What are good references for witchcraft/wicca?

Question

i am doing a paper for high school on witchcraft/wicca, and i need 10 references, 2 website and 8 other books or magazine, any suggestions that a high school student can find at his school library

and no ".com" please

Answer 1

Merry Meet,



If you are interested about learning about Wicca and/or Witchcraft here are a few legitimate sources to glean knowledge from. First being Witchvox at http://www.witchvox.com/. Here you will gain knowledge through fellowship with other of like mind and knowledge through the countless articles posted. If this is not enough one could look into getting online training through the Sacred Mists at http://www.workingwitches.com/ or OZ Wicca at http://www.ozwicca.com/, both are pretty decent for learning the Craft on the Web though like any site they have some issues. Also if you are close enough to an active group that specializes in education and development like the SCWF try and join them even if it’s on a limited capacity.



If DVD’s are to your liking try Witchcraft Rebirth of the Old Religion by Raymond Buckland (DVD), Discovering Witchcraft by Janet and Stewart Farrar (DVD), Ancient Mysteries Witches by A&E (DVD), Craftwise Volume 1: Candle Magick by Peter Paddon (DVD), Craftwise Volume 2: Cord Magick by Peter Paddon (DVD), Wish on a Spell, Vo. 1 by Deborah Gray (DVD), Practical Magick DVD, The Craft (DVD).



If books are what you’re interested in I also suggest that you get your hands on Wicca for Beginners by Thea Sabin and/or The Circle Within by Dianne Sylvan. Both of these books are very good reading and both will give you some deeper insight to the Craft and how it relates to you. Also you cannot go wrong with anything by Scott Cunningham.



If you are a teen, Elements of Witchcraft: Natural Magick for Teens by Ellen Dugan, and Teen Witch by Silver Ravenwolf is also good. But neither is completely accurate, but they will help you out. Also check out http://www.teenwitch.com/ for more information, it’s a pretty good site for base information.



Study as much as you need to before deciding that you are Wiccan. Find those near you who are reputable and knowledgeable. Also stay away from those who are playing Wicca if you are serious about the religion and the craft, they will only slow you down and/or mislead you. Also, read all the books you can the good ones as well as the bad ones. Ultimately, study, study and then study some more. Find all you can and definitely cross reference whenever possible, this way you can get the best out of all you learn.



Remember, you are the one that decides who’s a good or bad author not someone else because every author in my belief has something to offer, all you have to do is ignore the information that is not accurate. Oh and when the opportunity raises cross reference the information learned for accuracy.



I hope my blurp helps out.



Blessed Be



Nyjh

Answer 2

Before you start this paper, know that witchcraft and Wicca are not the same thing. Wicca is a religion, witchcraft is a practice of its own that just happens to go nicely with the religion. Not all Wiccans are witches and not all witches are Wiccan. It might be a good idea to examine the differences between them or why they are so often confused...anyway...



An excellent website is http://wicca.timerift.net. The author has an academic background in history so her approach is very fact-based and straightforward. She doesn't mess around. She has a wonderful list of books to use for research or general knowledge about Wicca, links to websites and she cites her sources so you can use her notes to find more articles and books that might be beneficial.



"Triumph of the Moon" by Ronald Hutton is a great book concerning the history of this relatively new religion and you should grab something by Gerald Gardner (the founder of the religion). I highly recommend seeking out what would be considered a primary source to understand the origins of the religion and Gardner is the best place to start for that.



As for witchcraft, I don't have many suggestions but a simple search through your library's catalogue system should reveal a few gems. That being said, it probably won't be easy to find books about Wicca or witchcraft at your school library where PTAs and the censorship people in the school board are often a little reluctant to put these things on the shelves because of stereotypes. Try the main library in your town or see if you can find some of these books cheap at a used book store. If you're really having trouble tracking down sources, talk to your teacher and see if they'll lighten up the requirements for the bibliography. I'm at university and have thousands of journals at my disposal via internet storage but I still have problems finding articles on Wicca - it is very new, after all.



Good luck!

Answer 3

10? Gee, they keep hiking that **** up, when I was in high school just a few years back, I usually only needed 6 to 8.

Umm....hmm. If it's anything like my high school library, there probably will be very few books, if any, about Wicca. You should definitely also check your local public library, that's where all the Wicca books in my town are :)

For your two website references, I would suggest wicca.timerift.net and witchvox.com

Sorry about the ".com" thing, but your teacher is gonna have to realize, there are actually some VERY good and informational sites out there that end in .com, and for Wicca and Paganism, witchvox is one of them. If you want good articles or you want to talk about Wiccan networking, it is THE site to go to.

For the books, hmm....you'll probably want to develop a history for Wicca in your paper, as well as modern Wicca, so go for books that are both older in print, and recently printed (assuming, of course, that your library has a wide selection to choose from; you may just want to check and see how many books they actually have first, hopefully they have at least 8!) There are also Pagan magazines in print, which are not exactly Wiccan but can be (since Wicca is only one aspect of Paganism). You may want to look online and see if these are worth referencing.



Of course, I cannot do your paper for you, but I hope you do well on it!

Answer 4

Well, I don't know what's in your school library, but it's not likely to be much...I know that there's absolutely nothing in my old high school library, but I'm positive that I didn't go to your high school, so I don't know what you could find there. You're not likely to find a website without ".com" either...I'm not sure why you don't want that. I mean, there is ".edu", ".net", ".org", and ".gov", but if ".com" is far more common, and you're more likely to find results with it. However, there's always: http://wicca.timerift.net/ which is a fabulous source of information on Wicca, and it ends in ".net"... It also has a good reading list (although you're probably going to have to go to a book store to get any of the books on it). Really, don't reject websites that say ".com", because ".com" doesn't mean "non-credible"...It just means "commercial". So just google "Wicca", and look at a few websites. I hope that helps in your search.

Venus Bless

Answer 5

First off, you cannot lump witchcraft and wicca under the same thing.



Wicca is a religion. It does not have to mean witchcraft in any way shape or form.



Witchcraft is a means to manipulate the natural energies around us.



As for references, how are you supposed to have a website magazine without a .com or otherwise? Surely that's the idea of a web page...



Just google pagan religions which used witchcraft. Some to look at would be the Norsk (they read runes, seen as divination), Egyptians (used many forms of it), Druids, Shamans etc etc.



Many old religions used witchcraft as a form of what Christians now call prayer.



So if you want to be really controvertial, you could claim prayer IS a form of witchcraft.

Answer 6

As stated above, you need to figure out whether you're writing about Wicca and witchcraft.



If you're writing about Wicca, I find it highly unlikely that your school library will have 10 references...and if it does, surely you're in a better position than any of us to find them. How can I possibly know what's in YOUR library?



Exactly what sort of websites are you looking for that don't end in .com? Is this due on a day that doesn't end in "y"? Are you meaning you're looking for .edu sites? Again, not likely to find a lot on Wicca.

Answer 7

Well as a pracitising pagan that uses witchcraft from various sources, I can tell you that you are about to open a Pandora's box that may contain witchcraft-indoctrinated asps that might just bite you just for the 'fun' of doing that. On the other hand, you might meet a lot of people who like to believe they are witches (being something like the role-players in a Dungeons and Dragons theme type game). Only a small number of people are actually practitioners of the Craft and like to keep out of the limelight for the most part and keep to themselves - because there are too many people out there writing lies and stories about us - you only have to cast your mind back to the 13th century when some loud-mouthed yob (called then an Earl) took it upon himself to bring in the local Witch-finder to test some local people and seize their goods and land (the real reason to 'test' them) in the process. Nine million such people across Europe, America (beginning in Salem, Massachusetts and other puritanical places) died at the hands of these highly evolved Spiritual Beings who called themselves Christians. People who were kicked out of England for stirring up trouble, which is why they moved to America in the first place to 'have a go' at other innocent people there. Of course all of this is stuff on the periphery of the incitement and counter-claims doing the rounds back then. You could refer to William Shakespeare's Witches in Macbeth - they where good for a spine-tingling sort of story (based on the Witches of North Berwick), in Scotland, who were said to have raised a storm to kill King James of England whilst he was sailing back to London!



History can show you many sources of Witchcraft. You could get the books: "Witchcraft Today"; "The Meaning of Witchcraft" and perhaps the novel, "High Magic's Aid" all by Gerald Gardner, although the latter book("High Magic's Aid") is under his Magical Name, Scire, who was himself, a Witchmaster (or high Priest) - that is, he ran and held a number of covens up and down England, until his death from a heart attack in 1964 en-route to Tangier's, Morocco. These books are important since they are the founding books on Wicca, and tell of the congregations (Sometimes referred to as Covens) practices in various forms of Witchcraft, under that religion. I myself am a Priest of the Craft and using my name Jeremy Crawford, will give those who know, reference of what I speak. May you find all that you seek beneath Lady Moon. Jeremy Crawford (You might like to visit our group "British_Witchcraft" under Yahoo) as that will give you quite a lot more references if you look in the files section of that group.

Answer 8

The Bible, Deuteronomy 18.9-13.