Bibliography and
Further Reading
I feel like this book is only the beginning of the discussion when it comes to the history of grimoires and other magical writings. For more information on the topics covered in this volume, I recommend the following books.
Barrett, Clive. The Egyptian Gods and Goddesses: The Mythology and Beliefs of Ancient Egypt. London: Diamond Books, 1996. The resources in my library about Egyptian deities are few, but Barrett’s Egyptian Gods and Goddesses has come in handy over the years.
Curtis, Gregory. The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World’s First Artists. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. This is a fun and quick survey of the European cave paintings, detailing the ideas describing their uses and the history of their exploration in the modern world. Because research into Europe’s painted caves is proceeding at such a fast clip, some of the information in the book is now a bit dated.
Davies, Owen. Grimoires: A History of Magical Books. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. This is the definitive book about magical books. Even though it’s designed for an academic audience instead of a popular one, it’s not all that difficult of a read.
———. Popular Magic: Cunning-Folk in English History. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2003. Sadly, cunning-folk all seem to have generally practiced Christianity, but their magical practices would later influence modern Witchcraft all the same. I didn’t cite this book in this book The Witch’s Book of Shadows, but it has greatly informed my thinking over the last five years, so I felt it was worth including.
d’Este, Sorita, and David Rankine. Wicca: Magickal Beginnings. London: Avalonia, 2008. This is one of the most informative books on the Craft ever written and a must for every Witch interested in the origins of our Craft.
Faivre, Antoine. The Eternal Hermes: From Greek God to Alchemical Magus. Translated by Joscelyn Godwin. Grand Rapids: MI: Phanes Press, 1995. This is perhaps the best book on the origins of Hermes Trismegistus and a must for anyone looking for deeper insights into this particular god and figure. On a personal note, my copy was either given to me by Professor Christopher Chase (Iowa State) or borrowed by me from Christopher and never returned.
Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft. London, Aquarian Press, 1959. This book is slightly more readable than Gardner’s Witchcraft Today, but that’s not really saying much.
———. Witchcraft Today. London: Rider & Co., 1954. I don’t think Gardner’s books are required reading these days, but since he was the first modern public Witch, his works are still important.
Harms, Daniel, and John Wisdom Gonce III. The Necronomicon Files: The Truth Behind the Legend. Boston, MA: Weiser Books, 2003. This is the best and most comprehensive book ever written on The Necronomicon. It’s a little dated, as new information on the “Simon mystery” has come out since its publication, but that information is easily accessed at Daniel Harms’s website, Papers Falling from an Attic Window, https://danharms.wordpress.com.
Heselton, Philip. Doreen Valiente: Witch. The Doreen Valiente Foundation, 2016. This book is amazing and helped me in a few spots when adding Doreen-inspired things to this book.
Hutton, Ronald. Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009. Everything Hutton writes matters and should be part of the library of any book-obsessed Witch. This book was particularly helpful to me while working on the bits about ogham.
———. Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. I did not quote from Triumph directly in this book, but it has informed my thinking tremendously over the years.
———. Witches, Druids, and King Arthur. London: Hambledon and London, 2003. The work of Ronald Hutton occupies a very special place in my library. He spends seven fascinating pages in Witches writing about The Greek Magical Papyri.
Leland, Charles Godfrey. Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. 1899. I prefer the new translation by Mario and Dina Pazzaglini that was released in 1998. Sadly the Pazzaglini version is only available as a digital download today, but at least it’s still available. Aradia is one of the most important books in the modern Witch revival and is available for free online (its copyright expired long ago) and in various editions, many with commentary and additional notes.
Long, Carolyn Morrow. Spiritual Merchants: Religion, Magic, and Commerce. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2001. This is an absolutely excellent book on the history of hoodoo drugstores and botanicas in the United States.
Murray, Margaret Alice. The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921. Murray’s book is not held in high regard by modern scholars, but her influence is all over modern Witchcraft. I sometimes call her “the grandmother of the modern Craft.”
Steadman, John L. H.P. Lovecraft and the Black Magickal Tradition. San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books, 2015. The first half of this book is really good; it’s a short overview of Lovecraft’s life and work. It bogs down a bit in the second half as Steadman attempts to prove the historicity of Simon’s Necronomicon. Bonus: Steadman and I once lived in the same city.
Suarez, Michael F., and H. R. Woudhuysen, eds. The Book: A Global History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. The Book is a sweeping history of books, letters, the printing press, and their influence and impact on the world. This is a huge volume and contains a wealth of information. However, none of the various writers in the book spend a whole lot of time talking about magical books. It’s a part of history that often falls through the cracks, and it does in this volume.
Valiente, Doreen. The Rebirth of Witchcraft. Custer, WA: Phoenix Publishing, 1989. Doreen’s memoir is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of modern Witchcraft. Valiente also wrote and/or assembled many of the most well-known pieces of Wiccan liturgy. Dozens of them litter my many BoS’s.
Winroth, Anders. The Age of the Vikings. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014. Winroth’s book is full of all sorts of information, but his bit on the runes was truly enlightening. If you want to know more about the Vikings, I highly recommend this book.