Below is the book list for people wishing to work towards Druidic initiation. You may have already read some of these books, READ THEM IN ANY ORDER YOU LIKE. Please keep a “Book of Write” handy as you read. That would be a blank book into which you jot down anything practical you find that can be used in ritual today, based on actual Celtic tradition. In particular look for ritual ideas, hymns, invocations and prayers.
Keep a record of all your comments on the books and send them to me as *one document* when you are done with the reading. All I need to see are one – two paragraphs on each book you have read. Please don’t write to me every time you finish one book!
Once you are done with the books there will be other non-literary tasks, but I need evidence that you have read all the basic books (including the aids to Druidic ritual texts) before I can give you those.
May Brighid bless the work!
Ellen Evert Hopman (Saille)
Celtic/Druidic Reading List
For further reading, we would recommend the following books to provide a basic foundation of knowledge:
Historical Resources ~
Nora Chadwick, THE CELTS
Barry Cunliffe, THE CELTIC WORLD
Otto Hermann Frey, Venceslas Kruta, THE CELTS
Miranda Green, THE WORLD OF THE DRUIDS
John Haywood, THE HISTORICAL ATLAS OF THE CELTIC WORLD
Fergus Kelly, A GUIDE TO EARLY IRISH LAW
Fergus Kelly, EARLY IRISH FARMING
Bruce Lincoln, DEATH, WAR AND SACRIFICE
Alwyn and Brinley Rees, CELTIC HERITAGE
Anne Ross, PAGAN CELTIC BRITAIN
Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, GODS AND HEROES OF THE ANCIENT CELTS
Peter Wells, BEYOND CELTS, GERMANS, AND SCYTHIANS: Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age Europe
Modern and Historical Druids ~
Ellen Evert Hopman, A LEGACY OF DRUIDS – Conversations with Druid leaders from Britain, the USA and Canada, Past and Present
Aids to creating Druidic rituals ~
Alexei Kondratiev, CELTIC RITUALS: AN AUTHENTIC GUIDE TO ANCIENT CELTIC SPIRITUALITY
Robert Barton, DANCE OF OAK & WREN: RITES OF DRAIOCHT
Janet and Colin Bord, EARTH RITES: Fertility Practices in pre-Industrial Britain
Janet and Colin Bord, SACRED WATERS
Alexander Carmichael, CARMINA GADELICA
Cross and Slover, ANCIENT IRISH TALES
Ellen Evert Hopman, A DRUID’S HERBAL FOR THE SACRED EARTH YEAR
Ellen Evert Hopman, A DRUID’S HERBAL OF SACRED TREE MEDICINE
Ellen Evert Hopman, trilogy of Druid novels; PRIESTESS OF THE FOREST, THE DRUID ISLE, PRIESTESS OF THE FIRE TEMPLE
Morgan Daimler, BY LAND SEA AND SKY
Morgan Daimler, WHERE THE HAWTHORN GROWS
Suggested texts for further study
Nerys Patterson’s “Cattle Lords and Clansmen”, any of MacNeill’s material–especially the “Silver Bough” volumes and the “Festival of Lughnasadh”, Gregorson’s “The Gaelic Otherworld”, Enright’s “Lady with a Mead Cup”, and Brunaux’s “The Celtic Gauls”, Cunliffe et al., “Celtic from the West”.