A very nice article on the Goddess Coventina

Exploring Our Gods and Goddesses – Coventina

I suspect She was more honored by Germanic tribes than we realize given that the make-up of the Roman legions at this time would have been good part German. She’s ours — and Her cultus a beautiful mess of Gaulish, Celtic, Roman, and German devotion. May She be hailed! I wish I knew Her more.

Divination offered this week

I”m offering divination this weekend, through Sunday. No specific questions: I will divine and give you what I get. Usually I use three systems for this, per reading. This is more in depth than my runic “one and done” div. I will throw a combination of three different divination systems and give you a full report of what I receive. I charge $25.

If you have a specific question, I can divine on it but I have found the broad spectrum look that I get in my no question/three system practice to be better and more effective at getting a sense of what’s truly going on. Either way, if you have specific question, same cost: $25

I’m also offering my one and done rune div. same price and practice applies.

If interested, email me before 6pm EST on this Sunday. I’ll be doing the div that night. email me at krasskova at gmail.com and I’ll invoice you.

be well.

My general div set up for quick div and yes, there are sewing supplies in the cookie tin in the upper left lol.

My Ideal Education

Ok, so I posted this meme on Facebook and it’s getting a lot of play.

I thought I’d take the time to talk about what I consider my perfect educational model. Right now, in our current society, I favor homeschooling. I think it’s the only way to avoid indoctrination of one’s child, to instill virtue, piety, discipline, and also to provide the framework of a good, solid education. There are a ton of ways to do homeschooling: it can be a single family, or families can coordinate to have little pods of kids learning together. I would almost always choose homeschooling right now over any other educational method. If I had to create my own K-12 curriculum however – let’s do a thought experiment: let’s imagine we can do this for a newly formed school – this is what I’d do. 

Firstly, home-ec and civics would be taught in every single grade (age appropriately). Home-ec would involve learning how to cook, sew, mend, budget, change a tire, basic home repair, how to shop on a budget, maintain a home, how to understand taxes, insurance, personal finance/investing, and things like compound interest (my god-daughter understood this at five). Civics is self-explanatory: it is a privilege to live in any community and young people should be raised with a sense of their responsibilities to that community. What does it mean to be a good citizen? We talk a lot about our rights, but not so much about our responsibilities. Part of civics is learning how our country was founded, why, and how our government works. 

From K-12 I’d also have self-defense and shooting skills taught. (Think I’m crazy? Through the 50s, there were shooting clubs at school and kids routinely brought their guns. What changed? Not the guns but the society and its psychological lack of care for its people). There would be art and music classes, serious classes with each child learning at least one instrument as well. Art includes what we might term crafts, textile work, pottery, etc. in addition to art history, painting and drawing and each child would be expected to choose a craft upon which to focus, in addition to learning to draw and paint. Not everyone is going to be a Van Gogh, but the practice enriches their world and teaches them to appreciate art, you know, that thing that elevates our souls to the Gods. I would also start teaching them chess in kindergarten to hone their minds in strategy and critical thinking. 

Also, from K-12, there would, of course, be classes in History, Mathematics, Sciences, Computers and coding, English – grammar and literature, creative writing, rhetoric (including how to judge sources for their bias or legitimacy, i.e. media savvy and critical thinking, also public speaking). In Kindergarten, I’d teach ASL. In first grade kids would start learning Latin and this would continue through graduation. In second grade, children would learn penmanship, cursive, and calligraphy – decent handwriting, the maintenance of which would be rolled into the rest of the curriculum. In this grade, a modern foreign language would be added (the kids can choose). In seventh grade, they take up ancient Greek; and in ninth grade, a second foreign language (again, the kids can choose). 

Throughout K-12, there would also theology classes. How to read theologically. How to understand our cosmological stories, how to develop virtue and ethics. There would be religion classes focusing on polytheisms and how to cultivate devotion and piety, what to do in ritual, our sacred stories, etc. because this is my school, and I can do that. This would include participatory age-appropriate rites and pageants and such to make ritual engaging for them when small. In grades 9-12, children will volunteer at a local temple or with a local spiritual technician, but they can also take courses in comparative religions, ritual studies, ethics, etc.. I’d require yearly community service from Kindergarten, even if it’s something like cleaning up a park or visiting a nursing home. They need to be invested in where they live. 

I’d do 4H things. Kids would have a community garden, bee hives, and a small selection of live-stock (chickens, goats) and they would learn to garden, and to tend and care for these animals and plants. As part of home-ec, they’d be learning food preservation as well. All of this can be made fun for the very youngest grades.

What would you add?

My Daily Prayer These Days…

I place my trust in the God of the Gallows.

I place my trust in Odin.

ALU.

Odin by Sam Flegel

Species Lunation 3 – Iron

I wasn’t expecting to work with iron this month. I wanted to work with birch but iron decided to work with me and so I had no choice but to comply. I work well with iron tools, and I tend to keep at least one good iron pendant, usually a Mjolnir in my spirit-worker travel kit. It’s very good for warding off certain types of nature spirits, and other spirits too that may wish to cause trouble or mischief. I was always taught that iron isn’t very conducive to nature spirits in general, but then in the end, it too is of the earth and the mountains, and nature will reclaim it easily enough even so.  Iron and silver are two of my favorite metals with which to work when I do conjure, and when I need to choose a piece of sacred jewelry for protection. 

I don’t have much experience in actual smith-craft. I’ve made two knives, but the course was so disappointing (and the teacher so absent any sense of safety for the students) that I walked out before the class was done, a rarity for me. Still, those two knives remain, one gifted to my husband when we married and the other on my shrine to the duergar. They have a lovely sleek curve to them, and I made sure they were very sharp. I’ve worked with weapons – I studied iaido and kendo, kali, escrima, etc. learned how to shoot a gun, had a bit of archery (though not much). I know iron and its brother steel very well. It’s one of my favorite metals. I never gave it much thought as a mineral that we need to be healthy until this past season. 

I must note that I received an oracle at the beginning of the year that warned me if I didn’t make time to take a rest, the Gods would ensure that I had a rest. I’m just going to preface all of this with a sudden memory of that oracle, to which I should have paid far more attention!

On January 5, I did a new cleansing and purification charm and prayer. I had taken a terrible spiritual attack over thanksgiving (so bad that but for the grace of the Gods, my friend and I would be dead) and I wanted to be clean, really, really energetically clean moving into the new year. I had no idea how this would manifest. On January 6 I woke up ill, very, very ill (I won’t go into descriptions).  That continued pretty much daily for three months. I was taught that the first rule of spirit work is to check everything medically, even if one is absolutely sure the cause is spiritual. So, I went to the doctor for every imaginable test and as expected nothing amiss was found. The doctor even told me my blood work was better than his. Repeated divination told me to just calm down, that it was all the result of my purification work. Moreover, despite my symptoms, I felt fantastic, absolutely fantastic. I had more energy, my physical pain began to recede, old injuries began to release their painful hold. I found that as I prayed every day this same prayer, I began seriously healing. That was great. I couldn’t quite focus as I needed to for academic work due to some of my symptoms, but even with that, I felt better than I had in twenty years. When the cause of illness was found, it was found so quickly that I firmly believe it was miraculous. Hail to Bestla, Mother of Odin. Hail to Odin, Son of a ferocious Mother. Hail to Borr, Who teaches us to endure. Hail Them. 

For a time, I had to take iron tablets to combat what we initially though was anemia. This too was new and while the iron helped the exhaustion, it upset my stomach terribly. Fortunately, I only had to take it for about two weeks and my doctor told me I could stop. So instead, I started going weekly to a local sauna. It’s not a traditional sauna (I wish!) but an infrared sauna. Still, I would make offerings to the sauna spirit and then go for a half hour sauna and then a dip in cold water. During the sauna, I’d pray my daily prayer cycle. The results were amazing. Firstly, if I do a sauna, I ‘m done for the rest of the day. It cleans me out like nothing else and then knocks me out ,so I know to leave a lot of time to sleep afterwards. If I do a sauna with a sound bath included, I emerge high as a kite and need someone else to drive me home. The cold bath takes a bit of getting used to and I had to work up to it (I’m still working up to it LOL). Our traditional ways of cleansing and resetting the body – and within the Northern Tradition, sauna is certainly traditional – are more powerful than I realized. 

What does iron do in the body? It’s essential to life. It makes hemoglobin, that is our red blood cells. Those cells carry oxygen throughout the body (I’m getting most of this from the Mayo clinic). I had no idea how important it was! Signs of iron deficiency include: 

• Extreme fatigue
• Weakness
• Pale skin
• Chest pain, fast heartbeat or shortness of breath
• Headache, dizziness or lightheadedness
• Cold hands and feet
• Inflammation or soreness of your tongue
• Brittle nails
• Unusual cravings for non-nutritive substances, such as ice, dirt or starch
• Poor appetite, especially in infants and children with iron deficiency anemia

We mostly get iron from the foods we eat, and all of this has made me more mindful of what I’m putting in my body.  

In conjure, iron filings are used with lodestones, to feed them in spells of attraction, money, and luck. One can keep one of these charms going pretty much indefinitely so long as the lodestones are consistently fed with iron sand or iron filings. Iron is also used to ward off various evil spirits, ghosts, and malefica. This is why in Appalachia (and many other places too!), you might see horseshoes nailed, ends up so the luck doesn’t flow out, over the doorway and in some places, one would bury an iron knife right in front of the door to one’s house in order to ward off evil people and malefica. I firmly maintain my ancestral traditions. They knew things and one doesn’t change a practice until and unless one knows exactly what it does. 

This whole season has made me more respectful of the power of this mineral. It is that of endurance, of unbending, unyielding strength, and like my ancestors, I embrace its grit. 

Terrible bragging about a birthday gift lol

So, awhile back I mentioned that my husband did months of research and created a collection of Heathen charms and prayers for me. After he gave it to me for my birthday (and it was like being courted all over again; ^___^ though the man now knows more about Heathen lore than I do. Yesterday I was complaining that in the cultivation of virtue I’m my own worst enemy and he quotes the “Havamal” at me…in Old Norse. lol), I chose some art and a friend formatted it and I had some personal copies printed. This will never be available for sale. The art is for my personal devotional use only. The book is for my own use only but I can’t help but share my new Zauberbuch. It is…you know, I don’t have words for how incredibly moved, awed, and absolutely delighted I am by this. Look. it is awesome. ^_^

Wodinic Wednesday Q&A

I am opening my comments section today for reader questions. I do this to honor Odin as Sangetall, as Gangleri, as a God Who ever seeks knowledge. If you have a question for me on things related to the northern tradition, Heathenry, polytheism, devotion, conjure, magical practice, ballet, my academic work — whatever is on your mind– feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer or point you toward the best places I can think of to find answers.

I’ll keep this open until 9pm EST April 10. Rock on folks.

“Odin” by W. McMillan (From the author’s personal collection)

Prayer to Erda

So, today we had a 4.7 earthquake in the Bronx. I was driving in when the earthquake occurred, and I didn’t feel it, until I got out of the car. I wouldn’t walk a straight line. It felt like deep in the earth there was a thrumming, a rhythm, a vibration, a movement. It’s only as I write this, more than three hours later, that I’m finally starting to feel settled again. But the earth beneath my feet, where I ground, when I send my senses down feels raw and apt to lash out again. With a solar eclipse happening in just a few days, I would urge offerings to the House of Mundilfari (which as Nott’s daughter, Erda is a part). I would also suggest staying close to home and well-grounded and warded during the eclipse. Our ancestors did not necessarily see these events as times of ritual celebration, but quite often as times of danger and very ill-omened. Whatever you choose to do, folks. Be safe.

Prayer to Erda

Be at peace, Great Goddess, be at peace.

Sweet Mother Earth, Who holds the bones of our ancestors,

Erda, Goddess, stay Your mighty hand.

Daughter of Nott, Who has heard the last whispered prayers

of the dead as they fall,

Whose essence is knit into our very bones,

please hear this prayer.

Show us undeserved mercy,

Most gracious holy Power,

and seize Your peace again.

Hail to You, Erda,

Great Goddess of the Earth.

(make an offering of water or incense to Her).

A Feast-Day For Loki

For decades now, my Household has marked April 1 as a feast-day for Loki. We didn’t come up with this idea — it was filtering through the Heathen community (the parts that that rightfully venerated Loki) by 2000. Nor is this His only feast day. It is however, lovely day to celebrate Him.

Ten for Loki

 We praise You, Lođur, Who blooded our souls, shaping the suppleness of our spirits.
We praise You, Liars’ Bane, spitting forth the gnawed upon truth that burns illusion away.
We praise You, Vé, God of the sacred enclosure, Holy fire, cleansing, breaking, breeding monsters to scour our world clean.
We praise You, Loptr, unwearying Sky-traveller, journeying forth, bringing initiation to the unexpected.
We praise You, Gammleið, Who consumes the body on the bier of victory, cremation’s fire, bringing the soul home.
We praise You, Inn Bundi Áss, Bound and fettered, heaving beneath the worlds, spitting venom, bound with the viscera of Your son.
We praise You, Inn Slægi Ás, cunning thief, stealing and restoring, burning with creative fire, libertine, free of every chain.
We praise You, Hveðrung, Roaring world breaker, destroyer of all, cleanse us free.
We praise You, Læva Lundr, Old spider in the Tree of deceit, weaving Your web, forcing our hand, demanding that we dance for glory.
We praise You, Ver Sigynjar, Husband of Sigyn, sacramental flame, protector of all who are fragile, broken, and small.

 

Oh Blazing Hearth-fire.
Oh Scarred lipped Glory.
Oh Inescapable Net.
Oh, ever and never Bound.
Oh Seeker of Heights.
Oh Bitter Edge.
Oh Sigyn’s Treasure.
Oh Ymir’s Bane.
Oh Brutal Destruction.
Oh Incandescent Rebirth.
Ever and always do Your people Praise You, Loki.

(Copyright Galina Krasskova) 

Loki by Arthur Rackham

Really, really basic stuff anyone starting out should know

After watching a few videos by Pagans and Wiccans–well-meaning people many of whom are devout—I realized that this generation of practitioners has no idea what they’re doing. I had thought this for a long time but seeing video after video I realize that even the most devout …they just don’t have the basics at all. I don’t quite understand this since we have well over a hundred years, if not more, of material on both generic Paganism, every branch of Wicca, and several decades if not more on contemporary polytheisms (and academically, I could actually take both back into at least the 18^thcentury if I wanted to do it). Still, this generation seems to have come up in ignorance, part of a generation that has been trained to ignore the work of those who came before. Instead, they learn from their social media peers who may be well meaning but who are in the same boat. It’s stupid and dangerous and absolutely horrifies me. 

I really don’t mean to be nasty. I’m genuinely worried. There are basic techniques that everyone should have to do this work well and to develop basic discernment and they’re just not being taught. Thus, this post. I’m going to give a few basics that can and should be taught across traditions and I’m going to give a basic reading list for psychic hygiene. I don’t care what tradition one practices, these are necessary basics. 

First, some devotional basics:

1. Set up a personal shrine and begin making prayers and offerings. The first thing to do is to learn how to cultivate reverence. Apparently, this is not as easy as one might think (and really, what in our modern world and media teaches humility and reverence before the holy?). Be consistent. Be respectful – you’ll make mistakes. That’s not a problem. The Gods, I firmly believe, understand and expect that. You’ll learn and grow in faith. That’s the first thing, and the most important. I’ve written a ton on it here on my blog – check the tags, Dver has written about it on her blog, and there are plenty of polytheists who can help online. I don’t keep a blog-roll but there’s good work being done across traditions. (I’m not saying that Wiccans and generic Pagans have no devotion. I’m saying I don’t have a list of useful Wiccan blogs because I’m not Wiccan! So, if you know of good ones, post in the comments). 

I would also note that your shrine can be small. It can be portable. It can be as elaborate or simple as you want it to be. Don’t stress if it’s small. Just try to make it as beautiful as you can and don’t let dust collect. This is space you are giving to your holy Ones. It’s a place of connection and blessing. 

2. Set up an ancestor shrine too. I didn’t know this when I started out and I was twenty years in before I really even started to get myself sorted out with respect to honoring the dead. I realize this can be difficult if one has issues with living family or comes from an abusive or neglectful family. Still, it’s important, oh so important. It provides a protective foundation like nothing else. One of the things that most horrifies me about today’s Pagan and Wiccan generation is that they have zero spiritual protections. They’re wide open in ways that can be very dangerous. Having the conscious protection of your ancestors is a good thing and can go a long way toward helping keep one safe and to helping one gain proper discernment. Our veneration restores and reifies our connection to them and allows them to work more fully for our good. 

I’ve written a lot about ancestor work (including my book, “Honoring the Ancestors,” not to be confused with a more recent text by someone who took my ancestor course and without permission adapted it liberally for their own book of very nearly the same title and) on my blog so just check out the ancestor and ancestor work tags. The important thing about veneration is this: Be consistent. As to offerings, you don’t have to break the bank on offerings. WATER is ALWAYS a good offering. Share your morning cup of coffee with your dead. Burn incense. Bring whatever offerings you like. The most important thing is to spend consistent quality time in veneration.

3. PRAY. This is THE single most important thing you can do as a devout person. It’s the way we develop our relationships with our Gods and ancestors. It’s the way we solidify our reverence and build a good foundation upon which that may grow. It’s the thing that keeps our minds, hearts, and spirits clean and well-ordered in the sight of the Gods. It helps us with everything else. Like any relationship, the relationship with our Gods and ancestors is one that requires time and consistency. You can do this. It’s setting a habit and while you’ll not always be as engaged as you may wish, going back to the practice when you falter, working consciously to be consistent will help tremendously. Set prayers and extempore prayer both have their place. 

Those are the three key things that I think everyone needs to know who does any type of devotion. Think of it as an art that you practice. We’ll all feel strange or awkward starting out, but with practice, one gets better. 

I would add a caveat: please don’t get your info solely from Tik-Tok, Youtube, tumblr, etc. There are well-meaning people who post there but an awful lot of what’s posted there is just wrong, impious, sometimes even dangerous. Do your research – go to the library (don’t steal from authors via illegal downloads!), slowly build your own library as you can. Used bookstores are great for this. Always pray and do your devotions and make your own decisions about what you see and read. Also, don’t get your information just from your own peer group. These traditions have existed for generations. The work of those who came before us – even if their language is dated—is an essential part of a tradition’s foundation. Read and study, pray and learn. 

The second thing that I’m finding lacking – and this is the one that really scares me – is psychic hygiene. Part of many of these traditions often involves developing psychic sensitivity, engaging with ancestors and good spirits (learning to tell the difference), learning to be aware of the energies and presences around us and how to safely tap into those things. That’s not bad but doing that without having any protection at all is dangerous. It’s the psychic hygiene that helps us develop discernment. There are a few simple basic exercises and practices that can be easily worked into one’s regular practice that will provide a good deal of protection. 

1. Learn how to center and ground. Learn how to do this standing, sitting, moving, driving. Learn to do it alone, and under stress. Learn to do it slowly and in seconds. The gold standard is to be able to do all this naked, alone, in an empty room at 3am and with no notice. Practice it until it’s second nature and then practice it some more. These two exercises are the foundation upon which all our other energetic and/or psychic work is built.
2. Learn to shield yourself mentally, emotionally, and energetically. This is especially important if one is psychically gifted. As with grounding and centering, do this until it’s second nature and then practice it more. The protections we set on our energetic bodies, around ourselves, at any and all levels are carefully constructed processes and once they’re really rooted, they’ll run like a well-oiled clock. But, like a clock, they need to be checked regularly, cleaned, reset, etc. This is something we should all be doing regularly if not daily. There’s an awful lot of pollution and grossness in our world today and that can create miasma, and can really affect us emotionally/mentally, and spiritually. Get those shields up. 
3. Cleansing and purification techniques. I’ve written on this (“With Clean Minds and Clean Hands: Miasma – What it is and How to Treat it”), there are tradition specific techniques, and a good deal of useful information found in folklore. Everything we do to remain physically clean can be ratcheted up into the magical or religious register. Learn how to clean yourself, but also learn how to cleanse and ward a space. Ideally, learn how to create sacred and/or ordered space for yourself and others. Most traditions have various ways of doing this. Learn them. Likewise, learn to ward and protect a space. 

Those are the basic things that I think one should learn in the first year, maybe two, of practice. As an occultist, I’d also add understanding of the elemental powers, and the LBP. I don’t care if one doesn’t plan on pursuing ceremonial magic, the LBP is a very, very effective protection rite and easy to learn. I know more than one practitioner who did only this (along with their regular devotion to their Holy Powers) for a solid year, before being permitted to go farther into their tradition’s esoterica. It’s really effective and builds on itself. The first form of magic I’d focus on is candle magic – because it will teach you to feel and move energy (and it’s just as effective as anything more elaborate). 

Ideally, one is learning all of this within a tradition’s group and under guidance of a good elder or elders; but if that’s not the case and I know that for many, it may seem as though one is the only Pagan, Wiccan, Polytheist of any stripe in one’s immediate vicinity, at least try to make good contacts with those who’ve been in the tradition longer, and with a good, responsible, *well-trained* diviner. The internet is great for forging connections but that doesn’t take the place of regular, in -person engagement and learning. It is better to travel quarterly to learn from a teacher in person than to rely solely on internet contacts. Still, we do what we can. Divination is one of the greatest gifts of our traditions and can really help one course correct. After getting the basics under one’s belt, I would suggest that one establish a working relationship with a diviner and then at least twice a year, better quarterly, do a check in.

Now, I’ve written on most of these things on my blog so readers should feel free to search the tags. Here are some other recommendations that I also recommend. Many of these in the second category are classics (and though they may be more focused on ceremonial magic, the basics are the basics). 

Recommended Reading: 

On devotion and prayer

I’ve written a *ton* on this, which a simple amazon search will show so I’m not going to list my own work save for two texts. “Devotional Polytheism” and “Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner,” which I co-wrote with Raven Kaldera. While this text is specifically for Northern Tradition practitioners, the techniques involved can be (and have been) used across pretty much any religious tradition. Readers may also search the Tags here at my blog. 

I’m also recommending “The Courage to Pray” by Anthony Bloom. This is an Orthodox Christian text, but just edit out the Christian emphasis and consider how what he says can be applied to our own work. 

Now, there are tons of devotionals for various Deities, but that wasn’t the case in the 80s and 90s or even early 2000s. None of the books, with two exceptions that I list below existed for us. Instead, devotion was learned in one’s coven, iseum, kindred, etc. It wasn’t until after 2000 that I remember seeing books specifically about devotion appearing. To my knowledge, I wrote the first devotional in Heathenry, “The Whisperings of Woden” (which has since been incorporated into “He is Frenzy.” That was written in 2004 which gives you some sense of the lay of the devotional literary land. So, I haven’t included many books on devotion from the early days because as a genre that just didn’t exist, but these below – later texts — that I’ve chosen to list, are a few that will work across traditions. Again, for spirit-workers and other specialists, more is required and thus beyond the scope of this post. 

“Dwelling on the Threshold” by Sarah Kate Istra Winter

(I also highly recommend her “The City is a Labyrinth” because we are largely animistic traditions and honoring and engaging with the spirits of place, land, city, etc. isn’t generally emphasized enough).

“Dealing with Deities: Practical Polytheistic Theology” – Raven Kaldera & Kenaz Filan

“Walking the Heartroad” by Silence Maestas

A special shoutout to “Polytheistic Monasticism: Voices from Pagan Cloisters” by Janet Munin, the first book on Pagan monasticism that I’ve seen. 

The two devotional books that I remember snapping up in the early 90s were “Pagan Meditations” by Ginette Paris and “The Goddess Sekhmet” by Robert Masters. There were books by Cunningham, the Farrars, and of course since I was trained in FOI, the ritual booklets put out by that tradition. Then there were books of “Mythology” that we’d pour over.  That was pretty much it.

On psychic hygiene and self-protection 

(Please note, that what is required of a spirit worker, spiritual technician, etc. will be this and then some, but will also be largely tradition specific. I have only included texts that I feel are the basic things a beginner should know and master). 

“Psychic Self-Defense” by Dion Fortune

“The Training and Work of an Initiate” by Dion Fortune

“The Cosmic Doctrine” by Dion Fortune

“The One Year Manual” by Israel Regardie

“The Middle Pillar” by Israel Regardie

(I also recommend his “The Tree of Life” and “A Garden of Pomegranates” but they’re very Kabbala heavy and not beginner texts. Likewise, William Gray’s “Tree of Evil”). 

“Psychic Self-Defense” by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips

“Spiritual Protection” by Sophie Reicher

“The Ethical Psychic Vampire” by Raven Kaldera

“Spiritual Cleansing” by Draja Mickaharic

“The Practice of Magic” by Draja Mickaharic

What you don’t understand, just put on a mental shelf and return to later when you’ve had more experience under your belt. 

Basic Pagan and/or Wiccan History

I often find some of these books to contain historical inaccuracies, but they are an important part of Pagan and Wiccan history. These are just a few to get one started. None of these deal with the history and evolution of Heathenry. They are all Pagan/Wiccan specific. 

“When God Was a Woman” by Merlin Stone

“Drawing Down the Moon” by Margot Adler (deeply inaccurate in the first editions re. Heathenry but she corrects in later editions iirc)

“In the Wake of the Goddesses” by Tikva Frymer-Kensky

“The Spiral Dance” by Starhawk 

This is a good selection of the work that influenced the Wiccan and Pagan movements in the 70s-90s in the US. There were other books of course, but these are the stand-outs. 

More recent historical works: 

(just a couple – mine the bibliographies for more ^_^).

“Triumph of the Moon” by Ronald Hutton

“Stealing Fire From Heaven” by Neville Drury

“Women of the Golden Dawn” by Mary K. Greer

I also think one should also learn basic herb and stone lore but that’s a bit beyond beginner’s fundamentals! My favorite go-to herb/stone books remain “Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic” by Yronwode, “The Master Book of Herbalism” by Beyerl, “Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, and Metal Magic” by Cunningham, Slater’s two-volume “Magical formulary/spellbook” (I can’t recall the full title atm), and the classic Culpepper’s Herbal. I already came into this though with some knowledge of herbs (both medicinal and conjure) and I think these things are best learned from teacher to student.  I’ll stop here. These lists are good basic books and if one learns the techniques therein and moreover practices them daily it goes a long way toward building a sustainable practice of spiritual protection and cleanliness. 

Questions, recommendations, horror stories welcome in the comments. Be well, folks.