The first books we read about Paganism and Witchcraft often have an outsize impact on our practices. My first Pagan book as an adult was DJ Conway’s Celtic Magic, and over thirty years later I still find myself quoting bits of ritual from it. Celtic Magic was not a great book, probably not even a “good” book, but I still love it because it got me in the door and was wildly influential in my life.
My Witch journey began when I was quite poor, and didn’t have much money for anything. This was an era for me when dinner was ramen noodles (20 cents) with sliced hotdogs (98 cents for eight at Aldi-I do not want to know what was in those hotdogs!). I had very little money for food let alone books or magical tools. So when I did buy a book it was a pretty big deal, and I often read all of those books cover to cover at least a dozen times. At 21 I thought Celtic Magic was a MANUAL for Wiccan-Witchcraft, today I see it as an insufficient and historically problematic introductory text. I can also list the first ten Pagan-related books I bought off the top of my head, not because they were all great, but because I read them all so many times:
DJ Conway-Celtic Magic
Real Magic-Amber K
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft-Raymond Buckland
To Ride a Silver Broomstick-Silver Ravenwolf
Creative Visualization-Shakti Gawain
How to Heal With Color-Ted Andrews*
The Truth About Witchcraft Today-Scott Cunningham
Enchantment of the Fairie Realm-Ted Andrews
The Spiral Dance-Starhawk
Living Wicca-Scott Cunningham
Witchcraft Today Volume One-Chas Clifton (editor)
Ancient Ways-Pauline Campanelli (illustrations by Dan Campanelli)
There are some obvious takeaways from this list, the first being that these are not all necessarily Witch books. In most bookstores though the Witch/Pagan books were right next to the New Age books, sometimes on the same shelf, so I made it my mission to read from that shelf. (Also on that shelf was Holy Blood, Holy Grail which I also read during this period. HBHG would go on to inspire The DaVinci Code and dozens of conspiracy books about Jesus.) Five of those books were also under five dollars, which heavily influenced my decision to buy them. This list also reads like classic Gen X Witch books, sorry Millennials, Silver was our author before she was yours.
This time of year I can’t help but stop to reflect on many of the names that make up the above list. It pains me greatly that I never got to meet Scott Cunningham (1956-1993) and have only ever heard his voice in video clips. He was one of the most influential Witches of the last fifty years, and was probably responsible for leading more people to the Craft than just about anybody for a good number years. Sadly he passed away one year before I dipped my toe into the Witchcraft cauldron, and the books of his that I had during this period made mention of his passing even though it had been so recent. (This is because he sold a lot of books and they had to continually be reprinted.) I am grateful that I now get to call Scott’s sister Christine Cunningham Ashworth a friend, it certainly helps fill some of that void.
It’s odd to me today that two of my early reading books were by Ted Andrews, but Ted Andrews (1952-2009) was wildly popular in the 1990s. I’m not sure he would have considered himself a Pagan, but his interests were certainly Pagan adjacent. His book Animal Magic has sold over 500,000 copies making it one of the best selling magical titles in the history of modern publishing. Because his books were only adjacent to my personal practice, they’ve had a much smaller impact on me, but I always like Andrew’s writing, and there are still passages in his books (especially Enchantment) that remain quite vivid in my memory. Shakti Gawain’s (1948-2018) Creative Visualization did have a large impact on me, and creative visualization has been an important part of my magical process since I read about it all those years ago. Gawain was a New Ager, so she’ll never be placed among my Mighty Dead, but I remain indebted to her for that book.
Despite passing in 2017, I have spent a lot of time with Raymond Buckland (born 1934) the past three years and a half years. I’ve read his letters, his books, and combed through a variety of datebooks and journals. Unlike everyone else I’ve written about here, I did get to meet Ray in passing once, and stood next to his corvette in 2012. After writing his biography, I feel like we will forever be linked in a certain way, certainly not anything I imagined when I purchased the Big Blue Book back in 1994.
The last name on my “early books list” has been on my mind a lot lately, perhaps because she is not as spoken about in the Witchcraft community as Cunningham and Buckland, and certainly didn’t sell as many books as Andrews and Gawain. But Pauline Campanelli (1943-2001) has sold more of her work than perhaps all of those other writers combined; Campanelli’s painting “Rose Berries” has sold nearly a million prints. Incredible. And her work continues to inspire Witches, certainly me. The history in Ancient Ways is problematic today, but the inspiration that book provides is timeless. I still consult it when looking for ritual ideas.
Every year at Samhain I add a few pictures of Craft and Pagan elders who have passed on to our coven’s shrine. This year I wanted to add a picture of Pauline and her husband Dan, but there are very few pictures of the Campanelli’s online, and the ones that are out there are generally blurry and pixilated. Very much a shame. I just find it important to me that they know how much of an impact they had on my life, and the lives of many other Witches. A spot on our shrine is a way of saying “thank you.”
Four of the names on my list above are still very much among the living. I’ve been blessed enough to share an elevator with a Starhawk and participate in the same ritual as Amber K. Chas Clifton has sent me messages on Facebook before, and Silver Ravenwolf once sent me a note that said “love your work!” I have certainly been both blessed and lucky that I’ve gotten to meet some of the people who have had such a huge impact on my life.
*This will always be especially funny to me since I am colorblind!
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