Here's a question.

[edwarddain]

I've been thinking about the fact that we semi-regularly get questions as to what the "best" books are. I was wondering what people have found were the most influential books that they have read are?

I have a list of six:

The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade
Shamanism:

Comments

[wire_mother]

i tried to resist this, but what reconstructionist can resist making a book list? ;)

in no particular order:

"The Destruction of Dá Derga's Hostel" (Togail Bruidne Dá Derga) - traditional

"The Cattle-raid of Cooley" (Táin Bó Cuailnge - traditional

"The Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh" (Cath Magh Tuireadh) - traditional

"The Adventures of Nera" (Echtrae Nera) - traditional

"The Book of Invasions" (Lebor Gabala) - traditional

the various Dindsenchas collections (stories of specific locations) - traditional

Drawing Down the Moon by Adler

Celtic Heritage by Alwyn and Brinley Rees

The Year in Ireland by Kevin Danaher

The Cauldron of Poesy by "Erynn Darkstar" (Erynn Laurie) and "Taine Bwca"

The Secret Commonwealth by Rev. Robert Kirk (and, to a much lesser extent, R.J. Stewart's commentary on the book in Robert Kirk: Walker Between Worlds - i prefer Sanderson's edition, which is duplicated, minus the introductory material, in Brian Walsh's The Secret Commonwealth and the Fairy Belief Complex)

Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches'

[edwarddain]

Hmmm... I hadn't thought about mythology...

I could probably add a couple of things, but my list stands pretty well as it is.

The Tain and the Bible should probably get added, as well as the Epic of Gilgamesh.

[wire_mother]

for me, myth, story, and lore are central to my religious thinking.

i could easily add several more books at least, from Illuminatus! to In Search of the Indo-Europeans, Cattle Lords & Clansmen to Operation Trojan Horse.

i will, however, add one for certain, since it was influential beyond its actual value for me: The Sacred Cauldron by "Tadhg MacCrossan" - though it is riddled with such ridiculous (and dangerous) instruction as rubbing honey on a newborn's gums (mere minutes after birth, in fact!), and takes the connection between Celtic and Vedic sources far too literally, it was the first book i'd read which attempted to present a vision of modern Celtic-based (in this case, Gaulish) paganism without recourse to post-Golden Dawn structures. it cleared away certain assumptions that i wasn't aware i had.

[lupagreenwolf]

For me...

Animal-Speak by Ted Andrews was my very first book on anything magical. While I've since expanded my own views of animal magic quite a bit, I do still have my copy and recommend it to newbies as a good intro to neopagan (not Native American) totemism.

Liber Null and Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll was my introduction to Chaos magic a few years ago; Chaos magic basically completely turned around my views on the use of magic and gave me a much more flexible view of various paradigms. I found further inspiration in Josh Wetzel's i>The Paradigmal Pirate which expands upon Carroll's style of Chaos and takes it in new directions.

Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson is an excellent tool I use for breaking my brain in a good way every now and then. Highly recommended for reprogramming your mind.

Inner Alchemy by Taylor Ellwood (teriel) (forthcoming, November 2006). I'll admit my bias, as this is my partner's current work, but I had the pleasure of being able to edit it and work with some of the material on magic involving the

[edwarddain]

I love Constantine's work all around.

Carroll has a place on my bookshelf as well, along with Spare, Fries, and Hine.

[seaivy]

Wonderful to find another Eliade admirer. His Patterns in Comparative Religion was one of the first books I bought as a teen ager when back when. Ive'read the two you list and several others.

Have to think of what books influenced me - I love lists.
Certainly Margo Adler and probably Charlene Spretnak's Politics of Women's Spirituality. They were among the first books I bought along with the classic Nor Hall and Esther Harding. There wasn't much around when I first turned to the Goddess. Books by Z Budapest have to be high on the list as she has sparked my imagination.
This needs more thought :-)
thanks

[hagazusa]

I love Nor Hall! If you're interested in the whole fairy tale/feminine archetype thing, you might like Marie Louise von Franz's THE FEMININE IN FAIRY TALES.

Also Hallie Iglehart for women's spirituality.

[seaivy]

yes Hallie she was also one of my firsts
I love her The Heart of the Goddess
I also have lots of Carol Christ - in part because she was the first person who showed me the Goddess.
Also The Once and Future Goddess by Elinor Gadon - art history anf theAlogy all in one!

[edwarddain]

I've certainly read far more Eliade over the years as well, he's somebody I return to regularly. There are certainly problems with pieces of his scholarship, but he was also writing half-a-century ago so there's been a great deal more work done since then.

[edwarddain]

Thought about Crowley, but I wanted a short list from early on (or otherwise highly influential later such as Shamanism). I didn't really start reading him seriously till my early twenties.

Didn't much care for Ishmael myself, but I read it for a psych class that I was bored in which probably didn't help.

[nicked_metal]

"Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter is what got me started.

Koestler's history of science trilogy "The Sleepwalkers", "The Ghost in the Machine" and "The Act of Creation" came next.

Then a variety of Buddhist books, the stand-outs being Cheri Huber's lightweight stuff and the infinitely more respectable "Nothing Special" by Charlotte Joko Beck.

Then came "Urban Shaman" by Serge King, "Shapeshifters" by Perkins and "The Way of the Shaman" by Harner.

Greg Egan's "Diaspora" deserves a mention, since it was the book that showed me a purpose in life that I could embrace.

[nicked_metal]

Damn, I forgot to mention the most recent most influential book. "Rites and Symbols of Initiation" by Eliade.

[edwarddain]

Harner... *ack*

I'm glad you got something out of it.

[nicked_metal]

What I got from Harner:
- Credibility around some Core Shamanism snobs
- His story about the time when he took ayahuasca - it's actually quite a useful thing.

If I'd read Sting's autobiography first, I think I'd have gotten much less out of Harner. Sting's ayahuasca case-study is better written and more informative. But it's also a very different experience, so there's some value in reading both.

Also, there's an entire chapter of _The Way of the Shaman_ that presents a definition of what a shaman is. The fact that it's a 20-page definition makes it one of the better and more comprehensive ones. I think core shamanism is a useful seed - the problem is that so many people mistake it for a full-grown plant.