Reference Books

Hey Soul Fam!

For those of you who are interested in learning more about religion, spirituality, or psychology. This list will be added to over time so check back for new additions.

REFERENCE BOOKS

Reference Books: the ones in bold are the most important to get although I highly suggest all of them

*Sacred Woman by Queen Afua* *******MUST GET FOR CLASS

Women who Run With Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Warrior Goddess Training series by Heather Ash Amara

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene

The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine

All About Love by Bell Hooks

Behold a Pale Horse by William Cooper

SAS Survival Handbook by John Lofty Wiseman

Bush Craft 101 by Dave Canterbury

Survival Hacks by Creek Stewart

The Healing Power of Reiki by Adams Media

The Yoga Bible by Christina Brown

Proactive Yoga by Goldie Karpel Oren

The Multi-Orgasmic Woman by Chia and Abrams

The Guide to Getting it On by Paul Joannides

The Juicing Bible by Pat Crocker

The Essential Alkaline Diet Cookbook by Rockridge Press

Thinner, Leaner, Stronger by Michael Matthews

Alkaline Plant Based Diet by Aqiyl Aniys

Alkaline Herbal Medicine by Aqiyl Aniys

African Holistic Health by Llaila O. Afrika

Holistic Self-Diagnosis by Llaila O. Afrika

The Complete Book of Incense, Oils, and Brews by Scott Cunningham

Earth, Air, Fire, and Water by Scott Cunningham

The Herbal Alchemist’s Handbook by Karen Harrison

Culpeper’s Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper

The Master Book of Herbalism by Paul Beyerl

Plant Witchery by Juliet Diaz

The Encyclopedia of Magickal Ingredients by Lexa Rosean

The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Signs and Symbols by Adele Nozedar

The Energy Codes by Sue Morter

When God was a Woman by Merlin Stone

The Psychology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by DK

The Psychology of Prejudice by Todd Nelson

Personality (the psychology of personality) by Jerry Burger

Opening Skinner’s Box by Lauren Slater

Jung and Shamanism by C. Michael Smith

Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen

The Tarot Bible by Sarah Bartlett

The New Tarot Handbook by Rachael Pollack

Advanced Tarot by Paul Fenton-Smith

The Palmistry Bible by Jane Struthers

The Crystal Bible by Judy Hall

Crystal Power, Crystal Healing by Michael Gienger

Santeria and Orishas by Mari Silva

The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts by Baba Ifa Karade

Orishas, Goddesses, and Voodoo Queens: the divine feminine in the African Religious Traditions by Lilith Dorsey

African Goddess Initiation by Abiola Abrams

The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune

Tibetan Shamanism: Ecstasy and Healing by Larry Peters

The Shamanism Bible by John Matthews

The World’s Religions by William Young

The Lion Encyclopedia of World Religions by Lions Press

The Middle East by Bernard Lewis

The History of World Religions by Simon Adams

Scriptures of the East by James Fieser and John Powers

Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions edited by R.C. Zaehner

The Religions and Philosophies of the East by J.M. Kennedy

Religions of the West by Ninian Smart

Hinduism by Cassie Coleman

An Introduction to Buddhism by Peter Harvey

Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities by Charles Coulter and Patricia Turner

Encyclopedia of World’s Religions by Robert Ellwood and Gregory Alles

Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions by Britannica

Please keep in mind that your local library may have these books and you may be able to borrow a copy if you do not want to purchase it. You may also come across various websites that also have the book, or parts of the book available. Google the books to find out if that is an option as well.

When you begin your spiritual studies, you may find that you have absolutely no idea where to possibly begin. Those of you who do not want to buy books or who can’t afford to do so, please check out your local library! Get cool with your local librarian because you may need to go there to get these books if you don’t plan on buying them.

Personally, I have found that when you start at the most recent religions and work your way backwards in time through history, you get a better picture of things. One can then start to make the connections and correlations needed, but that won’t happen unless you do your research. That being said, religions of the west are the more “baby” religions of the world even though they are the most mainstream. Then there are the older eastern religions, which you will find many answers in. Then we get to all the ancient religions, from Rome, to Greece, to Egypt, to Kemet and Sumerian.

Once you have a better picture as to these religious and spiritual practices and their history, you can then begin looking into all the magickal practices and schools of thought. We will leave no stone unturned here, and we will research fearlessly with the curiosity of a child. That being said, throw away everything that you have been indoctrinated to believe when it comes to religion and spirituality because there will be no room for it here. Here, we will start from scratch and as scholars on the search for truth!

Western Religions

Christianity and all its sects: such as Protestant, Baptist, Jehovah’s Witness. For this look into the Holy Bible, and Jehovah’s Witness texts for differences. The book of Enoch, books about angels and archangels, and from a historical standpoint books about the Crusades.

Church of Scientology: created in the last 100 years, you can google information about them and their belief system, which is rather cult-like.

Muslims and all its aspect should then be studied and to look at the religious texts, get a copy of the Holy Quran.

Judaism is the oldest religion of the west, and pretty much the original blueprint for the subsequent religions formed. To look into Judaism, look at the Torah, the Talmud, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. You may also find Kabbalah information as you are researching, which you will learn is the basis for Jewish magick, also called Transcendental Magick.

Some other newer religions to look into are Moorish Science and the Nation of Islam. Pick up a copy of the Black Bible of Science. I also highly recommend the Black’s Law Dictionary.

Read into some scientific subjects, such as biology, chemistry, and physics. Study the laws of physics especially, as you will come to learn that they coincide with the 7 Hermetic Principles. You can look into The Science Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by DK books. They actually have an entire series of “Big Ideas Simply Explained”, they have mythology, philosophy, psychology, ecology and even math. I like the way these books are written in a way that beginners can easily grasp and digest the content. This could be a great place for some of you to start!

Eastern Religions

Once you are done with the western belief systems, you can begin to make your way over to the east to study what they believed.

Buddhism and its sects of Jainism, Taoism, and Zen should all be studied. You can research each of these to find out what their belief systems are. You can also look into the I-Ching, Tao Te Ching, Agam Sutras, and books that break down the Buddhist belief system.

Hinduism and Sikhism should then be studied. Look into The Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Vedic texts Upanishads.

Ancient Religions

Look into Norse mythology, Roman mythology, and Greek mythology. Then look into Zoroastrian. Then look into Confucianism. Then look into Polynesian belief systems. Then look into the Mayans, Aztecs, and the Incans belief system. 

Study the gods of every belief system so that you can find their correlations, especially when you look into Ancient Egypt. Do as much research as you can here, because the more you research and learning you do, the more things will begin to make sense in the grand scheme of things. At this point you can also look into Philosophy and study their schools of thought.

Ancient Egyptian Spirituality

Look into the Ancient Egyptian gods and the practices of the people. Look into Thoth and the Emerald Tablets as well as the Pyramid Texts. You can also look into the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Ancient African Spirituality

To look into Kemet, Sumerian, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. You can also look into Enki and the Annunaki.

Magickal Belief Systems

Once you are done researching religions and spirituality in its most plain form, we can then begin looking into the many various magickal schools of thought. To do this, you can start with the most basic and newest, the New Age movement, Wicca, then Paganism. Then you can get into the Hoodoo, Vodou, Santeria, Palo, Norse, Shaman, Tribal, Folk, and lastly the Yoruba IFA traditions.

Hermetic Beliefs

Ancient Egyptian belief system said to have started with the workings of Thoth. The Kybalion is a book that you can look into to research their beliefs. You can also look into the Emerald Tablets.

Satanic Beliefs

Satanist don’t actually believe in Satan. They don’t believe that the devil even exist and I know this because I have read their texts. They are actually quite magickal people who truth be told are like pagans who have chosen to stay resonating within their lower chakras, which means that they embrace their dark side and the demons within them. Yet, they do not worship Lucifer, Satan, or the devil. Don’t believe me? Pick up a copy of the Satanic Bible, their Rituals, and a book called The Devil’s Notebook, which actually talks about some interesting shit if you know how to decipher the code and all are written by Lavey.

Then we get to the magickal folks like Crowley who wrote a lot of books about rituals and rites and started Thelema. His principles are based upon Solomon’s texts, especially Goetia, in a lot of ways but it helps to do a little research into what these practices are and were. 

Demons, Daemons, Spirits, and Magickal Creatures

The more you research and learn, the more you will find that the more ancient texts refer to demons, then daemons and even the jinn. There’s one text that explores the 72 Goetic daemons, which are really just the counterparts of the 72 archangels.

Look into this section of your studies with an open mind and again with a curiosity to find the truth. There will be many different creatures that are brought up, some of them are purely fictional, while others are very much factual.

Kabbalistic Beliefs + Transcendental Magick

This is the way that the Jewish do their magick, which is structured in many ways in oppressive ways when you look into the history of it all. You can look into the Transcendental Magick book by Levi and can also look into The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune. These texts are written in coded ways though.

Solomon the King

Do some research as to who this man actually was. The more you research here, the more you will see the oppression that took place, the slavery. To do some research into his magickal practices pick up a copy of The Keys of Solomon the King.

Coding in Spiritual Texts

MANY of these texts have been coded in ways so that the average person cannot understand or see the correlations. They didn’t think that people would read all the texts though. That being said, the more you read and research, the more you will find. Look into symbols and symbology and what the meanings of various things mean as this will help tremendously. Allow your spirit squad to guide you to the right information and texts that will be necessary for you to understand yourself and your spiritual journey better.

What is more important than finding out what all these religions, traditions, and practices believe in but also how and why they were created and to do that you will need to look at the history of the religions, especially world religion texts. Look into encyclopedias because they are a great source of information. You can also look into these books:

The History of Religions: big ideas explained simply by DK

Beginning of Religion by Ina Wunn

The Encyclopedia of World Religions by DWJ Books

World Religions and Beliefs that Changed the World both by John Bowker

Living Religions by Mary Pat Fisher

Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy + Religion by Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber

A Survey of Hinduism by Klaus Klostermaier

World Religions; the History, Issues + Truth by G.A. Mohr

NOTE: There are more books about religions and spirituality that you can find within the reference books. The books listed here are more historical based books, and comparative studies. If you are actually interested in the religions of the world and their belief system though, the BEST place to go is to the source- the actual religions texts. So for Christianity, this would be the Holy Bible, to learn about the Muslim religion you would be reading the Holy Koran, and to learn Hinduism you would be reading the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Vedic texts Upanishads. These books won’t bring you much knowledge when it comes to the history of the religion or how and why it was started, but you will learn what their actual belief system entails. You’ll also be able to compare and contrast various stories found within these texts, and even be able to make correlations about them.

 

Well Soul Fam, I hope that this information has helped you with connecting some dots. Until next time… Sending mucho luz + amor always!

XoXo,
Luna Estrellas