Recommended Reading
Over a lifetime of study, practice, and engagement with many strands of Paganism, I’ve encountered a wide range of writings that have informed, challenged, and inspired me.
This section gathers books and resources I recommend not because I agree with every word, but because I believe they offer insight, provoke thought, or help illuminate the many paths we walk as Pagans, Witches, scholars, and seekers.
I invite you to explore with discernment, curiosity, and a spirit of inquiry.
Macha's Featured Picks
Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America by Frances Denny
A photographic portrait of contemporary American witches. I’m proud to be included among those featured, sharing how I live my witchcraft alongside many others.
worm, root, wort… & bane by Ann Shelton
An exploration of plant knowledge, gender, and magic. I’m honored to be one of many voices in this beautiful and thought-provoking book reflecting on our ancestral and spiritual relationships with herbs.
Get a Life: Chronicles of a Conscientious Scofflaw by dress wedding
From underground dealing to marijuana activism, this candid memoir weaves Pagan practice, privilege, and remembrance into a story that uplifts and inspires.
Paganism & Witchcraft
There are many excellent bibliographies for the student of Witchcraft on the World Wide Web. In addition to the books commonly found on these bibliographies, I have several to add that I think deserve your attention.
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches by Charles G. Leland; a new translation by Mario Pazzaglini, Ph.D. & Dina Pazzaglini, with additional material by Chas S. Clifton, Robert Mathiesen & Robert E. Chartowich, and a foreword by Stewart Farrar
Originally published in 1899, this is a fascinating look at a significant part of our Craft heritage.
Deepening Witchcraft: Advancing Skills and Knowledge by Grey Cat
With this book, Grey Cat takes a keen look at many of our attitudes and assumptions. While we may not agree with everything she says — which is as it should be — this book takes us one more giant step towards maturity as a movement and as a spiritually satisfying faith tradition(s). She then reflects them back to us in a way that calls for us to look at ourselves and our ways with a clear eye and a sharp mind. And she does so with her unmistakable Southern ‘tude. As we move out of the shadows of the broom closet and into the bright light of our wider communities, each of us can benefit from reading the thoughts, experiences, observations and wisdom of this Crone.
Devoted to You: Honoring Deity in Wiccan Practice by Judy Harrow, Alexei Kondratiev, Geoffrey W. Miller and Maureen Reddington-Wilde
Judy Harrow and her three colleagues have mined four precious, and singularly unique, jewels from the rich ground of contemporary Paganism. Each stone has been cut and polished with the care and perfection of a fine jeweler, and now their glittering, multicolored splendor can be enjoyed by all.
God Is Dead, Long Live the Gods: A Case for Polytheism by Gus diZerega
Dr. diZerega explores polytheism and monotheism from every conceivable perspective and discipline — from Nature and science, from theology, history, and personal experience — to show that gods, spirits, and otherworldly entities are alive and well in today’s world, as they always have been. A true opus magnum.
Mother: Ecstasy, Transformation, and the Great Goddess by Levi Rowland
The first adjectives that come to mind when reading this book are lucid and thorough. More significantly, I think, is that I found it refreshingly balanced and undoctrinaire. A Witch after my own heart. Praise be!
More Great Books
The absolute most critical situation that we humans have engendered and now must address is climate change. I urge you to take any and all actions that you, the reader, can. These are a few books that I found edifying.
Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Simon Winchester
Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees by Nalini Nadkarni
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality, and the Planetary Future by Bron Taylor
Earthmind: Tuning in to GAIA Theory with New Age Methods for Saving Our Planet by Paul Devereux, John Steele, and David Kubrin
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis by Annie Proulx
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard
Journey of the Universe by Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker
Nature’s Web: Rethinking Our Place on Earth by Peter Marshall
Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators and Fading Empires by Simon Winchester
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder
The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Berry
The Spirit of Place by Loren Cruden
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World by David Abram
Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings by John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming, and Arne Naess
When, Why . . . If: An Ethics Workbook by Robin Wood
Another book no Witch should be without, Robin presents accessible and straightforward topics – honesty, self, love, help, harm, sex, will and ethics – for anyone – Witch, Pagan or anything else – to help you know yourself and your motives better, and to proceed through life with an awareness of your conduct and its potential effects on others. You think the Rede is simple? This will help you interpret it for yourself.