I always include Gardner and the Farrars in my recommended reading lists because it is useful to anyone starting out in Wicca to understand the beliefs and practices that those who introduced Wicca to the world viewed as essential. Knowing your roots is always a useful spiritual practice.
Once you understand the roots, then looking at the various branches helps you to see which branches are solid and which stray so far from the trunk as to no longer be considered Wiccan any longer.
Christopher Penczak
Silver Ravenwolf(not everyones taste)
Rayond Buckland
Gerald Gardner
Eileen Holland
Scott Cunningham
It depends what you want you can read up on anything and change it to suit your beliefs.
My favourite occult author is Lon Milo Duquette but if your a beginner his books might be a bit advanced.
I recomend Scott Cunigham and Ellen Dugan. If you get any of Ellen Dugan`s books start with depending on your age but even if you arent a Teen this book still is great! Elements of Witchcraft Natural Magick for Teens. Go to the site http://www.llewellyn.com/ and look up some authors and books. This is a site for magick and only magick.
I recomend Scott Cunigham and Ellen Dugan. If you get any of Ellen Dugan`s books start with depending on your age but even if you arent a Teen this book still is great! Elements of Witchcraft Natural Magick for Teens. Go to the site http://www.llewellyn.com/ and look up some authors and books. This is a site for magick and only magick.
Then you want Gardner. He was the original! But be warned, if you stick to the original Wiccan beliefs that is closest to what the Gardnerians held, you'll be bickering with many Wiccans who accept the more modern modifications. I have a friend who sticks with the original ways. Very intelligent man! But my goodness he gets a lot of heat for calling himself Wiccan! If you can take the heat, it's a worthy investment.
Is he any good. The only other one that tI've ever read was by Cunnigham and it was amazing, I wanted to try different authors. When I got to the bookstore, though, I couldn't remember any of the name that were mentioned on this posts. So after like an hour of going through every book there I chose Hewitt.
When I first read "Witchcraft Today" by Gerald Gardner (in the 1960s) I thought that a great deal of it was "traditional", in the way that I had been taught long before. But there were some differences; much more "higher magic" than the traditional. All other books since then seem to be based either on Gardner or Sanders, with many "additions". I was sometimes very "mixed up" by these additions. So I stopped reading so many books on The Craft. I still have my old note books (in the old days we didn't refer to them as a Book Of Shadows,that was Gardner). I still have books by Gardner and Sanders. (Maxine Sanders is still alive and living in Wales.)
Not only do too many cooks spoil the broth: too many books spoil the Craft!
Further. If you would follow the Alexandrian tradition, Janet and Stewart Farrar wrote a book called "A Witches Bible". Just about the best book I have ever read on the subject. It is not exactly "my traditional witchcraft"; but it is very, very close, to it!
