What books started you on your current path\help support it?

[Aster Breo]

What books started you on your current path or help your practice it.

 
I'm not sure which book was the turning point for me.  I've read so many books on Celtic mythology and religion that it's very hard to identify a specific book.  I guess if I had to choose the books that worked together to really caused me to turn the corner, they were probably:

• Kindling the Celtic Spirit: Ancient Traditions to Illumine Your Life Through the Seasons, Mara Freeman
  
• The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy, Ronald Hutton
  
• The Apple Branch: A Path to Celtic Ritual, Alexei Kondratiev
  

It's really impossible to choose just one, because they're such different kinds of books that were important to different elements of my path.  The same thing goes for the books that have been the most influential to developing my current day-to-day practice, which are:

• Brigid of the Gael, Conrad Bladey, ed.
  
• Celtic Goddesses: Warriors, Virgins and Mothers, Miranda Green
  
• Alexei Kondratiev's chapter about Brighid in Devoted To You: Honoring Deity in Wiccan Practice, Judy Harrow, ed. (Alexei's chapter is not Wiccan)
  
• O Mother Sun!: A New View of the Cosmic Feminine, Patricia Monaghan
  
• The Rites of Brigid: Goddess & Saint, Sean O Duinn
  
• The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland, Dáithí O hOgain
  

And, like others in this thread, I'm also using both of Serith's Pagan Prayer books.

Sorry that's such a long list, but there are a lot of different aspects of spirituality and they're not all covered in the same book.  

~ Aster

[Aster Breo]

As for my connection with Brighid, I haven't read much beyond the Cill SIG and Carl McColman's 366 Celt. My library has Wright Brian's Rites of Brigid, but it's never there when I remember to see about checking it out.

 
Just a word of caution about Wright's book:  I read it when it first came out, and, IIRC, I had a huge problem with his basic premise.  He claims that the Irish goddess Brighid was deliberately "created" by Brigantian druids who fled Britain for Ireland when the Romans took Britain.  So, essentially, he thinks Brighid is basically a PR campaign.  :eek:

I disagree.

[AlisonLeighLilly]

What books started you on your current path or help your practice it?

 
Like many folks, I started exploring Paganism through witchcraft (though not specifically Wicca - actually, it wasn't a book at all, but a website about Norvicensian Witchcraft which is a kind of Christian witchcraft based heavily in a Celtic worldview).... but that just wasn't working for me. What set me on my current path?

The Rebirth of Druidry, a collection of essays about Druidry edited by Philip Carr-Gomm. More specifically, it was Christina Oakley's essay, "Druids and Witches: History, Archetype and Identity" that lobbed that particular lightbulb my way, bonked me on the head and made me go: "Oh! No wonder I can't feel comfortable with the name 'Witch'! It's because I'm a Druid!" :thup:

After that, I pretty much devoured every book I could get my hands on that had "Druid" or "Celtic" in the title - including some right awful ones!

Books that help me in my practice as it is today? Way of the Druid: The Renaissance of a Celtic Religion and Its Relevance for Today, by Graeme Talboys, and Living Druidry and Spirits of the Sacred Grove by Emma Restall Orr. With The Book of Druidry by Ross Nichols and The Druidry Handbook by John Michael Greer thrown in there for good measure.

--Ali

[LEEA]

One of the foundational books I turn to to reference Canaanite myths is Simon Parker's Ugaritic Narrative Poetry.  For ritual, I still rely heavily on Ritual and Cult at Ugarit by Dennis Pardee.  More recently, I've been referencing Whisper of Stone by Tess Dawson; it's the first published book on modern Canaanite religion.

Other influential books include A Book of Pagan Prayer, The Pagan Family, and A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book by Ceisiwr Serith.

 
Jhenal Telyndru's Avalon Within

[SatSekhem]

So what about you all?

 
It was embarrassing in the old thread and it's no different now. However, my first pagan anything book was a Kemetic "Wicca" book. The book was Egyptian Paganism for Beginners by Jocelyn Almond. The book is ridiculous and I don't think it should be read by anyone unless they want a good, jolly laugh riot. I'm serious. I guess it worked out okay for me because it led me down this road, but it's like one of the most humiliating things I can admit to.

I can proudly say that Silver Ravenwolf never graced my shelves, though.

For the vodou stuff, I've gone with The Haitian Vodou Handbook by Kenaz Filan. I thought it was very insightful into the religion itself. I also enjoyed the fact that the writing was for any lay person. And even though most people would prefer a "do this, this, and this" kind of start book for various reasons, he doesn't do that. And I think it makes the learning that much better.

[OfThespiae]

As I recall, we had a thread resembling this on SMF, so I felt the need to respost it with some tweaks. What books started you on your current path or help your practice it. The book that first propelled me to where I am was (promise not to laugh) Caesar: Let The Dice Fly by Colleen McCullough. It was excellent and propelled me to look further into the man and his deification.

The book that aids my practice is: A Book of Pagan Prayer by Ceisiwr Serith. It has an excellent section on prayers, their history and underlying theology, etc. followed by 200+ pages of prayers. I take all my evening prayers from said book; except the prayer addressed to the Divus Iulius, which I composed myself.

So what about you all?

 
It was rediscovering a childhood favourite, D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, that set me on the path of Hellenismos.

[Chatelaine]

It was embarrassing in the old thread and it's no different now.

Imagine how embarrassing it is for me now that I'm referring to a totally different path than what I was mentioning further upthread.

Orthodox Christianity relies much more on experience than study, and some of the most insightful people I've come to know have read little beyond the NT. Still, like a truckload of other converts, I was put on the road by The Orthodox Way and The Orthodox Church, both by (now) Metropolitan Kallistos Ware. For further sustenance, I find myself returning to The Way of a Pilgrim & The Pilgrim Continues His Way, as well as the Prologue from Ochrid.

[Riothamus12]

Imagine how embarrassing it is for me now that I'm referring to a totally different path than what I was mentioning further upthread.

Orthodox Christianity relies much more on experience than study, and some of the most insightful people I've come to know have read little beyond the NT. Still, like a truckload of other converts, I was put on the road by The Orthodox Way and The Orthodox Church, both by (now) Metropolitan Kallistos Ware. For further sustenance, I find myself returning to The Way of a Pilgrim & The Pilgrim Continues His Way, as well as the Prologue from Ochrid.

Depends on where you want to start. It could be argued that is the first book of ancient legends I picked up, some would argue it was the copy of Silver Ravenwolf's Teen Witch(Hey I was 13 at the time and we all have to start somewhere.), others would argue that it all really began with my own questions and my conversations with my parents. If I can claim to truly be part of a full fledged tradition in anyway, it can be said to have begun with them as I asked them questions and I debated with them. They actually raised me without belief for a good period of time until it became clear that I sought the sacred wisdom.