure people will eventually come up with (because the do love their conspiracy theories). But merely because they are listed this way, in this particular order, in order to help you develop necessary skills and critical understandings that will become more and more relevant as you progress further along the list; as with any topic or skill, building foundational skills and knowledge first ultimately helps you understand later information down the road- and any good course of education is ideally structured with this basic understanding in mind.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not, in fact, just throw a child into the deep end of the pool and expect them to know how to swim immediately- nor for their "instinct" to simply take over and protect them. You give them swimming lessons first. Shockingly to some, apparently, spiritual education should operate no differently. This does not, however, mean people should still be treated as if Academic and Historical, Scientific, and other topics are "too heavy", "too dense", or "too difficult to understand" for beginners. And I despise "Educators" who treat newbies this way as well.

The preference for the term "Baby Witch" these days completely aside, none of you are actually infants to be infantilized. In other words: Not only do you deserve to be treated as if you have the capacity to understand complex topics, because you do (and I am more than happy to answer questions if you struggle)- but you deserve to be given access proper academic resources in the first place regardless ... Yes, even if you may be impatient to get to "the good stuff" (a little patience pays off significantly in this area of study, I promise).

Thus, for transparency's sake, the books on my personal recommended reading list are clearly organized into the following coherent sections with explanation.

Nationalism & Supremacy

Paganism tries its best to put forward a face of widespread social acceptance and alignment with leftist and progressive values. But what lurkes beneath the surface of many organizations is a cult of White Supremacy and NeoNazism, Nationalism, and more; the Pagan and New-Age to Alt-Right, Nationalist, White Supremacist, and Neo-Nazi Pipeline has been well established and understood for decades now. It is absolutely imperative for new practitioners to understand and be educated on how this manifests in order to avoid it. Not all of these are books, however; the majority of these are web links and videos instead.

Historical Literacy

This section's purpose is to give you an idea of how Archaeology and similar fields function, the dangers of fake archeology and science, and how it damages historical literacy and spirituality; this is an integral skill to build first in order to help you parse bad information from good in Pagan and Occult spaces later (as well as understand why you should).

Pre-History

The myth of a utopic Pagan prehistory underlines so much of early contemporary Paganism. It's important to know where these myths come from, how they developed, and how incorrect they are; how our ancestors did function, as best we know. That way we can challenge these myths when they present themselves, and make more informed decisions as to the quality of the work we are reading. It's also important to read up-to-date information before diving into older materials.

Old History

This contextualizes Christianity and Older forms of Historical Witchcraft by teaching you about their history, what Religious Syncretism is and the process of the conversion of Pagan Europe, and how Witchcraft was viewed both in Europe and across the pond. Especially during the period known as “the Burning Times” / “the Witch Trials”, which so many Pagans and Witches like to harp on in particular.

Contemporary History

This contextualizes modern Witchcraft starting in roughly the 20th century (the 1900′s, known as The Witchcraft Revival) by teaching you about Victorian Occultism and Wicca, and several other movements which laid the foundation for what we consider Witchcraft today- which is very different than what was historically considered Witchcraft in all previous eras.

TradWicca & TradCraft

Whether the community wants to admit it or not, most modern Witchcraft descends from or is heavily influenced or impacted by Gerald Gardner’s original Wiccan religion. Legitimately understanding the foundations of Wicca- and not the mass marketed Eclectic Neopaganism masquerading as Wicca in the mainstream today- is thus integral before being released into the world of said mass marketed materials. Thus, the reason for this final list. These few specific books here contain an incredibly simplistic introduction to the topic- all of which contain decent additional information on the history of Wicca, its influence on the creation of Tradcraft and other systems, its transition from Europe to America, the development of the Outer Court system, how it impacted things such as the Festival Movement (and how movements such as the Ecology Movement impacted it in turn), the eventual development of NeoWicca, and its further birth into the Eclectic Neopaganism you find books on today which so many people actually take issue with.

This is, of course, an incredibly simplistic list that doesn’t cover all topics. Druids are not mentioned, for instance. Ceremonial and Grimoire traditions (etc) are completely left out despite their significant impacts on many religions of the Witchcraft Revival (including Wicca and Traditional Witchcraft both). And it is incredibly Eurocentric- especially to western and northern Europe; I cannot possibly cover all bases, nor is it important to actually attempt to do so in a beginner’s reading list.

What is ultimately the most important, is that once you have read all these books in the order I have listed them, you should have a very strong foundation of understanding. One that should, ideally, allow you to parse the most common bits of pseudohistory and pseudoscience (and general grifter nonsense) that you’ll frequently encounter within Paganism, Witchcraft, and the Occult, from the actual scientific and historical reality.

You will also have a significantly easier time researching further on your own because of this. Just keep in mind when you’re researching that authorial intent and context does matter (as does the historical context and period during which a text was written); no you don’t have to "academic all at once" (you can do it in bite-sized chunks along with non-academic studies); and you’re entirely responsible for your own research paralysis- meaning if you get stuck on research, rather than practice, that's on you, not the people who said to research things.

That being said, if you cannot read all of them for one reason or another- which is perfectly reasonable and understandable- then the ones I consider to be the most important texts are denoted with the ⸷ symbol at the end of their listing; at bare minimum, I fully believe that an individual should at least consider reading these books in their listed order, in order to receive a proper minimal foundational education.