Here are 86 books that Witchcraft and the Shamanic Journey fans have personally recommended if you like
Witchcraft and the Shamanic Journey.
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Witchcraft as a mystical tradition is the purpose of my life. All of the craft, rituals, and spells revolve around the core concept of connecting to the divine and exploring consciousness, and that has been the purpose of my writing, teaching, and community work. While there are lots of things focused upon the “how” of Witchcraft, I like to reflect on the why and I am always seeking the philosophy, art, and poetry that can take me deeper into the mystical experience of life.
As he was a friend and mentor to me, I got to see this work evolve from the seed idea to the final form just as our beloved Raven passed from this world. As his last book, What We Knew in the Night takes lore and tradition not readily available today, drawn from Raven’s living experience as a Witch and occultist in the lively and secretive California communities. He would speak about the traditional ways lore was passed at the time, mouth to ear, and this work is the manifestation of his deep desire to see those important teachings brought together and passed to a new generation as the world changes.
Explores the roots of witchcraft while providing an integrated magical system to serve the modern witch
Raven Grimassi is among the pioneering authors of the modern witchcraft renaissance. In What We Knew in the Night, he presents a cohesive and complete system of witchcraft based on traditional sources. The author’s premise is that, beginning in the 1980s, with the rise of modern metaphysical publishing, authors began presenting very personal witchcraft practices. In the process, traditional and formerly well-established practices fell into obscurity, which potentially lead to confusion.
What We Knew in the Night uncovers and clarifies those buried gems for…
Witchcraft as a mystical tradition is the purpose of my life. All of the craft, rituals, and spells revolve around the core concept of connecting to the divine and exploring consciousness, and that has been the purpose of my writing, teaching, and community work. While there are lots of things focused upon the “how” of Witchcraft, I like to reflect on the why and I am always seeking the philosophy, art, and poetry that can take me deeper into the mystical experience of life.
Rosaleen Norton is hands down one of the most inspiring Witches of the 20th Century, and thankfully better known today with recent media attention. While her evocative art and her challenging life story certainly provide ample magickal and personal inspiration for us as Witches today, this is the only book that really details some of her magickal ideas and experiences, deeply advanced and philosophical, for us to explore on our own. It’s a little-known book, but there is truly nothing quite like it out there. It’s a fragmented biography and collection of papers, not a book intended for publication, which makes it all the more special. A grim memoire grimoire indeed….
Hardcover. 8vo. xxiv + 128pp. Red cloth with gilt titling to spine. Frontispiece & 8 pages of color & black and white illustrations. Rosaleen Norton was a natural rebel whose bohemian lifestyle, outspoken occultism, and unusual and often sexually-charged artwork attracted widespread condemnation from the conservative establishment. She suffered frequent arrest, her art exhibitions were raided, a book of her art banned, and in one notorious case, her paintings burned at the censor's order. She died in relative obscurity in 1979, yet left the world a rich and unusual artistic legacy. Some of this was hidden away in two battered…
Witchcraft as a mystical tradition is the purpose of my life. All of the craft, rituals, and spells revolve around the core concept of connecting to the divine and exploring consciousness, and that has been the purpose of my writing, teaching, and community work. While there are lots of things focused upon the “how” of Witchcraft, I like to reflect on the why and I am always seeking the philosophy, art, and poetry that can take me deeper into the mystical experience of life.
This is the book I wished I had when reading the classic Dion Fortune novels The Sea Priestess and Moon Magic, though Margie certainly is not writing commentary of those novels. She provides a context for the bigger themes in such stories I was ignorant of when first reading Fortune. Lady of the Sea weaves a grand vision of the Goddess from ancient roots, including Egypt, the Celts, indigenous lore, Avalonian traditions, and the modern New Age, but does so with such skill, grace, and practical purpose. It is the best book for deeply describing the inner temple of the Moon, Sea, and Stars and how to work in them as a modern mystic. For that alone it is worth it, but everything leading to and from those sections supports your understanding of why the Lady of the Sea is important to us all.
Witchcraft as a mystical tradition is the purpose of my life. All of the craft, rituals, and spells revolve around the core concept of connecting to the divine and exploring consciousness, and that has been the purpose of my writing, teaching, and community work. While there are lots of things focused upon the “how” of Witchcraft, I like to reflect on the why and I am always seeking the philosophy, art, and poetry that can take me deeper into the mystical experience of life.
B. Stewart Myers, who also wrote extensively under the name Ócháni Lele, was another first for me in terms of uniting Witchcraft and Hermetic Qabalah in a meaningful and practical way encouraging deep experience and personal revelation. I’d soon be led to the classics of The Witches Qabala by Ellen Cannon Reed and Modern Magick by Donald Michael Kraig, but this was the one that got me out of the armchair and doing things with the Tree of Life as a Witch. I had the opportunity to meet him in 2013 and had a delightful time, not realizing until much later in the dinner that Ócháni was also Stewart Myers.
Witches, pagans, Goddess worshippers and Qab alists will find interest in this guide to spiritual develop ment in the Wiccan Tradition. This complete system of Qabali stic Witchcraft has explanations, illustrations and appendix es for easier learning. '
I’m an avid fantasy reader and enjoy stories filled with magic, danger, and a mix of humor and romance thrown in. When I’m not writing my own fantasy novels, you might catch me tucked away in a corner, reading a book, and fueling my imagination. Since my own book, The Wayward Wizard, features a secret organization trying to intercept the supernatural, I knew similar stories would make a perfect list to share with fellow fantasy readers.
Who’s ever been blamed at work for something they didn’t do? Well, the Office of Preternatural Affairs takes it to a whole new level when they suspect one of their agents, Cèsar Hawke, of murdering a woman. I mean, she was found dead in his home…but he claims he’s innocent. And he’s going to hunt down a shaman who can speak to the dead to prove it.
This wickedly fun story takes the urban fantasy detective trope and infuses it with humor, danger, and twists & turns.
There are scratches on Cèsar Hawke’s arms, a discharged Glock on his coffee table, and a dead woman in his bathtub. Yeah, maybe he brought the waitress home for some fun—he was too drunk to remember it—but he knows for a fact that he didn’t kill her. He’s an agent with the Office of Preternatural Affairs. He doesn’t hurt people. He saves them. The cops disagree. Now Cèsar is running. Isobel Stonecrow speaks with the dead. She brings closure to the bereaved and heals broken hearts. But when she talks to the wrong spirit, the OPA puts a bounty on…
When my Mexican maternal grandmother died the month before I was born, she left the door between the worlds ajar. Conversations with my nana’s spirit instilled faith that I could converse with all spirits, from the consciousness of land to trees, herbs, and even ideas. Being raised a Christian Scientist taught me the power of mind over matter and instilled the authority and responsibility for my own wellness through my Divine essence. This upbringing prepared me for my Witchcraft path that considers self-care as tending of my Divine spirit, illuminates the Divine light in all of Life, and teaches how to manifest Magick through our relationships, self-love, and personal healing.
Witchcraft offers a path for incorporating Magickal ritual into a healing practice. When we experience trauma, we fragment our spirit and these disconnected parts become our shadow selves that block the manifestation of our deepest desires. This is what happened to me and why I weave together Magick and retrieving lost parts of our souls. Only when we come to wholeness with the deep healing practices found in Soul Retrievalcan we reclaim these splintered aspects of self and focus all, not merely part, of our energy onto creating the life of our dreams. Soul Retrieval helped me address my mental wellness and release suffering, which has in turn given me a magick touch for manifestation.
With warmth and compassion, Sandra Ingerman describes the dramatic results of combining soul retrieval with contemporary psychological concepts in this visionary work that revives the ancient shamanic tradition of soul retrieval for healing emotional and physical illness. This revised and updated edition includes a new afterword by the author.
As a cozy-style mystery writer, I get to live in a world where I know that everything will work out as it should in the end. I look for this in the books that I read and recommend. Do they give the reader something interesting to ponder as they go along with the sleuth (amateur or “real detective)? My father was a police captain, and I grew up looking at things through the eyes of “the law”, I admit. Most people find comfort reading about a small town where nothing will go too wrong. The bad stuff and the bad people are kept at arm’s length, and all is well.
Wallace puts a new spin on witches and witchcraft as she introduces us to a family of witches living in a small New England town.
The Warren witches have used their magic for good and have devoted their skills to protecting and helping the citizens of Evenfall for four hundred years. But when a guest dies at the family B & B, one of the witches becomes a prime suspect.
The main character has a rare talent that lets her commune with ghosts. But her skills are rusty, so she tries using her investigative techniques hoping that her witchy skills will be there if she needs them.
Magical thinking is fun, but the reader can see it’s love and family that’s the true story and the magic here.
When a guest dies in the B&B she helps her aunts run, a young witch must rely on some good old-fashioned investigating to clear her aunt's name in this magical and charming new cozy mystery.
For four hundred years, the Warren witches have used their magic to quietly help the citizens of the sleepy New England town of Evenfall thrive. There's never been a problem they couldn't handle. But then Constance Graves--a local known for being argumentative and demanding--dies while staying at the bed and breakfast Brynn Warren maintains with her aunts. At first, it seems like an accident...but it…
From the time I was very young, Witchcraft and the supernatural have always fascinated me. I can remember staying up late to watch horror movies or reading an Edgar Allen Poe book under the sheets with a flashlight when I was supposed to be asleep. I knew this was never a phase or something I would “outgrow”; the spell had been cast and I was forever in its power. I’ve tried to read everything I could on Witchcraft, its history and practice and anything regarding the occult. It was all of this reading and research that really helped me to write Widdershins and everything that came after. Enjoy the list!
Being a fan of history, mythology, and folklore really drew me to this book. It delves into ancient magic, pagan practices, and other traditions that continue to this day. The book was thoroughly researched and opens a window into mankind’s beliefs and superstitions throughout the ages. The book explores the similarities between different cultures’ creation myths and ritualistic practices as well as Christianity’s appropriation of many pagan holidays, rituals, and locations. Anyone interested in mythology or folklore should definitely have this on their reading list.
Published originally in two volumes in 1890, this extraordinary study of primitive myth and magic, collected from sources around the world, led Frazer to identify parallel patterns of ritual, symbols and belief across many centuries and many different cultures. Frazer's learning inspired a whole generation of ethnographers and comparative anthropologists, and had a particularly powerful effect on many other thinkers and writers such as Sigmund Freud, D H Lawrence, Joyce, Yeats and T S Eliot.
As long as I can remember I have found the world a terrifying yet magical place. My first memories are of reading ghost stories, the best mirrors for my emotional experiences. As a teenager supernatural tales continued to inspire me and still do. Sometimes a starkly realistic approach can prove too dull or intrusive; far better to process or confront issues by presenting them as fantastical. When I return to these books, or discover similar stories, I listen hard to what they are trying to tell me. I won’t learn overnight for, as the villain in The Doll Maker states: “the life so short, the craft so long to learn.”
“I wanted to be alone in my room and glad over it all to myself.” In the framing story, two Victorian gents struggle to decipher the hidden meanings of a teenage girl’s diary they have recently uncovered. Partially written in a secret language, that could equally derive from folklore sayings or teen slang, the contents appear to hint at an inauguration into pagan rituals and witchcraft in the nearby woods. A unique attempt to conjure a dark magic out of the missing memories of childhood, this novella explores both the excitement and peril of keeping your first secrets. “I was afraid something had happened to me…”
Machen's weird tales of the creepy and fantastic finally come to Penguin Classics. With an introduction from S.T. Joshi, editor of American Supernatural Tales, The White People and Other Weird Stories is the perfect introduction to the father of weird fiction. The title story "The White People" is an exercise in the bizarre leaving the reader disoriented and on edge. From the first page, Machen turns even fundamental truths upside-down, as his character Ambrose explains, "there have been those who have sounded the very depths of sin, who all their lives have never done an 'ill deed'" setting the stage…
I learned to read when I was three and the first book I remember reading was Ozma of Oz, which featured some great witches (even though they weren’t called that). I’ve been fascinated by women using magic to change the world around them ever since, and books about witches have remained a staple of my reading diet. As an adult, I learned more about the theory and practice of witchcraft and even spent some time in a coven. These days, I guess you’d call me more of a hedgewitch; I maintain no formal practice, just try to live in “a good way” like my Ojibwe ancestors taught.
Hex Life is an anthology of witchy stories, many featuring contemporary witches.
Anthologies are often a mixed bag, but they generally have something for everyone, so even if every story doesn’t resonate with you, you can find little gems that do.
This anthology has eighteen possible new treasures to unearth, and while I liked them all, the one that sparkled brightest for me was Angela Slatter’s “Widows’ Walk.”
“Widows’ Walk” is the story of four witchy Widows, the many cats they keep, and the young girl they set out to help. Stories about witches often involve vengeance or righting wrongs, and this is no exception. But what stands out about this story is the grace, warmth, and sweetness with which said wrongs are righted.
Brand-new stories of witches and witchcraft written by popular female fantasy authors, including Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine and Sherrilyn Kenyon writing in their own bestselling universes!
These are tales of witches, wickedness, evil and cunning. Stories of disruption and subversion by today's women you should fear. Including Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine and Sherrilyn Kenyon writing in their own bestselling universes.
These witches might be monstrous, or they might be heroes, depending on their own definitions. Even the kind hostess with the candy cottage thought of herself as the hero of her own story. After all, a woman's gotta eat.
