The Library

This is a reading path rather than a bibliography. It moves from the method, to the Celtic synthesis, to the sources themselves, and then to the scholars who keep us honest. You could read it from the top in a year. The primary texts are the heart of it; everything else is commentary.

Foundations of Shamanic Practice

• The Way of the ShamanMichael Harner, 1980The book that began the modern revival and the clearest account of the core method. Read first.
• Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented SelfSandra Ingerman, 1991The classic on the healing method, humane and practical.
• Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of EcstasyMircea Eliade, 1951 (English 1964)The great scholarly survey; dated in places, still indispensable for the world picture.
• Awakening to the Spirit WorldSandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman, 2010A broad, well-made handbook of the contemporary practice with contributions from many teachers.

The Celtic Synthesis

• Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic SpiritTom Cowan, 1993The best single book on the subject: a Harner-trained practitioner reads the Celtic tales as shamanic experience. Our constant companion.
• The Celtic Shaman: A HandbookJohn Matthews, 1991The first practical manual, structured as a training course, drawing on the Welsh and Irish sources.
• Singing the Soul Back Home: Shamanism in Daily LifeCaitlín Matthews, 1995A gentle, grounded guide to practice with a strong Celtic and British flavour.
• The Mist-Filled Path: Celtic Wisdom for Exiles, Wanderers and SeekersFrank MacEowen, 2002Lyrical and heartfelt; on longing, place and the Gaelic sense of the sacred.
• If Women Rose RootedSharon Blackie, 2016Myth, landscape and women’s lives in the Celtic lands; also The Enchanted Life.
• Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic WorldJohn O’Donohue, 1997Not shamanic, but the book that taught a generation the texture of Celtic spirituality.
• Druid MysteriesPhilip Carr-Gomm, 2002The modern Druid path by the former head of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids; a friendly neighbour.

The Sources

• The Táintranslated by Thomas Kinsella, 1969; also Ciaran Carson, 2007The Ulster epic. Cú Chulainn, Medb, the Morrígan and the bull. Start here.
• The Mabinogiontranslated by Sioned Davies, 2007The Welsh tales: Pwyll in Annwn, Rhiannon, Bran’s cauldron, Lleu and Blodeuwedd, the birth of Taliesin.
• Early Irish Myths and Sagastranslated by Jeffrey Gantz, 1981The Otherworld tales in a single paperback: Nera, the Wooing of Étaín, the Voyage of Bran, Da Derga’s Hostel.
• The Voyage of Bran, The Voyage of Máel Dúin, The Voyage of St Brendanvarious translations; see also The Celtic Heroic Age, ed. John T. KochThe immrama, the journey literature of the western sea.
• Carmina GadelicaAlexander Carmichael, 1900 (one-volume edition, Floris 1992)The Gaelic prayers, charms and blessings of the Hebrides; the folk tradition at its most beautiful and most practical.
• The Fairy-Faith in Celtic CountriesW. Y. Evans-Wentz, 1911Field interviews about the sí from all six Celtic nations, a century ago, when belief was still common.
• Gods and Fighting MenLady Gregory, 1904The Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fianna retold in the English of Kiltartan; a Yeatsian way in.
• Buile Shuibhne (Sweeney Astray)translated by Seamus Heaney, 1983The mad king in the trees, by the poet best placed to carry him over.

The Scholars

• The Ancient CeltsBarry Cunliffe, 1997 (2nd ed. 2018)The archaeology of Iron Age Europe by the master of the subject.
• Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in BritainRonald Hutton, 2009What we actually know about the druids and how later ages reinvented them. Bracing and necessary.
• The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in BritainRonald Hutton, 1996The real history of the seasonal festivals, which is stranger and better than the romantic version.
• The World of the DruidsMiranda Aldhouse-Green, 1997Clear, illustrated, archaeological.
• Celtic MythologyProinsias Mac Cana, 1970Short and authoritative, by a great Celticist.
• Gods and Heroes of the CeltsMarie-Louise Sjoestedt, 1940 (English 1949)A brilliant small book on how the Celtic gods actually work.
• A Single Ray of the Sun: Religious Speculation in Early IrelandJohn Carey, 1999On the Otherworld and the early Irish imagination, including the Cauldron of Poesy.
• Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish LandscapeManchán Magan, 2020How the Irish language holds the sacred landscape; a joy.

Online Sources

• CELT: Corpus of Electronic TextsUniversity College Cork. The Irish texts in the original and in translation, free.
• Dúchas: The National Folklore CollectionHundreds of thousands of pages of Irish folklore, including the Schools’ Collection of 1937–39, searchable by place.
• eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish LanguageFor checking what an Old Irish word actually meant before you build a practice on it.
• The Celtic Literature CollectiveMary Jones’s long-running gathering of Welsh and Irish texts in translation.
• Sacred Texts: CelticPublic-domain editions of Lady Gregory, Evans-Wentz, Carmichael and many more.
• Tobar an DualchaisThe Scottish Gaelic sound archive: songs, stories and lore recorded from tradition bearers.

Organisations

• The Foundation for Shamanic StudiesMichael Harner’s foundation: core shamanism training worldwide, the preservation of Indigenous shamanic knowledge, and free drumming recordings.
• The Society for Shamanic PracticeA global community with a journal, a directory and, notably, Celtic cross-quarter ceremonies.
• Shamanic Teachers and PractitionersSandra Ingerman’s directory of trained teachers across the world.
• Shaman PortalA broad community portal with news, events, listings and a quarterly review.
• The Center for Shamanic Education and ExchangeIndigenous-led preservation and exchange; a good place to give back.
• The Order of Bards, Ovates and DruidsThe largest modern Druid order, with a thoughtful correspondence course rooted in the same sources.
• Heritage Ireland, Historic Environment Scotland, CadwThe custodians of the monuments. Check opening and access before you travel.

Listening and Watching

• Journey drummingMichael Harner’s fifteen and thirty minute drumming tracks are free on the Foundation’s official YouTube channel. For a Celtic texture, try a steady bodhrán or the long notes of the Scottish smallpipes behind your journey.
• The Way of the Shaman documentaryThe Foundation’s film on Harner’s life and the birth of core shamanism.
• Cartoon Saloon’s Irish trilogyThe Secret of Kells (2009), Song of the Sea (2014) and Wolfwalkers (2020): the Otherworld, the selkies and the shapeshifters, drawn in Kilkenny with love and accuracy.