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Note: Some books on this list are academic, some are inspirational. None describe our Tradition and practice in entirety - but most have in them the seeds and the roots of our path.
In any educational process, most of the work falls to the student - and this is no different when one learns from a book then when one learns in any other way.
Even the most brilliant and honest academics have an agenda - this is simply human nature - as it is also human nature to be passionate, and, hopefully, convincing, when expressing one's own opinion. This is even more so when the subject is religion. Therefore, even the best books are ultimately presented to you from a point of view of the author and do not represent any sort of objective truth in entirety.
The fact that something is written down does not make it true. The fact that something is well-written does not make it true. The fact that something is well-referenced or well-argued does not make it true.
In TDB we define a Druid as a Seeker of Truth, be it an individual truth, or a universal Truth. In this search, a book is an important tool - but only a tool, not an end in and of itself. And therefore one must read with a discerning mind, and a discerning heart, and a discerning soul, and not be afraid to doubt, to question, or to reject what is not fitting.
Please use the books as a tool in harmony with other tools in your posession: namely, intellect and intuition. It might be said that Intellect, Intuition and Information are the three pillars of Wisdom - a triple "I", as it were...
Undoubtedly most of you know this already - but it bears repeating all the same.
LIST BY CATEGORY
Modern Druidry:
- “Bonewits’s Essential Guide to Druidism” by Isaac Bonewits
- “The Solitary Druid” by Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison
- "The Apple Branch" by Alexei Kondratiev
- “The Mysteries of Druidry” by Brendan Cathbad Myers
- “Sacred Fire Holy Well – a Druid’s Grimoire” by Ian Corrigan
- "The Druid Renaissance" by Philip Carr-Gomm
- "The Pagan Family - Handing the Old Ways Down" by Ceisiwr Serith
Historical Druidry and Indo-European Paleo-Paganism:
- "The Druids" by Peter Berresford Ellis
- "The World of the Druids" by Miranda J. Green
- "Celtic Heritage - Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales" by Alwyn Rees and Brinley Rees
- "Gods and Myths of Northern Europe" by H. R. Ellis Davidson
- "Roles of the Northern Goddess" by Hilda Ellis Davidson
- "Myths and Symbols of Pagan Europe - Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions" by H. R. Ellis Davidson
- "Rites and Religions of Anglo-Saxons" by Gale R. Owen
- "The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles – Their Nature and Legacy." by Ronald Hutton
- “Stations of the Sun” by Ronald Hutton
- "In Search of Indo-Europeans - Language, Archeology and Myth" by J.P. Mallory
- "Symbol & Image in Celtic Religious Art" by Miranda Green
General Theology and Religion:
- “A World Full of Gods” by John Michael Greer
- “The Deities are Many” by Jordan Paper
- “Pagan Theology” by Michael York
- “The Sacred and the Profane” by Mircea Eliade
- “Shinto” by Kasulis
- "The Religions of the American Indians" by Ake Hultkrantz, translated by Monica Setterwall
- "Native North American Spirituality of the Eastern Woodlands - Sacred Myths, Dreams, Visions, Speeches, Healing Formulas, Rituals and Ceremonies" Edited by Elisabeth Tooker, preface by William C. Sturtevant
- "The Hebrew Goddess" by Raphael Patai
- " The Five Gospels - The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus ( or: What Did Jesus Really Say?)" New translation and commentary by Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar
- "The Spiral Dance" by Starhawk
- "The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff
- "Lao-tzu's Taoteching" translated by Red Pine
- "Drawing Down the Moon" by Margot Adler
Comparative Religion:
- "A History of Religious Ideas (in 3 volumes)" by Mircea Eliade
- "Comparative Mythology" by Jaan Puhvel
- "Mysticism - Holiness East and West" by Denise Lardner Carmody, John Tully Carmody
- "The Myth of the Goddess - Evolution of an Image" by Anne Baring and Jules Cashford
- "Other Ways of Knowing" by John Broomfield
- "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong
Lore:
- "Legends of the Celts" by Frank Delaney
- "Carmina Gadelica - Hymns and Incantations" Collected in the Highland and Islands of Scotland in the Last Century by Alexander Carmichael
- "The Poetic Edda" Translated by Lee M. Hollander
- "The Prose Edda - Tales from the Norse Mythology" Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jean I. Young
- "The Magic Ring - Russian Folk Tales" Collected by Alexander Afanasiev
- "An Anthology of Russian Folk Epics" Translated with an introduction and a commentary by James Bailey and Tatyana Ivanova
- "The Raid" by Randy Lee Eickhoff
Miscellaneous:
- "Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice" by Catherine Bell
- "Ritual - Perspectives and Dimensions" by Catherine Bell
- “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron
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