RHUDDLWM GAWR'S RECOMMENDED ADVANCED TEXTS

The advanced texts, when read after the beginning and Intermediate texts, will truly give you a well rounded Pagan education.  Click on the titles to purchase the books! - Rhuddlwm Gawr

• The Word: the Greater Mysteries of Welsh Witchcraft" Part 3 of the Quest Trilogy by Rhuddlwm Gawr & Merridwin Gawr(The last book in The Quest Trilogy. ISBN: 0-595-25808-5
  Synopsis: This is the most comprehensive book ever published on the practices of Celtic and Welsh Witchcraft. Includes complete instruction and information on Celtic Ritual, including: "The Unicorn Part II", the complete Celtic Book-of-Shadows (Witches Spellbook) for the Celtic tradition of Witchcraft as practiced in England; Rituals of the Seasonal Festivals; Magical Spells, The True Universal Laws, Initiation Rites and Sexual Rituals. The Word discloses for the first time the relationship between the sacred Magickal knowledge of the Welsh Druids, Knights Templars, the Odre de Seon, and Prince Llewellyn, the last real Prince of Wales. It explains how the religion of the American Indians was affected by the Celtic invasions; reveals the where-abouts of Prince Madoc's tomb in the U.S.; tells of: The Secret of the Grail, The Tribe of Masters, The Elder Gods, The Sacred Fourteen Keys and new and important Prophecies of the Coming age. The Word reveals many Techniques of Natural Magick, Meditation, Psychic Development, Astral Projection, Locating your Soul Mate, and much more! This book is a must if you are practicing a Celtic Tradition! "I would recommend it just for the Introduction, reading list and the most complete pagan/Wiccan directory I've ever seen. Fantastic!" ... Lord C. of Atlanta. If you cannot find this title, contact: New Leaf Distributors, 401 Thornton Rd., Lithia Springs, GA. 30057-1557; phone: (770) 948-7845 Atlanta, GA.

• The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth by Robert Graves, 1948. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux trade paperback. ISBN: 0844659835
  Synopsis: A rather weighty and yet poetic book, tracing the female deity of Witchcraft - Goddess of Birth, Love, and Death; of the New, Full, and Old Moon, worshipped under countless titles. A speculative, mythic history of poetry as religion, touching on Celtic mythology and themes such as the Ogham tree alphabet and the Lunar Muse in her various aspects of maiden, mother and crone. Helped popularize many Goddesses such as Brigid and Cerridwen, enriching modern Neo-Paganism. Fascinating for the advanced student. Know your Celtic mythology (particularly Welsh) before you start, though!

• The Book of Druidry: History, Sites and Wisdom by Ross Nichols, John Matthews, Philip Carr-Gomm (Editor), List: $19.00 Amazon Price: $15.20, You Save: $3.80 (20%), Reprint Edition 320 pages, Thorsons Pub, 1992, ISBN: 1855381672
  Synopsis: The most comprehensive survey of Druidry available, from their earliest history to the current renaissance--including a study of the shaping of their ideas, their principal deities and myths, their learning and social organization, and more. Druidry from A to Z! The Book of Druidry was essentially the life work of the author (published posthumously) and represents a maximum attempt to catalogue and share the collective of what we know about the ancient Druids. It reads somewhat like an encyclopedia or almanac with the reader able to look-up items of particular interest (e.g. sacred sites such as Stonehenge) or read straight-through, cover-to-cover. Given the number of bogus (revisionist) works in print purporting to inform us about Druidry or druidism (as it is sometimes also called), some of which claim access to secret or otherwise sacred texts, etc. (which is complete bull-manure), enough cannot be said about a work like this which has both scholarly merit and general appeal. Buy it and see for yourself!



• Ecstasies : Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath by Carlo Ginzburg, Raymond Rosenthal (Translator), Reprint Edition, Penguin USA (Paper), 1993, ISBN: 0140158588
  Synopsis: Ecstasies is the culmination of Ginzburg's longstanding fascination with popular myths that are shared across different cultures and eras. Here he follows the accounts given by those accused of witchcraft centuries ago, gradually weaving them together into a startling pattern, revealing evidence of a hidden shamanistic culture that flourished across Europe for millennia. Photographs and maps.

• The Night Battles : Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by Carlo Ginzburg, Anne Tedeschi (Translator), List: $15.95 Amazon Price: $15.95, Reprint Edition, Penguin USA (Paper), 1992, ISBN: 0801843863
  Synopsis: An important book in the historiography of witchcraft. Ginzburg's research on the benandanti was path-breaking when it first appeared in the 1960's. It has become a classic, a required read for any student of history who is interested in the topic of the early modern European witch hunts. Ginzburg reconstructs a narrative in which the notion of what it was to be a "witch" was fundamentally changed by the Friulian peasants' encounters with the Inquisition.

• Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions: Essays in Comparative Religions by Mircea Eliade, List: $11.95 Amazon Price: $11.95, University of Chicago Press, 1978, ISBN: 0226203921

• Grimms Tales For Young and Old -- Translated by Ralph Manhein (Gollanz), Published by Doubleday, 1977; ISBN: 0385110057
  Synopsis: This is one of the best "fairy tale" sources you will find.   They are more than childrens fairy tales.  They are actually tales for those who wish to discover the source of some of their legends and stories of transformation.

• Celtic Folk Tales from Armorica -- original collected by F M Luzel, selection edited by Derek Bryce (Llanerch) 110pp; ISBN: 0947992049
  Synopsis: These are stories of the Armorica area of Brittony collected in the late 1800s and include notes on each story. An excellent source of transformative tales.



• The Mabinogion - Translated by Lady Charlotte Guest, Dover Reprint; ISBN: 0486295419
  Synopsis: Needs no introduction but it's surprising how many people haven't read it. Various translations available, but this one is the first and important for the Taliesen Legend.

• The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim (Penguin); ISBN: 0679723935
  Synopsis: Excellent book on  "archetypes" with a jungian twist

• The Avebury Cycle by Michael Dames, List: $16.95 Amazon Price: $13.56 You Save: $3.39 (20%), Paperback, Published by Thames & Hudson, 1996; ISBN: 0500278865
  Synopsis: An in-depth examination of the monument of Avebury from an intuitive, pagan friendly and landscape-sensitive archaeological, folkloric, mythological viewpoint.

• The Silbury Treasure : The Great Goddess Rediscovered by Michael Dames, Published by W.W. Norton & Company, 1977; ISBN: 0500050279
  Synopsis: Excellent book on ancient mysteries.

• Echoes of the Ancient Skies by E C Krupp (Oxford University Press) 386pp 12.99. ISBN: 0195088018
  Synopsis: A study of how ancient civilizations looked to the heavens to order their societies.

• Secret Places of the Goddess by Philip Heselton (Capall Bann); ISBN: 1898307407
  Excellent book on sacred sites.

• Ancient Mysteries of Britain by Janet and Colin Bord (Paladin) ISBN: 0881621730
  Synopsis: A useful and copiously illustrated round-up of British sacred and ancient sites from caves, holy wells and water sources, sacred trees and stones, folk traditions etc. etc.



• Crafting the Art of Magic, Book I: A History of Modern Witchcraft 1939-1964, by Aidan A. Kelly, (St Paul MN: Llewellyn, 1991).ISBN: 0875423701
  Synopsis: A historical examination of published works and papers, asserting that Gerald Gardner pieced together the modern Wiccan book of shadows from sources such as Margaret Murray, Leland's Aradia, ceremonial magick and a dash of Crowley, actively promoting a Wiccan mythology under which this was "the old religion." This thesis traces virtually ALL of modern Wicca to Gerald Gardner.

• The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy by Ronald Hutton, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991); ISBN: 0631189467
  Synopsis: Examines the pagan religions of the ancient British isles with an academic eye, touching on archaeological and other evidence often used to support mythological claims of Wicca. Notes the many ambiguities of examining such evidence, touching on key ideas and authors such as Frazer, Gimbutas, Graves, Murray, et al, from an academic perspective. A strong and compassionate academic analysis.

• The Politics of Women's Spirituality: Essays on the Rise of Spiritualist Power Within the Feminist Movement by Charlene Spretnak, Doubleday trade paperback, ISBN: 0385172419
  Synopsis: A huge (and, one is tempted to say, the definitive) anthology of feminist and Pagan theology. Many familiar authors here: Starhawk, Weinstein, Daly, et. al. Subjects range from Amazons to the ethics of magic. A real bargain!

• The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion by Sir James Frazer, 1890. ISBN: 0140189319
  Synopsis: A Victorian folklorist and early anthropologist, Frazer helped popularize the notions of European "fire festivals" and the "dying god" of vegetation, which strongly influence modern Neo-Paganism. His methodology is now outdated, but his theories of magic are largely carried down to the present day. Available in several editions.

• Sex in History by Reay Tannahill, Stein & Day trade paperback; ISBN: 0812885406
  Synopsis: It has often been said that Witchcraft grew out of an earlier 'fertility religion' and, although 'fertility' is probably the wrong word here, it is undeniable that the history of Witchcraft is irrevocably bound up with the history of sexuality. Like Tantrists and many others in the East, Witches tend to view sex as sacramental. Since this is quite contrary to the prevailing attitudes of our own culture, it may be helpful to understand how our culture acquired such negative ideas about sex in the first place. Ms. Tannahill's unique landmark study will not only answer this question but also indicate the many options other cultures throughout history have chosen.

• When God Was A Woman by Merlin Stone. Harcourt, Brace, & Jovanovich trade paperback. ISBN=015696158X
  Synopsis: At the foundations of the religion of Witchcraft is the religion of the Goddess. Ms. Stone's book is an archeological tour-de-force of that religion, which is found at the beginnings of virtually every known culture (yes, even the Judeo-Christian culture). In this book, one learns about the worship of Astarte, Isis, Ishtar, and many others. Also recommended is her Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood. Both are splendid books!