Beginner Witchcraft Resources

Everyone’s witchcraft journey is different, but we all have to start somewhere. While the show has tackled this topic before, I thought I would make a page to collect some basic beginner resources in one place. None of the links here are affiliate links, and I make no money from any of these recommendations.

This is an evolving list, and I may make changes over time.

Books

Look, most beginner witchcraft guides are going to be mostly book recs, and I am just as cliched as those other witches too. These are the four books I currently recommend that new witches have in their library.

Witches Among Us
by Thorn Mooney
ISBN: 978-0738777375

Witches Among Us is the introduction to the modern witchcraft movement I don’t think a lot of us realized we needed until Mooney wrote it. This is an excellent guide for anyone who just literally doesn’t know where to start and needs to get the lay of the land. Each section of the book includes recommendation for further reading including both scholarly and witchcraft sources. This is also an excellent book for helping non-witches understand what the hell is going on.

[ Amazon ]

Drawing Down the Moon (2006 Edition)
by Margot Adler
ISBN: 978-0143038191

The late Margot Adler’s Drawing Down the Moon is a history of the modern witchcraft movement, and this book will give you a solid foundation for understanding the history of the movement. While Mooney’s Witches Among Us helps establish where we are, this book will help show you where we’ve been. Importantly, this book will help build an understanding of the actual history of the movement, so when you inevitably pick up a other books or run across some influencer some time in the future it’ll be easier for you to know whether or not that person has a piss poor understanding of history or not.

[ Amazon ]

Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner
by Scott Cunningham
ISBN: 978-0875421186

I’ve always said that if you want to learn about British Traditional Wicca, you should go just directly talk to a British Traditional Wiccan. But if you’re looking to learn about Eclectic Wicca (which is what I practice), this is still the best book to start with. The book is very dated (Cunningham died a few years after this was published), so there are a lot of things that need to be read critically here. This is still a solid guide for starting out though, so I still recommend it.

This shouldn’t be the last book you read on the subject, but it’s a good first. If you’re not looking to learn about Wicca at all, you can skip this one obviously too.

[ Amazon ]

Grovedaughter Witchery
by Bree NicGarran
ISBN: 978-1541145788

Bree’s been a frequent guest on the show, but the reason that happened was that I loved this book first and invited her on because of it. Bree’s a secular witch, and Grovedaughter Witchery is a wonderful practical guide on how to get started with actual witchcraft.

While I’m a firm advocate for understanding history and the overall movement, sometimes you just want to do some witchy shit and this book will give you a foundation on where to start.

[ Amazon ]

Episodes of this Podcast:

Look, I obviously think you should listen to all of my episodes, but I know there are a lot of them, and the topics aren’t always as helpful if you’re just focusing on where to start. Here are a few episodes really focused on the needs of new witches:

Episode 1: The Basics
Originally Released 9/22/18

In this inaugural episode of BS-Free Witchcraft I start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start. Mainly this episode focuses on the basics of the modern witchcraft movement — because how can we have a discussion if we don’t actually define the terms we’re working with? From defining “witchcraft” itself to poking at random corners, we’re covering as much as we can cram into a half an hour. You know how like every witchcraft website has a FAQ page? This is the podcast equivalent of that.

Episode 2: How to Become a Witch
Originally Released 9/29/18

In this episode I tackle the question “How do you become a witch?” The answer, of course, turns out to be amazingly easy — do some witchcraft. Of course, there’s more to the episode than that. Dragging fellow witch Lee Bradford onto the show, we tell our personal stories about how we came to our (different forms) of witchcraft. Afterwards we discuss things like gatekeeping and other obstacles new witches might find starting their practice.

Episode 5: Building Your Own Path
Originally Released 11/24/18

On this episode of BS-Free Witchcraft, I attempt to cover a topic from one of the show’s listeners: How the heck do you get started in Witchcraft in the first place? What we end up with is twenty minutes of me attempting to cover this exceptionally broad topic which is, at the very least, entertaining… and hopefully informative. Hopefully.

There’s some overlap between that episode and this guide.

Episode 19: Citation Needed
Originally Released 1/25/20

While reading a post on The Wild Hunt I got to thinking about the wild world of self publishing and Witchcraft books. How does a new Witch know if a source is good or bad? How can they tell if it’s a genuine writer or a pen name optimized for SEO?

Why is everything so frickin’ complicated?

Episode 20: A Dabbler’s Week
Originally Released 2/29/20

We’ve talked before about how dabbling in witchcraft is not just perfectly acceptable, but should be encouraged. It leaves the question open though — just how does one dabble? With that in mind, and at the suggestion of Tumblr user AskSecularWitch, I’ve gone through and created a “Dabbler’s Week” — a week of activities that someone could do to get a taste of what my form of witchcraft is like.

So yeah. That’s the episode.

Episode 33: The Wheel of the Year
Originally Released 3/27/21

This time around we’re talking about The Wheel of the Year! Well, at least the basic idea. Where did it come from, who slapped these eight holidays together, and are they really something every witch needs to give a crap about?

Minor spoiler, the answer to that last question is a firm “no.”

Episode 36: Fight a God
Originally Released 6/26/21

So a few weeks ago I made a joke post on my Tumblr where I said beginner witches should “Fight a God.” This led me through a series of events which made me want to discuss how we relate to gods in witchcraft, the difference between worship and belief, and frankly whether or not we should fight a god.

That, and, we’ve all agreed that Apollo has an OnlyFans.

Other Podcasts

Some folks aren’t readers, and I get that. Obviously I recommend you listen to this show, but that doesn’t mean my voice should be the only one you shove into your ear holes.

Hex Positive
Hosted by Bree NicGarran
Nerd & Tie Network

Okay, you should have guessed this was going to be recommended here. We’re on the same podcast network. Every month, join Bree for a discussion of secular witchcraft, with plenty of tips for witching on a budget, finding good resources, furthering your magical education, and keeping your common sense superpowers strong. While we sometimes cover the same topics, we come from very different angles.

Also Bree’s way more likely to invite a guest on and talk about something new or interesting, as opposed to me just raving like a mad person on my own most of the time.

[ Listen ]

This guide is a work in progress and will be expanded soon.