by Jason Mankey
Maugham, W. Somerset. Cakes and Ale; or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard. London: William Heinemann, 1930. I love that this book is titled Cakes and Ale ! It’s like this book was created for Witches or something. It wasn’t really, but I still like that it has a great Pan quote and a phrase that’s common in Witch circles.
Merivale, Patricia. Pan the Goat-God: His Myth in Modern Times. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969. This is the only book of its kind, I do believe, and it’s pretty exhaustive if you’re interested in the Pan revival of the nineteenth century. This book was out of print for several decades, with copies routinely going for over a hundred dollars back in the early 2000s; however, I’m happy to report that’s no longer the case, as Harvard University Press now publishes the book on demand as part of their Studies in Comparative Literature series. There’s even an e-book version of it now too, if that’s your preference.
Murray, Margaret Alice. The Witch-Cult in Western Europe and The God of the Witches, published in 1921 and 1931, respectively. Both of these books are available for free online. Whatever relatives Murray had were simply not interested in her keeping the copyright of her books alive. Out of the two, I think God of the Witches is the more informative read. It’s also the easiest to digest, as she was writing for a nonacademic audience. Murray’s ideas have not held up particularly well from a scholarly standpoint, but as pieces of modern myth, they are extraordinary.
Oates, Shani. Tubelo’s Green Fire. Oxford: Mandrake of Oxford, 2010. There are several editions of this book. Apparently the hardcover now runs over eight hundred dollars used. This book is not worth eight hundred dollars, but it’s interesting. Oates is a former Magister of the Clan of Tubal Cain, making her the heir of Robert Cochrane in a way. I contend that Oates’s version of Cochrane’s Craft is different from that of the original, but that’s just me.
Orapello, Christopher, and Tara-Love Maguire. Besom, Stang & Sword: A Guide to Traditional Witchcraft, the Six-Fold Path & the Hidden Landscape. Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2018. This is simply one of the best Traditional Witchcraft books on the market. A lot of Traditional Witchcraft books are intentionally difficult to read, but not so with this book. Highly recommended.
Otto, Walter F. Dionysus: Myth and Cult. Dallas, TX: Spring Publications, 1986. First published in 1965. Books specific to the great god Pan are hard to find, that’s not the case with Dionysus. I’m not going to tell you that there are dozens and dozens of them, but there are a number of titles full of solid academic information out there. This is one of them and probably my favorite.
Pagels, Elaine. The Origin of Satan. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. Pagels is not only a good read, but she’s also one of the most influential New Testament scholars of the past forty years.
Parfrey, Adam, and Craig Heimbichner. Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society: A Visual Guide. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House, 2012. An absolutely beautiful book full of fascinating pictures of histories of American fraternal orders. While the cover features a giant esoteric eye, the contents are rather straightforward.
Pearson, Nigel G. Treading the Mill: Workings in Traditional Witchcraft. London: Troy Books, 2017. An earlier edition of this was printed by Capall Bann in 2007. While this book doesn’t have much on the subject of treading the mill, it’s a really great look at Traditional Witchcraft. Along with Gemma Gary’s The Devil’s Dozen, it features one of the best descriptions of the Horned God in Traditional Witchcraft.
Perkins, Sid. “An Early Start for Some of Europe’s Oldest Cave Art.” American Association for the Advancement of Science, April 11, 2016. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/early-start-some-europe-s-oldest-cave-art.
Pike, Albert. Morals and Dogma. Richmond, VA: L. H. Jenkins, 1946. First published in 1871. One of the great things about Pike being dead for over a hundred years now is that his book is available for free online if it’s something you want to read. Because of its use in Masonry, it also shows up with some frequency in garage and estate sales.
RavenWolf, Silver. To Ride a Silver Broomstick. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1993. Along with Cunningham’s Wicca, this is probably the Generation X Witchcraft book, though some of my millennial friends argue that it’s their book. Since I read this book while wearing flannel and listening to Nine Inch Nails, I’m pretty sure I’m right.
Riel-Salvatore, Julien, and Geoffrey A. Clark. “Grave Markers: Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic Burials and the Use of Chronotypology in Contemporary Paleolithic Research.” Current Anthropology vol. 42, no. 4 (August/October 2001): 449–479. More academic journals, yay.
Rott, Nathan. “Decline in Hunters Threatens How U.S. Pays for Conservation.” National Public Radio, March 20, 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20/593001800/decline-in-hunters-threatens-how-u-s-pays-for-conservation.
Selk, Avi. “Falsely Accused of Satanic Horrors, A Couple Spent 21 Years in Prison. Now They’re Owed Millions.” Washington Post, August 25, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08/24/accused-of-satanism-they-spent-21-years-in-prison-they-were-just-declared-innocent-and-were-paid-millions/. We tend to think of the innocent victims of Satanic panic as ancient history, but there were still people in prison for phantom crimes into the 2000s! It pays to be ever vigilant.
Serith, Ceisiwr. “Cernunnos: Looking a Different Way.” Ceisiwr Serith’s Homepage. http://www.ceisiwrserith.com/therest/Cernunnos/cernunnospaper.htm. In the Pagan community, and probably even outside of it, no one knows more about Cernunnos than Serith. Due to space and time considerations, I’ve only scratched the surface of Cernunnos in this book. If you want to learn more about the antlered god of Gaul, you should start here.
Shakespeare, William. The Merry Wives of Windsor. In The Yale Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Edited by Wilbur L. Cross and Tucker Brooke. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1993. At over a foot tall, this is the largest book in my wife and I’s library. It also weighs several pounds, which makes looking up citations in it rather tedious. While the name for the author included here is “William Shakespeare,” I’m a rather committed Oxfordian and believe that the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, is the actual author of the plays. My wife was horrified when I wore a T-shirt to the Globe Theatre in London with a picture of de Vere on it and the words “Team Edward.”
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1. Edited by Thomas Hutchinson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1914. It’s not a surprise that I quote from the Hymn of Pan in this book. I was mostly an indifferent student in high school, but I vividly remember studying the Romantic era poets during my senior year. I was a fan of Shelley and Keats long before I was a Pagan.
———. The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley: Vol. 2, Shelley in Italy. Edited by Frederick L. Jones. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. I find it so easy to get lost in the Pagan-longings of Shelley and those in his orbit.
Smith, Jonathan Z. “Dying and Rising Gods.” In vol. 4, Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade. New York, Macmillan, 1987.
Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1979. I originally owned the second edition of this book that came out in 1989, but someone stole it from me! (I guess they needed it more than I did.) Several years later, I purchased the original edition because I’m a history nerd. Anyway, this is one of the most important books in the Witchcraft revival, and if you don’t agree with Starhawk’s fusing of spirituality and politics, you should still read it because it’s been so wildly influential.
Stavish, Mark. Freemasonry: Rituals, Symbols & History of the Secret Society. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2007. A useful and easy-to-read history of Masonry, including its more esoteric parts. Stavish is much nicer to Albert Pike than I am.
Stewart, R. J. Celtic Gods, Celtic Goddesses. London: Cassell, 1990. There’s stuff I agree with in this book and stuff
I don’t. I think much of Stewart’s take on Cernunnos is rather fanciful, but at the same time, isn’t that how a lot of Modern Witches perceive Cernunnos? Should I tell them they are all wrong? I don’t think so. It’s also worth noting that the illustrations in this book are absolutely gorgeous, so it’s worth picking up for the art alone.
Storl, Wolf-Dieter. Shiva: The Wild God of Power and Ecstasy. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2004. There are issues with this book, and times when Wolf-Dieter simply gets history wrong, but there’s still a lot of Shiva information here, and it’s often contrasted with other gods from around the world.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. Selected Poems. Edited by L. M. Findlay. Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1982. In chapter 11 of this book, I quote two stanzas from “A Nympholept,” which was first published in 1894 as part of the collection Astrophel and Other Poems, but there’s much more to Swinburne’s work worth reading than that one poem. In fact, Swinburne is my favorite poet quoted in this book. Be sure to look up “Hertha,” another forgotten Swinburne masterpiece that you’ll want to throw into a ritual.
Teagasc: The Agriculture and Food Development Authority. “Harvest.” Accessed February 11, 2021. https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/cereal-crops/spring-cereals/harvests/.
Thompson, R. Lowe. The History of the Devil, the Horned God of the West: Magic and Worship. Home Farm Books, 2013. Originally published in 1929. While finishing up this book, I came across Thompson’s History of the Devil and became worried that it would require me to rewrite a few chapters in the book you now hold in your hands. I erroneously saw the original publication date as 1919 instead of 1929, which might have made Thompson, and not Margaret Murray, one of the most influential people in the development of the Horned God. Most of what’s in Thompson’s book is a deep dive into the ideas of Murray as found in The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, but it’s notable because of its use of the term Horned God (note the capital letters) throughout the text and its attempts to link Cernunnos to the Christian Devil. It’s even possible that Thompson’s ideas on the subject of the Horned God influenced Murray’s 1931 The God of the Witches, but she doesn’t cite his work, and given how long it takes to get a book written and published, it’s unlikely (though again, not impossible).
Valiente, Doreen. Witchcraft for Tomorrow. London: Robert Hale, 1978. No Witchcraft book is complete without some Doreen in the bibliography! She is one of the five most influential Witches ever. Witchcraft for Tomorrow was one of the first how-to books, though it’s often overlooked today, most likely because Valiente’s books never got as much distribution in the United States as they deserved.
———. The Rebirth of Witchcraft. Custer, WA: Phoenix Publishing, 1989. Rebirth is Valiente’s memoir, and it’s aptly titled, as she was there for many of Witchcraft’s most important moments throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and into the 1990s. A biography of Valiente was released a few years ago by historian Philip Heselton, and it’s great, but Valiente’s writing is so vivid in this book that it mostly felt redundant. This is an essential piece of Craft history. Also, I point this out in every book I write: Doreen and I share a birth date—January 4!
West, M. L. Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. As we near the end of this bibliography, I’m reminded of how many times I’ve said “I really love this book,” but every time I do, it’s true! I promise, I do really love this book.
Wise, Caroline. “Elen of the Ways, Parts 1 & 2.” AndrewCollins.Com. 2007. Accessed February 2, 2021. https://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/elen_1.htm and https://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/elen_2.htm. In addition to these articles, Wise released a book in 2015 titled Finding Elen: The Quest for Elen of the Ways through CreateSpace. In addition, there are several other small books about Elen that have been released over the last ten years by devotees and worshippers.
Wood, Pete. “John Barleycorn Revisited: Evolution and Folk Song.” November 2, 2010. http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/j_barley.htm#top. There’s a lot more that could be written about John Barleycorn than what’s included in this book. Wood’s essay, parts of which were first published in a 2004 edition of Folk Music Journal, is a great place to start.
Wordsworth, William. The Complete Works of William Wordsworth. Edited by Alexander Balloch Grosart. Amazon Services, 2014. Wordsworth is a true and deserving giant of English literature.
Wray, T. J., and Gregory Mobley. The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil’s Biblical Roots. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. If you want an easy to read yet scholarly examination of how “the obstacle” became Satan, the Prince of Darkness, you’ll enjoy this book.
Young, Rob. Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011. It’s weird just how much music and Paganism interact, and there are few books that illustrate this connection better than Electric Eden. If you’re looking for some Pagan music for your next sabbat celebration or get-together, you’ll find something in this book.
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Art Credits
Figure 1. Bison-Man: Illustration of Homme masque en Bison jourant de la flute from the Wellcome Collection
Figure 2. The Sorcerer: from the Wellcome Collection
Figure 3. Pan: from the Wellcome Collection
Figure 4. A sacrifice for Pan: “Sacrifice to the God Pan” by Jean Jacques Lagrenée (ca. 1760–63) from the Yale University Art Gallery
Figure 5. “Attic Black-Figure Column Krater,” Artist/Maker: Painter of Munich 1736 (Greek (Attic), active about 520 BC). Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program
Figure 6. Val Camonica rock drawing by Laura Tempest Zakroff
Figure 7. Gundestrup cauldron: photographer: Lennart Larsen, from the Ancient Denmark, National Museum
Figure 8. Gundestrup cauldron detail, from the Ancient Denmark, National Museum
Figure 9. The Reims stela: Cernunnos. Autel de Cernunnos, Reims, Musée Saint-Remi (inv. 978.20189). Photo: © Devleeschauwer Christian
Figure 10. A Green Man drawing by Laura Tempest Zakroff
Figure 11. Herne the Hunter drawing by Laura Tempest Zakroff
Figure 12. Elen of the Ways drawing by Laura Tempest Zakroff
Figure 13. Lucifer: GettyImages/476658332/THEPALMER
Figure 14. A Delightful Devil: The History of Witches and Wizards, 1720, from the Wellcome Collection
Figure 15. Robin Goodfellow drawing by Laura Tempest Zakroff
Figure 16. Baphomet drawing by Tim Foley
Figure 17. Krampus: Getty/462374357/xochicalco
Figure 18. Dread Lord of Shadows: GettyImages/1134256597/Daniel Eskridge
Figure 19. Horned God: GettyImages/451166349/xochicalco
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