Pagans inc Message Board

Play nice.

If you are interested in an image for the group, I may have one that would work.

I figure that words of the witches isn't a bad book for a pagan discussion group 8), not that I'm saying everyone is a witch but it kinda fits.

On the other hand, what image do you have?

It's an image of the Green Man -- a stone face hanging in my parents' garden.

sounds nice actually, which reminds me my green man is missing since we moved... must find it. You can email it to me at wyvernfriend @ gmail . com

The logo of a group is a powerful thing - and I believe we should show people joy, beauty, peace.

No book, drawing or anything - no symbol shared by only a subset - as wonderful as they can be - can do that as much as something like a simple picture of a tree in full blossom, sky behind it, near the water.

Can't please all of the people all of the time.

I'd vote for the Green Man image ...

How about a Green Man, in a tree... near the water. ;o)

I hesitated to join.... I wasn't sure if there'd be much objection to a non-proselytizing Christian pagan joining the ranks. I'm not sure what everyone here has read, but Creation Spirituality seems to be a great crossover text. Great enough to have had its author defrocked from the Catholic church (didn't appear to faze him, he continues to write great books in this area). Regardless, I hope we can get along well enough.

Hi everyone! I've just recently become interested in Wicca and have read quite a bit about pagan history, if there is such a category. I also recently got a Celtic tattoo. I own Wicca : a guide for the solitary practitioner by Scott Cunningham. Any suggestions on some MUST HAVE books?

The shared book list isn't too shabby!

My recommendations would depend, I guess, on what exactly you're looking for. Starhawk's books are a good starting point. If you're interested in a specific path you can drop a line at my profile. I haven't entered my pagan books yet, but I've got a LOT and I've probably read something that might interest you.

Well, we got off to a good start... but...
What the devil* happened?
No one has posted anything for 3 weeks?
:oS

* insert appropriate evil incarnation of your choice. ;o)

Hmm. Well, I'm slowly putting together a collection of Pagan 201 (301, 401, etc.) books, the ones you don't often find at Borders or Barnes & Noble. I'm just about finished with Isaac Bonewits's Rites of Worship: A Neopagan Approach. It's basically a detailed manual of how to put a group ritual together. After having participated in some horrendously lackluster and badly-paced solstice and equinox rituals at my local UU church, I'm half in a mood to buy another copy and mail it to them!

I've got Castings: The Creation of Sacred Space by Ivo Dominguez on order - it should get here just as I finish Rites of Worship. This should make a nice little set along with The Elements of Ritual by Deborah Lipp, which I read a couple of years ago. Some friends and I are slowly getting our acts together to do ritual together, and I figure this'll be a chance to see how well these authors' advice works.

I don't practice in a coven exactly, but my friends and I frequently have little impromptu events. Somehow I always end up putting it together, probably because I'm a bit of a control freak. I have found The Elements of Ritual to be extraordinarily valuable.

I stopped reading most pagan books a while back (you read one definition of athame and you've read them all) but I find Dianne Sylvan's books to be refreshing.

I'd highly recommend Jennifer Hunter's 21st Century Wicca as it goes into a lot of practical things that a lot of books don't--like coming out of the broom closet, being pagan in college, finding a safe group to work with, etc.

Also, it won't be out til later this month, but my friend Nicholas Graham has written a book called The Four Powers, which is a guide to choosing your area(s) of study when you're confronted with all those choices. He explains the different models of magic (psychological, energetic, etc.), different paradigms (neopaganism, ceremonialism, Afro-Caribbean religions, etc.) and the exercises in the book are designed to help you get a taste for magical practice as well as get an idea of where you want to focus. It's good whether you're just starting out, or whether you've been stuck in a rut and want to try something new, but aren't sure where to start.

If you're going to study Celtic history, check out the Celtic reconstructionist FAQ at http://www.paganachd.com/faq/. It's not Wicca, but it'll help you avoid a lot of the horrible scholarship that's often found in "Celtic Wicca". Celtic recon folk are basically trying to reconstruct not only the spirituality but also the culture of Celtic people from various places.

If you're interested in animal magic and totemism at all, you can also check out my library.

Finally, for those who are tired of the same old stuff, I recommend looking to smaller publishers, the ones who don't get into Borders and B&N. There's a great listing of publishers over at http://www.twpt.com/publishers.htm.

Oh, and hi *waves* :)

Hello!
New here. Just jumping in to say "Hi" and:
Take care!

Hello,

Just posting to say I've joined the three pagan groups here at The Library Thing, only having just realised there might be other pagan bibliophiles.

I see the list went quiet for a while, but I'm wondering if it will pick up again.

Foghorn

It might pick up if you start a good conversation!

Welcome!

#12 BookGirlsLibrary

It really depends on which pagan path you intend to take, but since you mentioned Wicca and history, I would suggest reading Ronald Hutton's The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft to get the history of Wicca. This book is also great for discerning which authors you might care to read on the subject of Wicca, as he dispels a lot of rumours as to who is who in the Wicca world.

After him, why not go to the source and read the books authored by Gerald Gardner?

Hi!
Joined today hoping this group would provide me with an opportunity to learn about a different religion. I hope y'all don't mind having a non-pagan in the group, I'm an atheist.

ArmyAngel

Welcome ArmyAngel! Do you have any particular questions, or do you just want to hang out a while? We're not really very active, so it might help to ask.

I'll probably just hang out, and ask questions as they come to me. None right now (all I can think about is the exam I have tomorrow) but I'm sure I'll think of a few.

Welcome, ArmyAngel. You might like the group here at LT called Happy Heathens, too. Both littlegeek and I are in there as well.

Hi! Just joined this group after looking at some of the other paganish groups on LT. Since I didn't see any ongoing arguments here (and not liking conflict) I decided to try you all out for a while.

I am Wiccan. I have an extensive library (just don't have it all up yet) but I am really interested in the more scholarly works on Paganism. I'll take any recommendations you may and hopefully I'll find out about something I don't have yet. ;)

Nope, no ongoing arguments. More like ongoing silence - and I say that as a person who has contributed my fair share of the silence!

I took a quick peek at your collection - but of course you said you didn't have everything up yet - anyway, you might like Tarot for All Seasons by Christine Jette. It has tarot spreads and ritual suggestions for each of the sabbats and the esbats. Which isn't exactly a scholarly work, but is a neat book for people with an interest in both the tarot and Paganism.

Thanks, Silvernfire. I'll check it out. And if it something I really want I'll add it to the long list of books I want.