The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I was wondering a couple of things. Firstly, which of the many Wiccan books hold the most meaning and answers for you? Which one affected your life in the most profound way?

So, I love books, but I'm also one of the people for whom the in-person interactions of learning an initiatory tradition were priceless. (In part because the things I could learn from books were mostly pretty easy for me: the things that were both harder and a lot more meaningful were things that can't be taught easily in books, or that involved skills that come up a lot more when working with other people.)

A lot of the books that have had a big impression on my religious and magical life are actually fiction - Katherine Kurtz's Deryni and Adept series, Emma Bull's War for the Oaks, Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, Gael Baudino's Gossamer Axe, Rosemary Edghill's Bast books and stories, Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion series and many others.

For specifically Wicca-focused books, the one that I come back to, over and over again, is Ellen Cannon Reed's The Heart of Wicca. It's not a book about how to do things, it's about why having standards about them matters, and what that means. I've also really appreciated books that break down different ways to look at specific ideas or practices, even if I don't agree with their analysis. Deborah Lipp's Elements of Ritual or many of Brandy Williams' works, for example.

Also, what place does pagan art play in your rituals and practise? Do you find ways to incorporate pieces into your day to day rituals in an effective way?

 
I am mostly not a terribly visual person, so I'm more likely to use music than art on a regular basis. However, I usually have some piece of art that makes me think about current goals on my shrine (it is often not specifically Pagan, though - right now it's a fairly abstract watercolor and ink doodle I got from someone at a SF convention with a title and brief description on the back that keeps me thinking.)

Sometimes it's something I did myself : one of my practices for long-term ritual magic is to do some work with pen, watercolor pencils, and some other things to do designs related to my goals. Sometimes these are shapes, sometimes they're fairly stylised figures (I am not an artist!)

Sometimes it's art from other people, or a single card from a Tarot deck or something like that. (I'm particularly fond of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law's work for this.)

The most common form of art for me, though, is jewelry - I'm lucky to have a good friend who's an amazing jewelry maker, and I have a number of pendants and necklaces such from her. While most of the things I have from her are not specifically charged for a particular magical purpose, I often pick one to wear for the day that suits my particular mood or goal or what have you.