The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I've been working on building a faith and practice over the past half-year or so, and it's involved a lot of delving through various books, academic papers, blogs, archives, and all sorts of sources of information. Some of it has been very useful--other stuff, not so much.

It's led me to wonder: what sources have other people consulted while building their practice, and which ones have been the most useful? What has made them useful? Do you mostly use academic papers, primary sources, devotional anthologies, or what?

What works of research, philosophy, and even fiction have you drawn much of your practice from? What made them work for you?

I've been working on building a faith and practice over the past half-year or so, and it's involved a lot of delving through various books, academic papers, blogs, archives, and all sorts of sources of information. Some of it has been very useful--other stuff, not so much.

It's led me to wonder: what sources have other people consulted while building their practice, and which ones have been the most useful? What has made them useful? Do you mostly use academic papers, primary sources, devotional anthologies, or what?

What works of research, philosophy, and even fiction have you drawn much of your practice from? What made them work for you?

It's an interesting question for me, because while the Orthodox Church has a MASSIVE collection of primary texts and exegesis, it is written almost exclusively in Greek and the majority remains untranslated. I have acquired a reasonable command of Koine Greek by now, but I still feel more secure with translations when it comes to 'stuff to understand' as opposed to liturgy.

As a beginner, I worked with Fr. Thomas Hopko's The Orthodox Faith series (now available online in its entirety by the OCA) and Met. Kallistos Ware's staple classics The Orthodox Church and The Orthodox Way. Later I got started on Philip Schaff's monumental Early Church Fathers set (CCEL). It's been a couple of years and I've only just finished the first section!

Beyond those, I'm in love with Ancient Faith Radio's podcasts (hey, I have long commutes at frequently brutal hours, when I can't handle written text!); Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick is a particular favourite.

It's led me to wonder: what sources have other people consulted while building their practice, and which ones have been the most useful? What has made them useful? Do you mostly use academic papers, primary sources, devotional anthologies, or what?

 
For me, it's a question of "What am I trying to do here?"

Most of my practice is not strongly historically rooted (this is what happens when your primary deity you honour is not very clear about name or location, and the likely location doesn't have much historical documentation *anyway*) but I dip into historical practices and suitable academic research when relevant for other deity and related work while not assuming that they're the be all and end all.

(Since deities may well change over time, people certainly do, and because academic research is designed for specific purposes, not all of which line up with religious goals anyway.)

The bulk of what built my practice is the old-fashioned 'learned from people who had learned from people who had learned from people', with changes and developments over time, but with the joined tension of 'this is a thing that preserves the shared initiatory and ritual experiences' with 'hey, this thing had unexpected outcomes enough times we should maybe adjust that' supplemented by a bunch of reading and discussion.

That's sometimes books, but it's just as often informal discussions of experiences - on TC, on blogs, on social-media-site-of-the-moment. It's discussions with people in person, when I've done that. It's going to occasional in-person events. It's hanging out in chat with people with different kinds of practices, and asking questions. It's ritual technology geeking of "how do you do this thing?"

It's deconstructing what works, and going to stuff and trying that doesn't work for me, but gives me ideas on why, and poking at whether that's a thing I want to have work, don't care about, or whether it's something about that ritual or practice or whatever at my current moment in life that just didn't work.

(I don't try stuff just for amusement or things that feel wrong to me: but I will take a try on things I'm not sure about, other parts of my life allowing, because I learn a lot that way)

I listen to how people talk about things they're doing - what they circle back to, again and again, what that says about what their goals might be, and how that compares to what my goals might be. I spend more time with the people whose stuff resonates with me, when I have a choice.

For this, learning what doesn't work for people (or the failure modes of certain things) has been often as informative as learning what *does* work for people. I look at things people do, and how those play out over months or years, and go "Yeah, I can't justify trying that thing: it seems to end badly more often than not."

And finally, I take a pretty broad view: a bunch of practices may not be explicitly Pagan in origin, but the idea of "let us put together music that honours this deity / religious figure / season / celebration / etc." is a pretty ancient one, even if the modern playlist is a very recent thing.

Ideas in fiction can let us play with concepts that are hard in the current modern paradigm - books in which magic is seen as a common thing (or at least a possible thing) talk about the ethics of magic in a way that's very hard in mainstream culture. (Though some of them do it a lot better than others.)

I spent so much time researching religions, various cultural histories, and philosophies that I feel as if I know nothing. Now that I'm trying to synthesize a working practice I'm finding it difficult to put my studies into a functional orthopraxy.

I made the decision to start with a basic Wicca 101 book. I choose Thea Sabin's "Wicca for Beginners" based on numerous recommendations. I also finally got in touch with some local pagans and actually met them for coffee.

 That's so cool that you're connecting with others in your area. I'm hoping to do the same one day. I've heard Thea Sabin's book is very good, but I've not read it.

I would say for practice I was largely influenced by "The Circle Within" by Dianne Sylvan. I also took cues from Scott Cunningham's "Living Wicca." Those were my starting point for rituals and prayers, and my personal practice grew from that. I also listen to Kelly Ann Maddox on YouTube and sound cloud on the regular, and she influences the tarot aspect of my practice. I studied Medieval Lit in college; I feel like that had an impact, as well.

For theology I am most influenced by Psychology. C.G. Jung's Psychological Types really influenced my concept of Archetypes and Deity. Morgan Daimler's books on Brighid and The Morrigan also influenced my thoughts and practices around those deities. Im currently reading Women who Run with the Wolves and I wish I had read it sooner.

I've been working on building a faith and practice over the past half-year or so, and it's involved a lot of delving through various books, academic papers, blogs, archives, and all sorts of sources of information. Some of it has been very useful--other stuff, not so much.

It's led me to wonder: what sources have other people consulted while building their practice, and which ones have been the most useful? What has made them useful? Do you mostly use academic papers, primary sources, devotional anthologies, or what?

What works of research, philosophy, and even fiction have you drawn much of your practice from? What made them work for you?

 

Intuition has been the most important tool for me. Intuition, and trust in my Higher Self.
Most of the books I use are for reference, because I cannot remember every gemstone property, dream symbol, animal medicine, etc. "The Way of the Shaman" is the book that really began my whole journey, but it wasn't until a few months after reading it that coincidental events led me to the people who would help me take my first steps.