Paganarchy Press

Over on Facebook I was asked what are the 15 books that have most shaped who I am today. I filled it in there and have decided to repost it here onto my public blog. These are the books that have most monumentally changed the way I think and feel about the world at large (not in order):

Follow up:

1 - The Illuminatus Trilogy, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. I read this when I was 15 and it was the first time I realised that there was actually a world beyond the scope of the beaches of the Eastern suburbs of Sydney... It made me really realise that I needed to start paying attention to global political affairs and that there were people out there that might possibly be up to no good; that what I saw on the news might not necessarily be the full truth and that it was possible that people did conspire and abuse their power to shape the world into their own selfish visions... Plus there are some great sex scenes and some wonder explorations into where the occult and political systems overlap into this ("fictitious") organisation called The Illuminati.

2 - The Ethical Slut, Dossie Easton and Catherine A. Liszt. I read this book a few years ago and it was life-changing in that I had spent most of my life looking for "the one" perfect partner that would satisfy all my emotional, spiritual and sexual needs. Reading this book opened my eyes to the extensive possibilities that a non-monogamous lifestyle can provide.

3 - Visual Magick, Jan Fries. A manual of freestyle shamanism that showed me that I could work with various magical currents and not get locked in to one. Up until then, all the books I had read on the occult had been fairly fixed in their magical paradigms but this book stripped away the mumbo-jumbo and taught raw magical techniques that I still practice to this day.

4 - Dark Moon Rising, Raven Kaldera. An amazing book that I am currently re-reading. Having been involved with the occult and with BDSM for a number of years, this book explains in a friendly, accessible yet deep and powerful way how these two different sets of practices can be combined to create powerful spaces. Recommended if you are interested in western spirituality and BDSM.

5 - Truth Or Dare, Starhawk. Starhawk is a superb and inspiring writer! This was the first I read of her and it introduced me to the concepts of feminism, feminist spirituality and some of the problems with male-dominated political systems. It's full of beautiful and powerful anecdotes about the history of the destruction of the female-led traditions from out of history. Some of this book has been shown to be historically dubious, but that in no way detracts from the inspirational quality of it.

6 - Cosmic Trigger, Robert Anton Wilson. If someone asks me who my favourite author is, Robert Anton Wilson is the first to come to mind. His texts move me on so many different levels - political, sexual, emotional, spiritual. This book kind of shows by way of the author's direct experience that it is pretty pointless to actually believe in anything fixed, and that the outcome of this disbelief is a place of power. It has some very sad chunks to it. Note to self - I must read this again.

7 - Animal Farm, George Orwell. This book showed me, very directly, how power corrupts and direct power over people needs to be avoided. Also how it is best to not let anyone have direct non-consensual power over me. It's written in a very approachable way that can be accessed by all and you've probably all read it already...

8 - The Ethical Psychic Vampire, Raven Kaldera. Not much to say about this - the title gives it away. How to be a psychic vampire but how to do so ethically and beautifully. For me, as a healer, how to take unwanted energy from someone and alchemically turn it into something more healthy for both me and who I'm doing the healing on.

9 - Radical Ecstasy, Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy. An anecdotal book telling many stories about journeys into S&M spiritual transcendence. Quite a hippy book which puts a lot of people off, but I've been to 3 Dossie Easton workshops and I really love her work.

10 - The Archaic Revival, Terence McKenna. I remember being really blown away by this book, but I was really stoned at the time and can't remember a thing. Needless to say it affected me greatly but I can't remember exactly how. Read it stoned

11 - Principia Discordia, Malaclypse The Younger. I read this after reading The Illuminatus Trilogy and this basically puts the "order versus chaos" into a new light by way of the retelling of the story of the Greek goddess of chaos, Eris (Discordia in Roman mythos). Philosophically speaking, chaos is a superset including Order and Disorder. Both of these are based on our perceptions of things and our interpretations of our perceptions. Well the book outlines a new religion disguised as a joke disguised as a religion and is much funnier and much more engaging than I've made it sound.

12 - Frogs Into Princes, Richard Bandler and John Grinder. Hmmmm, This book was my first book about NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming. I'm not a complete NLP addict but this book showed me that the the human brain processes things in certain ways, and by working intelligently with those methods, the brain process can be vastly improved.

13 - SSOTBME, Ramsey Dukes. Yay this book! Lots of thought-provoking ideas and a new map describing the interplay of magic, art, religion and science. It's actually really difficult to pin down what this book did for me, but it was an amazing journey and recommended. No direct magical techniques, but an umbrella of ideas encompassing the whole field of magic.

14 - The Story Of O, Pauline Réage. Sexy S&M 1950s novel about one woman's journey into consensual sexual slavery. Very gripping classic book that opens up all kinds of fantasies.

15 - Liber Malorum - Children Of The Apple, Sean Scullion (and contributors). This book changed my life in such a profound and deep way as I'm the author/weaver of the tales within it. Creating it and putting it all together took 3 and a half years and to date it is my only major published work. I remember the heart-break when the books failed to arrive at the book-launch party and the blissful joy when I first saw my book on the shelf sitting happily next to The Illuminatus Trilogy. yay.