Reading

A media archive of cultural interest can be viewed here.

Seekers need only choose publications from the suggested reading list outlined in the first section below. Some of these publications have been authored by academics although the majority have been authored by Elders of the Craft traditions sought out by Seekers. For seekers who are beginning their research into Witchcraft and Wicca, titles by Janet and Stewart Farrar, Margot Adler, Doreen Valiente and Rae Beth are a good starting point. For those interested in the Minoan Brotherhood or the New York WICA tradition, titles by Michael Lloyd, Arthur Evans, and Randy P. Conner are good supplementary readings.

The publications listed in the second section are predominantly academic works which point to the polytheistic heritage of Abrahamic traditions in the exploration of topics such as deity worship, ancestor veneration, necromancy, sorcery, astronomy, divination and the role of women in these societies. These may be of interest to students undergoing training who are generally encouraged to stay abreast of developments in fields such as archaeology, astronomy, anthropology, etc.

You might be surprised by the results of a search of your local library’s online catalogue. Many of these titles can be purchased via mass market retailers, however, it is worth considering support for independent bookshops. Although there are no dedicated occult stores in Ireland, there are three wonderful bookshops in London which also host events and facilitate workshops.

We like to visit Watkins Books and Atlantis Bookshop, the former operating since 1901 and the latter since 1922. Both were frequented by figures such as W.B. Yeats, Dion Fortune, Israel Regardie, Gerald Gardner and Aleister Crowley. However, our favourite store to visit is Treadwell’s Bookshop which was founded in 2003 by Dr Christina Oakley-Harrington.

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SUGGESTED READING LIST FOR SEEKERS

BOOKS

  • A Witches’ Bible – Janet and Stewart Farrar
  • An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present – Doreen Valiente
  • Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches – Charles Godfrey Leland
  • Blossom of Bone: Reclaiming the Connections Between Homoeroticism and the Sacred – Randy P. Conner
  • Bull of Heaven – Michael Lloyd
  • Circle of Fire – Sorita D’Este and David Rankine
  • Children of Cain – Michael Howard
  • Conversations with a Witch – Lois Bourne
  • Covensense – Patricia Crowther
  • Dancing with Witches – Lois Bourne
  • Drawing Down the Moon – Margot Adler
  • Doreen Valiente, Witch – Philip Heselton
  • Fifty Years of Wicca – Fred Lamond
  • Hedge Witch – Rae Beth
  • High Priestess: One Witch’s World – Patricia Crowther
  • High Magic’s Aid – Gerald Gardner
  • In search of the New Forest Coven – Philip Heselton
  • Irish Witchcraft from an Irish Witch – Lora O’Brien
  • Lid off the Cauldron – Patricia Crowther
  • Magic of the North Gate – Josephine McCarthy
  • Mastering Witchcraft – Paul Huson
  • Minoan and Mycenaean Art – Reynold Higgins
  • Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete – Rodney Castleden
  • Modern Magick – Donald Michael Kraig
  • Modern Wicca – Michael Howard
  • Moon Magic – Dion Fortune
  • Natural Magic – Doreen Valiente
  • Power of the Witch – Laurie Cabot
  • Psychic Self Defence – Dion Fortune
  • The Charge of the Goddess: The Mother of Modern Witchcraft – Doreen Valiente
  • The Divine Struggle – Fred Lamond
  • The Heart of Wicca: Wise Words from a Crone on the Path – Ellen Cannon Reed
  • The Life and Times of a Modern Witch – Janet and Stewart Farrar
  • The Minoan World – Arthur Cotterell
  • The Meaning of Witchcraft – Gerald Gardner
  • The Rebirth of Witchcraft – Doreen Valiente
  • The Sea Priestess – Dion Fortune
  • The Triumph of the Moon – Ronald Hutton
  • The Witches’ God – Janet and Stewart Farrar
  • The Witches’ Goddess – Janet and Stewart Farrar
  • Towards the Wiccan Circle – Sorita D’Este and David Rankine
  • Traditional Wicca: A Seeker’s Guide – Thorn Mooney
  • What Thou Wilt – Jon Hanna
  • What Witches Do – Stewart Farrar
  • Where Witchcraft Lives – Doreen Valiente
  • Wicca: Magickal Beginnings – Sorita D’Este and David Rankine
  • Witch Amongst Us – Lois Bourne
  • Witchcraft and Paganism Today – Anthony Kemp
  • Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture – Arthur Evans
  • Witchcraft for Tomorrow – Doreen Valiente
  • Witchcraft, Magic and Culture, 1736 to 1951 – Owen Davies
  • Witchcraft Today – Gerald Gardner
  • Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner; (Vol. l) Into the Witch Cult – Philip Heselton
  • Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner; (Vol. 2) From Witch Cult to Wicca – Philip Heselton

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PUBLICATIONS OF TOPICAL INTEREST

BOOKS

  • A Brief History of the Celts – Peter Beresford-Ellis
  • A Brief History of the Druids – Peter Beresford-Ellis
  • An Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion – Tammi J. Schneider
  • Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament – (ed.) James B. Pritchard
  • Arcana Mundi; Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Collection of Ancient Texts – Georg Luck
  • Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilisation – Paul Kriwaczek
  • Celtic Gods and Celtic Goddesses – Robert J. Stewart
  • Complete Irish Mythology – Augusta Gregory
  • Creating Pre-History: Druids, Ley Hunters and Archaeologists in Pre-war Britain – Adam Stout
  • Culture and Conscience. An Archaeological Study of the New Religious past in Ancient Palestine – Herbert Gordon May & William Creighton Graham
  • Ecstatic Religion: A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession – Ioan M. Lewis
  • Essays on Ancient Israel in Its Near Eastern Context: A Tribute to Nadav Naªaman – (ed.) Yairah Amit, Ehud Ben Zvi, Israel Finkelstein, & Oded Lipschits
  • Foundations of Practical Magic – Israel Regardie
  • Geosophia: The Argo of Magic – Jake Stratton-Kent
  • Gods in the Desert: Religions of the Ancient Near East – Glenn Stanfield Holland
  • Greek and Roman Necromancy – Daniel Ogden
  • Handbook of Contemporary Paganism – (ed.) Meredith Pizza & James R. Lewis
  • Households and Holiness: The Religious Culture of Israelite Women – Carol L. Meyers
  • In the Path of the Moon: Babylonian Celestial Divination and its Legacy – by Francesca Rochberg
  • Initiation into Hermetics – Franz Bardon
  • Irish Witchcraft and Demonology – St. John D. Seymour
  • Judahite Burial Practices and Beliefs about the Dead – Elizabeth Bloch-Smith
  • Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World – (ed.) Paul Mirecki & Marvin Meyer
  • Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds – Daniel Ogden
  • Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire and the Forging of History – Kenneth D. S. Lapatin
  • Prophets Male and Female: Gender and Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Ancient Near East – (ed.) Jonathan Stökl & Corrine L. Carvalho
  • Rethinking Ghosts in World Religions – (ed.) Mu-chou Poo
  • The Book of the Goddess Past and Present – Carol Olson
  • The Cosmic Serpent – Jeremy Narby
  • The Cults of the Greek States – Lewis R. Farnell
  • The Family in Life and Death; The Family in Ancient Israel: Sociological and Archaeological Perspectives – (ed.) Patricia Dutcher-Walls
  • The Gods of the Celts – Miranda Green
  • The Golden Bough – James Frazer
  • The Greeks and Greek Love – James Davidson
  • The Irish Celtic Magical Tradition – Steven Blamires
  • The Israelite Woman: Social Role and Literary Type in Biblical Narrative – Athalya Brenner
  • The Occult World – (ed.) Christopher Partridge
  • The True Grimoire – Jake Stratton-Kent
  • The White Goddess – Robert Graves
  • Transcendental Magic – Eliphas Levi
  • Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture (Vol 1) – (ed.) Shlomo Berger, Michael Brocke & Irene Zwiep

ARTICLES

  • 1 Sam 28: The woman of Endor. Who is she and what does Saul see? – S. Fisher (Basel)
  • Age at Marriage and the Household: A Study of Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian Forms – Martha T. Roth
  • Ancient Jerusalem’s Funerary Customs and Tombs – Levi Y. Rahmani
  • Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature – John Day
  • Ben Sira and the Giants of the Land: A Note on Ben Sira 16:7 – Matthew Goff
  • Biblical Women’s Marital Rights – Étan Levine
  • Capturing Basque Witches, Releasing Lyrical Resources: From Historical Cases to Folk Song – Begoña Echeverria
  • Capturing Magics: The Witches in Early Modern England Project as Micro-Historical and Visualization Research – Kirsten C. Uszkalo
  • Charming Witches: The “Old Religion” and the Pendle Trial – Diane Purkiss
  • Chirps from the Dust: The Affirmation of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:30 in its Ancient Near Eastern Context – Christine Hayes
  • Deuteronomy and the Politics of Post-Mortem Existence – Joseph Blenkinsopp
  • Diana Nemorensis – Andrew Alfoldi
  • Dynamic Spirituality on Minoan peak sanctuaries – Christine Morris & Alan Peatfield
  • Evidence of Minoan astronomy and calendrical practices – Marianna P. Ridderstad
  • Exe(o)rcising Power: Women as Sorceresses, Exorcists, and Demonesses in Babylonian Jewish Society of Late Antiquity – Rebecca Lesses
  • Experiencing ritual: Shamanic elements in Minoan religion – Christine Morris & Alan Peatfield
  • Hebrew thoughts on immortality and resurrection – Edmund B. Keller
  • Immortality and the Unseen World: A Study in Old Testament Religion – William O.E. Oesterley
  • Inanna and Ishtar in the Babylonian World – Joan Goodnick Westenholz
  • Isaiah 57:5-6: Tombs in the Rocks – Charles A. Kennedy
  • Judah’s Covenant with Death (Isaiah XXVIII 14-22) – Joseph Blenkinsopp
  • Lie Back and Think of Judah: The Reproductive Politics of Pillar Figurines – Ryan Byrne
  • Necromancy and Cleromancy in 1 and 2 Samuel – Bill T. Arnold
  • Official Attitudes toward Prophecy at Mari and in Israel – Simon B. Parker
  • Old Testament religion in the light of its Canaanite background – Elmer A. Leslie
  • Royal Women and the Exercise of Power in the Ancient Near East – Sarah C. Melville
  • Secondary Mortuary Practice and the Bench Tomb: Structure and Practice in Iron Age Judah – James F. Osborne
  • “She Will Die by the Iron Dagger”: Adultery and Neo-Babylonian Marriage – Martha T. Roth
  • Some Neglected Aspects of Israelite Interment Ideology – Saul M. Olyan
  • Spiritual Physiologies: The Discernment of Spirits in Medieval and Early Modern Europe – Nancy Caciola & Moshe Sluhovsky
  • Tamar, Qědēšā, Qadištu, and Sacred Prostitution in Mesopotamia – Joan Goodnick Westenholz
  • The Archbishop and the Lord Chief Justice: Dispossessions and the Clash of Jurisdictions in Jacobean England – Marcus Harmes
  • The Daughters of Your People: Female Prophets in Ezekiel 13:17-23 – Nancy R. Bowen
  • The discovery of Witches: Matthew Hopkins’s Defense of his Witch-Hunting Methods – Sheilagh Ilona O’Brien
  • The Dynamics of Gender in Early Agricultural Societies of the Near East – Diane Bolger
  • The Exaltation of Inanna – William W. Hallo & J. J. A. van Dijk
  • The Invocation of Deceased Ancestors in Psalm 49:12c – Mark S. Smith
  • The Necromancer’s Inheritance: The Ba’alat Ov of Endor in 1 Samuel 28 – Ben Siegel
  • The Queen Mother and the Cult in Ancient Israel – Susan Ackerman
  • The Role and Function of Goddesses in Mesopotamia – Brigitte Groneberg
  • The Roots of Restriction: Women in Early Israel – Carol L. Meyers
  • The Saturnine History of Jews and Witches – Yvonne Owens
  • The Social Role of the Nadītu Women in Old Babylonian Nippur – Elizabeth C. Stone
  • The Theological Implications of an Ancient Jewish Burial Custom – Eric M. Meyers
  • The Witchcraft Hysteria in Early Modern Europe: Was Russia an Exception? – William F. Ryan
  • Transfer of Property by Inheritance and Bequest in Biblical Law and Tradition – Richard H. Hiers
  • Unnoticed Resonances of Tomb Opening and Transportation of the Remains of the Dead in Ezekiel 37:12-14 – Saul M. Olyan
  • Voicing Women, “Community” Drama, and The Late Lancashire Witches – Eleanor Rycroft
  • Who Names the Namers? The Interpretation of Necromantic Terms in Jewish Translations of the Bible – Andrés Piquer Otero & Pablo A. Torijano Morales
  • Women and Communication in the Ancient Near East – Samuel A. Meier
  • Women and Gender in Babylonia – Laura D. Steele
  • Women and Men at Çatalhöyük – Ian Hodder
  • Women in Ancient Mesopotamia – Amy R. Gansell
  • Women’s Divination in Biblical Literature: Prophecy, Necromancy, and Other Arts of Knowledge – Esther J. Hamori
  • Yahweh and the Goddesses Astarte and Anat (and the Queen of Heaven) – John Day