It would be impossible to name all the books that have helped us in our study of the Eight Festivals and the concepts that lie behind them; but the following is a list of those we have found particularly informative, illuminating or even provocative. It also includes all books mentioned in the text. The editions named are not always the first ones, but are those we have used or have found to be currently available.
ASHE, GEOFFREY — The Virgin (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1976)
BUCKLAND, RAYMOND — The Tree, the Complete Book of Saxon Witchcraft (Samuel Weiser, New York, 1974)
BURLAND, C. A. — The Magical Arts, a Short History (Arthur Barker, London, 1966)
CARMICHAEL, ALEXANDER — Carmina Gadelica, Hymns and Incantations, with Illustrative Notes of Words, Rites and Customs Dying and Obsolete (Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh); volumes I and II, 1900; 2nd edition, volumes I — VI, 1928 onwards.
CARMICHAEL, ALEXANDER — The Sun Dances (Floris Books, Edinburgh, 1977). A paperback selection from the English translations contained in Carmina Gadelica.
CLÉBERT, JEAN-PAUL — The Gypsies (English translation by Charles Duff, Vista Books, London, 1963)
CROWLEY, ALEISTER — 777 Revised (Neptune Press, London, 1952)
CROWLEY, ALEISTER — Magick (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1973)
CULPEPER, NICHOLAS — Culpepe’s Complete Herbal (mid-seventeenth century; current edition W. Foulsham & Co., London & New York, undated)
DILLON, MYLES & CHADWICK, NORA — The Celtic Realms (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1967)
DINNEEN, REV. PATRICK S. — Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla — An Irish-English Dictionary (Irish Texts Society, Dublin, 1927).
Note for Irish scholars: the new Niall O Dónaill Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (Oifig an tSoláthair, Dublin, 1977) is admirable for modern Irish usage but less informative than Dinneen on mythological and folk-lore references. (See “MacALPINE, NEIL” for Scottish Gaelic.)
DONOVAN, FRANK — Never on a Broomstick (Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, Pa., 1971)
DUFFY, MAUREEN — The Erotic World of Faery (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1972)
DURDIN-ROBERTSON, LAWRENCE — The Cult of the Goddess (Cesara Publications, Clonegal, Ireland, 1974)
DURDIN-ROBERTSON, LAWRENCE — The Goddesses of Chaldaea, Syria and Egypt (Cesara Publications, 1976)
DURDIN-ROBERTSON, LAWRENCE — The Symbolism of Temple Architecture (Cesara Publications, 1978)
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1957 edition.
FARRAR, STEWART — What Witches Do (2nd edition, Capel Books, Dublin, 1983, and Phoenix Publications, Custer, WA., 1983). (Spanish translation Lo que Hacen las Brujas, Ediciones Martinez Roca, Barcelona, 1977.)
FORTUNE, DION — The Mystical Qabala (Rider, London, 1954) FORTUNE, DION — The Sea Priestess (Aquarian Press, London, 1957)
FORTUNE, DION — Moon Magic (Aquarian Press, 1956)
FRAZER, SIR J. G. — The Golden Bough (Abridged Edition) (Macmillan, London, paperback 1974). Our page references are to this reprint, which differs from the 1922 original and is more easily obtained.
GANTZ, JEFFREY (translator) — The Mabinogion (Penguin, London, 1976). This paperback is now more easily obtained than the well-known Everyman translation by Gwyn and Thomas Jones (J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1949)
GARDNER, GERALD B. — Witchcraft Today (Rider, London 1954)
GARDNER, GERALD B. — The Meaning of Witchcraft (Aquarian Press, London, 1959)
GLASS, JUSTINE — Witchcraft, the Sixth Sense — and Us (Neville Spearman, London, 1965)
GRAVES, ROBERT — The White Goddess (3rd edition, Faber & Faber, London, 1952)
GRAVES, ROBERT — The Greek Myths, two volumes, revised edition (Penguin, London, 1960)
GRAVES, TOM — Needles of Stone (Turnstone Books, London, 1978)
GRIGSON, GEOFFREY — The Goddess of Love: The birth, triumph, death and return of Aphrodite (Constable, London, 1976)
HARDING, M. ESTHER — Woman’s Mysteries (Rider, London, 1971)
HARRISON, MICHAEL — The Roots of Witchcraft (Frederick Muller, London, 1973)
HAWKES, JACQUETTA — Dawn of the Gods (Chatto & Windus, London, 1968)
HERM, GERHARD — The Celts (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1976)
HITCHING, FRANCIS — Earth Magic (Cassell, London, 1976)
HUSON, PAUL — Mastering Witchcraft (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1970)
INWARDS, RICHARD — Weather Lore (Rider, London, 1950)
JACKSON, KENNETH (translator) — A Celtic Miscellany (Penguin, London, 1971)
JUNG, CARL G. — Collected Works, volume IX; 2nd edition (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1968)
JUNG, CARL G. — (editor) Man and His Symbols (Aldus Books, London, 1964)
KIPLING, RUDYARD — Puck of Pook’s Hill (Macmillan, London, 1906)
Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology (Hatchworth Press, London, 1959)
LELAND, CHARLES G. — Aradia: the Gospel of the Witches, introduced by Stewart Farrar (C. W. Daniel Co., London, 1974)
LETHBRIDGE, T. C. — Witches: Investigating an Ancient Religion (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1962)
MacALISTER, R. A. STEWART (editor and translator) — Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Book of the Taking of Ireland, Parts I — V (Irish
Texts Society, Dublin, 1938–56). Commonly known as The Book of Invasions, this is a collection of mediaeval texts in which monks recorded very much older, originally oral, material.
MacALPINE, NEIL — Pronouncing Gaelic-English Dictionary (Gairm Publications, Glasgow, 1973). This for Scottish Gaelic; for Irish, see under “DINNEEN, REV. PATRICK S.”.
MacCANA, PROINSIAS — Celtic Mythology (Hamlyn, London, 1970)
MacNEILL, MÁIRE — The Festival of Lughnasa (Oxford University Press, London, 1962)
MacNIOCAILL, GEARÓID — Ireland Before the Vikings (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1972)
MARKALE, JEAN — Women of the Celts (Gordon Cremonesi, London, 1975)
MARTELLO, Dr LEO LOUIS — Witchcraft, the Old Religion (University Press, Secausus N. J., undated)
MATHERS, S. LIDELL MacGREGOR (translator and editor) — The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis), with foreword by Richard Cavendish (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1972).
(The original Mathers edition was published by George Redway in 1888.)
MICHELL, JOHN — The Earth S pirit, its Ways, Shrines, and Mysteries (Thames & Hudson, London, and Avon Books, New York, 1975)
MURRAY, MARGARET A. — The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (Oxford University Press, London, 1921)
MURRAY, MARGARET A. — The God of the Witches (Daimon Press, Castle Hedingham, Essex, 1962)
MURRAY, MARGARET A. — The Splendour that was Egypt (revised edition, Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1964)
NEUMANN, ERICH — The Great Mother (2nd edition, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1963)
OVID — Fasti, Henry T. Riley’s translation (Bell & Daldy, London, 1870)
REES, ALWYN & BRINLEY — Celtic Heritage (Thames & Hudson, London, 1961)
REGARDIE, ISRAEL — The Golden Dawn (four volumes, 3rd edition, Hazel Hills Corpn., River Falls, Wisconsin, 1970)
ROSS, ANNE — Pagan Celtic Britain (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1974)
SEYMOUR, St. JOHN D. — Irish Witchcraft and Demonology (1913; reprinted by E. P. Publishing Co, East Ardsley, Yorkshire, 1972)
“SHEBA, LADY”, who claims to be America’s Witch Queen, is listed here only in order to warn our readers that her 1971 published version of The Book of Shadows is garbled, illiterate and better ignored.
STONE, MERLIN — The Paradise Papers, The Suppression of Women’s Rites (Virago Ltd., in association with Quartet Books, London, 1976)
SYKES, EGERTON (compiler) — Everyman’s Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology (J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1968)
TRYON, THOMAS — Harvest Home (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1974, and Coronet paperback, London, 1975)
VALIENTE, DOREEN — Where Witchcraft Lives (Aquarian Press, London, 1962)
VALIENTE, DOREEN — An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present (Robert Hale, London, 1973)
VALIENTE, DOREEN — Natural Magic (Robert Hale, 1975)
VALIENTE, DOREEN — Witchcraft for Tomorrow (Robert Hale, 1978)
VOGH, JAMES — The Thirteenth Zodiac; The Sign of Arachne (Granada, St. Albans, 1979; first published as Arachne Rising, Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, London, 1977).
WARNER, MARINA — Alone of All Her Sex — the Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1976)
WILDE, LADY — Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland (Ward & Downey, London, 1888, reprinted in paperback by O’Gorman Ltd., Galway, 1971)
WILSON, ANNIE — The Wise Virgin, the Missing Link Between Men and Women (Turnstone Books, London, 1979)
WYATT, ISABEL — Goddess into Saint; the Foster-Mother of Christ (article in The Golden Blade, 1963, reprinted as booklet by Mitchell & Co., Arundel, Sussex)