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[otaku_hobbit27]

Hello, I'm new to this community and as well(somewhat)new to Paganism...I'm trying to stay as far away from "fluffiness" as I can..I'm doing research and stuff but what I'm worried about is if I might be leaning the wrong things(the worrying actually came from an earlier post about 'bad books' that i read)..so since you guys actually seem to know

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[moonhawk]

interested in any particular type of paganism?

here are my recommendations...

websites:
http://www.witchvox.com
http://wicca.timerift.net (great wiccan info, like whywiccansuck...except without the attitude)

books:

triumph of the moon by ronald hutton
drawind down the moon by margot alder
the way of wyrd by brian bates
cunning folk by owen davies
true magick by amber k.
the spiral dance by starhawk
wicca: a guide for the solitary practitioner by scott cunningham (fluffy to some, but a good wicca 101 book, especially compaired to some others...)

to avoid:
- anyone who claims their way is the "true" or "only" way of being witch/pagan etc.
- Silver Raven Wolf: why, why, and why...

Also, i wouldn't worry about fluffy vs. non-fluffy too much, especially if you are doing your own research. All authors should be taken with a grain of salt, and you can learn from even the fluffiest of authors if you can pick the chaff from the grain.

[otaku_hobbit27]

oh..oops,i forgot to put what type...well I guess I'm mostely going twords Green Witchcraft, but I'm open to other things too.

and thanks to your recomandations :)

[tigresslilly]

As a small add on I generally go by several different points when looking at books or websites for validity.

1.) Is this source historically accurate? (if the answer is no, I'm often skeptical about the contents)

2.) Is this source bashing/putting down Christianity or another religion? (if the answer is yes, I personally discard the information as I'm not interested in having that sort of prejudice in my reading materials)

3.)Does the author source his/her information and if they do, can I recognize any of the sources as valid or invalid?

4.) (this last question is really depends on what one is researching and why, and became largely important to me when I began looking into herbology) Does this author have any credntials that (master's degrees, verifable experience, instruction under a person of notice) pertain to his or her subject and are they valid?

Also as an even smaller side note: while I like Scott Cunningham and think his books are a good introduction to eclectic paganism, they don't teach a specifically Wiccan path. Wicca is an initiation mystery based religion. While there is outer court material available, the meat of the religion is in the mysteries, which are two part (one part the mystery and the other part the experience that puts the mystery into context) and require a lineaged coven to properly teach one them. At least that was my understanding, and I could be mistaken in that concept. I know the exact defination is often argued over in most communities.