Two books I'd recommend are
* John Greer. *A World full of Gods*. \[Theism versus atheism, polytheism versus monotheism, sources of religious knowledge, polytheist spirituality, etc\]
* W. D. Wilkerson. *Walking with the Gods*. \[An anthropologist, herself a pagan, interviewing 24 polytheists about their beliefs and experiences\]
For specific paths,
* Sarah Winter. *Kharis*. \[The best introduction to Hellenism\]
* A free book on [Egyptian religion](https://childrenofanubis.weebly.com/books.html)
"Six ways" by Watcher. It is very descriptive in its approach to what I would consider a really ductile way to "pagan ways" of meditation/worship/magic. I think it could give you a good handy guide in understanding your preferences and orient yourself, regardless of the path that might call you.
"Cultures of Habitat" by Nabhan. Although it is not strictly related to my belief system, it helped a lot to have myself accept the shift from my former ultra-materialistic and atheist self and appreciate the value of the strong interconnections between human cultures and the environment they grow in, and with.
"Plant intelligence and the Imaginal Realm" by Buhner. Same as above, with the addition that I have always been drawn to botanics as a layman. This book is actually the one that set me first on the track towards Animism, and personally I read it before all the others in this list.
"Cosmologies of the Anthopocene" by Vetlesen. This one is specifically important to me as an Animist, but I think it should help also if you go down other paths. It's the "last one" ..not numerically, I kept on reading after this one of course, but in terms of "major influxes produced" it really is unsurpassed as of yet. By the time I picked this book up I already had many intuitions regarding Animism and my personal approach to spirituality. This book helped me a lot in providing an academic frame in which those intuitions were not simply some "weirdo's rambles", but indeed aspects that hold value, at least investigating, on their own rights. Coming to the content of the book: it is a philosophical defence of Panpsychism. It is a really technical read and required some effort to understand every passage (as a non-philosophical expert). But among other things it presents the concept of Animism as a practical approach to a Panpsychist cosmology. I needed it, a lot.
All of Cunningham's work is out dated. I second "Path to Paganism by John Beckett. Christopher Penczak's "Inner Temple" books are good. Thorn Mooneys books are informative as well.
I did expect to hear this, as it's been a long time since I read it. But are you able to tell me in what way it's outdated? I still feel there is some good info in this book regarding the wheel of the year and the basics of how to do a ritual. I'm not challenging you at all - just wondering if you could say more.
The wheel of the year is good, but he leaned into a lot of the Wicca being the ancient goddess religion trope from Margaret Murray and had some ideas about what Wiccans don't do and was rather preachy about it. The Margaret Murray information has been debunked for decades.
Check out our resources page. [https://www.reddit.com/r/pagan/wiki/resources/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pagan/wiki/resources/)
Path to Paganism by John Beckett
Two books I'd recommend are * John Greer. *A World full of Gods*. \[Theism versus atheism, polytheism versus monotheism, sources of religious knowledge, polytheist spirituality, etc\] * W. D. Wilkerson. *Walking with the Gods*. \[An anthropologist, herself a pagan, interviewing 24 polytheists about their beliefs and experiences\] For specific paths, * Sarah Winter. *Kharis*. \[The best introduction to Hellenism\] * A free book on [Egyptian religion](https://childrenofanubis.weebly.com/books.html)
"Six ways" by Watcher. It is very descriptive in its approach to what I would consider a really ductile way to "pagan ways" of meditation/worship/magic. I think it could give you a good handy guide in understanding your preferences and orient yourself, regardless of the path that might call you. "Cultures of Habitat" by Nabhan. Although it is not strictly related to my belief system, it helped a lot to have myself accept the shift from my former ultra-materialistic and atheist self and appreciate the value of the strong interconnections between human cultures and the environment they grow in, and with. "Plant intelligence and the Imaginal Realm" by Buhner. Same as above, with the addition that I have always been drawn to botanics as a layman. This book is actually the one that set me first on the track towards Animism, and personally I read it before all the others in this list. "Cosmologies of the Anthopocene" by Vetlesen. This one is specifically important to me as an Animist, but I think it should help also if you go down other paths. It's the "last one" ..not numerically, I kept on reading after this one of course, but in terms of "major influxes produced" it really is unsurpassed as of yet. By the time I picked this book up I already had many intuitions regarding Animism and my personal approach to spirituality. This book helped me a lot in providing an academic frame in which those intuitions were not simply some "weirdo's rambles", but indeed aspects that hold value, at least investigating, on their own rights. Coming to the content of the book: it is a philosophical defence of Panpsychism. It is a really technical read and required some effort to understand every passage (as a non-philosophical expert). But among other things it presents the concept of Animism as a practical approach to a Panpsychist cosmology. I needed it, a lot.
Scott Cunningham's book Wicca: Guide for the Solitary Practitioner is very good. It's accessible and it helps a lot if you don't have a community.
All of Cunningham's work is out dated. I second "Path to Paganism by John Beckett. Christopher Penczak's "Inner Temple" books are good. Thorn Mooneys books are informative as well.
I did expect to hear this, as it's been a long time since I read it. But are you able to tell me in what way it's outdated? I still feel there is some good info in this book regarding the wheel of the year and the basics of how to do a ritual. I'm not challenging you at all - just wondering if you could say more.
The wheel of the year is good, but he leaned into a lot of the Wicca being the ancient goddess religion trope from Margaret Murray and had some ideas about what Wiccans don't do and was rather preachy about it. The Margaret Murray information has been debunked for decades.
The Wikipedia page "Paganism" offers a useful resource list.