any good books about Wicca, witchcraft, neo-paganism?

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I'm interested in learning more about goddess veneration. Especially Hestia/Vesta. Any recommendations will be warmly welcomed.

Hmm... I don't know anything specialized in your concerns. A book I would recommend would be Persuasions of the Witch's Craft by TM Luhrmann. https://www.amazon.com/Persuasions-Witchs-Craft-Contemporary-England/dp/0674663241

TM Luhrmann is a fairly respected anthropologist, and can probably help make sense of these traditions as a social scientist. I haven't had the fortune to read this work, although I've had it recommended by a few people I trust, but it might not be the best source on the different belief systems within Wicca.

My guess though, is that because Wicca is a newer and evolving tradition based upon individual believers, you'd probably be better with taking in a lot of informal sources.

I recently bought a book entitled The Book of English Magic written by Philip Carr-Gomm and Richard Heygate, published by The Overlook Press. I got the book to learn a little bit about the history of English magic to help me with a story I am writing. The book advertises itself as, "With step-by-step guides to dowsing, to creating your own philosopher's stone and to casting your own love spell ..." The book also states, "Learn the Druid Tree Alphabet, How to plot a ley line, How to perform a spell with candle magic, Make an herbal remedy, and Learn about alchemy." From what I can tell about the book so far is that it explains a lot about the history of magic in England. It is over 500 pages long.

Not sure how I'd advise you on your quest - I'd just say good luck. I can think of a lot of highly competent authors, researchers, and historians on other related matters but not necessarily experts on the two deities you mentioned.

I'm in my own interesting situation - ie. in early 2013 I had my first really powerful emotional brush with the Lady of 10,000 Names. I had several archetypal and inward encounters with her and I seem to experiencing her in name as Isis but something more like deified Mary (the Clemence Isaure and the Troubadours painting is close to the right idea and who knows, it could be my AMORC ties that brought that to pass). One of the unfortunate things about neopagan prayers is they seem regrettably clunky, contrived, and inorganic - at least in their present form. The Our Father, Hail Mary, even Reinhold Niebuhr's Serentity Prayer really have that balance of hard reality with mystic reverence and I probably will have to come up with some on my own that do the trick.

That and I'd have to wonder, I don't know which branch of Islam you were raised with but if you're Shi'a/Persian you have a lot of rich mysticism with Rumi, Al Hallaj, and I don't know if you're familiar with the Yazidi faith but I know it deals with seven archangels and it might be something that could resonate.


One particularly beautiful Al-Hallaj poem that really struck a chord with me, in a very 'You are my sunshine' sort of way:


Another brief note - looking up Hiesta and Vesta as Greek goddesses of hearth and home - you may want to look at the Egyptian goddess Nephthys as well.

Oh, I totally forgot I made this thread. Thanks for the replies!

And yeah, techstepgener8tion, the history of magic has always fascinated me and I know the Islamic golden age plays a pretty big part in that. Ghayat al-Hakim (known to the west as Picatrix) is one of the most important magical books ever written.

Are you familiar with Gerald Gardner?