AODA Second Degree reading list
The following books are recommended (or in two cases, required) for Druid Apprentices studying for the Second Degree.
See the First Degree recommended reading page.
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Required books:
Judy Harrow, Spiritual Mentoring: A Pagan Guide (Toronto: EWS Press, 2002).
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Longman, Green, 1902).
Recommended books:
Richard Bucke, Cosmic Consciousness (New York: Dutton, 1969).
Philip Carr-Gomm, The Druid Way (Shaftesbury: Element, 1993).
Ram Dass, Journey of Awakening (New York: Bantam, 1978).
Stefan Hoeller, The Royal Road (Wheaton, IL: Quest, 1975).
Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy (New York: Harper and Row, 1970).
Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul (New York: HarperCollins, 1992).
Michael Murphy, The Future of the Body (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1993).
Charles Ponce, The Game of Wizards (Wheaton, IL: Quest, 1991).
Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism (New York: Dutton, 1961).
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Pauline Campanelli, Rites of Passage: The Pagan Wheel of Life (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1998).
Pauline Campanelli, Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1989).
William Gray, Magical Ritual Methods (London: Helios, 1971).
John Michael Greer, Inside a Magical Lodge (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1998).
Ronald L. Grimes, Deeply Into the Bone: Re-Inventing Rites of Passage (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002).
Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).
Ceisiwr Serith, A Book of Pagan Prayer (York Beach, ME: Weiser, 2002).
Margie McArthur, Wisdom of the Elements (Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1998)
Robin Skelton, Spellcraft (Custer, WA: Phoenix, 1998).
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Books on the ancient Druids and Celtic traditions:
Peter Beresford-Ellis, The Druids (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995).
Nora Chadwick, The Druids (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1966).
Barry Cunliffe, The Celtic World (London: Constable, 1992).
Early Irish Myths and Sagas, trans. Jeffrey Gantz (London: Penguin, 1981).
W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries (New York: University Books, 1966).
T.D. Kendrick, Druids and Druidism (repr. Minneola, NY: Dover, 2003, also published as The Druids).
The Mabinogion, trans. Jeffrey Gantz (London: Penguin, 1976).
Stuart Piggott, The Druids (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1985).
Alwyn Rees and Brinley Rees, Celtic Heritage (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1961).
Anne Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967).
Books on the Arthurian legends:
Geoffrey Ashe, Camelot and the Vision of Albion (London: Panther, 1975).
Gareth Knight, The Secret Tradition in Arthurian Legend (Wellingborough: Aquarian, 1983).
John Matthews and Marian Green, The Grail Seeker's Companion (Wellingborough: Aquarian, 1986).
Nikolai Tolstoy, The Quest for Merlin (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1985).
Jessie Weston, From Ritual to Romance (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1983).
All the medieval Arthurian texts are also highly recommended, especially Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. Modern works of fantasy fiction based on Arthurian themes are not recommended.
Books on the Druid Revival:
Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon (Boston: Beacon, 1986).
Philip Carr-Gomm, Druidcraft: the Magic of Wicca and Druidry (London: Thorsons, 2002).
-----, ed., The Druid Renaissance (London: Thorsons, 1996; also published as The Rebirth of Druidry).
Ross Nichols, The Book of Druidry (London: Aquarian, 1990).
A.L. Owen, The Famous Druids (Oxford: Clarendon, 1962).
Sam Smiles, The Image of Antiquity: Ancient Britain and the Romantic Imagination (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994.)
J. Williams ab Ithel, ed., The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg (York Beach, ME: Weiser, 2004).
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Catherine Albanese, Nature Religion in America (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1990).
Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind (New York: Ballantine, 1972).
Peggy V. Beck and Anna L. Walters, The Sacred: Ways of Knowledge, Sources of Life (Tsaile, AZ: Navajo Community College, 1977).
Graham Harvey, ed., Indigenous Religions: A Companion (London: Cassell, 2000).
Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching, translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English (New York: Vintage, 1972).
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (New York: Oxford University Press, 1949).
James Lovelock, Gaia: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Jim Nollman, Spiritual Ecology (New York: Bantam, 1990).
Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends (New York: Anchor, 1972).
Jeffrey G. Sobosan, Romancing the Universe: Theology, Cosmology and Science (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999).
Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Other Writings (New York: Modern Library, 1992).
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See the First Degree recommended reading page.
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